King Constantine II of the Hellenes

Prince Constantine of Greece and Denmark was born at the villa of Psychiko, home of his parents, on 2 June 1940. A 101 gun salute from Mount Lycabettus at 6pm that evening announced to Athens that a new prince had arrived into the world. Crown Princess Frederica recalled: "My two elder children, Sophie and Constantine, were born in my sitting-room in our small house. My parents came for Sophie's birth but, when Tino was born, the war had already started and they could not come. Palo [Paul] stayed with me all the time and held my hand. The Prime Minister sat downstairs with the King, because it was the custom that the Prime Minister should be in the house." The Acropolis was floodlighted in celebration of the prince's birth, and guns were fired in salute throughout the country. The baby boy was named after his paternal grandfather King Constantine I of Greece; Prince Constantine was christening on 20 July 1940 at the Metropolitan Cathedral. The prince was the first son and second child of Crown Prince Paul of Greece and Crown Princess Frederica (born Princess of Hannover), who wed in 1938. Constantine joined an older sister, Princess Sophia (b.1938); he was followed by a younger sister, Princess Irene (b.1942). At the time of his arrival, Constantine's uncle George II was King of Greece; the infant prince was second in the line of succession after his father Paul.