Alexander I

Alexander (Alexander Obrenović) (ōbrĕ'nəvĭch), 1876-1903, king of Serbia (1889-1903), son of King Milan. He succeeded on his father's abdication. Proclaiming himself of age in 1893, he took over the government, abolished (1894) the relatively liberal constitution of 1889, and restored the conservative one of 1869. He recalled his father in 1897, gave him command of the army, and permitted him to undertake a campaign against the pro-Russian Radical party. In 1900 he married Draga Mašin, the widow of a foreign engineer and a former lady-in-waiting (see Draga). The scandal of the marriage exasperated his opposition. In 1903, after Alexander had arbitrarily suspended and then restored the new liberal constitution that he had granted in 1901, he and his queen were assassinated by a clique of officers. Peter Karadjordjević was recalled as King Peter I, and the Obrenović dynasty came to an end.