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On Feb. 22, 1882, the Skupgtina proclaimed Serbia a kingdom. But the internal situation remained unsatisfactory. The compensation to Turkish landlords in the new territory, and the building of railways, under the terms of the Berlin Treaty, necessitated foreign loans, and hence increased taxation. An attempt was made on Milan's life in 1882, and in 1883 there was an abortive rising at Zaje'6ar, which was used as a pretext for savage measures of repression against the newly formed Radical Party. Milan by his favouritism and personal policy envenomed the party struggle, and the scandals of his private life and his undignified quarrel with Queen Natalie under mined the prestige of the dynasty. Serbia's rash and unprovoked attack upon Bulgaria, after the union of Eastern Rumelia in 1885, was mainly the work of Milan himself, who hoped to regain popularity by foreign conquest and regarded Bulgarian unity as a blow to the Balkan balance of power. The Serbian advance on Sofia was suddenly arrested by Prince Alexander's victory at Slivni6a: the Bulgarian army in its turn invaded Serbia and thanks to unpreparedness, bad leadership and panic on the Serbian side, would probably have entered Belgrade, had not Austria-Hungary threatened armed intervention. Kalnoky ex plained to his German ally, who feared increased Austro-Russian friction, that he had acted not for the sake of Serbia or Milan, but on account of the moral effect upon Serbia's kinsmen inside the Dual Monarchy. The Treaty of Bucharest (March 1886) restored the status quo, but Serbia's prestige in Europe was effectually eclipsed for over two decades. King Milan's personal situation was undermined, and the divorce scandals of 1888 were the last straw. In the winter of that year he initiated a new and more liberal constitution (Dec. 22, 1888—N.S. Jan. 5, 1889), which provided for an extended franchise, closer parliamentary control, irremovability of judges arid liberty of the press. From Milan's point of view this was devised as a beau geste, such as might rehabilitate the dynasty in popular favour. It was followed by his abdication (March 1889) in favour of his only child Alexander, then only 13 : and a regency was formed by the veteran RistiC, with Generals Protie and Belimarkovie. A month before withdrawing from Serbia, Milan renewed the secret treaty with Austria-Hungary for another six years : as redrafted, it pledged the latter to protect the Obrenovie dynasty, especially against "hostile incursions directed from Montenegro," and in the event of a Balkan upheaval to support Serbia's "territorial extension" southwards. Her definition of this as meaning "the valley of the Vardar as far as circumstances shall permit," amounted to the endorsement of Serbian as against Bulgarian claims in Macedonia.
The regents, despite their own conserva tive leanings, found it necessary to entrust power to the Radical Party, under General Sava Grujie, which had a strong majority behind it : and its first achievement was to improve Serbian finances, reducing the deficit from 14,000,000 dinars in 1889 to 4,000,000 in 1890 and to 686,000 in 1891. But internal progress was still delayed by the constant interference and public wrangling of Milan and Natalie, and even after the ex-king's solemn renun ciation had been endorsed by parliament (March 1892) he plotted in the background, with Austrian backing. The party struggle between Radicals and Liberals had reached a deadlock, when on April 14, 1893, the young king, by a sudden coup d'etat ejected the regents, proclaimed himself of age and superseded the Liberal cabinet by one drawn from the moderate Radical wing. As, how
ever, its first act was to impeach some of its predecessors, party feeling ran as high as ever, and turned into anti-dynastic lines. Alexander, whose character bore traces of a hereditary taint and whose education had suffered fatally from his parents' miscon duct, grew up suspicious, callous and arbitrary. Early in 1894 he recalled Milan from his Parisian amusements, and on his advice suspended the constitution of 1889, reestablishing the more reactionary one of 1869. The Radicals went into violent opposi tion, but the situation was temporarily saved by a cabinet under the Progressive leader Stojan Novakovie, whose position was however undermined by the King's refusal to sanction his project of constitutional reform, on a two-chamber basis, and also by friction with Austria-Hungary, the secret treaty with whom lapsed in 1895. At the elections of 1897 the Radicals maintained their majority, but Alexander refused to call them to power and formed a Cabinet under Dr. Vladan GjorgjeviC, the doctor and intimate friend of King Milan, and known as a pronounced Russophobe. Milan was appointed commander-in-chief, and though he increased the army by one-third, and worked hard at its reorganization, his methods of favouritism did much to introduce the spirit of faction and conspiracy into the officers' corps. An attempt on his life in 1899 was used as a pretext for drastic measures against all the Radical leaders, some of whom, without serious proof, were sentenced to banishment or hard labour.
Dr. Gjorgjevie's efforts to secure the succession by finding Alexander a wife from some reigning dynasty were checkmated by the King's rash decision in the summer of 190o to marry his mistress Draga Magin (nee Lunjevica), the widow of a Czech engineer, a woman much older than himself. This decision led to a final breach between Alexander and Milan, who ended his dissolute existence at Vienna early in 1901: it led the GjorgjeviC cabinet to resign out of protest at so suicidal a step : it was keenly resented in the country and isolated the dynasty in Europe. Emancipated from his father's influence in foreign policy, Alexander now flung himself into the arms of Russia and in return induced the Tsar to stand sponsor at his marriage. But at home he was the object of universal aversion, and only made matters worse by dabbling in illegal political experiments. In April 19or he promulgated a new constitution, based on an adaptation of the Novakovie pro ject, establishing a second chamber and guaranteeing liberty of the press and of association. But in the winter of 1902 he reverted to open reaction, appointed General Cincar Markovie premier, and in April 1903 suddenly suspended his own Constitu tion, removed all the officials and senators appointed under it, dissolved both Chambers and then declared the Constitution to be once more valid. In June new elections were conducted under such official terrorism that the whole opposition held aloof. The country was full of unrest, wild rumours circulated, and it was widely believed that Queen Draga intended to secure the succes sion for her two brothers. Prompted by this untenable situation, a widespread military conspiracy was hatched, and on June 1o, 1903, Alexander and Draga were assassinated in the palace of Belgrade, under peculiarly atrocious circumstances. Draga's two brothers, the Premier and the Minister of War shared the same fate. The details of the plot had been worked out in a well known cafe in Vienna, and there is reason to believe that both the Austro-Hungarian and Russian Governments were aware of what was on foot, but allowed matters to take their course.