Duke Dimitri Constantinovich. A Greek marriage In her widowhood, Princess Maria of Greece reverted to her original name and title and her focus shifted to her own family. At the outbreak of World War I, as Greece had been weakened by the Balkan Wars, King Constantine opted for his country's neutrality. Both the Kaiser, on one side, and the British and the French, on the other, derided him for it. His prime minister, Eleftherios Venizelos, who wanted Greece to enter the conflict on the side of the allies, clashed with the king. In order to force the Greeks to join the allied cause, the French bombarded Athens and demanded King Constantine's departure. He was forced to leave the country and on June 10, 1917, he was replaced as a king by his second son Alexander. Greece entered the war on the side of the allies while the Greek royal family left for exile in Switzerland with the sole exception of King Alexander. With the tumultuous political situation in Greece, Princess Maria could not count on the support of her relatives. While on a visit to Paris, Princess Maria met her nephew Alexander who Venizelos kept isolated from the Greek Royal family. King Alexander died in October 1920, following an infection from a monkey bite, and a plebiscite restored King Constantine I on the throne. Princess Maria and her two daughters then joined King Constantine and the Greek Royal family in Italy, where the small group boarded a ship of the Hellenic Navy towards Corfu. Then, members of the royal family continue their journey aboard the destroyer Ierax, which took them to Athens. During this trip, Princess Maria met the commander of the ship, Admiral Perikles Ioannidis. Widowed and determined to end her days with "Greek blood", the princess was smitten with the Greek Admiral. Five year her junior, Ioannidis had just spent three years in Venizelist jails because of his support for the monarchy. Back in Greece, Maria settled in Athens. She was much loved by the royal family, even winning the affection of the wife of the Diadochos George, Princess Elizabeth of Romania, whose relationship with the rest of her in-laws was difficult.<ref name = " Mateos Sainz de Medrano 336">Mateos Sainz de Medrano, La Familia de la Reina Sofia", p. 336</ref> On the other hand, Princess Maria's relationship with her daughters was strained. The princesses resented that their