The allied sovereigns who had taken the Greeks under their protection now felt the need of a stronger and more stable government for them than a republic, and determined to establish an hereditary but constitutional monarchy.  The crown was offered to Prince Leopold of Saxe-Coburg, who at first accepted it; but when that prince began to look into the real state of the country,—­curtailed in its limits by the jealousies of the English government, rent with anarchy and dissension, containing a people so long enslaved that they could not make orderly use of freedom,—­he declined the proffered crown.  It was then (1832) offered to and accepted by Prince Otho of Bavaria, a minor; and thirty-five hundred Bavarian soldiers maintained order during the three years of the regency, which, though it developed great activity, was divided in itself, and conspiracies took place to overthrow it.  The year 1835 saw the majority of the king, who then assumed the government.  In the same year the capital was transferred to Athens, which was nothing but a heap of rubbish; but the city soon after had a university, and also became an important port.  In 1843, after a military revolution against the German elements of Otho’s government, which had increased from year to year, the Greeks obtained from the king a representative constitution, to which he took an oath in 1844.

But the limits of the kingdom were small, and neither Crete, Thessaly, Epirus, nor the Ionian Islands were included in it.  In 1846 these islands were ceded by Great Britain to Greece, which was also strengthened by the annexation of Thessaly.  Since then the progress of the country in material wealth and in education has been rapid.  Otho reigned till 1862, although amid occasional outbreaks of impatience and revolt against the reactionary tendencies of his rule.  In that year he fled with his queen from a formidable uprising; and in 1863 Prince William, son of Christian IX.  King of Denmark, was elected monarch, under the title of George I. King of the Hellenes.

The resurrection of Greece was thus finally effected.  It was added to the European kingdoms, and now bids fair to be prosperous and happy.  “Thus did the Old Hellas rise from the grave of nations.  Scorched by fire, riddled by shot, baptized by blood, she emerged victorious from the conflict.  She achieved her independence because she proved herself worthy of it; she was trained to manhood in the only school of real improvement,—­the school of suffering.”

The Greek revolution has another aspect than battles on the Morea, massacres on the islands of the Archipelago, naval enterprises under heroic seamen, guerilla conflicts amid the defiles of mountains, brave defences of fortresses, dissensions and jealousies between chieftains, treacheries and cruelties equalling those of the Turks,—­another aspect than the recovery of national independence even.  It is memorable for the complications which grew out of it, especially for the war between Turkey