Who Was Mihailo Obrenović

Mihailo Obrenović (Kragujevac, 16 September 1823 – Košutnjak, Belgrade, 10 June 1868) was Prince of Serbia twice, from 1839 to 1842 and from 1860 to 1868. History remembers him as the ruler who secured, through diplomacy, the withdrawal of Ottoman garrisons from Serbian towns, and as a statesman who steered Serbia toward a modern European state.

He was the son of Prince Miloš Obrenović and Princess Ljubica. The Encyclopaedia Britannica describes him as the most enlightened ruler of modern Serbia, while Serbian authors most often call him an enlightened absolutist, because he governed with a firm hand but with a clear program of reform.

His name is linked to the creation of the national militia, the reorganization of state administration, the proclamation of Belgrade as the capital, the founding of the National Theatre and the First Balkan Alliance. His life ended tragically in an assassination in Košutnjak, just as he had completed preparations for a final reckoning with Ottoman rule.

Origins and Childhood

Mihailo Obrenović was born in Kragujevac on 16 September 1823 (4 September Old Style). His mother was Princess Ljubica, and his father was Prince Miloš Obrenović, who had governed Serbia since 1815.

He was the second surviving son in the family. His older brother Milan, born in 1819, was often ill. According to sources, in the year of his birth Mihailo became the first person in Serbia vaccinated against smallpox, a disease that had claimed the lives of three of his siblings: Petar, Marija and Velika.

He spent his childhood in Kragujevac, Požarevac and Belgrade, at a time when his father ruled Serbia.

Education

He finished school in Požarevac and then moved to Vienna with his mother, Princess Ljubica. Details of his further formal education have not been reliably confirmed.

During his years abroad he became fluent in French and German. He also showed an interest in science and literature as a ruler, when on 19 November 1841 he founded the Society of Serbian Letters.

First Reign

In 1839 Prince Miloš abdicated in favor of his eldest son, Milan Obrenović, who died after only a month on the throne. Mihailo then came to the throne as a minor on 8 July 1839.

He was confirmed as an elected rather than a hereditary ruler. He was declared of age the following year and took over the government of the country.

According to historians, as a very young ruler he did not cope well with the complex internal and foreign-policy circumstances. His first reign was marked by the founding of the Society of Serbian Letters, but it was soon cut short.

Fall from Power and Exile

Mihailo Obrenović’s reign ended on 14 September 1842 with a rebellion led by Toma Vučić Perišić. Alexander Karađorđević took the throne, and his dynasty remained in power for the next sixteen years.

Mihailo withdrew across the Sava and the Danube accompanied by about a thousand supporters. His fate was decided by Austria and Turkey, and he was sent to the estate of his sister, Princess Jelisaveta Obrenović. His mother Ljubica was placed in Novi Sad, where she died in 1843. Mihailo arranged her burial at Krušedol Monastery.

In the following years he lived mostly in Vienna, where in 1852 he and his father bought Palais Salm, and he managed his father’s large estate. Prince Miloš returned to the throne in 1858. Sources differ on the exact year of Mihailo’s return to Serbia (1858 or early 1859), but they agree that he returned after many years in exile.

Return to the Throne

In the spring of 1859 Mihailo, together with his wife Julia, toured several European capitals. In London, the prince and princess were presented to Queen Victoria.

After Prince Miloš’s death in 1860, Mihailo became Prince of Serbia again on 26 September 1860, after eighteen years in exile. For the next eight years he ruled as an enlightened absolutist.

His main goal was to completely remove the Ottoman presence from Serbia. This required a strong state, so he immediately set about reorganizing the administration and the army.

Domestic Policy and Reforms

In a short time Mihailo Obrenović issued several key acts: the Statute on the State Council (17 August 1861), the Statute on Central State Administration (10 March 1862), the law on civil servants (1861, replaced by a new one in 1864) and the law on the organization of municipalities (24 March 1866).

Under these acts the prince was the country’s only representative in relations with foreign states, and the State Council was entirely subordinate to him. The National Assembly was convened only three times during his second reign, while the powers and immunity of senators were reduced.

Because of this arrangement, some legal scholars speak of a police state serving high national goals. Others place him among Europe’s enlightened absolutists, since he carried out reforms decisively and systematically.

The National Militia

The most important area of his domestic policy was the army. In 1861 Prince Mihailo adopted the Law on the National Militia, which extended military service to men aged 20 to 50, who trained locally. The same year the Ministry of War was founded, and the regular army was doubled to 3,529 men.

The National Militia numbered about 90,000 men in 1862 and about 120,000 in 1876. For the Porte, such a system was a source of open concern, since it showed that Serbia was seriously counting on an armed resolution of the conflict.

Conflict with Turkey and the Čukur Fountain

An open conflict erupted on 15 June 1862 in Belgrade, near the Čukur Fountain. In the incident a Turkish soldier wounded a Serbian boy, and a clash between Serbian police and Turkish forces ended with the bombardment of the city from the Belgrade Fortress.

The Great Powers convened a conference at Kanlidža near Constantinople, and on 4 September 1862 an agreement was reached. The Muslim population had to leave Serbia, except for the garrisons in Belgrade, Fetislam (Kladovo), Šabac and Smederevo, while Soko and Užice passed to the Serbs.

The prince continued negotiations and wrote to the Grand Vizier Mehmed Fuad Pasha, stressing that the Ottomans had no interest in keeping troops in Serbia. Serbian nationalists and supporters of the Karađorđević dynasty did not consider this outcome sufficient.

The Handover of the Fortresses in 1867

In the autumn of 1866 Prince Mihailo demanded in writing that the Porte withdraw its garrisons from the remaining Serbian towns. He sailed to Constantinople on 18 March 1867, and on 30 March Sultan Abdulaziz handed him the firman entrusting the towns to Serbia.

The firman was read at the Belgrade Fortress on 6 April 1867. On that occasion the Turkish commander Ali Riza Pasha handed the keys of the city to the prince. A monument marking the event now stands at that spot, beside the entrance to Kalemegdan. Besides Belgrade, Smederevo, Kladovo and Šabac passed to Serbia, while Soko and Užice had done so earlier.

This success was an important step toward Serbia’s international recognition, which came at the Congress of Berlin in 1878. After the fortress was handed over, Kalemegdan began to be converted into a park on the prince’s orders, based on sketches by Belgrade’s first urban planner, Emilijan Josimović.

The First Balkan Alliance

Together with Prime Minister Ilija Garašanin, Mihailo Obrenović steered Serbia toward an alliance of Balkan peoples against the Ottoman Empire. Between 1866 and 1868 Serbia signed a series of agreements with Montenegro, Bulgarian revolutionary organizations (1867), Greece (1867) and Romania (1868).

This system of agreements is known as the First Balkan Alliance. Its aim was joint struggle against Ottoman rule, and Mihailo also advocated the idea of a Balkan federation. His plans were cut short by the gunshots in Košutnjak in 1868.

Private Life

Prince Mihailo’s first love was Princess Maria Josefa of Liechtenstein (German: Maria Josefa von und zu Liechtenstein). Her father rejected the proposal because Mihailo was Orthodox and a deposed prince of an exiled dynasty. The poem “Što se bore misli moje”, written by Mihailo in Vienna, is dedicated to her.

On 1 August 1853 he married Countess Julia Hunyady (Hungarian: Hunyady Júlia), born in Vienna in 1831, in the Russian chapel in Vienna. Julia studied the Serbian language with Đura Daničić. The marriage was unhappy and childless, and the couple lived mostly apart.

Mihailo had an illegitimate son, Velimir Teodorović, born of a relationship with Maria Berghaus. After the death of his cousin Jevrem Obrenović, he was also the guardian of young Milan Obrenović, later prince and king, whom he sent to be educated in Paris in 1863.

At the prince’s invitation, Anka Konstantinović, his first cousin, and her daughter Katarina Konstantinović lived at court. The prince intended to end his marriage to Julia and marry Katarina, which provoked protests from politicians, clergy and the public. Ilija Garašanin was dismissed in 1867 because he opposed the divorce, and according to most sources no formal divorce ever took place.

Earlier, Mihailo had sought a politically advantageous marriage. As early as 1864 he sent envoys to explore marrying Jelena Karađorđević, but her mother, Persida Nenadović, refused, and she did so again in 1866. According to a report by the Russian consul in Dubrovnik, in 1867 he also became interested in the widow of the Montenegrin prince Danilo, Princess Darinka Petrović-Njegoš, so that Serbia and Montenegro might be united under one ruler.

Tragic Death

On the evening of 10 June 1868 (29 May Old Style), Prince Mihailo set out for a walk in Košutnjak. He was accompanied by his aide-de-camp, Major Svetozar Garašanin, son of Ilija Garašanin, and a servant named Mita, while Tomanija Obrenović, Anka Konstantinović and Katarina Konstantinović rode in the carriage.

In the park the brothers Kosta and Pavle Radovanović appeared in formal black suits. Kosta approached the carriage with a loaded pistol. Prince Mihailo recognized him because of a dispute over his brother Ljubomir. Mihailo and Anka Konstantinović were killed, and Katarina was wounded.

The main organizers and perpetrators were the Radovanović brothers, who wanted to avenge their brother Ljubomir, who was imprisoned at the time. A third brother, Đorđe Radovanović, was also involved in the plot. Some historians suspected the involvement of supporters of the Karađorđević dynasty, but this has never been proven.

After the assassination the National Assembly declared the House of Karađorđević permanently excluded from the throne and proclaimed the fourteen-year-old Milan Obrenović as prince. Katarina Konstantinović married General Milivoje Petrović Blaznavac the same year.

Prince Mihailo was buried in the Cathedral Church (Saborna crkva) in Belgrade, where Julia Hunyady placed a memorial plaque in 1874.

Interesting Facts

• According to sources, he was the first person in Serbia to be vaccinated against smallpox.
• During his reign the first Serbian coins since the Middle Ages were minted. Copper coins bearing his image entered circulation in 1869, during the regency for the underage Milan Obrenović.
• He was the first ruler of modern Serbia to declare Belgrade the official capital.
• Đura Jakšić painted “Knez Mihailo na odru” (Prince Mihailo on His Bier) in 1868–1869.
• The final days of Prince Mihailo are portrayed in the seven-episode series “Što se bore misli moje”, in which Dragan Mićanović plays the prince.
• The memorial at the site of the assassination in Košutnjak has been renovated and now carries two boards about his life and the assassination.

Awards and Honors

Among the decorations he received were orders from Russia, Greece, the Ottoman Empire, Austria, Italy and Montenegro:

• Order of Saint Anna, Order of the White Eagle and Order of Saint Alexander Nevsky (Russian Empire)
• Order of the Redeemer (Greece)
• Order of Osmanieh, Order of Glory and Order of the Medjidie (Ottoman Empire)
• Order of Leopold (Austrian Empire)
• Order of Saints Maurice and Lazarus (Kingdom of Italy)
• Order of Prince Danilo I (Montenegro)

Legacy and Influence

The equestrian monument to Prince Mihailo, the work of the Italian sculptor Enrico Pazzi, was erected in 1882 on Republic Square in Belgrade. The pedestal bears the names of the six towns handed over to Serbia: Belgrade, Smederevo, Šabac, Kladovo, Užice and Soko. His name is also carried by Knez Mihailova Street, Belgrade’s main pedestrian zone.

The National Theatre in Belgrade was founded in 1868 thanks to his initiative, although the prince did not live to see its building. The National Militia, which he created in 1861, remained the backbone of the Serbian army until 1882.

Assessments of his work differ. The Encyclopaedia Britannica counts him among the most enlightened rulers of modern Serbia, while critics point to his absolutism and the rare convening of the Assembly. The Serbian Ministry of Defence still lays a wreath at his sarcophagus in the Cathedral Church every year on the anniversary of his death.