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Alexander I of Yugoslavia also called
King Alexander Unificator (
Serbo-Croatian: Kralj Aleksandar I Karađorđević/Краљ Александар I Карађорђевић) (
Cetinje,
Principality of Montenegro,
16 December 1888 –
Marseille,
France,
9 October 1934) of the
Royal House of
Karađorđević was the first king of the
Kingdom of Yugoslavia (1929–34) and before that king of the
Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes (1921–29).
Childhood
Alexander Karadjordjevic was born in
Cetinje in
Principality of Montenegro in December 1888. His father was King
Peter I of Serbia and his mother the former Princess
Zorka of Montenegro, a daughter of King
Nicholas of Montenegro. On
8 June 1922 he married HRH
Princess Maria of Romania, who was a daughter of
Queen Maria, the Queen Consort of Romania. They had three sons:
Crown Prince Peter, Princes
Tomislav and
Andrej.
He spent his childhood in
Montenegro, and was educated in
Geneva. In 1910 he nearly died from stomach typhus and left with stomach problems for rest of his life. He continued his schooling at the Military School in
Saint Petersburg,
Russia, but had to quit due to his health problems, and then in Belgrade. Prince Alexander wasn't the first in line for the throne but his elder brother,
Crown Prince George (Đorđe) was considered unstable by most political forces in Serbia and after two notable scandals (one of which occurred in 1909 when he kicked his servant to death in a fit of rage), Prince Đorđe was forced to renounce his claim to the throne.
Balkan Wars and World War I
In the
First Balkan War in 1912, as commander of the First Army, Crown Prince Alexander fought victorious battles in
Kumanovo and
Bitola, and later in 1913, during the
Second Balkan War, the
battle of Bregalnica. In the aftermath of the Second Balkan War Prince Alexander took sides in the complicated power struggle over how Macedonia should be administered. In this Alexander bested Col.
Dragutin Dimitrijević or "Apis" and in the wake of this Alexander's father, King Peter, agreed to hand over royal powers to his son. On
24 June 1914 Alexander became
Regent of Serbia.
At the outbreak of
World War I he was the supreme commander of the Serbian army, with superb commanding officers in the persons of Marshals
Radomir Putnik,
Živojin Mišić,
Stepa Stepanović and
Petar Bojović. The Serbian army distinguished itself in the battles at
Cer and at the
Drina (the
Battle of Kolubara) in 1914, scoring victories against the invading
Austro-Hungarian forces and evicting them from the country.
In 1915 the Serbian army with the aged King
Peter and Crown Prince Alexander suffered many losses being attacked from all directions by the alliance of Germany, Austria-Hungary and Bulgaria. It withdrew through the gorges of Montenegro and northern Albania to the Greek island of
Corfu, where it was reorganized. After the army was regrouped and reinforced, it achieved a decisive victory on the
Macedonian Front, at Kajmakcalan. The Serbian army carried out a major part in the final Allied breakthrough in the autumn of 1918.
King of Yugoslavia
On the
first of December 1918, in a prearranged set piece, Alexander, as Regent, received a delegation of the Peoples Council of the
State of Slovenes, Croats and Serbs, an address was read out by one of the delegation and Alexander made an address in acceptance. This was considered to the birth of the
Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes.
In 1921, on the death of his father, Alexander inherited the throne of the
Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes, which from its inception was colloquially known both in the Kingdom and the rest of Europe alike as Yugoslavia.
On
6 January,
1929, in response to the political crisis triggered by the murder of
Stjepan Radić, King Alexander abolished the Constitution, prorogued the Parliament and introduced a personal dictatorship (the so-called "January 6 Dictatorship",
Šestojanuarska diktatura). He also changed the name of the country to
Kingdom of Yugoslavia and changed the internal divisions from the 33
oblasts to nine new
banovinas on
3 October.
In the same month, he tried to banish by decree the use of
Serbian Cyrillic to promote the exclusive use of
Latin alphabet in Yugoslavia.
In 1931 Alexander decreed a new Constitution which transferred executive power to the King. Elections were to be by universal male suffrage. The provision for a secret ballot was dropped and pressure on public employees to vote for the governing party was to be a feature of all elections held under Alexander's constitution. Furthermore, the King would appoint half the upper house directly, and legislation could become law with the approval of one of the houses alone if it were also approved by the King.
Assassination
On account of the deaths of three members of his family on a Tuesday, Alexander refused to undertake any public functions on that day. On Tuesday
9 October 1934, however, he'd no choice, as he was arriving in
Marseille to start a
state visit to the
Third French Republic, to strengthen the two countries' alliance in the
Little Entente. While being driven in a car through the streets along with French
Foreign Minister Louis Barthou, a gunman,
Vlado Chernozemski, stepped from the street and shot the King and the chauffeur. The Minister was accidentally shot by a French policeman and died later.
It was one of the first
assassinations captured on film; the shooting occurred straight in front of the cameraman, who was only feet away at the time. The cameraman captured not merely the assassination but the immediate aftermath; the body of the chauffeur (who had been killed instantly) became jammed against the brakes of the car, allowing the cameraman to continue filming from within inches of the King for a number of minutes afterwards.
The assassin,
Vlado Chernozemski — driver of the leader of the
Internal Macedonian Revolutionary Organization Ivan Mihailov and an experienced marksman — was cut down by the sword of a mounted French policeman, then beaten by the crowd. By the time he was removed from the scene, he was already dead. The
IMRO was a
Bulgarian political organization that fought for annexing
Macedonia to
Bulgaria using terrorist means. The organization worked in alliance with the
Croatian fascist group led by
Ante Pavelic, under the secret sponsorship of Italian dictator
Benito Mussolini.
The film record of Alexander I's assassination remains one of the most historic pieces of newsreel in existence, alongside the film of Tsar
Nicholas II of Russia's
coronation, the funerals of Queen
Victoria of the United Kingdom and Emperor
Franz Josef of Austria, and the assassination of
John F. Kennedy.
King Alexander I was buried in the Memorial Church of St. George, which had been built by his father. As his son
Peter II was still a minor, Alexander's first cousin Prince
Pavle Karadjordjevic took the
regency of the Kingdom of Yugoslavia. In accordance with his last will he's been buried after more than 50 years in a mausoleum in Beograd.
Ancestors
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