Queen Alexandra was the daughter of HM King Alexander I of the Hellenes and HRH Princess Aspasia of Greece and Denmark (née Aspasia Manos). She was born in Athens, Greece, on 25 March 1921, as the only child of her parents.
Her mother, Aspasia, came from a prominent Greek Phanariote families of Constantinople and the descendants of the ruling Princes of Wallachia and Moldavia. King Alexander and Aspasia Manos were married on 17 November 1919. Tragically, the King died of sepsis on 25 October 1920, five months before the birth of his daughter.
Due to political turmoil in Greece, Alexandra did not become de jure Queen of the country immediately after birth. Following the return of her grandfather, HM King Constantine I, to the throne of Greece, and the enactment of the necessary law and Royal Decree in July 1922, Alexandra and her mother, Aspasia, were granted the titles of Their Royal Highnesses Princesses of Greece and Denmark.
She was educated in England – first at Westfield, the junior school of Heathfield, and then at Heathfield School. After completing her education, Princess Alexandra went to Mademoiselle Ozanne in Paris, and after the restoration of the monarchy in 1935 she lived in her native Greece, as well as in her mother’s villa in Venice, called the “Garden of Eden”.
In 1940, Italy attacked Greece. After the invasion of Nazi Germany on Greece in 1941, Princess Alexandra went into exile together with other members of the Royal Family of Greece, led by HM King George II.
After a stay in Crete and South Africa, Princess Alexandra and her mother came to London, where she met her future husband, HM King Peter II of Yugoslavia, at the Allied Officers’ Club in 1942.
King Peter II and Queen Alexandra were married on 20 March 1944 at the Yugoslav Embassy in London, with King George VI of the United Kingdom and King George II of the Hellenes as best men.
She gave birth to her only child, a son, HRH Crown Prince Alexander, in London on 17 July 1945 at Claridge’s Hotel, in Suite 212, which had been temporarily declared Yugoslav territory.
Although King Peter II never abdicated, the monarchy was abolished by an illegal act of the communist dictatorship on 29 November 1945. The Royal family was forced to live in exile, and it was not an easy life.
It is often mistakenly said that she never set foot on Yugoslav soil, but it is true that she never actually did so as Queen. Namely, when Italy invaded Greece in October 1940, Princess Alexandra and her mother were in Venice. After the outbreak of war, they set off for Greece, and on their journey, they stopped in Belgrade, where they were given a ceremonial welcome at the train station.
Queen Alexandra died on 30 January 1993 in East Sussex, England. She was buried on 7 February 1993 at the Tatoi Palace Royal Cemetery near Athens.
Thanks to the efforts of her son, Crown Prince Alexander, who fulfilled the vow of his father and great-grandfather, King Peter II and King Peter I, her remains were exhumed with the utmost honours and transferred to the Palace Chapel of St. Andrew the First-Called in Belgrade on 9 May 2013. As part of the State Funeral, she was transferred to the Royal Mausoleum of the Karađorđevićs in Oplenac on Sunday, 26 May 2013, to finally rest in peace in the country of which she was Queen.