Queen Anne Marie and King Constantine of Greece

But he never mentions his sadness, never hints at what could be going through his mind, but always insists that being in Greece is the only thing that makes him happy, his family apart. He lives under the strictures of royalty, without the privileges. He remains an enigmatic character, at least to me, because although he does not have a compulsion to connect with people, and can even be distant, he nevertheless does connect, especially with poor Greeks, hence the power of monarchy. And no, he does not possess the macho primitivism of Prince Harry, nor do his three sons, but then why should they? They’re born far more royal than any one of their Brit cousins, and then some, if one needs to dot the is.

Athenian democracy was the first ever. It emerged after the last tyrant, Hippias, was thrown out in 510 B.C. Once tyranny was abolished, the fear of wise men was that power would revert to the rich, who had opposed Hippias. Enter Cleisthenes, who had a stroke of genius. In the words of Herodotus, “he took the people into partnership.” The system ran on and off for 2500 years and spread in the West. It’s now about to disappear again, with bureaucrats and special interests replacing the demos. King Constantine had great powers in Greece, and voluntarily gave them up after he moved militarily against the colonels in 1967.

Successive politicians have made sure to steal from the royal family and to keep the people from embracing the monarchy. The press and media have been the enforcers. All I can say is how much better off we’d be if the monarchy was restored. At least our head of state could exchange ideas with his counterparts without using only his hands.