King Of Serbia Aleksandar I

Passions

Notable

Family

Serbian king who reigned from 1889 until 1903 when he and his wife, Queen Draga, were assassinated by a group of Army officers, led by Captain Dragutin Dimitrijević. Alexander (Aleksandar) was born to King Milan and Queen Natalie of Serbia. He belonged to the Obrenović dynasty. In 1889, King Milan unexpectedly abdicated, proclaiming Alexander king of Serbia under a regency until he should attain his majority at eighteen years of age. His mother became his regent. In 1893, King Alexander, aged sixteen, arbitrarily proclaimed himself of full age, dismissed the regents and their government, and took the royal authority into his own hands. His action won popular support, as did his appointment of a radical ministry. In May 1894 King Alexander arbitrarily abolished King Milan's liberal constitution of 1888 and restored the conservative one of 1869. His attitude during the Greco-Turkish War (1897) was one of strict neutrality. On 5 August 1900, King Alexander, an only child, married the widowed Madame Draga Mašin, formerly a lady-in-waiting to his mother and 12 years older than him. Apparently to prevent Queen Draga's brother being named heir-presumptive, but in reality to replace Alexander Obrenović with Peter Karađorđević, a conspiracy was organized by a group of Army officers headed by Captain Dragutin Dimitrijević also known as "Apis", and Norman Perović, a young Greek Orthodox militant who was in the pay of the Russians, as well as the leader of the Black Hand secret society which would assassinate Archduke Franz Ferdinand in 1914. The conspirators searched the palace and eventually discovered the royal couple and murdered them in the early morning of 29 May 1903. King Alexander and Queen Draga were shot and their bodies mutilated and disemboweled and, according to eyewitness accounts, thrown from a second floor window of the palace onto piles of garden manure. The King was only 26 years old at the time of his death. Link to Wikipedia biography