King Petar I death anniversary

King Petar I death anniversary

The ceremony was conducted with state and military honors.

Petar I was born in Belgrade in 1844. He was Serbia's first constitutional monarch.

Before his appointment as king, Petar had served with the French during the Franco-Prussian War of 1870-1871, joining the Bosnian insurrection against the Ottomans in 1875.

Although his reign saw reforms to the constitution, the army and education, with the outbreak of the First World War Petar passed executive control to his second son Aleksandar, who became Regent.

The Serbian army fought the battles of Cer and Kolubara in 1914 against the invading Austro-Hungarians to inflict and suffer heavy losses, but also to achieve the first major Allied victory at Cer.

However, after what historians describe as Serbia's "epic defeat" in 1915, Petar joined his army in the full retreat through the wintry mountains of Albania to Corfu, Greece.

In 1918, Petar was crowned the King of Serbs, Croats, and Slovenes, in what was to become the Kingdom of Yugoslavia in 1929.

He died in Belgrade, in 1921.