Another royal chapter closed on Monday in Athens, as the Greek and Spanish royal families gathered for the funeral and burial services for their beloved sister and aunt, Princess Irene of Greece and Denmark.
Princess Irene died at Zarzuela Palace in Madrid on Thursday at the age of 83 after suffering from a long period of declining health. She was remembered in a service at the Cathedral of St. Andrew and St. Demetrius, Madrid’s Greek Orthodox cathedral, on Saturday, and afterward her body was flown to Greece, where her father and brother reigned as the country’s last monarchs.
Irene’s funeral service took place at the Metropolitan Cathedral in Athens. The church has been the home for important milestone celebrations for the Greek royal family for generations, and Irene was present for numerous memorable family moments there. She processed into the cathedral as a bridesmaid for her sister, Queen Sofia, in 1962, and her sister-in-law, Queen Anne-Marie, in 1964, and more recently she witnessed the weddings of her nephew, Prince Philippos, and her niece, Princess Theodora, in the sanctuary. She was also one of the mourners in the cathedral for the funerals of her father, King Paul, in 1964, and her brother, King Constantine II, in 2023.
Princess Irene witnessed the roller coaster of Greek royal history up close. The third child of King Paul and Queen Friederike of the Hellenes, Irene was born in South Africa in 1942 during the wartime exile of her uncle, King George II. His subsequent restoration in 1946 and death in 1947 put Irene’s father on the throne. Her elder sister, Sofia, married King Juan Carlos of Spain, and her elder brother, Constantine, married Princess Anne-Marie of Denmark.
For a brief period of time between the death of King Paul in 1964 and the birth of Princess Alexia in 1965, Irene was the heiress presumptive to the Greek throne. (I’m exploring that period of her life in this weekend’s forthcoming article at Hidden Gems.) She was the first woman to serve as president of the Greek Olympic committee, and she was a talented concert pianist and an amateur archaeologist. She had romance in her life but never married, and she became a beloved aunt to her many nieces and nephews. After spending several years living in India, she settled down in Spain to support her sister, eventually becoming a Spanish citizen in 2018.
Wreaths from family members and friends were placed all around the princess’s coffin during her funeral service. Nearby, three of her royal orders were carefully arranged on cushions: Greece’s Order of the Redeemer, Denmark’s Order of the Elephant, and the Greek royal Order of Saints Olga and Sophia.
Numerous members of the extended Greek and Spanish royal families were present for the service. Crown Prince Pavlos, Irene’s nephew, welcomed the family as they arrived at the cathedral. During the service, he sat between his mother, Queen Anne-Marie, and his eldest son, Prince Constantine-Alexios. (His wife, Marie Chantal, was in New York caring for her mother, who recently had surgery.)
Two more of Pavlos and Marie-Chantal’s sons, Prince Achileas-Andreas and Prince Aristides-Stavros, sat behind their father. Also pictured here are Princess Alexia and, in the second row, Marina Karella, the widow of Prince Michael of Greece, with her grandson, Darius Mirzayantz.
This photograph shows even more members of the extended Greek royal family during the service. Beside Princess Alexia is her husband, Carlos Morales Quintana, followed by Prince Nikolaos and his wife, Princess Chrysi; Princess Theodora and her husband, Matthew Kumar; and Prince Philippos and his wife, Princess Nina.
Behind Alexia and Carlos are two members of the family who were especially close to Irene: Jean Henri Fruchaud and his son, Alexis. They are the widower and son of the late Princess Tatiana Radziwill, Irene’s cousin and close friend, who sadly died just a few weeks ago. Many members of the family were present for her memorial service in Paris just nine days earlier.
On the other side of the princess’s coffin, more members of the extended family were seated. King Felipe VI of Spain, Irene’s nephew, sat beside Queen Letizia in a place of prominence. With them was Irene’s beloved sister, Queen Sofia, who was comforted during the service by her granddaughter, the Princess of Asturias. King Juan Carlos did not attend the funeral services.
Beside Leonor was her sister, Infanta Sofia, and their aunts, Infanta Elena and Infanta Cristina. At the end of the front row were Crown Prince Alexander of Serbia, whose mother was a Greek princess, and his wife, Katherine. Alexander.
In the second row, starting from right to left behind King Felipe, are Infanta Elena’s daughter, Victoria Federica de Marichalar; three of Infanta Cristina’s children, Miguel, Pablo, and Irene Urdangarin; Princess Sophie-Alexandra of Bavaria; Duchess Elisabeth in Bavaria; Princess Sophie of Romania (granddaughter of a Greek princess); Prince Christian of Hanover (a cousin through Queen Friederike’s family); and Prince Simeon-Hassan of Bulgaria (Irene’s godson).
As expected, the ladies of the family opted for traditional mourning jewels: pearls, a few diamonds, and some small brooches. Queen Sofia wore pearls with a petite white flower brooch on her jacket. Beside her, Princess Leonor wears the badge of the Order of the Golden Fleece.
Queen Anne-Marie opted for floral-themed jewelry, too: diamond flower earrings, a silver-toned flower brooch, and pearls with a gem-set cross pendant.
Queen Letizia paired diamond and pearl drop earrings with a special heirloom brooch from the Spanish royal collection: Queen Ena’s gray pearl and diamond cluster brooch, worn without its pearl pendant drop. Letizia wore the same brooch for King Constantine’s funeral three years ago.
After the funeral service, the family made the windy trek up the hill to the Greek royal burial site at Tatoi, the family’s former summer residence on the slope of Mount Parnitha. The royal cemetery at Tatoi is the final resting place for generations of the Greek royal family. All of the monarchs of the most recent dynasty—George I, Constantine I, Alexander, George II, Paul, and Constantine II—are buried there, along with Queen Olga, Queen Sophie, Princess Aspasia, and Queen Friederike. Prince Andrew, the grandfather of King Charles III, is buried there as well, along with numerous other members of the family.
In a twist of fate, Queen Anne-Marie and her children were at Tatoi, holding a private memorial marking the third anniversary of King Constantine’s burial, when news arrived that Irene too had passed away. Crown Prince Pavlos mentioned the moment in his eulogy: “You left us at the very moment we were holding the third memorial service in memory of your beloved brother—as if a divine hand gently took your final breath and led you to him.”
Princess Irene’s great-nephews, Miguel Urdangarin and Prince Aristides-Stavros, and her great-niece and namesake, Irene Urdangarin, carried the cushions with her orders behind her coffin. The decorations were in a place of prominence during a short service at the cemetery’s Resurrection Church before the burial.
Irene was buried in the royal cemetery near her parents and her brother. Members of the family were wrapped up warmly to weather the cold winds during the service.
The coat worn by Queen Sofia for the burial service held one more jeweled surprise: a small silver-toned brooch in the shape of a dragonfly.
Irene’s passing was not a surprise—she had been suffering from significant cognitive decline for some time—but her death is a particularly significant loss for 87-year-old Queen Sofia, who has now mourned both her sister and their cousin and close friend, Tatiana Radziwill, in a matter of weeks. The flag that covered Irene’s coffin was presented to Sofia at the end of the service, a moment that was clearly particularly poignant for both her and the entire family gathering.
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