Love, Tears & 100,000 Flowers

Byron died to help give Greece a Danish King, and last week Greece and Denmark joyously readied for a royal wedding to gladden a Romantic poet's art: the love match of the world's youngest King, dark and dashing Constantine of the Hellenes, 24, and lissome Princess Anne-Marie, 18, of Denmark.

The festivities began in Copenhagen, where Constantine had flown to participate in Anne-Marie's last round of farewells to her nation. In a televised family fete, Danes heard the father of the bride, King Frederik IX, admonish his daughter: "Let your mother be your model. Be as great a support for Tino as your mother has been for me." Tino reassured Frederik: "Uncle Rico, don't be sad to lose Anne-Marie. She is encompassed by love from all sides." When he concluded his speech with the four Danish words "Hjertelig tak for alt [My heartfelt thanks for everything]," there was hardly a dry eye in the kingdom of Hans Christian Andersen.

One evening the coup'e went to the Danish Royal Theater, festooned with 100,000 flowers for the occasion, to see two ballets and a one-act comedy, all three about youthful love, and all chosen by the princess herself. The following day, escorted by 42 hussars in scarlet, Anne-Marie and Constantine rode slowly through the streets of Copenhagen to the deafening applause of crowds that lined the streets. At the city hall, Municipal Council Chairman Henry Stjernqvist presented the princess with a grand piano with the hope that on it "now and then there will be played tunes that will remind you of your former home country." Replied Anne-Marie: "This is a strange day for me, standing here for the last time as a Dane in my own country. I wish I could show you how my feelings reach for every Dane with a gratitude that comes from the heart."

Greece's King then flew back to his capital, and Anne-Marie and her family winged off to Brindisi, sailed from there in the royal Danish yacht Dannebrog to join Constantine in a busy round of pre-nuptial fetes before the wedding this week in the Greek Orthodox cathedral in the shadow of the Acropolis.

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