Princess Maria of Greece and Denmark

Who was Princess Maria of Greece and Denmark?

Maria or Marie Georgievna, Princess of Greece and Denmark (Greek: Πριγκίπισσα Μαρία της Ελλάδας και Δανίας) (3 March 1876 – 14 December 1940), was the fifth child and second daughter of George I of Greece and Olga Konstantinovna of Russia and thus a family member of the Schleswig-Holstein-Sonderburg-Glücksburg.

Grand Duchess Maria Georgievna in costume for a 1903 ball.She was born in Athens as a younger sister to Constantine I of Greece, Prince George of Greece, Alexandra Georgievna of Greece and Prince Nicholas of Greece. She was an older sister of Prince Andrew of Greece and Prince Christopher of Greece as well as the shortly-lived Princess Olga of Greece. She was very close with her cousin Grand Duchess Xenia Alexandrovna of Russia. They both later married two Romanov Grand Dukes and stayed together on many occasions.

On 30 April 1900, Maria was married to Grand Duke George Mikhailovich of Russia in Corfu. George, who was affectionately known as "Gogi", chased after Maria, who was nicknamed "Greek Minny" to tell her apart from the Dowager Empress Maria of Russia. She refused to marry Gogi unless her place in the line of succession to the Greek and Danish thrones was secured. She made it clear that she was not in love with him when she married him, but the Grand Duke hoped that feelings might grow in time. The couple had two daughters:Nina, born 7 June 1901, and Xenia, born 9 August 1903. As they grew older, Maria seized the opportunity to spend more time abroad, ostensibly for her daughters' health, but also to spend more time away from her husband. She was in Great Britain when World War I broke out and could not return to Russia. She was patron of a military hospital there.

She became a widow on 30 January 1919, when her husband was murdered by the Bolsheviks. On 16 December 1922, Maria was remarried to Admiral Pericles Ioannides in Wiesbaden. She died in her native Athens during the Greco-Italian War (28 October 1940 – 30 April 1941).

Her daughter Xenia lived for years in Long Island with her alleged second cousin once removed Anna Anderson. Anna claimed to be Grand Duchess Anastasia Nikolaevna of Russia, a daughter of Nicholas II of Russia and granddaughter of Alexander III.