Thursday, May 12, 2016

Prince Alexander of Yugoslavia (1924-2016)

Eurohistory Collection

Eurohistory collection


Princess Barbara and Prince Alexander   Eurohistory Collection

Princess Olga with her son   Eurohistory Collection 
Count Hans-Veit zu Toerring-Jettenbach with his first cousin, Alexander, and his Aunt Olga  Eurohistory Collection



Prince Alexander of Yugoslavia died today in Paris.  He was 91 years old.   Prince Alexander was the eldest of three children of Prince Paul of Yugoslavia, a first cousin of King Alexander I, and Princess Olga of Greece and Denmark.



Alexander was born at White Lodge in Richmond Park, in England on August 13, 1924.   His mother's younger sister, Princess Marina, was married in 1934 to Prince George, Duke of Kent.

A month before the wedding,  King Alexander was assassinated in Marseilles, while on a state visit to France.  Although Prince Paul (and his male line descendants) did not have dynastic rights to the throne, he was named as one of three Regents for the minor King Peter II, the eldest of three sons of King Alexander.

Prince Alexander spent most of his life in exile,   He met his first wife, Princess Maria Pia of Italy, eldest child of King Umberto II and Princess Marie José of Belgium,  in August 1954, when both were among the royal guests on the Agamemnon, hosted by King Paul and Queen Frederika of the Hellenes.


The marriage took place on February 12, 1955 at Cascais, Portugal, where Maria Pia's father lived.  Maria Pia gave birth to two sets of twins during their marriage: Prince Dimitri Umberto Anton Peter Maria and Prince Michael Nicolas Paul George Maria (1958) and Prince Serge Wladimir Emanuel Marie and Princess Helene Olga Lydia Tamara Maria (1963). The younger set of twins are not close to their legal father.

The children were baptized and raised in the Roman Catholic faith.

Prince Alexander and Princess Maria Pia were divorced in 1967.   He married for a second time, in a civil ceremony in Paris, in 1973 to Princess Barbara of Liechtenstein.  They had one son, Prince Dushan Paul, who was born in 1977.

[Princess Maria Pia married again in 2003 to her long time companion, Prince Michel of Bourbon-Parma.]

Prince Alexander will be interred in the Royal Mausoleum at Oplenac.   He is survived by his wife and children and his younger sister, Princess Elizabeth.

Crown Prince Alexander expresses sorrow for death of Prince Alexander.

 "It was with sadness that I received the news of passing away of His Royal Highness Prince Alexander Karadjordjevic, the eldest son of Their Royal Highnesses the late Prince Paul and Princess Olga. He left his widowed wife, Her Royal Highnesses Princess Barbara and five children.
My wife, the entire Royal House and I join in extending our condolences and deepest sympathy to the family of the deceased Prince. Our prayers and thoughts are with the family at this sad time."


http://inserbia.info/today/2016/05/prince-alexander-karadjordjevic-dies-at-91/






1 comment:

Emilia Ilieva said...

This is a most impressive collection. I happened upon it as I was looking for information on Prince Alexander in a connection that may interest others. Prince Alexander was a student at Egerton School, Kenya, in 1941, when the family was there in exile. Currently, together with a colleague, I am doing research towards the writing of the history of Egerton University (1939 to present). Little is known of this episode in the Prince's life. The University has not preserved a photograph (if there was one) of him. Might someone be in a possession of such a photo? Or might someone have a suggestion of how I could get one? We would wish to include it in the book, which will come out in one or two years' time, duly acknowledged.

Emilia Ilieva
Professor of Literature
Egerton University
Kenya
eilieva@egerton.ac.ke