Milan I | |
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King of Serbia | |
Reign | 6 March 1882 – 6 March 1889 |
Successor | Alexander I |
Prince of Serbia | |
Reign | 10 June 1868 – 6 March 1882 |
Predecessor | Mihailo Obrenović III |
Born |
Mărășești, Moldavia |
22 August 1854
Died | 11 February 1901 Vienna, Austria-Hungary |
(aged 46)
Burial | Krušedol monastery, Serbia |
Spouse | Natalija Keşco |
Issue |
Alexander I Prince Sergei George Obrenovic (illegitimate) |
House | Obrenović |
Father | Miloš J. Obrenović |
Mother | Marija Obrenović |
Religion | Eastern Orthodoxy (Serbian) |
Signature |
Styles of Milan I of Serbia |
|
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Reference style | His Majesty |
Spoken style | Your Majesty |
Alternative style | Sir |
Milan Obrenović (Serbian Cyrillic: Милан Обреновић; 22 August 1854 – 11 February 1901), was the ruler of Serbia from 1868 to 1889, first as prince (1868-1882), subsequently as king (1882-1889).
Milan Obrenović was born in 1854 in Mărășești, Moldavia where his family lived in exile ever since the 1842 return of the rival House of Karađorđević to the Serbian throne when they managed to depose Milan's cousin Prince Mihailo Obrenović III.
Milan was the son of Miloš Obrenović (1829–1861) and his Moldovan wife Elena Maria Catargiu (known in Serbia as Marija Obrenović). Milan's paternal grandfather (Miloš's father) was Jevrem Obrenović (1790–1856), brother of the famous Serb Prince — Miloš Obrenović. Milan was therefore Prince Miloš's grandnephew. Milan had only one sibling — sister Tomanija.
Shortly after Milan's birth, his parents divorced. Several years later on 20 November 1861, at the age of seven, Milan lost his father Miloš who died fighting the Turks near Bucharest as a foreign mercenary in the Romanian Army, meaning that mother Marija got a legal custody. Marija, however, lived a lavish aristocratic lifestyle, soon becoming Romanian ruler Alexandru Ioan Cuza's mistress and bearing him two sons — Sașa and Dimitrie. As a result, she showed little interest in her children from the previous marriage with Miloš. Therefore, an agreement was reached for young Milan to get legally adopted by his cousin Mihailo Obrenović III who in the meantime, following the 1858 expulsion of the Karađorđevićs, had returned to Serbia where he became the ruling prince in 1860.