Peter I
King of Serbia
Peter I was King of Serbia from 15 June 1903 to 1 December 1918. On 1 December 1918, he became King of the Serbs, Croats and Slovenes, and he held that title until his death three years later. Since he was the king of Serbia during a period of great Serbian military success, he was remembered by Serbians as King Peter the Liberator and also as the Old King. Peter was the fifth child and third son of Alexander Karadordevic, Prince of Serbia, and his wife, Persida Nenadović. Prince Alexander was forced to abdicate in 1858, and Peter lived with his family in exile. He fought with the French Foreign Legion in the Franco-Prussian War. He joined as a volunteer under the alias Peter Mrkonjic in the Herzegovina uprising (1875–1877) against the Ottoman Empire. In 1883, Prince Peter married Princess Ljubica, daughter of King Nicholas I of Montenegro. Ljubica became known as Princess Zorka upon her marriage. Peter and Zorka had five children: Helen, Milena, George, Alexander, and Andrew. After his father died in 1885, Peter became head of the Karadordevic dynasty. After King Alexander I Obrenović was murdered during the May Coup of 1903, Peter Karadordevic became the new king of Serbia. The conspirators decided to place Peter on the throne in November 1901, but Peter had little trust in them and their initial offers were rebuffed. He accepted their offers on the condition that officers he trusted would take part in the plot and insisted that he would not take any part himself. He also told the officers that he would
agree to take the throne only if his ascent was approved by the National Assembly. At the time of the coup, Peter was vacationing with his children and planning visits to Russia and Romania, suggesting that he was not aware of what was to occur. The officers raided the royal palace late in the evening of 10 June [O.S. 29 May] 1903 and shot the King and Queen, mutilating their corpses with sabres and tossing them from a third-floor balcony. The murders resulted in the extinction of the Obrenovic line and resolved the century-long feud between the Karadordevic and Obrenovic dynasties. Peter expressed satisfaction with the outcome of the plot, as well as regret for the bloodshed that had occurred, describing it as "neither gentlemanly, nor worthy of the 20th century". On 15 June [O.S. 2 June] 1903, by decision of the National Assembly, Peter was summoned to assume the Serbian throne. He arrived in Belgrade on 26 June [O.S. 13 June] 1903. Peter's ascent to the throne was met with great enthusiasm by South Slav nationalists, who believed he would succeed in uniting the South Slavs living in Serbia, Montenegro, Austria-Hungary and the Ottoman Empire. In Vienna, en route to Belgrade, he was welcomed by a crowd of euphoric Serb and Croat students, who hailed him as "the first Yugoslav king". As king, he advocated a constitutional setup for the country and was famous for his liberal politics. Peter's rule was marked with the great exercise of political liberties, freedom of the press, national, economical and cultural rise, and it is sometimes dubbed a "golden" or "Periclean age".
The Armed Forces of the Principality of Serbia or Army of the Principality of Serbia, was the armed forces of the Principality of Serbia. Founded in 1830, it became a standing army taking part in the First and Second Serbo-Turkish Wars of 1876–1878, the first conflict in the nation modern history, after which the country gained its full independence. It was succeeded by the Royal Serbian Army. The Army of the Kingdom of Serbia, known in English as the Royal Serbian Army, was the army of the Kingdom of Serbia that existed between 1882 and 1918, succeeding the Armed Forces of the Principality of Serbia and preceding the Royal Yugoslav Army. In 1883, universal conscription was introduced in Serbia. The conscripts were divided into three categories, as well as the last defense reserve. The 1st category included men between 21 and 31 years of age, the 2nd category included men between 31 and 38 years of age, and the 3rd category included men between 38 and 50 years of age. The "last defense" reserve consisted of men between the ages of 18 to 20 and 38 to 50 and were usually called up for garrison duty and guarding various installations. Military conscripts were drafted for two years. For students or the only male in the family, conscripted service lasted from 6 to 9 months. With military reform, Milan Obrenovic pushed for a consistent increase in military expenditures. Officers' salaries were increased, additional allowances were introduced, and officers received numerous awards. Milan
Obrenovic significantly raised the position of the officer corps in society, and by increasing the enrollment in the Military Academy, he created a corps of personally devoted military youth. In the country he was called "the king of the army". At the same time, the troops were reinforced in the opinion that they should not only protect the country from external aggression, but also guarantee internal order. After the reform, the Serbian army was given a new structure. It consisted of 3,700 officers and 165,000 soldiers, distributed between the General Staff and five infantry divisions - the Danube, Moravian, Drina, Sumadija and Timoka divisions.
The Karadordevic dynasty or House of Karadordevic is the name of the deposed Serbian and former Yugoslav royal family. The family was founded by Karadorde Petrovic (1768–1817), the Veliki Vožd (transl. Grand Leader) of Serbia during the First Serbian uprising of 1804–1813. In the course of the 19th century the relatively short-lived dynasty was supported by the Russian Empire and was opposed to the Austrian-supported Obrenovic dynasty. The two houses subsequently vied for the throne for several generations. Following the assassination of the Obrenovic King Alexander I of Serbia in 1903, the Serbian Parliament chose Karadorde's grandson, Peter I Karadordevic, then living in exile, to occupy the throne of the Kingdom of Serbia. He was duly crowned as King Peter I, and shortly before the end of World War I in 1918, representatives of the three peoples proclaimed a Kingdom of the Serbs, Croats and Slovenes with Peter I as sovereign. In English, the family name can be anglicized as Karageorgevitch (e.g., as with Prince Bojidar Karageorgevitch and Prince Philip Karageorgevitch) or romanised as Karadjordjevic. Its origin is as a patronym of the sobriquet Karadorde, bestowed upon the family's founder, Dorde Petrovic, at the end of the 18th century. In 1796, Osman Pazvantoglu, the renegade governor of the Ottoman Sanjak of Vidin, who had rejected the authority of the Sublime
Porte, launched an invasion of the Pashalik of Belgrade, governed by Hadji Mustafa Pasha since 1793. Overwhelmed, Mustafa Pasha formed a Serbian national militia to help stop the incursion. Dorde Petrovic joined the militia and became a boluk-bashi (Serbian: Buljukbaša), leading a company of 100 men. After the Serb militias joined the war on Mustafa Pasha's side, Pazvantoglu suffered a string of defeats. He retreated to Vidin, which was subsequently besieged. The war against Pazvantoglu marked the first time that Petrovic had distinguished himself in the eyes of the Ottomans, who bestowed upon him the sobriquet "Black George" (Serbian: Karadorde; Turkish: Kara Yorgi), partly because of his dark hair and partly because of his sinister reputation.
The king is dressed in the uniform of a general of the Serbian Army. He wears the collar of the Royal Order of Saint Prince Lazar and the sash of the Order of Karadorde's Star. On the king's chest there are stars of three Serbian royal orders: the Order of St. Prince Lazar, Order of Karadorde's Star and Royal Order of the White Eagle.
