When a former king became a son again...

Today is the 50th anniversary of King Paul of Greece.  His death on March 6th 1964 turned his then 23 year old son, Constantine, into a monarch and began a turbulent reign that would include exile and deposition.  But despite the dramatic events of the intervening years, today Constantine returned to his father's grave in Tatoi, Greece to remember him on this anniversary.  And beneath the cloudy skies, among the laurel wreaths and amidst prayers and memories, the man who became a king five decades ago today wept for the monarch he lost that same day.

Constantine of Greece and his wife, Anne-Marie remember King Paul on the anniversary of his death.  Constantine's sisters, Irene and Sofia, stand next to him at the ceremony in Tatoi

With Constantine were his own children, including his eldest son named in honour of his father and the growing band of grandchildren that have arrived in the fifty years since Paul of Greece died.  His sisters were there too.  Irene of Greece, who never married, and the youngest of the three children born to Paul and his wife, Frederica.  And also there was there eldest child, Sofia, the girl who married a prince with a chance of a throne and who ended up wearing a crown far longer than her father or her brother.  But in the cool, cloudy atmosphere of Tatoi, today they were three siblings remembering much loved parents and paying their respects to a king and a father.