Sofia from Greece

Sofía of Greece (born Sofía Margarita Victoria Federica; Psykhikó, Kingdom of Greece, November 2, 1938) is the current Queen Mother of Spain. She was the queen consort of Spain from November 22, 1975 until June 19, 2014, the date of the abdication of her husband, Juan Carlos I, and the accession to the Head of State of her son Felipe. SAW. She holds the dignity of queen for life and performs protocol functions as a member of the royal family. On August 3, 2020, with the departure of King Juan Carlos I of Spain, the queen decided to continue with her institutional work.

She was born in Psykhikó, the eldest daughter of King Paul I of Greece and Queen Federica.

Biography

Sofia Schleswig-Holstein Sonderburg Glücksburg, Princess of Greece and Denmark, was born on November 2, 1938 in the Palace of Psykhikó, near Athens, her parents' residence. Her birth implied a national holiday and a blanket amnesty. She was baptized on January 9, 1939 at the Royal Palace of Athens by His Beatitude Crisanto, Archbishop of Athens and Primate of the Greek Orthodox Church, in a simple ceremony attended by her closest family, including King George, the Dukes of Brunswick, parents of Princess Federica, and the brothers and uncles of the princes, the essential authorities and the ambassadors of the United Kingdom and Italy representing two of the godmothers, Queen Elizabeth of the United Kingdom and Queen Elena from Italy, who could not attend. He belongs to the House of Schleswig-Holstein-Sonderburg-Glücksburg, also called the House of Glücksburg, a branch of the Danish Oldenburg dynasty.

During his childhood he had to leave Greece along with his entire family because of the German invasion during World War II and remained in Egypt and South Africa. They later moved to London, where they spent the rest of the war.

On September 1, 1946, Greece decided by referendum to restore his uncle, King George II, to the throne. In this way, Pablo (brother of King George II and son of King Constantine I) and Federica, parents of Queen Sofia, became crown princes. A year later, on April 1, 1947, his uncle, King George II, died, and his parents, Princes Paul and Federica, ascended the throne as King Paul I and Queen Frederica of the Hellenes.

Queen Sofía, despite being the daughter of princes and not kings at the time of her birth, always held the title of Her Royal Highness Princess Sofía of Greece and Denmark, being the eldest daughter of the crown princes of the kingdom of Greece and also granddaughter of King Constantine I.

On June 8, 1961, he attended the wedding of the Dukes of Kent in York, where he coincided with Juan Carlos de Borbón, the future King of Spain, and also his third cousin. The marriage proposal took place on September 13, 1961 in Lausanne and the wedding took place in Athens on May 14, 1962, with three ceremonies being held: the first by the Catholic rite in the Cathedral of San Dionisio Areopagita, the second by civil in the Royal Palace and the third by the orthodox rite in the Metropolitan Cathedral of Athens. The wedding banquet took place in a tent set up in the gardens of the Royal Palace of Athens. This wedding was attended by numerous representatives of the European royal houses and the paternal grandmother of her groom, Queen Victoria Eugenia, played a very prominent role. Numerous receptions were held on the occasion of the wedding, both before and after it, and thousands of Spaniards who traveled to Athens to witness the event were able to participate in some of them.

Sofia formally converted from Greek Orthodoxy to Roman Catholicism in order to be more acceptable to Catholic Spain, and thus renounced her rights to the Greek throne.

She was the first woman to receive the Grand Cross of the Royal and Distinguished Order of Carlos III, on May 10, 1962. She was later received by her daughters, the King's mother and sisters, and the then Princess of Asturias. She also received the necklace of this order later. She has also been the last woman named a dame of the Royal Order of Noble Ladies of Queen María Luisa.

The queen is a great polyglot: she is fluent in English (which she often communicates with her family), German (which she learned while studying at Salem, a school in Germany), Greek (her native language) and Spanish. Spanish, which she learned in an accelerated way since 1961, when she became engaged to don Juan Carlos de Borbón.

Sofía follows a pescatarian diet (abstaining from red and white meat, but no seafood).

Education

He studied in Germany, at the prestigious and elite Schule Schloss Salem boarding school, the only one in the country that offered the possibility of obtaining the International Baccalaureate. Said boarding school was directed by Jorge Guillermo de Hannover, second husband of his aunt, Princess Sofia of Greece and Denmark, older sister of Felipe of Edinburgh.

She studied Archeology and Music and professional training in childcare. She did childcare practices in a maternity hospital in Athens called Mitéra ("mother" in Greek) and founded by her mother, the Queen Frederica. She was part as a substitute for the Greek sailing team during the 1960 Olympic Games, held in Rome. Subsequently, she continued her training at Fitzwilliam College, Cambridge University.

In 1973, back in Spain, he began his studies in Humanities at the Autonomous University of Madrid.

She is an honorary doctorate from the University of Oxford for her contribution to the development of the arts in Spain and for her sponsorship of Spanish studies at the Oxford University.

Queen consort of Spain

Sofia of Greece in 1980.

On July 19, 1969, Francisco Franco appointed the then-Prince Juan Carlos as his successor as king, to which end, and until the moment of his ascension, both he and his wife held the dignity of princes of Spain, avoiding the traditional title of princes of Asturias, a title that Juan de Borbón did not give him when he agreed to be Franco's successor. After the death of Francisco Franco, Juan Carlos was proclaimed King of Spain on November 22, 1975.

Sofía has shown interest in social initiatives that are not limited to providing solutions to individual situations. The activities in which she participates also extend to scientific research issues and the promotion of initiatives and cooperation agreements designed to prevent them or to alleviate their effects. She is the executive president and promoter of the foundation that bears her name since 1977, in which she develops initiatives in matters of immigration, education, social action and the environment, honorary president of the Committee for the Education and Care of the Disabled and of the Fundación de Ayuda contra la Drogadicción (until September 29, 2015), among other organizations. Due to the work carried out by the queen in promoting harmony, coexistence and the promotion of democratic values, the Professor Manuel Broseta Foundation has awarded her with the Coexistence award. She pays special interest to this problem and personally participates in conferences and seminars on this topic, both in Spain and abroad. She collaborates in programs for the development of rural women and the business expansion of the most disadvantaged social classes through microcredit and pays special attention to the problems of children and women. She is well known for her love of music and all the arts. As youngsters, the Queen and her sister, Princess Irene of Greece, became interested in archeology and excavated in Decelia, near the Royal Palace of Tatoi, an experience from which they wrote two very limited edition essays together with their teacher, Miss Theophanó A. Arvanitopoulou, between the years 1959 and 1960. Their titles were: "Decelia Ceramic Fragments" and "Archaeological Miscellaneous". In 2013 they were published in Spain unified under the title "En Decelia. Ceramic fragments from Decelia and archaeological miscellany".

She is an honorary member of the San Fernando Royal Academy of Fine Arts and the Royal Academy of History. He has received doctorates honoris causa from the universities of El Rosario (Bogotá), Valladolid, Cambridge, Oxford, Georgetown, Évora, St. Mary's University (Texas), New York and Seisen (Tokyo).

Funeral for 11-M victims.

Some Spanish cultural and musical institutions bear his name, such as the Reina Sofía School of Music, the Reina Sofía National Art Center Museum, the Reina Sofía Palace of the Arts in Valencia, the Reina Sofía Hospital in Tudela (Navarra), the Reina Sofía University Hospital in Córdoba and the Reina Sofía General University Hospital in Murcia.

She holds the title of queen consort. Like that of the entire Hellenic royal family, her family origin is fundamentally Danish, with important German and Russian alliances. Among other historical figures, she is a direct descendant of Empress Catherine the Great, Saint Elizabeth of Hungary, Kaiser Wilhelm II of Germany, and Queen Victoria of the United Kingdom.

Offspring

Juan Carlos and Sofía have three children, all of them born in the now-defunct Nuestra Señora de Loreto Clinic, in Madrid:

• Elena de Borbón and Greece, infant of Spain and duchess of Lugo; n. December 20, 1963, married to Jaime de Marichalar in 1995, who was divorced in 2010.
  • Felipe de Marichalar y Borbón, Grande de España, born on July 17, 1998, in Madrid.
  • Victory of Marichalar and Borbon, Grande de España, born on September 9, 2000, in Madrid.

• Cristina de Borbón and Greece, infant of Spain; n. 13 June 1965, married to Iñaki Urdangarin in 1997, separated in 2022.
  • Juan Urdangarin and Borbonborn on 29 September 1999.
  • Pablo Urdangarin and Bourbonborn on 6 December 2000.
  • Miguel Urdangarin and Borbonborn on 30 April 2002.
  • Irene Urdangarin and Bourbonborn on 5 June 2005.

• Philip of Bourbon and Greeceking of Spain; n. 30 January 1968, married to Letizia Ortiz Rocasolano in 2004.
  • Leonor de Borbón y Ortiz, Princess of Asturias, born on 31 October 2005.
  • Sofia de Borbón y Ortiz, Infanta de España, born on 29 April 2007.

Titles, honors and appointments

Biography by Pilar Urbano

In 2008, Sofía was the protagonist of a great controversy due to the publication of the book La Reina muy cerca in which its author, Pilar Urbano, reproduced a series of comments that the queen, supposedly, had done on various controversial issues in Spain. Thus, she was against the fact that gay marriage is called "marriage". She also declared herself against abortion and euthanasia (although in favor of a dignified death) and in favor of teaching religion classes in schools.

LGBT groups expressed their discomfort and asked for a rectification. Among the political parties, the most critical were the IU and ERC, openly republicans. respect for the queen's words, stressed that the "principle of neutrality" has been broken; of the monarchy. Among the rest of the formations, which did not pronounce on the matter, the PP, the main opposition party, and the PSOE, in government, stood out. José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero, president of the government, and María Teresa Fernández de la Vega, first vice president, came out in defense of Sofía, recalling that “The Queen is respected and loved inside and outside our borders. And it is because throughout these 30 years it has carried out its task impeccably". private and that they do not correspond exactly to the opinions expressed by Her Majesty the Queen". a word of the text, which was corrected.

Sofía also acknowledged in her book-interview having attended some of the secret meetings of the Bilderberg Group. When asked by the journalist, the queen replied:

For me, it's exciting meetings. Yeah, exciting. Over the years, you're meeting very diverse, well-informed, well-related people, each with a formidable baggage in their land, in their area, or in their country. People from many worlds gather there: politics, finance, energy, defense, communications, scientific research...You learn so much!

When asked by the journalist why these meetings are secret, Queen Sofía replied:

The secret is so that everyone can freely say what he thinks, what in a debate comes to his head, and that it does not spread. But it's no secret because we're plotting. No conjures! There no one is queen or chancellor or president of a government or chairman of a multinational... There are no ranks there. They leave, not already in the hotel room, but at the airport of your country of origin. No one goes with his spouse or his secretaries... The Bilderberg does not make political, economic, or defensive decisions. It is not a “executive” world organization, so to speak. Big issues are discussed, yes. No talk of gossip or nonsense. It is precisely worth attending the information that circulates there, by the most rigorous and complete vision of certain conflicts that affect us or affect us (pages 258-259).

Books published

• In Decelia: ceramic fragments of Decelia and archaeological miscellaneous. Athens (1959-1960). Edited in Spanish in Spain, 2013. ISBN 978-84-941033-0-8.

In fiction

Sofía has her own telefilm, titled Sofía (2011). She played the role of the young actress Nadia de Santiago.

In addition, different actresses have played the queen in various telefilms:

• Mónica López en 23-F: the most difficult day of the king (2009).
• Marisa Paredes en Philip and Letizia (2010).
• Olga Lozano in Tarancón, the fifth commandment (2010).
• Olga Lozano in 23-F: the film (2011).
• Nadia de Santiago en Sofia (2011)
• Cristina Brondo in The King (2013).
• Salomé Jiménez in San Francisco Christ and King (2023)

Ancestors