}
|}
Crown Prince Pavlos was born into a turbulent era in Greek politics. His father, King Constantine II, had acceded to the throne on
March 6, 1964, at the age of 23, following the death of his father, King Paul. In July
1965, following a conflict with Prime Minister
George Papandreou over control of the armed forces, King Constantine dismissed Papandreou. The effect was to destabilize the political balance which had been achieved within the country. There followed within the next 22 months, a succession of unstable coalition governments, strikes, and loss of confidence by foreign investors. The term
July Apostates refers to the group of
George Papandreou's dissidents, led by the politician
Konstantinos Mitsotakis, then also member of the
Center Union, who crossed the floor to bring about the fall of the Greek government and its replacement by a government favourable to the King.
On
April 21, 1967, just a month prior to Crown Prince Pavlos' birth, a military coup occurred, in which a group of colonels seized control of the government. The King decided to co-operate with the dictators and was persuaded to swear the new regime in only when the junta agreed to include a number of civilian politicians, with a royalist nominee,
Constantine Kollias, as Prime Minister. Constantine's brief co-operation with the coup was later seen by many as a fatal error, since the military dictatory soon became very unpopular. In the months following the coup, the junta continued to acknowledge King Constantine as head of state, although the king had very little actual power.
As 1967 drew to a close, the
"Regime of the Colonels", led by Colonel
George Papadopoulos, was increasingly characterised by suppression of civil liberties, along with imprisonment or exile of opponents. In December of that year, King Constantine attempted a counter-coup, but could not rally sufficient military support. The King fled with his wife and children to
Rome. Crown Prince Pavlos' younger brother
Prince Nikolaos, was born in Rome in
1969.
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