Prince Alexander of Yugoslavia ( sr, Александар П. Карађорђевић / ''Aleksandar P. Karađorđević''; 13 August 1924 – 12 May 2016) was the elder son of Prince Paul, who served as

Regent A regent (from Latin : ruling, governing) is a person appointed to govern a state '' pro tempore'' (Latin: 'for the time being') because the monarch is a minor, absent, incapacitated or unable to discharge the powers and duties of the monarchy ...

Yugoslavia Yugoslavia (; sh-Latn-Cyrl, separator=" / ", Jugoslavija, Југославија ; sl, Jugoslavija ; mk, Југославија ;; rup, Iugoslavia; hu, Jugoszlávia; rue, label=Pannonian Rusyn, Югославия, translit=Juhoslavija ...

in the 1930s, and his wife,

Princess Olga of Greece and Denmark Princess Olga of Greece and Denmark ( el, Όλγα; 11 June 1903 – 16 October 1997) was a Greek princess who became princess of Yugoslavia as the wife of Prince Paul, Regent of the Kingdom of Yugoslavia. Princess Olga was a daughter of P ...

Birth and education

Alexander was born at

White Lodge, Richmond Park White Lodge is a Grade I listed Georgian house situated in Richmond Park, in the London Borough of Richmond upon Thames. Formerly a royal residence, it now houses the Royal Ballet Lower School, instructing students aged 11–16. Early hist ...

, United Kingdom. As a nephew of Princess Marina, Duchess of Kent (née of Greece and Denmark), he was a first cousin of

Prince Edward, Duke of Kent Prince Edward, Duke of Kent, (Edward George Nicholas Paul Patrick; born 9 October 1935) is a member of the British royal family. Queen Elizabeth II and Edward were first cousins through their fathers, King George VI, and Prince George, Duk ...

Prince Michael of Kent Prince Michael of Kent, (Michael George Charles Franklin; born 4 July 1942) is a member of the British royal family, who is 51st in the line of succession to the British throne as of September 2022. Queen Elizabeth II and Michael were first ...

, and

Princess Alexandra of Kent Princess Alexandra, The Honourable Lady Ogilvy (Alexandra Helen Elizabeth Olga Christabel; born 25 December 1936) is a member of the British royal family. Queen Elizabeth II and Alexandra were first cousins through their fathers, King George V ...

; he was also a first cousin once removed of

Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh (born Prince Philip of Greece and Denmark, later Philip Mountbatten; 10 June 1921 – 9 April 2021) was the husband of Queen Elizabeth II. As such, he served as the consort of the British monarch from El ...

. He was educated at

Ludgrove School Ludgrove School is an English independent boys preparatory boarding school. Ludgrove was founded in 1892 at Ludgrove Hall in Middlesex by the Old Etonian sportsman Arthur Dunn. Dunn had been employed as a master at Elstree School, which sent boys ...

Marriage and family

On 12 February 1955, Alexander married Princess Maria Pia of Savoy, daughter of King

Umberto II of Italy en, Albert Nicholas Thomas John Maria of Savoy , house = Savoy , father = Victor Emmanuel III of Italy , mother = Princess Elena of Montenegro , birth_date = , birth_place = Racconigi, Piedmont, Kingdom of Italy , dea ...

and of his wife, Princess

Marie José of Belgium Marie may refer to: People Name * Marie (given name) * Marie (Japanese given name) * Marie (murder victim), girl who was killed in Florida after being pushed in front of a moving vehicle in 1973 * Marie (died 1759), an enslaved Cree person in T ...

. The marriage took place at

Cascais Cascais () is a town and municipality in the Lisbon District of Portugal, located on the Portuguese Riviera. The municipality has a total of 214,158 inhabitants in an area of 97.40 km2. Cascais is an important tourism in Portugal, tourist de ...

in Portugal where the bride's father was living in exile. The couple had met on 22 August 1954 during the royal cruise of the ''Agamemnon'', hosted by King Paul and Queen Frederica of Greece. Alexander and Maria Pia have twin sons born in 1958: * Prince Dimitri Umberto Anton Peter Maria of Yugoslavia (18 June 1958) * Prince Michael Nicolas Paul George Maria of Yugoslavia (18 June 1958) Another set of twins was born five years later, this time a girl and a boy: *Prince Sergius "Serge" Wladimir Emanuel Maria of Yugoslavia (born 12 March 1963); married Sophia de Toledo on 6 November 1985. They divorced in 1986. He was remarried to Eleonora Rajneri on 18 September 2004. He has a child named Umberto Emmanuel Dimitri, with Christiane Galeotti, born in 2018. *Princess Helene Olga Lydia Tamara Maria of Yugoslavia (born 12 March 1963); married Thierry Gaubert on 12 January 1988. The couple divorced and she remarried to Stanislas Fougeron on 12 March 2018. Alexander and Maria Pia divorced in 1967, and in 2003 she married

Prince Michel of Bourbon-Parma Prince Michel of Bourbon-Parma (Michel Marie Xavier Waldemar Georg Robert Karl Eymar; 4 March 1926 – 7 July 2018) was a French businessman, soldier and racing car driver, who was a member of deposed sovereign ducal House of Bourbon-Parma. He was ...

, himself divorced from Princess Yolande de Broglie-Revel. On 2 November 1973, Alexander married in a civil ceremony in

Paris Paris () is the capital and most populous city of France, with an estimated population of 2,165,423 residents in 2019 in an area of more than 105 km² (41 sq mi), making it the 30th most densely populated city in the world in 2020. S ...

Princess Barbara Eleonore Marie of

Liechtenstein Liechtenstein (), officially the Principality of Liechtenstein (german: link=no, Fürstentum Liechtenstein), is a German-speaking microstate located in the Alps between Austria and Switzerland. Liechtenstein is a semi-constitutional monarchy ...

(9 July 1942), daughter of Prince Johannes of Liechtenstein (first cousin once removed to Prince Hans-Adam II of Liechtenstein) and Countess Karoline of Ledebur-Wicheln (aunt of Hans Adam's late wife Marie, Princess of Liechtenstein). On 28 October 1995 Prince Alexander and Princess Barbara were married in the Orthodox faith in

Oplenac The St. George's Church in Oplenac ( sr-cyrl, Црква Светог Ђорђа на Опленцу, Crkva Svetog Đorđa na Oplencu), also known as Oplenac (Опленац), is the mausoleum of the Serbian and Yugoslav royal house of Karađorđ ...

, and had issue: * Prince Dušan Paul of Yugoslavia (born 25 September 1977), married in a civil ceremony Valerie DeMuzio on 3 July 2018 in New York, USA. On 25 May 2019 they were married in the Orthodox faith in

Serbia Serbia (, ; Serbian language, Serbian: , , ), officially the Republic of Serbia (Serbian language, Serbian: , , ), is a landlocked country in Southeast Europe, Southeastern and Central Europe, situated at the crossroads of the Pannonian Bas ...

Flying career

The Prince wished to serve in the British

Royal Air Force The Royal Air Force (RAF) is the United Kingdom's air and space force. It was formed towards the end of the First World War on 1 April 1918, becoming the first independent air force in the world, by regrouping the Royal Flying Corps (RFC) and ...

during World War Two, but was initially prevented by his father's political affiliations. He was eventually commissioned in the RAF through the intervention of

Prince George, Duke of Kent Prince George, Duke of Kent, (George Edward Alexander Edmund; 20 December 1902 – 25 August 1942) was a member of the British royal family, the fourth son of King George V and Queen Mary. He was a younger brother of kings Edward VIII and Geo ...

, his uncle. After the war, he sought employment as a pilot joining

British European Airways British European Airways (BEA), formally British European Airways Corporation, was a British airline which existed from 1946 until 1974. BEA operated to Europe, North Africa and the Middle East from airports around the United Kingdom. The a ...

in 1951, and subsequently engaging also in many aeronautic competitions.

Associations

Alexander was one of the four founding members of the Serbian Unity Congress. He was patron of the Center for Research of Orthodox Monarchism. On 17 February 2008, Alexander issued a statement condemning the

declaration of independence A declaration of independence or declaration of statehood or proclamation of independence is an assertion by a polity in a defined territory that it is independent and constitutes a state. Such places are usually declared from part or all of the ...

Kosovo Kosovo ( sq, Kosova or ; sr-Cyrl, Косово ), officially the Republic of Kosovo ( sq, Republika e Kosovës, links=no; sr, Република Косово, Republika Kosovo, links=no), is a partially recognised state in Southeast Euro ...

. On the occasion of Prince Alexander's 90th birthday on 13 August 2014, a celebration of his life in words and pictures appeared in that month's UK magazine ''Majesty''.

Death

Prince Alexander died on 12 May 2016 in Paris,Tanjug
/ref> where he and his wife had lived for many years. He was buried at

, Serbia, with his parents and brother, his coffin being carried by

Serbian Air Force The Serbian Air Force and Air Defence ( sr-Cyrl, Ратно ваздухопловство и противваздухопловна одбрана Војске Србије, Ratno vazduhoplovstvo i protivvazduhoplovna odbrana Vojske Srbije, Wa ...

fighter pilots.

Ancestry

References

Settling of Heraldic Circumstances in The Princely Branch of The Serbian Royal House of Karageorgevich

A new version of the coat of arms of H.R.H. Prince Aleksandar Karageorgevich
{{DEFAULTSORT:Alexander of Yugoslavia, Prince 1924 births 2016 deaths People from Richmond, London Yugoslav princes Karađorđević dynasty Serbian princes Serbian people of Russian descent Yugoslav people of Russian descent English people of Finnish descent English people of Serbian descent English people of Swedish descent English people of Russian descent English people of Greek descent English people of German descent English people of Danish descent Serbian people of German descent Serbian people of Greek descent English Eastern Orthodox Christians Grand Crosses of the Order of St. Sava Burials at the Mausoleum of the Royal House of Karađorđević, Oplenac Royal Air Force personnel of World War II Royal Air Force officers People educated at Ludgrove School