Otto of Greece

Otto Of Greece

Otto, also spelled Othon (Greek: Ὄθων, Βασιλεὺς τῆς Ἑλλάδος, Óthon, Vasiléfs tis Elládos; 1 June 1815 – 26 July 1867), was a royal prince of Bavaria who became the first modern King of Greece in 1832 under the Convention of London. He reigned until his deposition in 1862.

The second son of the philhellene King Ludwig I of Bavaria, Otto ascended the newly created throne of Greece while still a minor. His government was initially run by a three-man regency council made up of Bavarian court officials. Upon reaching his majority, Otto removed the regents when they proved unpopular with the people and he ruled as an absolute monarch. Eventually his subjects’ demands for a Constitution proved overwhelming and in the face of an armed but peaceful insurrection, Otto granted a Constitution in 1843.

Throughout his reign, Otto faced political challenges concerning Greece's financial weakness and the role of the government in the affairs of the Church. The politics of Greece of this era was based on affiliations with the three Great Powers, and Otto’s ability to maintain the support of the powers was key to his remaining in power. To remain strong, Otto had to play the interests of each of the Great Powers’ Greek adherents against the others, while not aggravating the Great Powers. When Greece was blockaded by the (British) Royal Navy in 1850 and again in 1853, to stop Greece from attacking the Ottoman Empire during the Crimean War, Otto’s standing amongst Greeks suffered. As a result, there was an assassination attempt on the Queen and finally, in 1862, Otto was deposed while in the countryside. He died in exile in Bavaria in 1867.

In Greek writings unfriendly to King Otto, the time of his reign was sometimes called "Bavarokratia" ("Rule of the Bavarians"), a term comparable to "Frankokratia" ("Rule of the Franks, i.e. the Latin Empire established by West European "Franks" who conquered the Byzantine lands in 1204) and to "Turkokratia" ("Rule of the Turks", i.e. the centuries of Ottoman rule. This term implied that the King was another foreign ruler whom Greeks had to overthrow.