er the British, they were governed by a High Commissioner who could act with both legislative and executive powers. After a long history of turbulence, never settled even by such eminent Commissioners as William Ewart Gladstone, the British discussion whether they were a waste of money or a vital Imperial possession ended with the cession of the Ionian Islands, including Cythera, to the new King George I of Greece, who was brother-in-law to the Prince of Wales.
The chief town of the island, Cythera (or Chora, "village") has the Historical Archives of Cythera, the second largest in the Ionian islands, after Corfu
