At the same time, a serious political and military crisis, linked to the defeat of Greece by Turkey in Anatolia, led to the deposition and exile of the royal family, beginning in 1924.

Being the only members of the dynasty allowed to remain in the country by the Second Hellenic Republic, the princess and her mother later found refuge in Italy, with Dowager Queen Sophia.

After the restoration of her uncle, King George II, on the Hellenic throne in 1935, Alexandra stayed in her native country several times but the outbreak of the Greco-Italian War, in 1940, forced her and her mother to settle in Athens.

Opposition from both Peter's mother, Maria, and the Yugoslav government in exile forced the couple to delay their marriage plans until 1944, when they finally celebrated their wedding.

However, the happiness of the family was short-lived: on 29 November 1945, Marshal Tito proclaimed the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia and Alexandra, who had never set foot in her adopted country, was left without a crown.

Due to the lack of another candidate for the throne, Prime Minister Eleftherios Venizelos was soon forced to accept the restoration of his enemy, King Constantine I, on 19 December 1920.

[9] True or not, this possibility worried the Greek royal family, whose fears about the birth of a male child were exploited by the Venizelists to revive the succession crisis.

The birth of a girl, on 25 March 1921, was a great relief for the dynasty,[c] and both King Constantine I and his mother, Queen Dowager Olga, agreed to be the godparents of the newborn.

[15] Humiliated by this difference in treatment, she begged Prince Christopher (whose commoner wife, Nancy Stewart Worthington Leeds, was entitled to be known as a Princess of Greece and Denmark), to intercede on her behalf.

Under pressures from his wife, King Constantine I issued a decree, gazetted 10 September 1922 under which Aspasia received the title Princess of Greece and Denmark and the style of Royal Highness.

Indeed, Greece experiencing a series of military defeats by Turkey and a coup d'état soon forced King Constantine I to abdicate again, this time in favor of his eldest son, Crown Prince George, on 27 September 1922.

[5][27] Eventually, the two princesses settled on the island of Giudecca in Venice, where Aspasia acquired a small property with her savings and Horlick's financial support.

[28][29] In 1935, the Second Hellenic Republic was abolished and King George II (Alexandra's uncle) was restored to the throne after a referendum organized by General Georgios Kondylis.

Although she continued to reside in Venice with her mother (who still suffered the ostracism of the royal family), the princess was invited to all the great ceremonies that punctuate the life of the dynasty.

[31] In 1936, the fifteen-years-old Princess received her first marriage proposal: King Zog I of Albania, who wished to marry a member of the European royalty in order to consolidate his position, asked her hand.

However, the Greek diplomacy, which maintained complex relations with the Kingdom of Albania because of the possession of Northern Epirus, rejected this proposal and King Zog I eventually married the Hungarian Countess Géraldine Apponyi de Nagy-Appony in 1938.

[a][42] Marked by restrictions due to the war, Alexandra wore a wedding dress that was lent her by Lady Mary Lygon, wife of Prince Vsevolod Ivanovich of Russia (himself the son of King Peter's aunt Princess Helen of Serbia).

[45] Finally, the other two main parts of Yugoslavia were reduced to puppet states: the Serbia of General Milan Nedić and the Croatian Kingdom of the Ustaše.

In June 1944, Prime Minister Ivan Šubašić officially appointed Marshal Tito as the head of the Yugoslav resistance and Mihailović was dismissed.

[51] In October 1944, Churchill and Stalin concluded an agreement to split Yugoslavia into two occupation zones, but after the liberation of Belgrade by the Red Army and the Partisans, it became clear the Communists predominated in the country.

[52] A harsh treatment, which affected the monarchists, took place;[52] at the request of Churchill, Tito agreed in March 1945 to recognize a Regency Council (which had almost no activity) but opposed the return of King Peter II,[53] who had to remain in exile with Alexandra while a government coalition dominated by the Communists was constituted in Belgrade.

[5] On 24 October 1945, the newborn Crown Prince was baptized by the Serbian Patriarch Gavrilo V in Westminster Abbey, with King George VI and his elder daughter (the future Queen Elizabeth II) acting as godparents.

Faced with the rise of the Communists, King Peter II decided, to withdraw his confidence from the Regency Council and regain all his sovereign prerogatives in Yugoslavia (8 August).

[60] Now without income and any prospect of returning to Yugoslavia, Peter II and Alexandra resolved to leave Claridge's Hotel and moved to a mansion in the Borough of Runnymede.

With the help of the ghostwriter Joan Reeder,[citation needed] in 1956 she published For Love of a King (translated into French the following year under the title Pour l'Amour de mon Roi).

[60] However, the reconciliation of the royal couple finally soured and Peter II returned to live in the United States while Alexandra moved with her mother to the Garden of Eden.

But, as before, the reconciliation was temporary and soon Peter II returned to live permanently in the United States while Alexandra settled in her mother's residence.

[70] Two years later, on 1 July 1972, former Crown Prince Alexander of Yugoslavia (now Head of the House of Karađorđević), married at Villamanrique de la Condesa, near Seville, Spain, Princess Maria da Glória of Orléans-Braganza (b.

Too fragile emotionally, Alexandra did not attend the wedding of her son and it was her father's cousin Princess Olga of Greece (wife of Prince-Regent Paul of Yugoslavia), who escorted the groom to the altar.

With her, the remains of her husband King Peter II, her mother-in-law Queen Mother Maria and brother-in-law Prince Andrew were also reburied at the same time in an official ceremony which was attended by Serbian President Tomislav Nikolić and his government.