Exiled Greek royals win £70m

A European Court is expected today to order the Greek government to pay the exiled members of Greece's former royal family £70 million in compensation for three estates that were confiscated a decade ago.

Former King Constantine has been living in London since attempting to overthrow the thenruling Greek military junta 35 years ago, but has constantly battled for compensation over his heritage in his homeland.

The three properties are: the Mon Repos Palace on Corfu island, where Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh was born; the traditional palace home near Athens, including the burial ground of the Greek monarchy, and a forest estate in Polydendri in Larissa, central Greece.

The ruling in the European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg will certainly prompt the family to breathe a sigh of relief.

While they have been supported by the British royals as well as other European monarchs - including Constantine's sister Queen Sophie of Spain - the legal action has been long and protracted.

But throughout the whole affair, the Greeks, based in their exile home in Hampstead Garden Suburb, have injected a touch of glamour to all aspects of the London social circuit.

Constantine, the former queen Anne-Marie and their children are close enough to our Queen to accompany her to receptions. The former King Constantine II is Prince Philip's first cousin once removed, being the son of Philip's first cousin, King Paul I of Greece.

Their second son Nicholas, one of Prince Charles's godsons, is considered one of London's most eligible bachelors.

Frequently spotted at the most glamorous and star-studded of London's parties, he has been romantically linked to supermodel Elle

Macpherson and counts actress Gwyneth Paltrow among his friends.

Today's hearing follows the Greek government's refusal to return the estates on the grounds that they automatically fell into the hands of the state after the abolition of the monarchy in 1974.

However, the European Court upheld Constantine's argument that these were private properties owned by both him and his parents and had not been given to him by the state to conduct his royal duties.

A valuation of the properties by the courts has led to today's announcement that the "irrevocable" amount of £70million must be paid in compensation.

The deposed king had initially claimed £300million in compensation for his losses.

The government of Andreas Papandreou, the late radical socialist leader, illegally stripped him and his family of their Greek passports in 1992, although they have been granted Danish passports since his wife is a princess there. While the ruling may pave the way for the family's relocation to Greece, it is not yet known what the former king's plans might be.

He will be able to buy more property or estates in Greece and could follow in the footstepsof other deposed Balkan monarchs by entering politics on his return to his homeland.

An Athens-based spokesman for Constantine said: "He has not decided what to do next."

Meanwhile, the ruling was condemned in Greece.

Theodore Roussopoulos, a spokesman for the opposition, said: " Behind all the government boasting, its pompous claims that it would never pay, and its general posturing, there is just one simple truth: namely, that the damage caused by the socialist government of Prime Minister Costas Simitis will be paid for by the Greek people."