Category Archives: Former Monarchies

Assassination of King Henri IV of France (1610)

by Susan Flantzer  © Unofficial Royalty 2020

On May 14, 1610, while his carriage was stopped on a Paris street, 56-year-old King Henri IV of France was stabbed to death by Catholic zealot François Ravaillac.

King Henri IV of France

King Henri IV of France; Credit – Wikipedia

King Henri IV of France was the first French king of the House of Bourbon. Born in 1553, in Pau, Kingdom of Navarre, now in France, Henri was the son of Queen Jeanne III of Navarre and Antoine de Bourbon, Duke de Vendôme. Although he was baptized in the Catholic Church, Henri was raised as a Protestant. His mother Queen Jeanne III of Navarre became a Calvinist Protestant, also known in France as French Huguenots, while Henri was a boy. She then became a spiritual and political leader of the French Huguenot movement.

Upon his mother’s death in 1572, Henri took the throne as King Henri III of Navarre. Two months later, he married Marguerite of Valois, the daughter of King Henri II of France. As Henri was a Protestant French Huguenot, he was not permitted inside Notre Dame Cathedral so the ceremony was held just outside the building. Days later, the Saint Bartholomew’s Day Massacre took place, in which thousands of Protestant French Huguenots were killed. Henri narrowly escaped death, mostly thanks to his new Catholic wife, and his promise to convert to Catholicism.

In 1584, Henri became the heir-presumptive to the French throne, as the last heir to King Henri III of France had died. Henri was the senior agnatic descendant of King Louis IX, and therefore the rightful heir. King Henri III of France was assassinated on August 2, 1589, and King Henri III of Navarre, as the heir-presumptive, became King Henri IV of France. After several years of issues with French Catholic nobles who refused to recognize him as their new king and with the encouragement of his mistress Gabrielle d’Estrées, Henri once again renounced his religion and converted to Catholicism. This gained him the support of the French people and he was finally able to rule his kingdom.

In a loveless and childless marriage, and knowing that he needed an heir, Henri began negotiations to end his first marriage to Marguerite of Valois. In 1600, Henri married Marie de’ Medici, from the wealthy House of Medici that came to prominence in the 15th century, as founders of the Medici Bank in Florence, Tuscany, now in Italy. Henri and Marie had six children including King Louis XIII of France, Elisabeth who married King Felipe IV of Spain, Christine Marie who married Vittorio Amedeo I, Duke of Savoy (ancestors of the Kings of Italy), and Henrietta Maria who married King Charles I of England.

For more information, see Unofficial Royalty: King Henri IV of France.

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Roots of the Assassination

Despite Henri’s conversion to Roman Catholicism, along with his quote, “Paris is well worth a Mass,” hard-core Catholic zealots were not convinced of his sincerity. There were eighteen documented cases of attempted assassination or conspiracy to commit an assassination against Henri. In 1598, Henri issued the Edict of Nantes, which granted toleration to the French Huguenots. While Roman Catholicism remained the state religion, Huguenots were granted the reinstatement of their civil rights, including the right to work in any field or for the state and to bring grievances directly to the king. The Edict of Nantes restored peace and internal unity to France but pleased neither Catholics nor Protestants. Catholics rejected the recognition of Protestantism as a permanent element in French society. They still hoped to return to religious uniformity when Roman Catholicism was the only religion. Protestants wanted parity with Catholics in all matters.

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The Assassin

François Ravaillac; Credit – Wikipedia

François Ravaillac was born circa 1577-1589 in Angoulême, France. He was the youngest son of Jean Ravaillac, secretary-clerk of the mayor of Angoulême, and Françoise Dubreuil. His maternal uncles, Julien and Nicolas Dubreuil, were priests at Saint-Pierre Cathedral of Angoulême and taught François reading and writing and instilled in him hatred of the Huguenots.

François worked eleven years as a valet and clerk of the Maître du Port des Rosiers, a lawyer of the court of justice for Angoulême. He then became a courier for the Angoulême prosecutor. Because Angoulême fell under the jurisdiction of the Parliament of Paris, François was frequently in the city. Around 1602, he moved to Paris where he served as the correspondent for the Angoulême prosecutor for four years.

François became obsessed with religion. In 1606, he entered the strict Order of the Feuillants as a lay brother but was dismissed after a short period because of his unusual mystical visions. He then applied to the Society of Jesus (the Jesuits) but his application was rejected. To make ends meet, François became a school teacher, teaching catechism (religious instruction).

In 1609, François claimed to have had a vision instructing him to convince King Henri IV to convert the Huguenots to Catholicism. Between the spring of 1609 and the spring of 1610, François made three unsuccessful three trips to Paris to tell King Henri IV of his vision.

François then interpreted Henri IV’s decision to intervene militarily in the War of the Jülich Succession on the side of the Protestant forces against the Catholic Habsburg forces as the beginning of a war against the Pope. To François, this was an act against God and so he decided to kill King Henri IV of France.

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The Assassination

The assassination of Henri IV and arrest of Ravaillac on May 14, 1610, oil on canvas by Charles-Gustave Housez (1860); Credit – Wikipedia

The coronation of Henri’s second wife Marie de’ Medici was planned after their marriage in 1600 but it was postponed for financial reasons. Because of his imminent departure to fight in the War of the Jülich Succession, Henri decided to have a coronation for his wife to give her greater legitimacy in case it became necessary for her to be regent in his absence. The coronation of Queen Marie took place on May 13, 1610, at the Basilica of Saint-Denis near Paris. After the coronation, Henri returned to the Louvre Palace in Paris to find the doctor and astrologer of his cousin Charles de Bourbon, Count of Soissons waiting to warn him about the next day. Henri refused to see him. He had a busy next few days. On May 14, Henri planned to work on the last details of his military expedition. He planned to relax and go hunting on May 15. Queen Marie’s solemn entry into Paris after her coronation was planned for May 16 and on May 17, Henri planned to join his army as they began to fight in the War of the Jülich Succession.

In the late afternoon of May 14, 1610, Henri IV left the Louvre Palace to meet with Maximilien de Béthune, Duke of Sully, one of his closest advisers, who was ill at his home. Since Sully’s home was nearby, Henri decided it was unnecessary to be escorted by the Horse Guard. Instead, the king was accompanied by an escort of a few soldiers. Riding in the carriage with Henri were  Jean-Louis de Nogaret, Duke of Épernon and Hercule de Rohan, Duke of Montbazon.

François Ravaillac had stolen a knife from an inn and followed Henri’s carriage as it left the Louvre Palace. François caught up with Henri’s carriage in the Rue de la Ferronnerie, a narrow street in today’s Les Halles district, not far from the Louvre. A hay cart and a cart loaded with barrels of wine had difficulty moving and caused congestion. Henri lifted up the leather curtain of his carriage to see what was causing the delay. The footmen standing on Henri’s carriage’s step moved away to disperse the crowd that had recognized the king.

François took advantage of the situation and rushed at the carriage, stabbing three times. The first blow hit Henri’s armpit and did not cause much damage. However, the second blow was fatal, cutting Henri’s vena cava and aorta, the main blood vessels in and out of the heart. The last blow cut the Duke of Montbazon’s sleeve. Henri’s carriage raced back to the Louvre Palace where he soon died. Henri’s death left his wife Queen Marie with six children, aged one to eight. Henri was succeeded by his eldest son, the eight-year-old King Louis XII, with Queen Marie serving as Regent.

The commemorative plaque embedded in the pavement of the Rue de la Ferronnerie in Paris, marking the site of the assassination of Henri IV; Credit – Wikipedia

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What happened to François Ravaillac?

The execution of François Ravaillac; Credit – Wikipedia

Having done what he set out to do, François Ravaillac did not flee. The Duke of Épernon intervened to prevent François from being lynched by the crowd. François was brought to the Hôtel de Retz where he stayed for two days. The next day he was taken to the Hotel du Duc d’Épernon before being taken into custody at the Conciergerie prison.

François was tortured to make him identify accomplices but he denied that he had any and insisted that he acted alone. He said to his interrogators, “I know very well he is dead; I saw the blood on my knife and the place where I hit him. But I have no regrets at all about dying because I’ve done what I came to do.” At the end of a ten-day trial by the Parliament of Paris, it was determined that the assassination of King Henri IV was the isolated act of a Catholic fanatic and François Ravaillac was sentenced to death.

On May 27, 1610, François Ravaillac was brought from the Conciergerie the short distance to the square in front of the Notre-Dame de Paris Cathedral where he did his penance with bare feet, in his shirt, holding a candle in his hand. François then climbed into a garbage cart which took him to the Place de Grève (the current Place de l’Hotel-de-Ville) where on a small scaffold the tortures of the executioner Jean Guillaume and his assistants lasted for hours.

François Ravaillac’s right hand, which held the knife that had killed King Henri IV, was burned off with sulfur fire. Molten lead, boiling oil, pitch, hot resin, wax, and sulfur were melted and poured over his body. A horse was attached to each of his arms and legs. When the horses pulled, his body was dismembered. The remains of his body were thrown into the fire, reduced to ashes, and thrown to the wind.

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The Funeral and Burial of King Henri IV of France

King Henri IV laying in state in the State Bedchamber in the Louvre Palace, engraving after François Quesnel; Credit – Wikipedia

King Henri IV’s remains were autopsied on May 15, 1610. His heart was placed in a silver urn, and in keeping with a promise made some years earlier, it was entombed at the Church of Saint Louis of La Flèche in the province of Maine, France. The funeral ceremonies were elaborate and lasted until the burial on July 1, 1510. Henri’s body was embalmed and then placed on a bier in the Chambre de Parade du Roi (State Bedchamber) in the Louvre Palace. One hundred low masses and six high masses were said there each day.

On June 10, 1610, Henri’s casket was taken to the Salle des Caryatides (Cariatides Room) in the Louvre Palace. An effigy was constructed out of wicker with a wax face molded from the face of the king, wearing coronation dress and the royal crown. Twice a day, servants pretended to serve him a meal, a traditional ritual symbolizing the continuity of the royal dignity beyond the death of the King.

The effigy was removed on June 21, 1510. Funeral orations were heard in all the parishes of the kingdom, followed by a week of tributes to King Henri IV by the various government officials including a blessing from eight-year-old King Louis XIII. On June 29, 1510, Henri’s casket was taken to Notre-Dame de Paris Cathedral where several ceremonies were held, including the funeral mass on June 30, 1510.

After the funeral, Henri’s casket was brought to the traditional burial site of the French royal family, the Basilica of Saint-Denis in Saint-Denis, now a northern suburb of Paris. The casket was placed in a chapel with the effigy awaiting burial the next day. Henri’s tomb was destroyed during the French Revolution but there is a memorial to him at the Basilica of Saint-Denis.

Memorial to Henri IV at the Basilica of Saint-Denis; Credit – Wikipedia

This article is the intellectual property of Unofficial Royalty and is NOT TO BE COPIED, EDITED, OR POSTED IN ANY FORM ON ANOTHER WEBSITE under any circumstances. It is permissible to use a link that directs to Unofficial Royalty.

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Works Cited

  • En.wikipedia.org. (2020). François Ravaillac. [online] Available at: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fran%C3%A7ois_Ravaillac [Accessed 25 Feb. 2020].
  • En.wikipedia.org. (2020). Henry IV of France. [online] Available at: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Henry_IV_of_France [Accessed 25 Feb. 2020].
  • Fr.wikipedia.org. (2020). Assassinat d’Henri IV. [online] Available at: https://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Assassinat_d%27Henri_IV [Accessed 25 Feb. 2020].
  • Fr.wikipedia.org. (2020). François Ravaillac. [online] Available at: https://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fran%C3%A7ois_Ravaillac [Accessed 25 Feb. 2020].
  • Fr.wikipedia.org. (2020). Henri IV (roi de France). [online] Available at: https://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Henri_IV_(roi_de_France) [Accessed 25 Feb. 2020].
  • Mehl, Scott. (2016). King Henri IV of France. [online] Unofficial Royalty. Available at: https://www.unofficialroyalty.com/king-henri-iv-of-france/ [Accessed 25 Feb. 2020].

Assassination of George I, King of the Hellenes (1913)

by Scott Mehl © Unofficial Royalty 2020

On March 18, 1913, King George I of the Hellenes was shot and killed while out walking in Thessaloniki, Greece. His assassin, Alexandros Schinas, died six weeks later under somewhat mysterious circumstances.

King George I of the Hellenes. source: Wikipedia

King George I of the Hellenes

King George I was born Prince Christian Vilhelm Ferdinand Adolf Georg, a younger son of the future King Christian IX of Denmark. His siblings included King Frederik VIII of Denmark, Queen Alexandra of the United Kingdom, and Empress Maria Feodorovna of Russia.

In 1863, at just 17 years old, he was elected unanimously by the Greek National Assembly as King of the Hellenes, replacing King Otto who had been deposed to the previous year. Taking the name George I of the Hellenes, he was enthroned in Denmark on June 6, 1863, and arrived in Greece in October of that year. He married Grand Duchess Olga Konstantinovna of Russia and the couple had eight children. King George I went on to reign for nearly 50 years and was much loved by the Greek people.

For more information, see Unofficial Royalty: King George I of the Hellenes

The Assassin – Alexandros Schinas

Not much is known about Alexandros Schinas’s life before the King’s assassination. Born in Greece, it was reported that he had left the country and moved to New York City for several years. Shinas stated that he had been deported from Thessaloniki because he was “a good Greek patriot” in 1910. However, in a later interview, he stated that he had sought financial assistance from the palace in 1911 and been turned away, suggesting that he had remained in Greece. What is known is that by 1913 he was back in Greece, and told authorities that he had contracted tuberculosis and had suffered from fits of delirium.

For more information, see Wikipedia: Alexandros Schinas

The Assassination

A depiction of the King’s assassination. source: Wikipedia

Thessaloniki – Greece’s second-largest city – had been under the Ottoman Empire until the Greeks successfully took the city on November 9, 1912, during the First Balkan War. Several days later, King George I, accompanied by his son Crown Prince Constantine, rode through the streets in triumph.

By March 1913, King George I was approaching his 50th year on the Greek throne and was planning to step down in favor of his son, Crown Prince Constantine, in October of that year. On March 18, the King went for an afternoon walk through the streets of Thessaloniki. As he was known to do, he went out with just an aide-de-camp and very little security protection. That day, it would prove to be a fatal choice. Various reports exist of exactly what happened – some state that Schinas was lying in wait and leaped out from hiding to shoot the King. Others, including Schinas’s interviews with authorities, state that he wandered from a nearby cafe, happened to see King George I and in a fit of delirium, pulled his gun and fired. Either way, the result was the same. The bullet entered the king’s back, piercing his heart and lungs, and exited through his abdomen. The king collapsed and was quickly put into a carriage and taken to the hospital but died before arriving.

What happened to King George?

Tomb of King George I. photo by Kostisl – Own work, CC BY-SA 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=25375493

The King collapsed following the attack and died in the carriage before arriving at the nearby hospital. His family traveled to Salonika, where the king’s body lay for a week. On March 25, a grand procession took place with the King’s coffin being borne on a gun carriage and accompanied by the rest of the Greek royal family, making its way to the Royal Yacht Amphitrite and sailing for Athens.

In Athens, the King lay in state for three days in the Metropolitan Cathedral followed by a lavish state funeral. The coffin was then interred in the Royal Cemetery at Tatoi Palace, the summer home of the Greek Royal Family.

What happened to the assassin?

Alexandros Schinas in custody. source: Wikipedia

Alexandros Schinas made no attempt to flee after shooting King George I and was quickly subdued and taken into custody. In an interrogation, he claimed that he had no prior plans to kill the King, but stated that he was delirious due to his tuberculosis. He stated that he simply saw the King walking just behind him, and pulled his gun, and fired. However, it was also widely reported that he held some animosity toward the King, having been turned away when seeking financial assistance at the palace.

Six weeks later, on May 6, 1913, Schinas died after falling from a window in the Magistrate’s office. The guards claimed that he jumped, while others claimed that he was thrown from the window.

This article is the intellectual property of Unofficial Royalty and is NOT TO BE COPIED, EDITED, OR POSTED IN ANY FORM ON ANOTHER WEBSITE under any circumstances. It is permissible to use a link that directs to Unofficial Royalty.

Assassination of Henri III, King of France (1589)

by Scott Mehl  © Unofficial Royalty 2020

On August 1, 1589, King Henri III of France was stabbed by Jacques Clément, a Dominican friar. He died the following morning from his injuries. Henri was the last French king from the House of Valois, and as he had no children, was succeeded by King Henri III of Navarre who became King Henri IV of France, establishing the House of Bourbon on the French throne.

King Henri III of France. source: Wikipedia

Henri III, King of France

Henri was born September 19, 1551, at the Château de Fontainebleau, the fourth son of King Henri II of France and Catherine de’ Medici. Two of his elder brothers reigned as French kings – François II and Charles IX. Henri was created Duke of Angoulême and Duke of Orléans in 1560, and Duke of Anjou in 1566.

Henri was elected King of Poland and Grand Duke of Lithuania in May 1573. However, after becoming King of France in 1574, Henri never returned to Poland, and the Polish parliament declared the throne vacant in May 1575. Following his coronation, Henri married Louise of Lorraine, but the couple had no children. This led to the French throne passing to his distant cousin, Henri of Navarre, who took the throne as King Henri IV, the first French king from the House of Bourbon.

For more information, see Unofficial Royalty: King Henri III of France

The Assassination

The assassination of Henri III, King of France; Credit – Wikipedia

While staying with his forces in Saint-Cloud, intending to attack Paris the following day, the King received a visit from a Dominican friar, Jacques Clément. During the French Wars of Religion, Clément had become a supporter of the Catholic League and fanatically religious. He developed a plan to kill the King and was encouraged by some of the leaders of the Catholic League, including Catherine de Guise, the Duchess of Montpensier. With forged papers alleged to be for the King, Clément made his way to Saint-Cloud. Arriving on August 1, 1589, Clément was permitted to meet with the King. After handing the papers to the King, Clément told him he also had a private message to deliver. The King ordered his guards to step away and Clément approached him and began to whisper in his ear. At the same time, he drew a dagger from beneath his cloak and stabbed the King in the abdomen. The attendants quickly stepped in and Clément was immediately killed.

What happened to King Henri III?

Basilica of Saint-Denis. photo: By Thomas Clouet – Own work, CC BY-SA 4.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=42109690

At first, it appeared that the King was not fatally injured. However, sensing his impending death, the King insisted that his officers pledge their loyalty to Henri of Navarre as their new king, should he not survive. The following morning, King Henri III of France died from his injuries. He was interred in the Basilica of Saint-Denis in Paris, the traditional burial site of the French kings and royal family.

What happened to Jacques Clément?

The King’s guards immediately killed Clément. Later his body was quartered and burned. For his act, he was seen by many as a martyr, particularly by those who supported the Catholic League. He was praised by Pope Sixtus V, and it was even discussed that he should be canonized as a saint.

This article is the intellectual property of Unofficial Royalty and is NOT TO BE COPIED, EDITED, OR POSTED IN ANY FORM ON ANOTHER WEBSITE under any circumstances. It is permissible to use a link that directs to Unofficial Royalty.

Assassination of Mohammed Nadir Shah, King of Afghanistan (1933)

by Scott Mehl © Unofficial Royalty 2020

On November 8, 1933, Mohammad Nadir Shah, King of Afghanistan was shot and killed by an assassin while taking part in a high school awards ceremony at the royal palace in Kabul, Afghanistan.

Mohammed Nadir Shah, King of Afghanistan. source: Wikipedia

Mohammed Nadir Shah, King of Afghanistan

Mohammed Nadir Shah (born Mohammad Nadir Khan) reigned as King of Afghanistan from October 15, 1929, until his assassination on November 8, 1933. He was born in Dehradun, British India on April 9, 1883 to Mohammad Yusuf Khan and Sharaf Sultana Hukumat Begum.

Raised in British India (where his family had been exiled by the British government), he later came to Afghanistan and served as a General under King Amanullah Khan, leading the Afghan National Army in the Third Anglo-Afghan War. Following the war, he served as Minister of War, and later as Ambassador to France. Following a rebellion against the monarchy, led by Habibullah Kalakani, Mohammed was exiled once again. After Kalakani overthrew the monarchy, Mohammad returned to Afghanistan with his forces and retook most of the country. Declaring himself King upon his arrival in Kabul on October 15, 1929, he captured Kalakani and executed him. His reign, just four years, saw numerous uprisings and rebellions, all of which he managed to overcome. He established the country’s first university, worked to strengthen both diplomatic and commercial relations with the surrounding countries and put into place the country’s first banking system. After just four years on the throne, Mohammad Nadir Shah was killed by an assassin on November 8, 1933.

For more information, see: Wikipedia: Mohammed Nadir Shah

The Assassination

The assassin, Abdul Khaliq. source: Wikipedia

The assassin was Abdul Khaliq, a 16-year-old student at Nejat High School. After Khaliq’s father, uncle, and brothers were arrested in 1933 by King Mohammed Nadir Shah’s regime (after the execution of an Amanullah supporter), Khaliq began plotting to kill the King. His opportunity came when he and other student-athletes were invited to the palace in Kabul to receive medals for their achievements. Seeing no security at the gates, Khaliq quickly went home and borrowed a gun from a friend before returning to the palace.

With the gun wrapped in a handkerchief in his pocket, Khaliq waited until King Mohammed Nadir Shah entered the garden where the ceremony was taking place. As the King approached the students, Khaliq drew the gun and fired several shots. The first hit the King in the mouth, the second in his heart, and the third through his lung. A fourth shot was also fired, striking a guard who was rushing to subdue the assassin.

For more information see: Wikipedia: Abdul Khaliq

What happened to Mohammed Nadir Shah?

Tomb of Mohammed Nadir Shah

King Mohammed Nadir Shah died instantly from the gunshots. He was succeeded by his son, Mohammed Zahir Shah, who would become the last King of Afghanistan, reigning from 1933 until the overthrow of the Afghani monarchy in 1973.

King Mohammed Nadir Shah was buried in a large mausoleum at Teppe Maranjan overlooking east Kabul. Now in near ruins, the mausoleum was constructed of marble and topped with a large metal dome. The crypt beneath the structure holds King Mohammed Nadir Shah’s tomb and the tombs of several family members. Nearby is the tomb of Sultan Mohammed Telai, the king’s great-great-grandfather.

What happened to Abdul Khaliq?

Following the assassination, Khaliq was quickly apprehended and imprisoned. Tortured by the guards, he named several of his family members as accomplices, although this claim has been questioned by surviving members of his family. Along with sixteen family members, Khaliq was sentenced to death by hanging at the Deh Mazang prison. However, only sixteen nooses were prepared. On December 18, 1933, Khaliq and his family members were led to the prison yard to be hanged. Instead, however, Khaliq was tortured to death in front of the others, before they were then hanged.

This article is the intellectual property of Unofficial Royalty and is NOT TO BE COPIED, EDITED, OR POSTED IN ANY FORM ON ANOTHER WEBSITE under any circumstances. It is permissible to use a link that directs to Unofficial Royalty.

Assassination of Paul I, Emperor of All Russia (1801)

by Susan Flantzer © Unofficial Royalty 2020

On the night of March 23, 1801, at the Mikhailovsky Castle in St. Petersburg, Russia, a group of conspirators charged into the bedroom of 46-year-old Paul I, Emperor of All Russia, forced him to abdicate, and then strangled and trampled him to death.

Paul I, Emperor of All Russia

Paul I, Emperor of All Russia; Credit – Wikipedia

Paul I, Emperor of All Russia was born on October 1, 1754, at the Summer Palace of Empress Elizabeth in St. Petersburg, Russia. As the son of Grand Duchess Catherine Alexeievna (born Sophie of Anhalt-Zerbst, later Catherine II (the Great), Empress of All Russia), Paul was recognized by Catherine’s husband Grand Duke Peter Feodorovich (born Karl Peter Ulrich of Holstein-Gottorp, later Peter III, Emperor of All Russia) as his son. Peter and Catherine’s marriage was not a happy one. Peter took a mistress and Catherine had many lovers. It is possible that Paul’s father was Sergei Vasilievich Saltykov. If this is true, then all subsequent Romanovs were not genetically Romanovs. Catherine later claimed that her son and successor Paul had not been fathered by Peter and that they had never consummated their marriage.

Paul was taken from his mother immediately after birth and spent the first eight years of his life at the court of his great-aunt, Elizabeth I, Empress of All Russia, the daughter of Peter I (the Great), Emperor of All Russia and the younger sister of Grand Duchess Anna Petrovna, Peter III’s mother who died shortly after his birth. The unmarried and childless Empress Elizabeth had named her nephew Peter as her heir when he was ten-years-old.

In 1762, when Paul was eight-years-old, Empress Elizabeth died and she was succeeded by her nephew as Peter III, Emperor of All Russia. However, the reign of Peter III lasted only six months. Paul’s mother engineered a coup that not only deposed her husband but also got him killed by her supporters. In the summer of 1762, Paul’s mother began her 34-year-reign as Catherine II, Empress of All Russia, known in history as Catherine the Great. When Catherine was finally able to retrieve her eight-year-old son after the death of Empress Elizabeth, it was too late to repair their relationship. Paul’s early isolation from his mother created a distance between them which would only be reinforced by later events.

Family of Paul I of Russia, by Gerhard von Kügelgen, 1800; Credit – Wikipedia

In 1773, Paul married Wilhelmine Louise of Hesse-Darmstadt who became Grand Duchess Natalia Alexeievna after her marriage. Three years later, Natalia Alexeievna and her first child, a boy, died after six days of agonizing labor. Less than six months after his first wife’s death, Paul married Sophia Dorothea of Württemberg who took the name Maria Feodorovna after her marriage. Paul and Maria Feodorovna had ten children with nine surviving to adulthood including two Emperors of All Russia, a Queen of the Netherlands, a Queen of Württemberg, and a Grand Duchess of Saxe-Weimar-Eisenach.

The Road to Assassination

Portrait of Paul I in Coronation Robes by Vladimir Lukich Borovikovsky; Credit – Wikipedia

Upon the death of his mother Catherine II (the Great), Empress of All Russia in 1796, Paul succeeded her as Emperor of All Russia. Ironically, Paul I, Emperor of All Russia suffered a fate similar to Peter III. Paul’s reign lasted five years, ending with his assassination by conspirators. As Emperor, Paul agreed with the practices of autocracy and tried to prevent liberal ideas in the Russian Empire. He did not tolerate freedom of thought or resistance against autocracy. Because he overly taxed the nobility and limited their rights, the Russian nobles, by increasing numbers, were against him. Paul’s reign was becoming increasingly despotic. Eventually, the nobility reached their breaking point. As early as the end of 1797, rumors began swirling of a coup d’état being prepared by the nobility.

A conspiracy was organized, some months before it was executed, by Count Peter Ludwig von der Pahlen, Count Nikita Petrovich Panin, and Admiral José de Ribas, with the alleged support of British ambassador in Saint Petersburg, Charles Whitworth, 1st Earl Whitworth. The total number of people involved in the conspiracy, according to various estimates, ranges from 180 to 300 people. It is probable that Paul’s son and heir Alexander knew of the coup d’état plans and that Paul’s wife Maria Feodorovna knew about the existence of plans.

Afraid of intrigues and assassination plots, Paul disliked the Winter Palace in St. Petersburg where he never felt safe. He ordered his birthplace, the dilapidated Summer Palace of Empress Elizabeth in St. Petersburg to be demolished and replaced with a new fortified residence, the Mikhailovsky Castle. In February 1801, Paul and his family moved into the Mikhailovsky Castle.

The Assassination

The assassination of Emperor Paul I, French engraving, 1880s; Credit – Wikipedia

At 1:30 AM on March 23, 1801, a group of twelve officers led by Count Nikolai Alexandrovich Zubov and Levin August von Bennigsen, a German general in the service of the Russian Empire,  broke into Paul’s bedroom at the Mikhailovsky Castle in St. Petersburg. Also present at the murder were two of the original conspirators Count Nikita Petrovich Panin and Count Peter Ludwig von der Pahlen. The group charged into the bedroom and found Paul hiding behind some drapes in a corner. The conspirators pulled him out and forced him to a table so he could sign an abdication document. When Paul offered some resistance, Count Nikolai Alexandrovich Zubov struck him with a sword, after which the assassins strangled and trampled him to death.

Aftermath

Tomb of Paul I, Emperor of All Russia; Credit – By El Pantera – Own work, CC BY-SA 2.5, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=36434001

The official cause of Paul’s death was “an apoplexy stroke.” The truth about his assassination was suppressed by censorship. Paul’s body was worked on by a team of doctors all night so it could be displayed in evidence of a natural death. Despite the doctors’ efforts, blue and black spots were visible on Paul’s face. Court painter Jacob Mettenleyter, the curator of the Gatchina Palace art gallery, was summoned with his brushes and paints to make Paul’s face presentable.

One of the doctors described Paul’s body: “There were many traces of violence on the body. A wide strip around the neck, a strong mark on the temple (from a blow … caused by a pistol), a red spot on the side, but not a single wound with a sharp weapon, two red scars on both thighs; significant damage to the knees which prove that he was forced to kneel down to make it easier to strangle. In addition, the whole body was generally covered with small marks; they probably came from blows delivered after death.”

A triangular hat was pulled over Paul’s forehead to hide the injuries to his left eye and his temple. Paul was placed in his coffin in a way that viewers passing by would not be able to see his body clearly. The teenaged Nikolay Ivanovich Gretsch, a future journalist, wrote: “As soon as you enter the door, they pointed to another with an exhortation: if you please go through. I went to Mikhailovsky Castle about ten times and could only see the soles of the emperor’s overboots and a wide hat pulled over his forehead.”

Paul’s eldest son Alexander, who probably knew about the coup but not the murder plot, succeeded as Alexander I, Emperor of All Russia at the age of 23. When Alexander was informed about the murder of his father, he sobbed. Count Nikolai Alexandrovich Zubov told Alexander, “Time to grow up! Go and rule!” Alexander went out on the palace balcony to show himself to the troops and said: “My father died of apoplexy. I will be like my grandmother.” On the first day of his reign, Alexander freed 12,000 prisoners who had been sentenced by his father to prison or exile without a trial. Within a month, Alexander began restoring freedoms that his father revoked. None of the conspirators of the coup d’état that resulted in the murder of Emperor Paul were punished. However, over time Alexander I gradually removed the conspirators from their positions, not because he considered them dangerous, but because of the disgust that he felt at their very sight.

Paul I, Emperor of All Russia was buried at the Peter and Paul Cathedral in the Peter and Paul Fortress in St. Petersburg, Russia.

This article is the intellectual property of Unofficial Royalty and is NOT TO BE COPIED, EDITED, OR POSTED IN ANY FORM ON ANOTHER WEBSITE under any circumstances. It is permissible to use a link that directs to Unofficial Royalty.

Works Cited

  • En.wikipedia.org. (2018). Paul I of Russia. [online] Available at: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paul_I_of_Russia [Accessed 25 Jan. 2018].
  • Lincoln, W. Bruce. (1981). The Romanovs: Autocrats of  All the Russias. New York, NY.: Doubleday
  • Flantzer, Susan. (2018). Paul I, Emperor of All Russia. [online] Unofficial Royalty. Available at: https://www.unofficialroyalty.com/emperor-paul-i-of-russia/ [Accessed 5 Jan. 2020].
  • Massie, Robert. (2016). Catherine the Great. London: Head of Zeus.
  • Ru.wikipedia.org. (2018). Павел I. [online] Available at: https://ru.wikipedia.org/wiki/%D0%9F%D0%B0%D0%B2%D0%B5%D0%BB_I [Accessed 25 Jan. 2018]. (Paul I in Russian)
  • Ru.wikipedia.org. (2020). Убийство Павла I. [online] Available at: https://ru.wikipedia.org/wiki/%D0%A3%D0%B1%D0%B8%D0%B9%D1%81%D1%82%D0%B2%D0%BE_%D0%9F%D0%B0%D0%B2%D0%BB%D0%B0_I [Accessed 5 Jan. 2020]. (The assassination of Paul I in Russian)

Assassination of Ivan VI, Emperor of All Russia (1764)

by Susan Flantzer  © Unofficial Royalty 2020

The story of Ivan VI and his family is one of the most tragic stories in royal history. Ivan VI, Emperor of All Russia (Ivan Antonovich) succeeded to the throne in 1740 at the age of two months. A little more than a year later, Ivan was deposed by Elizabeth Petrovna, the only surviving child of Peter I the Great, Emperor of All Russia, and spent the next 23 years imprisoned before being murdered in 1764 during the reign of Catherine II (the Great), Empress of All Russia. Ivan’s parents spent the rest of their lives imprisoned and with the exception of his sister Catherine, all his other siblings were born while their parents were imprisoned. His siblings remained imprisoned until 1780.

Ivan VI, Emperor of All Russia

Ivan VI, Emperor of All Russia; Credit – Wikipedia

Ivan Antonovich, the future Ivan VI, Emperor of All Russia, was born on August 23, 1740, in St. Petersburg, Russia, the oldest of the five children of Elisabeth of Mecklenburg-Schwerin and Anton Ulrich of Brunswick-Lüneburg. Ivan’s mother was the only niece of the childless Anna, Empress of All Russia (daughter of Ivan V, Tsar of All Russia), and the only grandchild of Ivan V, Tsar of All Russia. She had been born in the Duchy of Mecklenburg-Schwerin, now in Germany, but moved to Russia with her mother after her parents’ marriage failed. Ivan’s mother converted to Russian Orthodoxy and was given the name Anna Leopoldovna and the title Grand Duchess. When Anna Leopoldovna married, she and her husband made their home in Russia, expecting that Anna Leopoldovna or her children would inherit the throne upon the death of Empress Anna.

Empress Anna adopted the infant Ivan Antonovich on October 5, 1740, and proclaimed him heir to the Russian throne. Twenty-three days after proclaiming the infant Ivan Antonovich her heir, Anna I, Empress of All Russia was dead at the age of 48 and two-month-old Ivan Antonovich was Ivan VI, Emperor of All Russia. Before Empress Anna died, she had agreed that her longtime lover and advisor Ernst Johann von Biron would serve as regent until Ivan came of age. The Russian nobility had enough of Biron during Empress Anna’s reign. Biron was regent for three weeks and on November 19, 1740, he was seized and banished to Siberia. Ivan’s mother Grand Duchess Anna Leopoldovna was named regent.

A Coup to Overthrow the Infant Emperor

The Preobrazhensky Regiment soldiers proclaim Elizabeth Petrovna Empress of All Russia; Credit – Wikipedia

22-year-old Anna Leopoldovna was not qualified to be regent. She did as little as possible concerning state affairs and argued with her advisers. A conspiracy soon arose intending to obtain the Russian throne for Elizabeth Petrovna, the only surviving child of Peter I (the Great), Emperor of All Russia. A coup took place during the night of December 5-6, 1741 with financial support from France and military support from the Preobrazhensky Regiment. Elizabeth Petrovna arrived at the regiment’s headquarters wearing armor over her dress asking, “Who do you want to serve, me, your natural sovereign, or those who have stolen my inheritance?” The Preobrazhensky Regiment marched to the Winter Palace and arrested the infant Emperor Ivan and his parents. It was a daring coup and succeeded without bloodshed. The new 32-year-old Empress of All Russia, Elizabeth Petrovna, vowed that she would not sign a single death sentence, a promise she kept throughout her 20-year reign.

What happened to Ivan?

Now that she had the throne, Elizabeth had a problem. A living Emperor, the great-grandson of her father’s elder half-brother Ivan V, and his mother, the granddaughter of Ivan V, remained in St. Petersburg. They were both threats to her throne. Even though 15-month-old Ivan did not know he had been Emperor, his image was on coins used throughout Russia and prayers had been said for him in all Russian churches. Elizabeth originally planned to send Ivan, his mother Anna Leopoldovna, his father Anton Ulrich, and his sister Catherine Antonovna somewhere in Europe so she sent them to Riga (now in Latvia) as the first stage of their journey. However, once the family arrived in Riga, Elizabeth had second thoughts – perhaps it would be a better idea to keep her young, dangerous prisoner under guard in Russia. Ivan was separated forever from his parents and his sister and classified as a secret state prisoner.

Fortress of Shlisselburg; Photo Credit – Wikipedia

Ivan was first sent to Kholmogory, where, seeing no one other than his jailer, he remained for the next twelve years. Eventually, news of Ivan’s whereabouts began to be known. He was then secretly transferred to the Fortress of Shlisselburg where he was under heavy guard and not even the commandant of the fortress knew his true identity. Although instructions had been given not to educate him, Ivan had been taught his letters and could read his Bible. He also seemed aware of his former imperial status and always called himself Gosudar (Sovereign).

Peter III visits Ivan at the Fortress of Shlisselburg; Credit – Wikipedia

Empress Elizabeth died in 1762 and her nephew succeeded her as Peter III, Emperor of All Russia. Ivan’s situation then improved a bit and Peter III even visited him. However, Peter III’s reign lasted only six months. He was deposed by his wife, born Princess Sophie of Anhalt-Zerbst, who reigned as Catherine II (the Great), Empress of All Russia, and he died soon afterward, most likely murdered by Catherine’s supporters.

Vasily Mirovich Standing over the Corpse of Ivan VI by Ivan Tvorozhnikov (1884); Credit – Wikipedia

Catherine II ordered Ivan to be placed in manacles and further ordered that if any attempt were made to free the prisoner, he was to be put to death immediately. Ivan’s presence at the Fortress of Shlisselburg could not remain concealed forever. In 1764, Vasily Mirovich, one of the men guarding Ivan, learned his identity and formulated a plan for freeing and proclaiming him Emperor. At midnight on July 15, 1764, Mirovich and his supporters attempted to free Ivan. However, another guard immediately murdered Ivan, following Catherine II’s orders. Mirovich and his supporters were executed. Ivan VI’s burial place is unknown but it is commonly believed that he was buried in the Fortress of Shlisselburg.

What happened to Ivan’s parents and siblings?

Ivan’s parents were imprisoned for the rest of their lives. Anna Leopoldovna and Anton Ulrich had three additional children while imprisoned, born between 1743-1746. On March 18, 1746, Anna Leopoldovna died during childbirth at the age of 27. In 1762, Catherine II offered Anton Ulrich permission to leave Russia with the condition he would leave his children behind but he declined. At the age of 59, Anton Ulrich died in prison on March 19, 1776, after spending 36 years in captivity.

Silhouettes of Ivan’s siblings, done after their release from imprisonment; Credit – Wikipedia

In 1780, Ivan’s four siblings, ranging in age from 34-39, were released into the custody of their maternal aunt, born Juliana Maria of Brunswick-Wolfenbüttel, but then the Queen Dowager of Denmark. The four siblings had spent their entire lives imprisoned. They lived under house arrest in Horsens in Jutland, Denmark under the guardianship of Juliana Maria and at the expense of Catherine II. Although they were really prisoners, they lived in relative comfort and had a small court of between 40 and 50 people, all Danish except for their Russian Orthodox priest. The siblings were unhappy in Denmark because they were not used to their new degree of freedom in a new environment and were surrounded by people whose language they could not understand.

Ivan’s four younger siblings:

This article is the intellectual property of Unofficial Royalty and is NOT TO BE COPIED, EDITED, OR POSTED IN ANY FORM ON ANOTHER WEBSITE under any circumstances. It is permissible to use a link that directs to Unofficial Royalty.

Works Cited

  • En.wikipedia.org. (2017). Anna Leopoldovna. [online] Available at: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grand_Duchess_Anna_Leopoldovna_of_Russia [Accessed 28 Dec. 2017].
  • En.wikipedia.org. (2017). Ivan VI of Russia. [online] Available at: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ivan_VI_of_Russia [Accessed 28 Dec. 2017].
  • Flantzer, Susan. (2018). Ivan VI, Emperor of All Russia. [online] Unofficial Royalty. Available at: https://www.unofficialroyalty.com/emperor-ivan-vi-of-russia/ [Accessed 5 Jan. 2020].
  • Lincoln, W. Bruce. (1981). The Romanovs: Autocrats of  All the Russias. New York, NY.: Doubleday
  • Massie, R. (2016). Catherine the Great. London: Head of Zeus.
  • Ru.wikipedia.org. (2017). Иван VI. [online] Available at: https://ru.wikipedia.org/wiki/%D0%98%D0%B2%D0%B0%D0%BD_VI [Accessed 28 Dec. 2017].

Assassination of Peter III, Emperor of All Russia (1762)

by Susan Flantzer  © Unofficial Royalty 2020

Peter III, Emperor of All Russia died at the age of 34 on July 17, 1762, at Ropsha Palace, a country estate outside of St. Petersburg, Russia. He was probably murdered but the circumstances of his death remain unclear.

Peter III, Emperor of All Russia

Peter III, Emperor of All Russia; Credit – Wikipedia

Peter III, Emperor of All Russia was born Karl Peter Ulrich of Holstein-Gottorp on February 21, 1728, at Kiel Castle in Kiel, then in the Duchy of Holstein-Gottorp, now in the German state of Schleswig-Holstein. His father was Karl Friedrich, Duke of Holstein-Gottorp. His mother was Grand Duchess Anna Petrovna of Russia, the elder of the two surviving daughters of Peter I (the Great), Emperor of All Russia and his second wife, born Marta Helena Skowrońska, the daughter of an ethnic Polish peasant, renamed Catherine (Ekaterina) Alexeievna, and later the successor to her husband Peter the Great as Catherine I, Empress of All Russia. Peter was his parents’ only child. His mother died at the age of 20, three months after his birth.

Peter was left in the care of the Holstein household guards who put sergeant’s stripes on Peter’s sleeve and let him drill with them. Peter lacked a serious education and any training in governing. Knowing nothing else but what the guards taught him, Peter became passionate about military drilling. In 1739, Peter’s father died, and at the age of eleven, he became Duke of Holstein-Gottorp.

Peter’s aunt, Elizabeth, Empress of All Russia; Credit – Wikipedia

In 1742, Peter’s life dramatically changed when his unmarried maternal aunt, his mother’s younger sister, Elizabeth, Empress of All Russia, declared him her heir and brought him to St. Petersburg, Russia. Peter converted from Lutheranism to Russian Orthodoxy, was given the name Peter Feodorovich, the title Grand Duke and was officially named the heir to the Russian throne.

Peter and Catherine; Credit – Wikipedia

It was important to Empress Elizabeth that Peter marry so that the Romanov dynasty would be continued. Elizabeth arranged for Peter to marry his second cousin, Sophie of Anhalt-Zerbst (later Catherine II the Great), daughter of Christian August, Prince of Anhalt-Zerbst and Johanna Elisabeth of Holstein-Gottorp. Sophie converted to Russian Orthodoxy, took the name Ekaterina (Catherine) Alexeievna, and married Peter on August 21, 1745. Peter and Catherine’s marriage was not happy, but Catherine gave birth to one son, the future Emperor Paul, and one daughter Anna Petrovna, who died in early childhood. Both children were taken by Empress Elizabeth to her apartments immediately after their births to be raised by her. Both Peter and Catherine had affairs. Catherine later claimed that her son Paul was not Peter’s son and they had never consummated their marriage.

Peter never attempted to gain more knowledge about Russia, its people, and its history. He neglected Russian customs, behaved inappropriately during church services, and did not observe fasts and other rites. He spoke Russian poorly and infrequently. Empress Elizabeth did not allow Peter to participate in government affairs. On January 5, 1762, Elizabeth, Empress of All Russia died at the age of 52 after a massive stroke and her nephew became Peter III, Emperor of All Russia. Peter was unpopular and few were looking forward to his reign.

Roots of a Conspiracy

After he became Emperor of All Russia, Peter did little to win the support of Empress Elizabeth’s friends and courtiers. His foreign policy also did little to win supporters. The last straw for Peter may have been how he treated the Russian army. Peter abolished “the guard within the guard”, a group within the Preobrazhensky Regiment, created by Empress Elizabeth as her personal guard in remembrance of their support in the coup which brought her to the throne. He replaced “the guard within the guard” with his own Holstein guard and often spoke about their superiority over the Russian army.

Meanwhile, Catherine’s position deteriorated along with the position of three groups – the clergy, senior statesmen and the Imperial Guard, the Preobrazhensky Regiment. Peter began to think about divorcing Catherine and marrying his mistress. Wisely, Catherine quietly aligned herself with the three groups. She remained calm and dignified even when Peter grossly insulted her in public. The devotion of the Preobrazhensky Regiment to Catherine was never in doubt because her favorite Grigory Orlov and his four brothers were all members of the Guard.

A Conspiracy to Overthrow Peter

Alexei and Grigory Orlov in the 1770s; Credit – Wikipedia

A conspiracy to overthrow Peter was planned and centered around the five Orlov brothers with Grigory, Catherine’s favorite, and Alexei being the main conspirators.

On July 9, 1762 (June 29 in Old Style, the feast day of St. Peter and Paul), at Peterhof, a celebration of Peter’s name day was planned. It was no coincidence that the conspirators chose this time for their attack. The day before, Peter was to travel from Oranienbaum to Peterhof. The brothers Alexei Orlov and Grigory Orlov made preparations during weeks before the planned celebration. With threats and bribes of vodka and money, the Orlov brothers set up the guards against Peter.

Peter was late leaving Oranienbaum due to a hangover and his daily habit of reviewing his Holstein troops. He was to meet Catherine at Peterhof but she was not there when he arrived. Eventually, Peter and the few advisers he had with him began to suspect what was happening. Peter sent members of his entourage to St. Petersburg to find out what was happening but none returned. Eventually, he learned that Catherine had proclaimed herself Catherine II, Empress of All Russia, and that the senior government officials, the clergy, and all the Guards supported her.

Catherine II on a balcony of the Winter Palace on July 9, 1762, the day of the coup; Credit – Wikipedia

Peter ordered his Holstein guards to take up defensive positions at Peterhof. They did so but were afraid to tell Peter they had no cannonballs to fire. Peter thought about fleeing but was told that there were no horses available because his entourage had all arrived in carriages. Learning that Catherine and the Guards were approaching Peterhof, Peter made a desperate decision to sail Kronstadt, a fortress on an island. Upon arrival, Peter was refused admittance because all those in the fortress had sworn allegiance to Catherine. Peter rejected the advice of his advisors to go to the Prussian army and returned to Oranienbaum.

Peter and his Holstein guards were behind the gates at Oranienbaum when Alexei Orlov and his men surrounded Oranienbaum. Peter sent a message that he would renounce the throne if he, his mistress, and his favorite Russian general were allowed to go to Holstein. Catherine sent Grigori Orlov with a Russian general to Oranienbaum insisting that Peter must write a formal announcement of abdication in his own handwriting. Grigori Orlov was to deal with the abdication and the general was to lure Peter out of Oranienbaum and back to Peterhof to prevent any bloodshed. Grigori Orlov rode back to Peterhof with the signed abdication announcement and the general convinced Peter to go to Peterhof and beg Catherine for mercy. Upon arrival at Peterhof, Peter was arrested and taken by Alexei Orlov to Ropsha Palace, a country estate outside of St. Petersburg.

Catherine had to deal with the same dilemma that Empress Elizabeth had to deal with regarding Ivan VI who she had deposed – keeping a former emperor around was a threat to her throne. Catherine intended to send Peter to Shlisselburg Fortress where Ivan VI, who had been deposed in 1741 as an infant, was still imprisoned. However, Catherine did not have to deal with a living deposed emperor for long.

Peter’s Death

Ropsha Palace where Peter died. The palace needs restoration. In 2016 the palace was rented to the state-owned Rosneft oil corporation which has promised to restore the palace and allow tourists to visit; Credit – Wikipedia

One thing was certain – Peter was dead. He died at the age of 34 on July 17, 1762, at Ropsha Palace. What is uncertain is how he died. In the early afternoon of July 17, 1762, Peter was invited to dine with Alexei Orlov and Prince Feodor Baryatinsky, one of the officers of his guards. At 6:00 PM, a rider from Ropsha Palace reached St. Petersburg with a letter from Alexei Orlov for Catherine. Orlov wrote: “At dinner he [Peter] started quarreling and struggling with Prince Baryatinsky at the table. Before we could separate them, he was dead. We ourselves know not what we did. But we are equally guilty and deserve to die.”

Whether Peter’s death was planned or the result of an accidental drunken altercation is unknown. Catherine certainly benefitted from Peter’s death which happened in the presence of one of her key allies and his men. The Orlov brothers and the officers guarding Peter hated him. They would have known that they were doing the new empress a favor. The official cause of Peter’s death was “a severe attack of hemorrhoidal colic.”

Aftermath

Catherine was advised to have Peter’s body displayed so that it would be known he was dead and not hidden away like Ivan VI still was. Peter lay in state at the Alexander Nevsky Monastery in St. Petersburg in the blue uniform Holstein cavalry officer, drawing to his foreign birth. He wore a large tricornered hat covering his forehead and the part of his face that was visible was black and swollen. Around his neck and up to his chin was a wide cravat. It is common for those of the Russian Orthodox faith to be buried holding a cross in their bare hands but Peter was wearing leather riding gloves. It seems likely that Peter was dressed to hide the results of strangulation – the cravat to cover a bruised throat and gloves to hide injuries from trying to fight for his life. Despite the attempt to hide Peter’s injuries, there were rumors among the thousands of people who filed past his coffin that Peter had been poisoned and/or strangled.

Peter was denied a burial place at the Cathedral of Peter and Paul at the Peter and Paul Fortress that his grandfather Peter I “the Great” had built. Instead, Peter was buried without honors in the Annunciation Church at the Alexander Nevsky Monastery in St. Petersburg.

Never destined at birth to be a monarch or even married to a monarch, Catherine II, Empress of All Russia, born Princess Sophie Auguste Friederike of Anhalt-Zerbst, reigned for thirty-four years. During Catherine’s reign, Russia grew larger and stronger and was recognized as one of the great powers of Europe. Five years after she came to the throne, the Legislative Assembly voted to name her Catherine the Great but she refused. Later in her reign, when she was again called Catherine the Great, she replied, “I beg you no longer to call me Catherine the Great because my name is Catherine II.” After her death, Russians began speaking of her as Catherine the Great and she is still called that today.

When Catherine II died in 1796, her son and successor Paul I, Emperor of All Russia sought to seek revenge for the deposed and disgraced Peter III and for the coup of his mother Catherine II. Paul ordered the remains of Peter III, Emperor of All Russia to first be transferred to the church in the Winter Palace and then to be moved to the Peter and Paul Cathedral in St. Petersburg, the burial site of the Romanovs. 60-year-old Alexei Orlov, who had played a role in deposing Peter III, was made to walk in the funeral cortege, holding the Imperial Crown as he walked in front of the coffin. Peter III was reburied in the Peter and Paul Cathedral in St. Petersburg at the same time as the burial of his wife Catherine II. Peter III had never been crowned so at the time of his reburial, Paul I personally performed the ritual of coronation of his Peter’s remains. Ironically, Paul I, Emperor of All Russia suffered a fate similar to Peter III. Paul’s reign lasted five years, ending with his assassination by conspirators.

The tombs of Catherine II and Peter III (back row) at the Peter and Paul Cathedral; Photo Credit – Автор: Deror avi – собственная работа, CC BY-SA 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=8368144

This article is the intellectual property of Unofficial Royalty and is NOT TO BE COPIED, EDITED, OR POSTED IN ANY FORM ON ANOTHER WEBSITE under any circumstances. It is permissible to use a link that directs to Unofficial Royalty.

Works Cited

  • De.wikipedia.org. (2018). Peter III. (Russland). [online] Available at: https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peter_III._(Russland) [Accessed 10 Jan. 2018].
  • En.wikipedia.org. (2018). Peter III of Russia. [online] Available at: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peter_III_of_Russia [Accessed 10 Jan. 2018].
  • Flantzer, Susan. (2018). Peter III, Emperor of All Russia. [online] Unofficial Royalty. Available at: https://www.unofficialroyalty.com/emperor-peter-iii-of-russia/ [Accessed 5 Jan. 2020].
  • Lincoln, W. Bruce. (1981). The Romanovs: Autocrats of  All the Russias. New York, NY.: Doubleday
  • Massie, R. (2016). Catherine the Great. London: Head of Zeus.
  • Ru.wikipedia.org. (2018). Пётр III. [online] Available at: https://ru.wikipedia.org/wiki/%D0%9F%D1%91%D1%82%D1%80_III [Accessed 10 Jan. 2018].

Assassination of Umberto I, King of Italy (1900)

by Scott Mehl  © Unofficial Royalty 2020

On July 29, 1900, while visiting Monza, Italy, King Umberto I of Italy was shot and killed by Gaetano Bresci, an Italian anarchist claiming to avenge the deaths of people in Milan during the riots of May 1898.

Umberto I, King of Italy

Umberto I, King of Italy – source: Wikipedia

King Umberto I was born in Turin on March 14, 1844, the eldest son of the future King Vittorio Emanuele II of Italy and Archduchess Adelheid of Austria. He married his first cousin, Princess Margherita of Savoy and had one son, later King Vittorio Emanuele II. Umberto became King of Italy upon his father’s death in January 1878 and reigned until his assassination in 1900.

For more information, see Unofficial Royalty: King Umberto I of Italy

The Assassin – Gaetano Bresci

Gaetano Bresci. source: Wikipedia

Gaetano Bresci was born in Prato, Tuscany, in 1869, and later emigrated to the United States. Bresci had been exposed to an anarchist group in Prato and his views continued to evolve while living in the United States. Following the Bava-Beccaris massacre, Bresci became determined to return to Italy and avenge the deaths of so many innocent people. He arrived back in Italy in May 1900, eventually making his way to Monza, where he tracked the movements of King Umberto I of Italy who typically spent his summers at the Royal Villa in Monza, Italy

The Assassination

source: Wikipedia

King Umberto I had already survived two previous assassination attempts, in November 1878 and again in April 1897. Unharmed in both, he would not be so lucky the third time.

In May 1898, workers organized a strike in Milan, protesting the rising food costs in Italy. A peaceful strike turned violent and riots broke out around the city. Umberto’s government brought General Fiorenzo Bava-Beccaris in to help restore order. However, the General ordered his troops to fire on the demonstrators on May 7, 1898, resulting in nearly 100 deaths and several hundred injuries. Further uproar came when King Umberto I honored General Bava-Beccaris the following month, presenting him with the Great Cross of the Order of Savoy.

On the evening of July 29, 1900, King Umberto attended an athletic competition in Monza. Having been the target of previous assassination attempts, he usually wore a protective vest under this coat, but because of the extreme heat, and against the advice of his security team,  he chose not to wear it that evening. In the crowd was Gaetano Bresci, an anarchist who was out to avenge the deaths in the Bava-Beccaris massacre. Leaving the athletic competition at around 10:30 pm, King Umberto returned to his carriage for the brief trip back to the Royal Villa of Monza. While he acknowledged the crowd who had come to see him, Bresci came forward and fired four shots. King Umberto was hit three times, in his shoulder, his lung, and his heart. He slumped forward in the carriage, allegedly saying “I think I’m hurt” and lost consciousness. The carriage quickly rushed back to the Royal Villa, where, despite the doctors’ efforts to save his life, King Umberto I died at 11:30 pm.

Tomb of Umberto I at the Pantheon in Rome. photo: By Jastrow – Own work, Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=1820580

King Umberto’s body was returned to Rome where his funeral and burial took place on August 9. His remains were interred in the Pantheon in Rome, Italy beside his father. King Umberto I would be the last Italian King to be buried in Italy until his son’s remains were later returned to the country in 2017.

photo: By MarkusMark – Own work, CC BY-SA 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=4365063

In honor of his father, Umberto’s son Vittorio Emanuele III, King of Italy had a chapel monument,  the Expiatory Chapel of Monza, built on the site where King Umberto was killed. It sits near the entrance to the Royal Villa of Monza and was inaugurated on July 29, 1910, the 10th anniversary of the King’s assassination.

What happened to Gaetano Bresci?

Remains of the Santo Stefano prison. source: Wikipedia CC BY-SA 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=447753

Following the assassination, Gaetano Bresci was quickly subdued and taken into custody by the local police, who likely saved him from being killed by the crowds. He was tried for regicide and as the death penalty had been abolished in Italy years earlier, was sentenced to life in prison.

On May 22, 1901, Bresci was found dead, his lifeless body hanging from the railing in his cell in the Santo Stefano prison. Reportedly, the guard watching him had stepped away for a few minutes and found the body upon his return. Some reports state that he was beaten to death by the guards. The doctor who performed the autopsy wrote that the body was in a state of decomposition, suggesting that he had been dead for more than 48 hours, disputing the official suggestion that he had hanged himself. Bresci’s remains were buried in the prison cemetery.

This article is the intellectual property of Unofficial Royalty and is NOT TO BE COPIED, EDITED, OR POSTED IN ANY FORM ON ANOTHER WEBSITE under any circumstances. It is permissible to use a link that directs to Unofficial Royalty.

Assassination of Empress Elisabeth of Austria (1898)

by Susan Flantzer  © Unofficial Royalty 2020

On September 10, 1898, while walking to a ferry landing on Lake Geneva in Geneva, Switzerland with her lady-in-waiting, sixty-year-old Empress Elisabeth of Austria was stabbed in the heart by twenty-five-year-old Luigi Lucheni.

Elisabeth of Bavaria, Empress of Austria

Empress Elisabeth of Austria, 1897; Credit – Wikipedia

Elisabeth, Duchess in Bavaria, known as Sisi, was born on December 24, 1837, at Herzog-Max-Palais (Duke Max Palace) in Munich, Kingdom of Bavaria, now in Bavaria, Germany. She was the fourth of the nine children of Maximilian Joseph, Duke in Bavaria, from a junior branch of the House of Wittelsbach, and Princess Ludovika of Bavaria, the daughter of Maximilian I Joseph, King of Bavaria and his second wife Caroline of Baden.

In 1853, Helene, the eldest daughter in the family, traveled to the resort of Bad Ischl, Upper Austria with her mother and younger sister Elisabeth to meet her first cousin Franz Joseph, Emperor of Austria with the hopes that Helene would become his bride. Instead, Franz Joseph fell in love with the 15-year-old Elisabeth. Franz Joseph told his mother that if he could not marry Elisabeth, he would not marry at all. Five days later their engagement was officially announced. Franz Joseph and Elisabeth were married on April 24, 1854, at the Augustinerkirche, the parish church of the Imperial Court of the Habsburgs, a short walk from Hofburg Palace in Vienna, Austria.

Elisabeth and Franz Joseph had three daughters and a son. Their eldest daughter died in childhood. The heir to the throne was their son Crown Prince Rudolf. The marriage was not a happy one for Elisabeth. Although her husband loved her, Elisabeth had difficulties adjusting to the strict Austrian court and did not get along with Imperial Family members, especially Sophie Friederike of Bavaria, Archduchess of Austria, her controlling mother-in-law who was also her maternal aunt. Elisabeth felt emotionally distant from her husband and fled from him, as well as her duties at court, by frequent traveling.

Crown Prince Rudolf married Princess Stephanie of Belgium, daughter of King Leopold II of the Belgians. The couple had one child, a daughter. On January 30, 1889, at Mayerling, a hunting lodge in the Vienna Woods which Rudolf had purchased, Rudolf shot his 17-year-old mistress Baroness Mary Vetsera and then shot himself in an apparent suicide plot.

The Assassin – Luigi Lucheni

Lucheni’s police file; Credit – Wikipedia

Twenty-five-year-old Luigi Lucheni was born in Paris, France on April 22, 1873. His father is unknown and his mother was an Italian worker named Luigia Laccheni who left her son at a foundling hospital. Lucheni moved to Italy in 1874 and spent his childhood in orphanages and with foster families. He left foster care when he was sixteen years old and worked odd jobs in Italy, Switzerland, and Austria-Hungary. Lucheni served in the Italian Army from 1894 – 1897.

In 1898, Lucheni returned to Switzerland where he did some construction work. The poverty of the lower classes and of his own life made Lucheni hate authority. He began to turn to the philosophy of anarchy – a society without authorities or a governing body. Soon he began to call himself an anarchist although he was not in contact with any other anarchists. Lucheni came to the conclusion that emperors, empresses, kings, queens, princes, and princesses were annoying parasites.

In May 1898, when King Umberto I of Italy brutally suppressed a workers’ uprising in Milan, Lucheni vowed revenge. He made plans to assassinate Umberto I but had no money for a trip to Italy. King Umberto I was assassinated in 1900 by anarchist Gaetano Bresci, an act of revenge for what happened in Milan.

Lucheni then focused his attention on assassinating a royal person traveling in Switzerland. He originally wanted to assassinate Prince Philippe, Duke of Orléans, the Orléanist claimant to the throne of France, but he had left Geneva earlier than expected. Lucheni then selected Elisabeth as his victim when a Geneva newspaper revealed that the woman traveling under the pseudonym of “Countess of Hohenembs” was Empress Elisabeth of Austria. Because he did not have enough money to purchase a proper weapon, Lucheni chose a simple file to which he added a wooden handle as the murder weapon.

The file that was used to stab Elisabeth on display at the Hofburg Palace; Credit – http://www.hofburg-wien.at

The Assassination

Last photograph of Elisabeth and her lady-in-waiting the day before her death; Credit – Wikipedia

After Crown Prince Rudolf’s suicide, Elisabeth spent little time with her husband, preferring to travel. In September 1898, despite being warned about possible assassination attempts, Elisabeth traveled incognito to Geneva, Switzerland where she stayed at the Hotel Beau-Rivage.

An artist’s rendition of the stabbing of Elisabeth by Luigi Lucheni; Credit – Wikipedia

On September 10, 1898, Elisabeth was due to take a ferry across Lake Geneva to the town of Territet. As Elisabeth and Countess Irma Sztáray, her lady-in-waiting, were walking to the ferry’s landing, Luigi Lucheni rushed at her and stabbed her in the heart with a pointed file. The puncture wound was so small that it was initially not noticed and it was thought that Elisabeth had just been punched in the chest. Elisabeth thanked all the people who had rushed to help and conversed with Countess Irma Sztáray about the incident.

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Elisabeth being carried on an improvised stretcher

Only when onboard the ferry did she finally collapse and then the severity of Elisabeth’s injury was realized. The ferry captain ordered the ferry back to Geneva and the empress was taken back to the hotel on an improvised stretcher. A doctor and a priest were summoned. The doctor confirmed that there was no hope and a priest administered the Last Rites. Empress Elisabeth of Austria died without regaining consciousness.

The Funeral

The funeral procession Of Empress Elisabeth in Vienna, (September 17, 1898); Credit – Wikipedia

Elisabeth’s body was placed in a triple coffin: two inner ones of lead and the third exterior one in bronze. The coffins were fitted with two glass panels, covered with doors, which could be slid back to allow her face to be seen. On September 13, 1898, Emperor Franz Joseph’s official representatives arrived in Geneva to identify the body. The coffins were then sealed. The next day, Elisabeth’s final journey back to Vienna began aboard a funeral train. Upon arriving in Vienna, Elisabeth’s coffin was brought to the Hofburg Palace chapel to lie in state.

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Empress Elisabeth’s coffin lying in state at Hofburg Palace chapel

Elisabeth had wanted to be buried in Corfu, Greece where she had built a home for herself near the sea. However, arrangements were made to bury her in the Imperial Crypt at the Capuchin Church in Vienna, the traditional burial site for the Habsburgs, which is in the care of the monks from the cloister. The burial place of the Habsburgs is so unlike the soaring cathedral containing the other royal burial sites that this author has visited. The Capuchin Church is small and is on a street with traffic, shops, stores, restaurants, and cafes. Walking past the church, one would never think the burial place of emperors is there.

Capuchin Church in Vienna (Cloister on left, Church in middle, Imperial Crypt on right); Credit – Susan Flantzer

On September 17, 1898, a procession formed at the Hofburg Palace to take Elisabeth the short distance to her final resting place at the Capuchin Church. Eighty-two sovereigns and other royalty along with high-ranking nobles, other dignitaries, court servants, pages, and footmen followed the funeral cortege to Capuchin Church where Cardinal Anton Josef Gruscha, Archbishop of Vienna conducted a short service. The coffin was then taken down the stairs to the Imperial Crypt (Kaisergruft in German) and the graveside committal service was held.

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Empress Elisabeth’s coffin being carried into the Capuchin Church

By 1908, the seven vaults of the Imperial Crypt already held 129 coffins. In commemoration of Franz Joseph’s sixty years on the throne and to provide much-needed room for future interments, the Franz Joseph Vault was built along with the Crypt Chapel which now holds the most recent burials. Elisabeth’s coffin, along with that of her son Rudolf, were moved to the new Franz Joseph Vault. When Franz Joseph died in 1916, his coffin was placed in the middle with Elisabeth’s on the left and Rudolf’s on the right.

Elisabeth’s tomb on the left, Franz Joseph’s tomb in the middle, Rudolf’s tomb on the right; Credit – Susan Flantzer

What happened to the assassin, Luigi Lucheni?

Luigi Lucheni, smiling and proud after his first interrogation regarding the assassination of Empress Elisabeth, is returned to jail; Credit – Wikipedia

After stabbing Elisabeth, Lucheni ran along the Rue des Alpes heading toward the Square des Alpes. However, he was grabbed by two cab drivers who had witnessed the stabbing. They escorted Lucheni to a police officer who escorted him to a police station­. Lucheni did not resist arrest. In fact, he seemed to be joyful about as he sang, “I did it! She must be dead!” When Lucheni went before a magistrate, he confessed to the murder saying, “I am an anarchist by conviction…I came to Geneva to kill a sovereign, with the object of giving an example to those who suffer and those who do nothing to improve their social position; it did not matter to me who the sovereign was whom I should kill…It was not a woman I struck, but an Empress; it was a crown that I had in view.”

Lucheni’s trial began in October 1898 and he was furious that the Canton of Geneva did not have the death penalty. He demanded his extradition to Italy, where the death penalty had not been abolished. Lucheni wanted to be executed so he could be a martyr for the anarchist movement. On November 10, 1898, Lucheni was sentenced to life imprisonment.

Lucheni acted aggressively while imprisoned, and several times he was in solitary confinement. Most of the time, he was in a large cell, with a comfortable bed, a writing desk, and a bookcase filled with books. On October 17, 1910, he became very violent, smashed everything in his cell, and was put in a straitjacket. When Lucheni became calmer, the straitjacket was removed. During the afternoon of October 19, 1910, the guards heard him singing for several hours. As night fell, the singing stopped. The guards became alarmed with the sudden silence. When they checked Lucheni’s cell, they found him hanging from the window bars by his belt which he had twisted around his neck. Efforts to revive him failed.

After Lucheni’s suicide, his head was severed from his body. His brain was removed and examined with no abnormalities detected. The head was then stored in a jar of formaldehyde at the Institute of Forensic Science of the University of Geneva. In 1985, the head was given to the Federal Museum of Pathology and Anatomy in Vienna, Austria. Lucheni’s head was buried at the Zentralfriedhof (Central Cemetery) in Vienna in 2000.

This article is the intellectual property of Unofficial Royalty and is NOT TO BE COPIED, EDITED, OR POSTED IN ANY FORM ON ANOTHER WEBSITE under any circumstances. It is permissible to use a link that directs to Unofficial Royalty.

Works Cited

  • De.wikipedia.org. (2019). Elisabeth von Österreich-Ungarn. [online] Available at: https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elisabeth_von_%C3%96sterreich-Ungarn [Accessed 9 Dec. 2019].
  • De.wikipedia.org. (2019). Luigi Lucheni. [online] Available at: https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Luigi_Lucheni [Accessed 9 Dec. 2019].
  • En.wikipedia.org. (2019). Empress Elisabeth of Austria. [online] Available at: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Empress_Elisabeth_of_Austria [Accessed 9 Dec. 2019].
  • En.wikipedia.org. (2019). Luigi Lucheni. [online] Available at: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Luigi_Lucheni [Accessed 9 Dec. 2019].
  • Flantzer, Susan. (2012). A Visit to the Kaisergruft (Imperial Crypt) in Vienna. [online] Unofficial Royalty. Available at: https://www.unofficialroyalty.com/royal-burial-sites/austrian-imperial-burial-sites/a-visit-to-the-kaisergruft-imperial-crypt-in-vienna/ [Accessed 9 Dec. 2019].
  • Flantzer, Susan. (2016). Elisabeth of Bavaria, Empress of Austria. [online] Unofficial Royalty. Available at: https://www.unofficialroyalty.com/elisabeth-of-bavaria-empress-of-austria/ [Accessed 9 Dec. 2019].
  • Timesmachine.nytimes.com. (1910). EMPRESS’S ASSASSIN A SUICIDE IN JAIL; Luccheni, Who Killed Elizabeth of Austria in 1898, Hangs Himself in His Cell.. [online] Available at: https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1910/10/20/102049489.html [Accessed 9 Dec. 2019].
  • Timesmachine.nytimes.com. (1898). EMPRESS OF AUSTRIA SLAIN; Stabbed on a Geneva Quay by an Italian Anarchist. THE MURDERER ARRESTED Says He Went There to Kill the Duc D’Orleans. PART OF AN ANARCHIST PLOT? Reported Movement to Assassinate Principal European Sovereigns. Emperor Francis Joseph Apprised of the Tragedy While on His Way to the Army Manoeuvres in Hungary.. [online] Available at: https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1898/09/11/102076759.html?pageNumber=1 [Accessed 9 Dec. 2019].
  • Timesmachine.nytimes.com. (1898). THE EMPRESS LAID AT REST; Vienna Crowded with Dignitaries and Visitors Generally Who Witnessed the Ceremonies. CITY DRAPED WITH BLACK Sad and Impression Scenes in the Church Attended the Benediction — Twenty-three Persons Fainted During the Procession.. [online] Available at: https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1898/09/18/102077419.html?pageNumber=7 [Accessed 9 Dec. 2019].

Assassination of Alexander I, King of Yugoslavia (1934)

by Susan Flantzer  © Unofficial Royalty 2020

On October 9, 1934, 45-year-old Alexander I, King of Yugoslavia was assassinated in Marseilles, France, by Bulgarian assassin Vlado Chernozemski during a state visit to France.

Alexander I, King of Yugoslavia; Credit – Wikipedia

Alexander I, King of Yugoslavia

The fourth of the five children of the future King Peter I of Serbia and Princess Zorka of Montenegro, King Alexander I of Yugoslavia was born on December 1, 1888, in Cetinje, Montenegro. Alexander’s elder brother Crown Prince George had anger issues. In 1909, Crown Prince George killed his valet by kicking him to death. Despite a cover-up, the truth came out and George had to renounce his succession rights and Alexander became Crown Prince of Serbia. In 1914, Alexander became Regent when his father turned over his royal prerogatives.

The Kingdom of Serbia went through some name changes in the early 20th century. After the First and Second Balkan Wars (1912-1913), Serbia annexed Sandžak-Raška, Kosovo Vilayet, and Vardar Macedonia. In November 1918, at the end of World War I, Serbia united with Vojvodina and the Kingdom of Montenegro. The next month, Serbia merged with the newly created State of Slovenes, Croats, and Serbs to form the Kingdom of the Serbs, Croats, and Slovenes, which became known as the Kingdom of Yugoslavia in 1929.

Alexander’s father died on August 16, 1921, and succeeded as King Alexander I of the Serbs, Croats, and Slovenes. The following year, on June 8, 1922, he married Princess Maria of Romania, the daughter of King Ferdinand of Romania and Princess Marie of Edinburgh, a granddaughter of Queen Victoria. The couple had three sons including Alexander’s successor King Peter II of Yugoslavia.

What caused the assassination of Alexander I, King of Yugoslavia?

After the Croatian People’s Peasant Party leader and opposition leader Stjepan Radić was shot dead by Montenegrin Serb nationalist Member of Parliament Puniša Račić in the Serbian Parliament in Belgrade in 1928, the opposition Croatian Members of Parliament refused to continue to attend parliamentary sessions and questioned the continued existence of the current state system. Because of this, King Alexander carried out a coup d’état on January 6, 1929. He suspended the constitution of 1921, dissolved the parliament, and proclaimed a royal dictatorship.

Alexander renamed the nation from the Kingdom of the Serbs, Croats, and Slovenes to the Kingdom of Yugoslavia. Yugoslavia came from the Slavic words “jug” (south) and “slaveni” (Slavs). The use of the national designations Serbs, Croats, and Slovenes for political purposes was banned. All citizens were ordered to consider themselves only as “Yugoslavs”. This move alienated the non-Serbs from the idea of unity. When it became clear that Alexander wanted to maintain a central state order and rule predominantly with the help of army officers of Serbian descent, he was met with growing opposition, especially from Croats.

Ante Pavelić, previously chairman of an ultra-nationalist Croatian political party, founded the  Ustaša Croatian Revolutionary Movement and called for a violent overthrow in Yugoslavia. To overthrow the current regime in Yugoslavia, the Ustaša movement in collaboration with the Internal Macedonian Revolutionary Organization, and probably with the support of the Italian foreign intelligence service, planned the assassination of King Alexander I of Yugoslavia.

The Assassination

Two of the conspirators Vlado Chernozemski (in the middle), and Zvonimir Pospišil (on the right) at a training camp; Credit – Wikipedia

The assassin, 36-year-old Vlado Chernozemski, a Bulgarian of Macedonian descent, was a member of the Bulgarian nationalist Internal Macedonian Revolutionary Organization and had carried out previous assassinations. Chernozemski became the instructor of three members of the Ustasha movement who were planning to assassinate King Alexander: Mijo Kralj, Zvonimir Pospišil, and Milan Rajic. The four men arrived in Paris, France on September 29, 1934, and on October 6, 1934, they split into two groups. Chernozemski and Kralj went to Marseille, France where King Alexander was expected to arrive on October 9, while Pospišil and Rajic went to Versailles where a second attack was planned in case the first attack failed. Ultimately, Chernozemski decided to carry out the assassination after concluding that the other members of the group were unprepared psychologically.

In the pre-World War II era, French Foreign Minister Louis Barthou was attempting to build alliances. King Alexander was making a state visit to France to sign a Franco-Yugoslav agreement. Barthou met King Alexander when he arrived in Marseilles, France on the Royal Yugoslav Navy destroyer Dubrovnik. The pair slowly traveled in a motorcade through the streets of Marseilles, lined with people eager to see the king. Chernozemski emerged from the crowd and jumped onto the running board of Alexander and Barthou’s car. He was carrying a bouquet of flowers, in which his pistol was concealed, and shouted “Vive le roi!” (“Long live the king!”) Chernozemski shot Alexander, hitting him once in the abdomen and once in the heart, killing the king within minutes.

The chauffeur, who had tried to push Chernozemski off the car, and French Foreign Minister Louis Barthou were also shot. The chauffeur was killed instantly and because he had his foot on the brake, the car had stopped and there were photographs and even a film of the assassination. A bullet hit Barthou in the arm, severing an artery. He died of excessive blood loss less than an hour later. A ballistic report on the bullets was made in 1935 but the results were not made available to the public until 1974. The report revealed that Barthou had been hit by a bullet from a revolver carried by French police. Therefore, he was killed during the police response rather than by the assassin.

One of the most notable newsreel films in existence is the film showing the assassination of King Alexander. While the exact moment of shooting was not captured on film, the events leading to the assassination and the immediate aftermath were captured.

What happened to the conspirators?

French Colonel Piole slashes assassin Vlado Chernozemski with his saber; Credit – Wikipedia

Vlado Chernozemski tried to flee the scene of the assassination but he was slashed by an army officer’s saber (see above photo). He was then non-fatally shot by a police officer and was allowed to be severely beaten by the angry crowd while the police watched. In critical condition, Chernozemski was brought to a police station and interrogated but his condition did not permit him to respond to questions and he died later that evening. The French police were unable to identify him but they made note of his tattoo, a skull with crossbones, and a sign reading “V.M.R.O.” A Yugoslav journalist identified the tattoo as the symbol and the initials of the Internal Macedonian Revolutionary Organization. Chernozemski was buried in a Marseilles cemetery in an unmarked grave with only two detectives and the gravediggers present.

On October 10, 1934, French police arrested Zvonimir Pospišil and Milan Raijc. Five days later, Mijo Kralj was arrested and he admitted everything. Chernozemski’s body was exhumed and his fingerprints were sent to Sofia, Bulgaria and Belgrade, Serbia. Bulgarian police announced on October 17, 1934, that the assassin was Vlado Chernozemski. The other conspirators, Mijo Kralj, Zvonimir Pospišil, and Milan Rajic, were tried and sentenced to life in prison. In 1940, after the Fall of France to Germany during World War II, all three conspirators were released from prison by the Nazis.

King Alexander’s Funeral

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The royal family of Yugoslavia attending the funeral of King Alexander- from left to right: The king’s son 11-year-old King Peter II of Yugoslavia; the king’s veiled wife Queen Maria of Yugoslavia (born a Romanian princess); Princess Olga, also veiled (born a Greek princess) and her husband, Prince Paul of Yugoslavia, the king’s first cousin; behind them: King Carol II of Romania in the peaked cap, brother of Queen Marie; and behind him Prince Nicholas of Greece, Prince George, Duke of Kent, and Prince Kirill of Bulgaria (Note: the caption on photo on Getty Images incorrectly identifies the people)

The day after his death, King Alexander I’s body was transported back to Yugoslavia by the ship that had brought him to France, the Royal Yugoslav Navy destroyer Dubrovnik escorted by French, Italian, and British ships.

On October 18, 1934, 500,000 people lined the streets of Belgrade to see King Alexander’s funeral procession. The funeral was attended by royalty and leading statesmen from Europe. Alexander was buried next to his mother in the royal crypt at St. George’s Church, also known as Oplenac, Yugoslavia, now in Serbia.

Alexander was succeeded by his 11-year-old son who ascended the throne as King Peter II of Yugoslavia. Because of his age, a Regency Council was established, led by his father’s first cousin Prince Paul of Yugoslavia. In November 1945, the Yugoslav monarchy was formally abolished and King Peter II was deposed but he never abdicated.

Grave of Alexander I, King of Yugoslavia; Credit – www.findagrave.com

This article is the intellectual property of Unofficial Royalty and is NOT TO BE COPIED, EDITED, OR POSTED IN ANY FORM ON ANOTHER WEBSITE under any circumstances. It is permissible to use a link that directs to Unofficial Royalty.

Works Cited

  • En.wikipedia.org. (2019). Alexander I of Yugoslavia. [online] Available at: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alexander_I_of_Yugoslavia [Accessed 30 Nov. 2019].
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