Constantine I of Greece (Crown of the Emperor)

Constantine I (born Louis Antoine; 6 August 1775-30 March 1863) was the first monarch of an independent Greece. He was born in the Palace of Versailles in 1775, as the son of Count Charles Philippe of Artois and a great-grandson of King Louis XV of France. During the French Revolution, he and his father fled to the German Duchy of Brunswick, hoping to join the Austrian Army. The defeat of Austria by France obliged them to flee, and they took refuge in Courland, under the protection of Tsar Paul I of Russia.

On the invitation of Emperor Napoleon I, Louis returned to France where he joined the French Army as a colonel. In 1819, France and Russia declared war on the Ottoman Empire in support of nationalists movements in the Balkans. The conflict ended in 1822, and Napoleon and Tsar Alexander I of Russia agreed to appoint Louis as the King of Greece. Louis took the name Constantine and the title of King of the Hellenes. During his twenty-one year reign, Constantine spent enormous amounts of money on improving the streets, parks, infrastructure and buildings in his kingdom. He put in place a legal system similar to the Napoleon Code, and he established the first democratic elections in Greece.

Constantine did not have a child of his own, and in 1862, he adopted Danish prince Vilhelm as his heir. Constantine died in 1863, and he was succeed by Vilhelm as King George I of the Hellenes.