Why Queen Elizabeth II Has Never Visited Greece

By Philip Chrysopoulos -
Apr 22, 2016

Greek Reporter
queen-elizabeth-ii-prince-philip-2011Queen Elizabeth II has made official visits to 120 countries but has never visited Greece, homeland of her husband, Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh.

Upon Her Majesty’s 90th birthday, the Mirror has a report on the fact that the Queen of England has never visited Greece, birthplace of her husband. The writer of the report calls that a “glaring omission.”

Royal historian Hugo Vickers has his theories, believing it’s all down to the “fraught history” in the Greek monarchy, which affected the Duke of Edinburgh’s immediate family, says the Mirror report.

“Prince Philip doesn’t like Greece, because they put his father [Prince Andrew] on trial, and he might have been executed,” Vickers told BBC.

In 1922, when Prince Philip was a baby, his family had to flee Greece after his father Andrew, a major general in the Greek army, returned defeated from the Greco-Turkish war. The family was exiled and fled to France, where they changed their surname to Mountbatten.

The monarch did visit the country in 1950 at the invitation of King Paul — Prince Philip’s first cousin once removed — but this was before she became Queen. King Paul was soon after ousted and the monarchy abolished in 1974.

Vickers believes that the Queen may never have been invited for an official state visit by the Greek president.