The English 'occupation' of the Ionian Islands lasted until 1864. In that year Ithaca was finally liberated and, with the other Ionian Islands, became a part of the New Greek State. The nearby island of Corfu was at the time home to families of the current Prince Philip of Great Britain. The first monarch of this new Greek dynasty George I, King of the Hellenes, was actually Danish. At his enthronement in Copenhagen in 1863 attended by a delegation of Greeks, it was announced that the British government would cede the Ionian Islands to Greece in honor of the new monarch.