Category Archives: Serbian/Yugoslav Royals

Princess Zorka of Montenegro, wife of King Peter I of Serbia

by Scott Mehl © Unofficial Royalty 2016

source: Wikipedia

Princess Ljubica Petrović-Njegoš of Montenegro (known as Zorka) was born on December 23, 1864, in Cetinje, Montenegro, the eldest child of the future King Nicholas I of Montenegro and Milena Vukotić.

Zorka had eleven younger siblings. Her two sisters Milicia and Anastasia, are best known for having introduced Empress Alexandra Feodorovna, wife of Nicholas II, Emperor of All Russia to Grigori Rasputin in 1905.

Zorka’s siblings:

Raised in Cetinje, Zorka was privately educated before being sent to Russia in 1875 to attend the Smolny Institute in St. Petersburg, established by Catherine the Great in the 1760s to provide education for the daughters of the nobility.

After graduating in 1883, she returned to Montenegro and a marriage was arranged to Peter Karađorđević, son and heir of the former Prince of Serbia, Alexander, who had abdicated in 1858. Zorka and Peter were married on August 1, 1883, in Cetinje, where they settled and had five children:

Princess Zorka (center) holding her son, George. Her daughter, Jelena is standing next to her, and her husband, Peter, is standing on the left (with his brother, Arsen, standing on the right). source: Wikipedia

On March 16, 1890, 25-year-old Princess Zorka died while giving birth to her youngest child Andrew who also died. She was initially buried in Cetinje, Montenegro at the Cetinje Monastery. In 1903, thirteen years after her death, her husband would return the Karađorđević dynasty to the Serbian throne as King Peter I. Her remains were later moved to the Mausoleum of the Serbian Royal Family beneath St. George’s Church, Oplenac, Serbia.

Serbia/Yugoslavia Resources at Unofficial Royalty

King Peter I of the Serbs, Croats and Slovenes

by Scott Mehl  © Unofficial Royalty 2016

King Peter I of the Serbs, Croats and Slovenes – source: Wikipedia

King Peter I of the Serbs, Croats, and Slovenes was born on June 29, 1844, in Belgrade, Principality of Serbia, the fifth of ten children of Alexander Karađorđević, Prince of Serbia, and Persida Nenadović. His family was from the House of Karađorđević which vied for the Serbian throne with House of Obrenović.

Peter had nine siblings:

  • Poleksija (1833 – 1914), married  (1) Konstantin Nikolajević, Serbian Minister of the Interior, had issue  (2) Dr. Alexander Preshern
  • Kleopatra (1835 – 1855), married Milan Avram Petronijević, Serbian Ambassador to Russia
  • Aleksij (1836 – 1841), died in childhood
  • Svetozar (1841 – 1847), died in childhood
  • Jelena (1846 – 1867), married Đorđe Simić, Prime Minister of Serbia
  • Andrej (1848 – 1864), died in his teens
  • Jelisaveta (born and died 1850)
  • Đorđe (1856 – 1889)
  • Arsenije (1859 – 1938), married Princess and Countess Aurora Pavlovna Demidova, had two children including Prince Paul of Yugoslavia.

Peter’s father had been elected Sovereign Prince of Serbia (then a principality) in 1842. However, in 1858 he was forced to abdicate when the House of Obrenović took the throne and the family went into exile, settling in present-day Romania. Peter had attended primary and secondary schools in Belgrade and then attended the Venel-Olivier Institute in Geneva, Switzerland. After graduating, he went to Collège Sainte-Barbe for a year before enrolling in the elite École Spéciale Militaire de Saint-Cyr in France (The Special Military School of Saint-Cyr), from which he graduated in 1864. During his schooling, along with strong interests in painting and photography, Peter developed his views on politics and democracy. In 1868, he published a translation of John Stuart Mill’s essay, On Liberty. This would later become the blueprint for his political program.

In 1870, he joined the French Foreign Legion, fighting in the Franco-Prussian War and being decorated with the Legion of Honour. Having been banned from Serbia in 1868 by the reigning Obronević dynasty, Peter used an assumed name to join the Bosnian Serb insurgents during the Great Eastern Crisis of 1875-1878. Following the conflict, he returned to his focus on politics and the possibility of returning the Karađorđevićs to the Serbian throne.

c.1875. source: Wikipedia

Peter moved to Cetinje, Montenegro, where he was appointed Honorary Senator in 1883. In what was more of a dynastic arrangement than an actual love match, he became engaged to Princess Zorka of Montenegro, the eldest daughter of King Nicholas I of Montenegro and Milena Vukotić. The couple were married in Cetinje on August 1, 1883, and had five children:

After briefly residing in Paris, Peter, Zorka and their children returned to Cetinje, Montenegro where they lived until after Zorka died in childbirth in 1890. Peter sold his home in Paris, and the family moved to Geneva, Switzerland.

King Peter I at his coronation, 1914. source: Wikipedia

Meanwhile, in Serbia, which had become a kingdom in 1882 under the House of Obrenović,  a group of army officers who supported Peter’s rival House of Karađorđević led a coup d’état known as The May Coup in which King Alexander I and Queen Draga of the House of Obrenović were brutally assassinated. The assassination resulted in the extinction of the House of Obrenović. Prince Peter Karađorđević was then proclaimed the new King of Serbia. In Geneva at the time, Peter returned to Serbia and on June 15, was formally elected King by the Serbian parliament. He was crowned at St. Michael’s Cathedral on September 21, 1904.

King Peter’s reign saw Austria’s annexation of Bosnia and Herzegovina and the First and Second Balkan Wars in 1912 and 1913. With his health deteriorating, on June 24, 1914, King Peter transferred most of his royal prerogatives to his son Crown Prince Alexander. Just days later, Archduke Franz Ferdinand of Austria was assassinated, sparking events that quickly led to World War I when Austria declared war on Serbia on July 28.

During the war, the ailing King Peter made several visits to the trenches to help boost morale amongst the Serbian troops. In October 1915, following the invasion of Serbia by German, Austrian, and Bulgarian forces, King Peter led a massive exodus of troops and civilians through the mountains of Albania to the Adriatic Sea, where they were transported to Greece by Allied forces. King Peter remained in Greece for the duration of the war, making a triumphant return to Belgrade in July 1919. By then, he had been proclaimed King of the Serbs, Croats, and Slovenes.

King Peter I died on August 16, 1921, in Belgrade, Kingdom of Serbia, at the age of 77. He is buried in St. George’s Church, Oplenac.

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Serbia/Yugoslavia Resources at Unofficial Royalty

Crown Princess Katherine of Serbia

by Susan Flantzer  © Unofficial Royalty 2014

 

Katherine is the second wife of Alexander, Crown Prince of Serbia, the last heir apparent to the throne of the Kingdom of Yugoslavia, and the current pretender to the former throne of Serbia.

Katherine Clairy Batis was born in Athens, Greece on November 13, 1943, the daughter of Robert Batis (1916 – 2011) and Anna Dosti (died in 2010). She received her primary and secondary education in Athens, Greece, and Lausanne, Switzerland. Katherine studied business at the University of Denver in Colorado and the University of Dallas in Texas and then worked in business for several years in the United States. She was previously married to Jack W. Andrews and has two children from that marriage:

  • David Andrews, married Angeliki Margariti, had one son
  • Alison Andrews, married Dean Russel Garfinkel, had four children
Katherine_Serbia_wedding

Katherine and Crown Prince Alexander; Photo Source: Royal Order of Sartorial Splendor

In 1984, Katherine met Crown Prince Alexander in Washington, DC. They were married in a civil ceremony on September 20, 1985, and in a religious ceremony on September 21, 1985, at St. Sava Serbian Orthodox Church in London, England. King Constantine II of Greece was the best man and Prince Tomislav, the paternal uncle of Crown Prince Alexander, was the witness. Katherine and Alexander have no children but Katherine is stepmother to Alexander’s three sons from his previous marriage to Princess Maria da Gloria of Orléans Bragança:

Crown Princess Katherine spends much time working with charitable organizations. In 2001, she founded the HRH Crown Princess Katherine Foundation whose mission is, “We work for the benefit of all those in need, regardless of ethnicity or religion since we believe that there are no borders in suffering.”

Katherine_Serbia_hospital

Crown Princess Katherine (right) visiting a child in the hospital; Photo: The Crown Princess Katherine Foundation

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Crown Prince Alexander II of Serbia

by Scott Mehl  © Unofficial Royalty 2014

Crown Prince Alexander II of Serbia; Credit – Wikipedia

Crown Prince Alexander II of Serbia is the son of King Peter II of Yugoslavia and Princess Alexandra of Greece and is the current pretender to the former Serbian throne. He was born on July 17, 1945, in Suite 212 of Claridge’s Hotel in London, England where his parents lived in exile. Under the orders of Prime Minister Winston Churchill, the British government ceded sovereignty of the suite to Yugoslavia for the day so the new Crown Prince could be born on Yugoslav soil. He was baptized at Westminster Abbey, and his godparents were King George VI and then-Princess Elizabeth, later Queen Elizabeth II.

Just four months after his birth, Yugoslavia was declared a republic, his father deposed and the family stripped of their citizenship and properties. They settled in various places, including France, Switzerland, and eventually the United States. Alexander’s parents’ marriage was increasingly strained, with constant struggles to find sources of income, King Peter’s numerous affairs, as well as his mother’s fragile health. Because of this, Alexander was raised predominantly by his maternal grandmother Aspasia Manos, the widow of King Alexander of Greece.

He attended the Institut Le Rosey in Switzerland, Culver Military Academy in the United States, Gordonstoun in Scotland, and Millfield in England. He then attended the Mons Officer Cadet School in England, earning his commission in the British Army in 1966. He served in the 16th/5th The Queen’s Royal Lancers, with tours in West Germany, Italy, the Middle East, and Northern Ireland before leaving the military in 1972 to pursue a career in International Business.

Prince Alexander, Prince Philip and Hereditary Prince Peter photo: © Royal Family of Serbia

Prince Alexander, Hereditary Prince Philip, and Prince Peter.  photo: The Royal Family of Serbia

Crown Prince Alexander married Princess Maria da Gloria of Orléans Bragança on July 1, 1972. The couple divorced on February 19, 1985. They had three sons:

photo: Order of Sartorial Splendor

Alexander and Katherine Clairy Batis – photo: Order of Sartorial Splendor

The Crown Prince then married Katherine Clairy Batis in a civil ceremony held on September 20, 1985, with a religious ceremony the following day at St. Sava Serbian Orthodox Church in London, England. The new Crown Princess has two children from a previous marriage.

Alexander and his family visited Yugoslavia for the first time in 1991 and returned for several more visits in the next decade. Following the uprisings in 2000, they took up permanent residence in the country, still called Yugoslavia at the time. In February 2001, the government granted the family Yugoslavian citizenship (which had been stripped from them in 1947), and the following month returned the use of many of the royal family’s former properties. Alexander and his family took up residence at the Royal Palace, part of the Royal Compound in the Dedinje area of Belgrade.

Although the country, known as Serbia since 2003, is still a republic, Crown Prince Alexander remains an advocate for the restoration of the monarchy. While keeping out of the political arena, the Crown Prince focuses his time and efforts on humanitarian issues and encouraging peace among the various political factions in the country. He travels extensively throughout the world and is often in attendance at major royal functions in Europe. Through his descent from Queen Victoria of the United Kingdom, King Christian IX of Denmark and Nicholas I, Emperor of All Russia, he is related to many of Europe’s other royal families.

Embed from Getty Images 
Crown Prince Alexander and Crown Princess Katherine attend a dinner for foreign Sovereigns to commemorate the Diamond Jubilee of Queen Elizabeth II at Buckingham Palace on May 18, 2012

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Maria of Romania, Queen of Yugoslavia

by Scott Mehl  © Unofficial Royalty 2014

Maria of Romania, Queen of Yugoslavia – Photo: Wikipedia

Queen Maria of Yugoslavia was born Princess Marie of Romania on January 6, 1900, in Gotha, Duchy of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha, now in Thuringia, Germany. Marie, known in the family as Mignon, was the third child and second daughter of King Ferdinand of Romania and Princess Marie of Edinburgh (a granddaughter of Queen Victoria and the daughter of Prince Alfred, Duke of Edinburgh and Duke of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha and Grand Duchess Maria Alexandrovna of Russia).

Marie had five siblings:

Marie was raised in Romania, where her father became King of Romania upon the death of his uncle King Carol I in 1914. Following the lead of her mother, Princess Marie worked as a nurse during World War I.

photo: Royal Family of Serbia

Wedding of Marie and King Alexander I of Yugoslavia; photo: Royal Family of Serbia

On June 8, 1922, in Belgrade, Princess Marie was married to King Alexander I of Yugoslavia (at the time King of the Serbs, Croats, and Slovenes). Alexander was the son of King Peter I of Serbia and Princess Zorka of Montenegro.

The couple had three sons:

King Alexander was assassinated in Marseilles, France on October 9, 1934. The couple’s eldest son Peter became King of Yugoslavia at the age of 11, and a regency was established, led by King Alexander’s cousin Prince Paul of Yugoslavia. In 1941, the family was forced into exile following the Axis invasion, and Queen Marie settled at a cottage in the countryside of England, where she remained for the rest of her life. In 1947, the Communist government of Yugoslavia formally revoked her Yugoslavian citizenship and confiscated all of her property and assets.

photo: Royal Family of Serbia

Queen Marie in later life; photo: Royal Family of Serbia

Marie lived a rather quiet life in England, pursuing her interests in painting and sculpting. The former Princess of Romania and Queen of Yugoslavia died in London, England on June 22, 1961. She was buried at the Royal Burial Ground at Frogmore in Windsor, England.

In 2013, her remains were exhumed and repatriated to Serbia where they were reburied at the Royal Family Mausoleum at St. George’s Church at Oplenac, Serbia, along with the remains of her sons Prince Andrej and King Peter II and King Peter’s wife, Queen Alexandra.

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Serbia/Yugoslavia Resources at Unofficial Royalty

Alexandra of Greece, Queen of Yugoslavia

by Scott Mehl © Unofficial Royalty 2014

Queen Alexandra of Yugoslavia was born on March 25, 1921, in Athens Greece, the posthumous child of King Alexander of Greece and Aspasia Manos. King Alexander had died five months earlier from septicemia caused by an infected monkey bite. Alexandra’s grandfather King Constantine I returned to the throne following the death of his son King Alexander and deemed his son’s reign to be simply a regency and therefore invalidating Alexander’s marriage. Alexandra was then considered to be illegitimate. However, the following year, thanks to the effort of Alexander’s mother, Queen Sophia, a law was passed allowing the King to recognize the validity of the marriage. In September 1922, King Constantine did just that, making Alexandra legitimate again, and making her HRH Princess Alexandra of Greece and Denmark. However, she remained without any succession rights to the Greek throne.

The following year a coup brought about the abdication of King Constantine I and the exile of the Greek royal family. Alexandra and her mother were permitted to remain in Greece and did so until 1924 when they settled in Florence with the dowager Queen Sophia. During this time in Florence, Alexandra spent time with many of her Greek relatives, including two of her first cousins, Prince Michael of Greece and Prince Philip of Greece, later the Duke of Edinburgh.

In 1927, Alexandra and her mother moved to England, settling near Ascot where the young Princess was enrolled in a boarding school which proved to be very unpleasant for her. Unhappy being separated from her mother, Alexandra stopped eating and became ill, eventually contracting tuberculosis. Her mother took her to Switzerland to recuperate. They then settled in Venice, and after the restoration of the Greek monarchy in 1935, Alexandra made several visits to her homeland. At the onset of the war in 1940, Alexandra and Aspasia returned to live in Greece, however, this was short-lived. In 1941, along with the rest of the Greek royal family, they were forced to flee, settling briefly in Egypt and South Africa before King George VI of the United Kingdom gave them permission to settle in England.

Peter and Alexandra on their wedding day with King George VI of the United Kingdom (l) and King George II of the Hellenes (r). source: Royal Family of Serbia

It was in London, in 1942, that Alexandra met her future husband, King Peter II of Yugoslavia who had been living in exile in London since the previous year. The couple married on March 20, 1944, at the Yugoslav Embassy in London, with guests including King George VI of the UK, King George II of Greece, King Haakon VII of Norway, and Queen Wilhelmina of the Netherlands.

 

Peter and Alexandra had one son:

Alexandra gave birth to her son in a suite at Claridge’s Hotel in London. To ensure that the child would be born in Yugoslav territory, the British government ceded sovereignty of the suite for the day.

Just four months after Alexander’s birth, the Yugoslavian monarchy was overthrown. The couple moved several times, to France and Switzerland, before settling in the United States in 1949. The marriage was increasingly strained, with constant struggles to find sources of income and the King’s numerous affairs. During the next few years, Queen Alexandra made several attempts at suicide, and their son was sent to live with friends. Despite several attempts at reconciliation, Queen Alexandra and King Peter eventually went their separate ways. He settled permanently in the United States while she returned to her mother’s home in Venice.

1970 saw the death of her husband, King Peter II, followed shortly by the death of her mother in 1972, and the marriage of her son (which she did not attend). She remained in Venice for several years before selling her mother’s property and returning to the United Kingdom in 1979. She would live there until her death, from cancer, on January 30, 1993.

Queen Alexandra was initially buried in the Royal Burial Grounds at Tatoi Palace in Greece along with her parents. However, in 2013, her remains were returned to Serbia where they were re-buried in the Royal Mausoleum at Oplenac, along with her late husband, King Peter II, and mother-in-law, Queen Marie, born a Princess of Romania.

Serbia/Yugoslavia Resources at Unofficial Royalty

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