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This article may be expanded with text translated from the corresponding article in French. (August 2012) Click [show] for important translation instructions. View a machine-translated version of the French article. Machine translation like Deepl or Google Translate is a useful starting point for translations, but translators must revise errors as necessary and confirm that the translation is accurate, rather than simply copy-pasting machine-translated text into the English Wikipedia. Do not translate text that appears unreliable or low-quality. If possible, verify the text with references provided in the foreign-language article. You must provide copyright attribution in the edit summary accompanying your translation by providing an interlanguage link to the source of your translation. A model attribution edit summary (using German): Content in this edit is translated from the existing German Wikipedia article at [[:de:Exact name of German article]]; see its history for attribution. You should also add the template {{Translated|fr|Élection au trône de Grèce (1862-1863)}} to the talk page. For more guidance, see Wikipedia:Translation.

From 19 November 1862 (1 December New Style), a plebiscite in Greece was held in support of adopting Prince Alfred of the United Kingdom, later Duke of Edinburgh, as king. The results were announced in February the following year. Of the 240,000 votes reported, over 95% were in favour of the appointment.^[1] The previous king, Otto, who had been deposed in a popular revolt, received one vote.^[2] There were six votes for a Greek candidate and 93 for a Republic.^[3]

Despite the apparently overwhelming result, the Great Powers of Britain, France and Russia refused to permit any member of their respective royal families to accept the Greek throne. Eventually, Prince William of Denmark, who had received six votes in the referendum, was appointed as the new "King of the Hellenes".

Prelude

In October 1862, King Otto of Greece was deposed in a popular revolt,^[4][5] but while the Greek people rejected Otto, they did not seem averse to the concept of monarchy per se. Many Greeks, seeking closer ties to the pre-eminent world power, Great Britain, rallied around the idea that Prince Alfred, the second son of Queen Victoria and Prince Albert, could become the next king. British Foreign Secretary Lord Palmerston believed that the Greeks were "panting for increase in territory",^[6] hoping that the election of Alfred as king would also result in the incorporation of the Ionian Islands, which were then a British protectorate, into an enlarged Greek state.

The London Conference of 1832, however, had prohibited any of the Great Powers' ruling families from accepting the crown of Greece, and in any event, Queen Victoria was adamantly opposed to the idea. Nevertheless, the Greeks insisted on holding a plebiscite on the issue of the head of state in November 1862. It was the first referendum ever held in Greece.^[5]

Results

The results were announced to the Greek National Assembly in February.^[7] The number of votes differs slightly between reports, and the total votes reported sometimes exceeds the total in the official list. Differences arise through inaccuracies, misprints, and delays in the collection and count of votes.^[8] Votes were rarely if ever secret, and there were no uniformly printed ballot papers. Voters could write the name of their preference for king,^[9] and votes generally took the form of signed petitions.^[10]

Aftermath

Despite the apparently overwhelming support for Alfred, and the declaration by the Assembly that Alfred was elected as king, the Great Powers refused to alter their position, and Alfred declined the throne. The runner-up, Prince Leuchtenberg, as well as several of the other candidates, were also unacceptable to the Great Powers since they were members of the French and Russian royal families, also excluded from contention by the London Conference.^[1] The Greeks and Great Powers considered alternative candidates, and their choice eventually fell to Prince William of Denmark, who was the second son of King Christian IX. William was elected unanimously by the Greek Assembly, becoming "George I, King of the Hellenes", and reigned for the next 50 years.^[11] Prince Alfred was created Duke of Edinburgh by his mother in 1866,^[12] and became the reigning Duke of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha in Germany in 1893.^[13]

At George's enthronement, to the great joy of the Greeks, the British government announced that they would cede the Ionian Islands to Greece as a goodwill gesture.^[14]

Notes

References

• 
  Clogg, Richard (1979). A Short History of Modern Greece. Cambridge University Press.
  


• 
  Forster, Edward S. (1958). A Short History of Modern Greece 1821–1956 3rd edition. London: Methuen and Co.
  


• 
  Lidderdale, H. A. (editor and translator) (1966). Makriyannis: The Memoirs of General Makriyannis 1797–1864. Oxford University Press.
  


• 
  Van der Kiste, John (1994). Kings of the Hellenes. Sutton Publishing. ISBN 0-7509-2147-1.
  


• 
  Woodhouse, C. M. (1968). The Story of Modern Greece. London: Faber and Faber.