King Otto of Greece was deposed in a popular insurrection in October 1862. Starting on 18 October in Vonitsa, it soon spread to other cities and reached Athens on 22 October.
King Otto of Greece was deposed in a popular insurrection in October 1862. Starting on 18 October in Vonitsa, it soon spread to other cities and reached Athens on 22 October.
Otto I (Greek: Όθων, romanized: Óthon; German: Otto Friedrich Ludwig von Wittelsbach; 1 June 1815 – 26 July 1867) was King of Greece from the establishment of the Kingdom of Greece on 7 May 1832, under the Convention of London, until he was deposed in October 1862.
The second son of King Ludwig I of Bavaria, Otto ascended the newly created throne of Greece at age 17. His government was initially run by a three-man regency council made up of Bavarian court officials. Upon reaching his majority, Otto removed the regents when they proved unpopular with the people, and he ruled as an absolute monarch. Eventually, his subjects' demands for a constitution proved overwhelming, and in the face of an armed (but bloodless) insurrection, Otto granted a constitution in 1843.
The Kingdom of Greece (Greek: Βασίλειον τῆς Ἑλλάδος, romanized: Vasíleion tis Elládos, pronounced [vaˈsili.on tis eˈlaðos]) was the Greek nation-state established in 1832 and was the successor state to the First Hellenic Republic. It was internationally recognised by the Treaty of Constantinople, where Greece also secured its full independence from the Ottoman Empire after nearly four centuries. It remained a Kingdom until 1924, when the Second Hellenic Republic was proclaimed, and from the Republic's collapse in 1935 to its dissolution by the Regime of the Colonels in 1973. A referendum following the regime's collapse in 1974 confirmed the effective dissolution of the monarchy and the creation of the Third Hellenic Republic. For much of its existence, the Kingdom's main ideological goal was the Megali Idea (Greek: Μεγάλη Ιδέα, romanized: Megáli Idéa, lit. 'Great Idea'), which sought to annex lands with predominately Greek populations.
King Otto of the House of Wittelsbach ruled as an absolute monarch from 1835 until the 3 September 1843 Revolution, which transformed Greece into a constitutional monarchy, with the creation of the Prime Minister as head of government, universal male suffrage and a constitution. A popular insurrection deposed Otto in 1862, precipitating the gradual collapse of the early Greek parties (English, French, Russian), which had dominated Greek politics.