Which elegant royal joined the Hitler Youth, dropped her pants for the head of the CIA – and claimed as an excuse: ‘My diplomats are, by and large, bunglers and fairies’?
She was one, that Queen Frederica of Greece!
During a visit to Washington DC, she gave a whole new meaning to the phrase 'entente cordiale' when Her Majesty was caught with her pants down having sex with the head of the Central Intelligence Agency.
The Queen, a cousin of both Queen Elizabeth and Prince Philip, was in Washington in the late 1950s to strengthen relations between Greece and the US and, honestly, her trip was a resounding success.
Just as the visit was about to end, she announced without explanation that she would be staying another week.
She had come to Washington to discuss “spiritual values” with President Dwight D. Eisenhower in the Oval Office and was then sent to visit spy boss Allen Dulles at his CIA headquarters.
Frederica of Hanover, Queen Consort of the Hellenes, pictured left with her daughter Princess Irene of Greece and Denmark at an event in 1964
Presidential candidate Senator John F. Kennedy meets with Allen Dulles, the director of the Central Intelligence Agency in July 1960
Queen Frederica of Greece left with her daughter Sofia, who is now Queen of Spain
Queen Frederica of Greece and daughter Princess Irene are surrounded by photographers as they leave their hotel in London
Allen Welsh Dulles, head of the CIA, with his grandchildren
Queen Frederica of Hanover passes Parliament in an open carriage during a visit to Britain in 1963
Paul I, King of the Hellenic Republic of Greece, accompanies his wife, Queen Frederica, as they descend a flight of stairs
“They had been alone in his office for almost an hour when an assistant rang the doorbell,” wrote former New York Times correspondent Stephen Kinzler.
'When he heard no response, the assistant came in. He found the office empty, but heard noises from the adjacent locker room. Later, Dulles and the queen emerged from this shrine in a state indicating that they had had intimacy.”
In fact, Dulles, a notorious womanizer, had a daybed installed in the locker room specifically so he could take “naps.”
As she was driven back to the Greek Embassy, Frederica turned to her driver and triumphantly declared that the reason Greek-American relations were so strong was entirely due to her irregular sex life – she was still married to husband King Paul – ' I just love that man!” she exclaimed, and she wasn't talking about Paul.
“My diplomats are generally bunglers and fairies,” she declared in justifying her search for her one-on-one relationship with Capitol Hill. But against the interests of her own country, she urged Dulles to spread his CIA spies throughout Greece
It is not surprising that Frederica, granddaughter of Kaiser Bill and great-granddaughter of Queen Victoria, was an unpopular figure, especially at home. She had been a member of the Hitler Youth during her teenage years in Austria and was considered dangerously right-wing. She pulled the strings of her son, the future King Constantine, with considerable force.
During a trip to London in 1963, she and our own Queen, Elizabeth II, were booed by a hostile crowd as they went to the West End theater – the only time Lilibet was treated with such hostility.
The Foreign Office was so concerned that demonstrators would enter the Aldwych Theater and disrupt the play that they bought up all 1,100 seats for that evening's performance.
The officials had good reason – during a previous visit to London just a few months earlier, Frederica had been spotted and chased through the street by demonstrators opposing the repressive regime of the Greek government – which the Queen had supported – and they had to take refuge in the house of a complete stranger.
But it didn't bother Her Majesty that she was caught with her pants down. In her 1971 memoir, Frederica boasted of her close relationship with her “old friend” Dulles, a notorious womanizer but a man whose snobbery could not resist a woman capable of tracking down a woman. her lineage dates back to the 18th century King Frederick the Great of Prussia, after whom she was named.
King Paul of Greece and his wife Queen Frederica with their two daughters, Princess Sofia, now Queen of Spain, and Princess Irene during a private visit to England
Allen Dulles pictured in London in 1960. Dulles, an American diplomat, lawyer, banker and civil servant, became the longest-serving director of the CIA
Frederica of Greece in a homely atmosphere, possibly with grandchildren
A 1961 portrait of the Queen Dowager of Greece, Queen Frederick of Hanover, taken in New York
Frederica was a great-granddaughter of Queen Victoria, a member of the Schleswig-Holstein-Sonderburg-Glücksburg dynasty, to which Prince Philip belonged.
Her daughters were Sofia, now Queen of Spain, and Irene of Greece. Her son was King Constantine II of Greece.
Frederica – Freddie to her family – fell victim to her own machinations when the military junta ruling the country deposed the royal family in 1973.
Constantine had inherited the crown after his father's death in 1965, but despite repeated attempts to restore the monarchy in his country, he spent most of his life in Britain, where he was always a welcome guest on Buckingham Palace, but a king without any power. throne.