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Alexander I of Serbia

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Alexander I (Template:Langx; 14 August 1876Template:Snd11 June 1903) was King of Serbia from 1889 until his death in 1903, when he and his wife, Draga Mašin, were assassinated by a group of Royal Serbian Army officers,<ref>Template:Cite book</ref> led by Captain Dragutin Dimitrijević.

Accession

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Alexander was born on 14 August 1876 to King Milan and Queen Natalie of Serbia. By birth, he was member of the House of Obrenović, ruling dynasty of the Principality of Serbia and from 1882, the Kingdom of Serbia.Template:Sfn

In 1889, King Milan unexpectedly abdicated and withdrew to private life, proclaiming Alexander king of Serbia. Since the king was only thirteen, three regents were appointed, head among them Jovan Ristić.Template:Sfn His mother also became his regent.

Alexander ordered the arrest of the regents on April 13, 1893, proclaiming himself of age and dissolving national assembly. On May 21, he abolished his father's liberal constitution of 1889 and restored the previous one. In 1894, the young King brought his father, Milan, back to Serbia and, in 1898, appointed him commander-in-chief of the army. During that time, Milan was regarded as the de facto ruler of the country.Template:Sfn In 1898 penalties were brought down upon the Radical and the Russophil parties, which the court sought to tie to an attempted assassination of the former King Milan.Template:Sfn

Alexander's attitude during the Greco-Turkish War (1897) was one of strict neutrality.Template:Sfn

Marriage

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In the summer of 1900, King Alexander suddenly announced his engagement to Draga Mašin, a disreputable widow of an obscure engineer.Template:Sfn<ref name="auto">Template:Cite book</ref> Alexander had met Draga in 1897 when she was serving as a maid of honor to his mother. Draga was nine years older than the king, unpopular with Belgrade society, well known for her allegedly numerous sexual liaisons, and widely believed to be infertile.<ref name="auto"/> Since Alexander was an only child, it was imperative to secure the succession by producing an heir. So intense was the opposition to Mašin among the political classes that the king found it impossible for a time to recruit suitable candidates for senior posts.<ref name="auto"/>

File:The Princess Alexandra of Schaumburg-Lippe, bride of Prince Eitel (second son of the Kaiser).jpg
Princess Alexandra Karoline of Schaumburg-Lippe, member of the House of Lippe, intended German royal bride for Alexander

Before making the announcement of his intended engagement, Alexander did not consult with his father, who had been on vacation in Karlsbad and making arrangements to secure the hand of the suitable German royal, Princess Alexandra Karoline of Schaumburg-Lippe, member of an ancient House of Lippe, sister of the Queen of Württemberg, for his son. He neither consulted his Prime Minister Dr. Vladan Đorđević, who was visiting the Universal Exhibition in Paris at the time of the announcement.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> Both immediately resigned, and Alexander had difficulty in forming a new cabinet. Alexander's mother also opposed the marriage and was subsequently banished from the kingdom.

Opposition to the union seemed to subside somewhat for a time upon the publication of congratulations of Nicholas II of Russia to the king on his engagement and of his agreement to act as the principal witness at the wedding. The marriage duly took place in August 1900. Even so, the unpopularity of the union weakened the king's position in the eyes of the army and the country at large.Template:Sfn

Politics and the constitution

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King Alexander tried to reconcile political parties by unveiling a liberal constitution of his own initiative in 1901, introducing for the first time in the constitutional history of Serbia the system of two chambers (skupština and senate). This reconciled the political parties, but did not placate the army which, already dissatisfied with the king's marriage, became still more so at the rumours that one of the two unpopular brothers of Queen Draga, Lieutenant Nikodije, was to be proclaimed heir presumptive to the throne.Template:Sfn

Alexander's good relations and the country's growing dependence on Austria-Hungary were detested by the Serbian public.<ref>Template:Cite journal</ref> According to Heinrich Berghaus, more than two million Serbs lived in Austria-Hungary, with another million in the Ottoman Empire, although many migrated to Serbia.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref><ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

Meanwhile, the independence of the senate and of the council of state caused increasing irritation to King Alexander. In March 1903, the king suspended the constitution for half an hour, time enough to publish decrees dismissing and replacing the old senators and Councillors of state. This arbitrary act increased dissatisfaction in the country.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

Attempting to appease the opposition, King Alexander granted an amnesty to the persecuted Radicals, and in 1901 issued a moderately liberal constitution. A Council of State and a second chamber to parliament were instituted.Template:Sfn

In 1902 Alexander's rival Peter Кarađorđević was proclaimed king by followers at Šabac, and Alexander responded by organizing a military cabinet and suspending the constitution. Radicals began to plot the King's assassination.Template:Sfn

Assassination

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Template:Main The general impression was that, as much as the senate was packed with men devoted to the royal couple and the government obtained a large majority at the general elections, King Alexander would not hesitate any longer to proclaim Queen Draga's brother as the heir presumptive to the throne.Template:Sfn In spite of this, it had been agreed with the Serbian government that Prince Mirko of Montenegro, who was married to Natalija Konstantinović, the granddaughter of Princess Anka Obrenović, an aunt of King Milan, would be proclaimed heir presumptive in the event that the marriage of King Alexander and Queen Draga was childless.<ref name="njeg">Template:Cite web</ref>

Apparently to prevent Queen Draga's brother being named heir presumptive, but in reality, to replace Alexander Obrenović with Prince Peter Karađorđević, a conspiracy was organized by a group of army officers headed by Captain Dragutin Dimitrijević, also known as "Apis", and Novak Perišić, a young Serbian Orthodox militant who was in the pay of the Russian Empire,<ref>C. L. Sulzberger, The Fall of Eagles, p. 202, Crown Publishers, New York, 1977</ref> as well as the leader of the Black Hand secret society which would assassinate Archduke Franz Ferdinand in 1914. Several politicians were also members of the conspiracy and allegedly included former Prime Minister Nikola Pašić.<ref name="Sulzberger, p.202">Sulzberger, p. 202</ref> The royal couple's palace was invaded and they hid in a wardrobe in the queen's bedroom.

The conspirators searched the palace and eventually discovered the royal couple and murdered them in the early morning of 11 June 1903. They were shot and their bodies mutilated and disembowelled, after which, according to eyewitness accounts, they were thrown from a second-floor window of the palace onto piles of garden manure.<ref name="Sulzberger, p.202"/> King Alexander and Queen Draga were buried in the crypt of St. Mark's Church, Belgrade.

Honours

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Notes

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References

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