by Susan Flantzer  © Unofficial Royalty 2019

The first King of Serbia, Milan Obrenović was born on August 22, 1854, in Mărășești, then in Moldavia, Ottoman Empire, now in Romania. He was the only surviving child of Miloš Obrenović and Marija Obrenović, born Elena Maria Catargiu. Milan’s father was a member of the House of Obrenović which vied for control of Serbia, often violently, with the House of Karađorđević. His mother was from a noble family with Moldavian and Romanian roots. Milan’s family had lived in exile in Moldavia since 1842 when his uncle Mihailo Obrenović III, reigning Prince of Serbia was deposed by the rival House of Karađorđević.

Milan’s parents divorced a year after his birth. His mother became the mistress of Alexandru Ioan Cuza, Prince of Moldavia, Prince of Wallachia, and later the first Sovereign Prince of Romania, and the couple had two sons, Milan’s half-brothers. They were adopted by their biological father and his wife Elena Rosetti because they could not have children. In 1861, when Milan was seven years old, his father died fighting the Turks as a foreign mercenary in the Romanian Army.

Milan’s half-brothers:

• Alexandru Ioan Cuza (1862 or 1864 – 1889), married Maria Moruzi, no children
• Dimitrie Cuza (1865–1888), unmarried, died by suicide

The House of Obrenović was restored to the Serbian throne in 1858. When he was six-years-old, Milan’s care and education had been taken over by his paternal uncle Mihailo Obrenović III, once again the Sovereign Prince of Serbia. After receiving his early education from a governess, Milan was sent to the prestigious Lycée Louis-le-Grand in Paris, France.

In 1868, Milan’s childless uncle Mihailo Obrenović III, Sovereign Prince of Serbia was assassinated. The plot behind the assassination has never been proven conclusively but the sympathizers of the House of Karađorđević were suspected of being behind the assassination. Fourteen-year-old Milan became the Sovereign Prince of Serbia but because he was a minor there was a regency until his eighteenth birthday in 1872.

On October 17, 1875, at the St. Michael’s Cathedral in Belgrade, Serbia, 21-year-old Milan married his 16-year-old second cousin Natalija Keschko, the eldest of the four children of Petre Ivanovich Keschko, an Imperial Russian Army colonel, originally from Bessarabia, and Princess Pulcheria Sturdza from a Moldavian noble family.

Milan and Natalija had two sons but only the eldest survived:

• Alexander I, King of Serbia (1876 – 1903), married Draga Mašin, no children, both Alexander and Draga were assassinated
• Prince Sergei of Serbia (born and died 1878)

The marriage was unsuccessful and the couple separated in 1886 and divorced in 1888. Natalija publically rejected the divorce and declared that she considered herself still the wife of the king. Natalija left Serbia taking her son Alexander with her. Eventually, Milan succeeded in obtaining the custody of his son and Alexander returned to Serbia. The couple reconciled in 1893 and the divorce was overturned.

In 1882, the Principality of Serbia was elevated to the Kingdom of Serbia and so Milan became the first King of Serbia. Milan devoted his energy to improvements in Serbia particularly in communications and the development of natural resources. However, this led to heavy taxation, which coupled with increased military service, made Milan unpopular.

In 1889, Milan suddenly abdicated the throne without any apparent reason and his twelve-year-old son Alexander became king. Milan lived in Paris, France until 1897 when he returned to Serbia. He became Commander-in-Chief of the Army, which he completely reformed and modernized.

However, in 1900, any positive relations between Milan and his son King Alexander ended. Milan and his wife strongly opposed his son’s marriage to Draga Mašin, a widow and a former lady-in-waiting to his mother, who was twelve years older than Alexander. Milan resigned his post as Commander-in-Chief of the Army and subsequently, King Alexander banished both his parents from Serbia. Milan eventually settled in Vienna, Austria where he died the next year on February 11, 1901, at the age of 46 from pneumonia. He was buried at the Krušedol Monastery in Vojvodina, Serbia. His son King Alexander I of Serbia and his wife Queen Draga were brutally assassinated in 1903 resulting in the extinction of the House of Obrenović.

Milan’s wife Natalija survived him by forty years. She converted to Roman Catholicism and became a nun. Natalija died on May 8, 1941, at the age of 81 at the Monastery of Saint-Denis near Paris, France, and was buried at the Cemetery of Lardy in Seine et Oise, France.

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Serbia/Yugoslavia Resources at Unofficial Royalty

• Kingdoms of Serbia/Serbs, Croats, and Slovenes/Yugoslavia Index
• Serbian/Yugoslavian Royal Burial Sites
• Profiles: Serbian/Yugoslavian Kings and Consorts
• Rulers of Serbia and Yugoslavia
• Serbian/Yugoslavian Royal Dates

Works Cited

• En.wikipedia.org. (2019). Milan I of Serbia. [online] Available at: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Milan_I_of_Serbia [Accessed 8 Nov. 2019].
• Sr.wikipedia.org. (2019). Милан Обреновић. [online] Available at: https://sr.wikipedia.org/wiki/%D0%9C%D0%B8%D0%BB%D0%B0%D0%BD_%D0%9E%D0%B1%D1%80%D0%B5%D0%BD%D0%BE%D0%B2%D0%B8%D1%9B [Accessed 8 Nov. 2019].