Mihailo Obrenović, Prince of Serbia
| Prince Mihailo Obrenović III | |
|---|---|
| Prince of Serbia | |
 | |
| Reign | July 8, 1839 - September 14, 1842 and September 26, 1860 – June 10, 1868 |
| Predecessor | Milan II (Obrenović) Miloš I (Obrenović) |
| Successor | Alexander (Karađorđević) Milan IV (Obrenović) |
| Consort | Julia Hunyady von Kéthely |
| House | House of Obrenović |
| Father | Miloš Obrenović I |
| Mother | Ljubica Vukomanović |
Mihailo (Michael) Obrenović III (Serbian Cyrillic: Михаило Обреновић) (September 16 (September 4, OS), 1823 – June 10 (May 29, OS), 1868) was prince of Serbia from 1839–1842 and again from 1860–1868. His first reign ended when he was deposed in 1842 and his second when he was assassinated in 1868.
Early life and first reign
Mihailo was the son of Prince Miloš Obrenović (1780–1860) and his wife Ljubica Vukomanović (1788 – 1843, Vienna). He was born in Kragujevac, the second surviving son of the couple. His elder brother Milan was born in 1819 but was frequently in poor health. He is stated as being the most enlightened ruler of modern Serbia [1]. He advocated the idea of a Balkan federation against the Ottoman Empire.
On June 25, 1839 his father, Prince Miloš, abdicated in favour of his elder brother Milan II, who was by then terminally ill. His reign was to be short-lived, and he died on July 8, 1839 without having regained consciousness and perhaps never realizing the crown was in his own hands. Thus, Mihailo III became prince of Serbia, but was accepted as an elected ruler rather than a hereditary prince. However, he was still young and fairly inexperienced, and could hardly cope with the political problems, both internal as well as external, that Serbia had to deal with at the time.
In 1842 his disastrous reign came to a halt when he was overthrown by a rebellion led by Toma Vučić-Perišić, which enabled the Karađorđević dynasty to accede to the Serbian throne. Eleven years later, Mihailo married Countess Júlia Hunyady de Kéthely (1831 – 1919). The marriage was childless.
Second reign and Assassination
Finally, Mihailo was accepted back as prince of Serbia in 1860 after the death of his father who had regained the throne in 1858. For the next eight years he ruled as an enlightened absolutist monarch.
On June 10, 1868 he was strolling through a park Košutnjak on the outskirts of Belgrade with his niece Katarina Konstantinović, daughter of his first cousin Anka Konstantinović, when they were both shot and killed as a result of a plot that has never been sufficiently clarified. The Karađorđevićs were suspected of being behind the crime but there is not much proof to corroborate this.
Anka's granddaughter Natalia Konstatinović (1882-1950) was married in 1902 to the Montenegrin Prince Mirko Petrovic-Njegos (1879-1918) whose sister Zorka had married King Petar Karađorđević I in 1883.
Notes
Bibliography
- Serbian nobility
- House of Obrenović
- Assassinated Serbian people
- Serbian Eastern Orthodox Christians
- Assassinated monarchs
- Deaths by firearm in Serbia
- 1823 births
- 1868 deaths
- History of Serbia
- People from Kragujevac
- People murdered in Serbia
- Burials at the Cathedral Church of Saint Michael the Archangel, Belgrade