CHAPTER IV
THE SERVIAN DYNASTIES
Karageorge—Milosh Obrenovitch—Murder of Karageorge—Turkey Grants the Title of Prince—Milosh Abdicates—Abdication of Prince Michael—Alexander Abdicates—Prince Milosh Re-installed, His Death and the Re-election of Prince Michael—Murder of Michael—Prince Milan’s Marriage, Abdication and Death—Alexander Elected.
The very early history of Servia and her peoples has been daubed so freely with myth and fable that it would be confusing and tedious to enter into it. Instead, I shall confine myself to the brief narration of the two later dynasties, explanatory of the world-renowned friction between them.
Of all the capitals of the world none deserves more unquestionably the sobriquet of “The Capital of Crime,” as I have named a later chapter, than that of Servia. Since the beginning of the nineteenth century four reigning monarchs have been ruthlessly murdered in or near Belgrade, and four others have been forced to abdicate. What would have been the fate of these latter had they not foreseen it can readily be imagined. King-killing is chronic with the Servians and there are to-day twenty-nine men incarcerated in the prison at Belgrade, charged with plotting against the life of the present ruler, King Peter Karageorgevitch.
The history of these national tragedies, the latest of which, in 1903, shocked the civilized world, begins with the histories of the two royal families of Servia, and takes us back a hundred years, to a time when the country was suffering the most from the perennial invasions of the bloodthirsty Mohammedans.
“The end of the year 1801 saw Servia a prey to systematized vandalism. It was a reign of unexampled tyranny and cruelty. The bloodthirstiness of the Sultan’s janizaries increased like the strength of a torrent. The Dahis, in obedience to the Sultan’s firmans, commissioned murderers to proceed through Servia and kill all the mayors of towns and villages, chiefs of cantons, priests and monks. A wave of terror swept over the land, spreading panic in every direction. Mothers hugged their children to their breasts and men in hushed whispers spoke of self-destruction as a less miserable fate than falling into the hands of the Turks. Every male over seven years of age was to be destroyed. But something in the Servians which had hitherto lain dormant, a spirit of manhood which had not been manifested before, arose under the whip of the gigantic thraldom; seemingly the crushed and oppressed drew breath, the instinct of self-preservation kindled in their hearts, and the embers burst out into a new flame of patriotism.”
Such, then, happened to be the deplorable conditions in Servia when George Petrovich, or Kara-George, a poverty-stricken peasant of a fiery temperament, but a man of dominating energy, morose and taciturn, imbued with this patriotic flame, descended from the little village of Topola where he made his home. By means of his character and personal magnetism he rallied his countrymen and posted the now-famed proclamation, which called upon the whole of Servia to rise against the Turks. The latter were driven from the country after a siege of eight days, and for nine years Karageorge ruled in Servia and kept at bay the subjects of the Sultan.