Radoje Knežević

Professor Radoje Knežević
Radoje Knežević in England in June 1941
Minister of the Royal Court
In office 27 March 1941 – June 1943
Monarch	Peter II of Yugoslavia
Prime Minister	Dušan Simović to 9 January 1942
Prime Minister	Slobodan Jovanović from 11 January 1942
Personal details
Born	(1901-08-20)20 August 1901 Stragari, Kingdom of Serbia
Died	22 June 1983(1983-06-22) (aged 81) Toronto, Canada
Relations	Živan Knežević (brother)

Professor Radoje Knežević (Serbian Cyrillic: Радоје Кнежевић; 20 August 1901 – 22 June 1983) was a key member of the group that organised the Yugoslav coup d'état of 27 March 1941 that deposed the regency of Prince Paul, Dr. Radenko Stanković and Dr. Ivo Perović, along with the government of Prime Minister Dragiša Cvetković. Following the coup he was appointed as the Minister of the Royal Court, and after the resulting invasion of Yugoslavia, he accompanied the King and government into exile in Cairo then London. Along with his brother Živan, he was a member of the so-called "League of Majors", who were at the centre of the ill-fated Greater Serbian agenda of the Yugoslav government-in-exile and who were instrumental in having Draža Mihailović appointed as Chief of Staff of the Yugoslav Supreme Command. He was sidelined in June 1943 when he was appointed to the Yugoslav legation in Portugal. He remained in exile after the war, was sentenced to 10 years imprisonment with hard labour in absentia during the Belgrade Process conducted by the country's newly established communist authorities, and emigrated to Canada where he lived until his death in 1983.

Radoje Knežević was born on 20 August 1901 in the village of Stragari, near Kragujevac, Kingdom of Serbia. He was the son of Lazar and Mileva Knežević (née Veljković). Prior to the outbreak of World War II, he was a professor in Belgrade, and had been a French-language tutor to Prince Peter. He was also a prominent member of the Serbian Cultural Club. Knežević was married, and had two children.