Greek Constitution of 1844

The Greek Constitution of 1844 was the first constitution of the Kingdom of Greece, proclaimed in March 1844 after the military garrison of Athens rose on 3 September 1843 and demanded that King Otto grant a constitution. It re-established a constitutional monarchy modeled on the French Constitution of 1830 and the Belgian Constitution of 1831, giving the king decisive executive power and a share of legislative power alongside an elected Parliament of at least eighty members serving three-year terms and a Senate of twenty-seven lifetime royal appointees. Ministers were appointed and removed by the king and answered for his acts, and judges were likewise royal appointees who dispensed justice in his name. The accompanying electoral law of 18 March 1844 was the first European law to provide, in essence, for manhood suffrage. Otto accepted the new regime but went on to violate it by concentrating power in his own hands, a course that led to his deposition on 10 October 1862.