Katarina Konstantinović
| Katarina Konstantinović | |
|---|---|
 |
|
| Born | 1848 Ottoman Empire |
| Died | 1910 (age 62) Niš, Kingdom of Serbia (modern Serbia) |
| Nationality | Serbian |
| Known for | Mistress of Mihailo Obrenović III, Prince of Serbia |
| Spouse(s) | General Milivoje Blaznavac Mihailo Bogicevic |
| Children | Vojislav Blaznavac Milica Blaznavac |
| Parent(s) | Alexander Konstantinović Princess Anka Obrenović |
Katarina Konstantinović (Serbian Cyrillic; Катарина Константиновић; 1848–1910) was a Serbian noblewoman and a descendant of the Obrenović dynasty as the daughter of Princess Anka Obrenović. She was also the first cousin of King Milan I to whom she acted as his de facto first lady of the royal court after the Queen, Natalie Keshko, separated from him.
Katarina married twice. Prior to her first marriage, she was the mistress of her cousin, the Serbian ruler, Prince Mihailo Obrenović III, who was considering a divorce from his childless wife Julia Hunyady de Kéthely to make Katarina his consort. On 10 June 1868, while she, Prince Mihailo and Princess Anka were strolling through Kosutnjak park near the royal country residence, assassins shot and killed her lover and mother, and left her wounded. That same year (1868) she married General Milivoje Blaznavac, by whom she had two children. Following his death in 1873, she married her cousin Mihailo Bogičević.
Katarina was born in 1848, the daughter of Alexander Konstantinović and the erudite society leader Princess Anka Obrenović, the niece of Miloš Obrenović I, Prince of Serbia and the founder of the Obrenović dynasty. She had one brother, Colonel Alexander Konstantinović (died 1914) and an illegitimate half-sister, Simeona (died 1915), born of her mother's relationship with her brother-in-law, Jovan Ghermani.
Sometime after her father's death, Katarina and her mother were invited by the latter's first cousin, Prince Mihailo to live at the royal court. Since September 1860, he had assumed rule as Serbia's leader for the second time, having been deposed in 1842 after a three-year reign. He was unhappily married to a Hungarian countess, Julia Hunyady de Kéthely, who was unable to bear children. Prince Mihailo and Katarina became lovers. Katarina did not bother to conceal her contempt for Princess Julia, and openly flaunted her affair with the prince. Mihailo wished to divorce Julia and marry Katarina, especially as Julia had her own lover, Duke Karl von Arenberg, by this time. While the Serbs made no secret of their mistrust of Julia due to her Catholic religion and Hungarian background, when the news spread of Mihailo's desire to seek a divorce in order to replace her with his second cousin, Katarina, the ordinary people as well as politicians and the clergy were all equally outraged at the prospect. One of the staunchest opponents of the divorce was Serbia's distinguished Prime Minister, Ilija Garašanin, who was dismissed from his post in 1867 for airing his objections to Mihailo's proposed divorce from Julia and marriage to Katarina. His dismissal brought about an angry protest from Russia.
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