ALEXANDER I., king of the Serbs, Croats and Slovenes , was born at Cetinje on Dec. 4, 1888, the second son of Prince Peter Karagjorgjevic, later king of Serbia, and of Zorka, third daughter of Prince Nicholas of Montenegro. His mother died in 189o, and during his early years he shared the exile of his father at Geneva. In 1899 he was sent to St. Peters burg (Leningrad) to be educated, and in 1904 entered the corps des pages at the tsar's court. It was not till 1909, nearly six years after his father's election to the Serbian throne, that the young prince came to reside permanently in Serbia. Soon after his return his elder brother, Prince George, was obliged to re nounce the succession (March 1909), owing to his unbalanced temperament, and various incidents that occurred during the Bosnian crisis; and Alexander was thereupon formally recog nized as crown prince. On the outbreak of the Balkan war (1912) he assumed nominal command of the 1st Army and won his spurs at the battle of Kumanovo, subsequently serving with distinction in the campaigns against Turkey and Bulgaria.
On June 24, 1914 King Peter, whose health had completely broken down, appointed him prince regent, and he thus held the position of commander-in-chief when the World War broke out. He remained permanently at army headquarters, and shared with his soldiers all the privations of the retreat through Albania. On reaching the coast he fell ill and underwent a serious operation, but when already convalescent resolutely declined the proffered assistance of an Italian destroyer which had been sent to convey him across the Adriatic ; he remained till all the refugees had been transported into safety, and eventually found his way on foot to Durazzo. After the exiled Serbian Govern ment had established itself at Corfu, Prince Alexander and M. Pasic paid visits to Paris and London, where the prince was received with warm ovations. On April 5, 1916, on receiving an important deputation of British sympathizers (led by the arch bishop of Canterbury, the lord mayor, Lord Milner and Sir Edward Carson), he publicly identified the dynasty with the cause of unity, expressing his conviction that in the final victory "our Yugoslav people, united in a single state, will have their part." During the rest of the War he remained at Serbian head quarters and shared his army's victorious advance in Oct. 1918. On Dec. I delegates of the Yugoslav National Council in Zagreb formally recognized him as regent in all the Yugoslav provinces of the former dual monarchy, and he assumed the title of "prince-regent of the Serbs, Croats and Slovenes." The attempt made upon his life on June 29, I921, after he had taken the oath the previous day to the new Yugoslav constitution, was the out come, not of any personal unpopularity, but of the subversive aims of the Communists and other revolutionary groups, who hoped to create confusion in the new state, owing to the lack of a direct heir to the throne. On Aug. 16, 1921 Prince Alexander succeeded his father as king of Yugoslavia. On June 8, 1922 he married Marie, second daughter of King Ferdinand of Rumania, and on Sept.. 6, 1923 an heir was born, who received the name of Peter, a second son being called after Tomislav, the first Croatian king.
King Alexander inherited from his father a respect for con stitutional and parliamentary traditions, which was conspic uously lacking in his predecessors of the Obrenovic dynasty; and his influence was repeatedly exercised behind the scenes to smooth down the acerbities of party strife. He was largely re sponsible for the reconciliation in 1925 between the Serbian Radi cals under M. Pasic and the Croat Peasant Party under M. Radic. On Oct. while visiting France, King Alexander, together with M. Barthou, the French foreign minister, was killed by a Croat assassin at Marseilles. See YUGOSLAVIA. (R. W.