The military junta had ruled Greece since a group of middle-ranking officers, under the leadership of Colonel Georgios Papadopoulos, staged a coup on 21 April 1967. King Constantine II reluctantly endorsed the coup, but started preparing for a counter-coup by elements of the armed forces loyal to him. This counter-coup was launched on 13 December 1967 and failed, forcing the king and most of the royal family to flee to Italy. Greece remained a kingdom, with the king's functions exercised by a junta-appointed regent without sanction from the king, a post held until 1972 by General Georgios Zoitakis, and then assumed by an increasingly dominant Papadopoulos, who also held the position of prime minister and several ministerial posts.