Prince Paul of Yugoslavia
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Prince Paul of Yugoslavia (April 27, 1893, Saint Petersburg, Russia – September 11, 1976, Paris, France) of the Royal House of Karadjordjevic was regent of the Kingdom of Yugoslavia for King Peter II, who was the eldest son of his first cousin Alexander I. He is known in Serbian, Bosnian, and Croatian as Павле Карађорђевић Pavle Karađorđević and Slovenian as Pavel Karađorđević.
Prince Paul of Yugoslavia was the only son of Prince Arsen Karageorgevich (a brother of Peter I) and Princess Aurora Demidov (a granddaughter of the Finnish philanthropist Aurora Karamzin). He married Princess Olga of Greece and Denmark, a sister of Princess Marina, Duchess of Kent, in 1923. George VI of the United Kingdom, as Duke of York, was best man at his wedding in Belgrade.
A Knight of the Garter, Paul was educated at the University of Oxford and his closest friends (including the American-born, naturalized British politician Chips Channon) and outlook on life were said to be British.
He took the regency on 9 October 1934 after his cousin King Alexander's assassination in Marseille and ruled the country until he decided to sign the Tripartite Pact with the World War II Axis Powers in Vienna on 25 March 1941. Because of his decision, massive demonstrations took place in Belgrade and, after this, his cousin and ward, Peter II, together with a group of pro-English officers and middle class politicians, made a coup d'état on 27 March 1941. General Dušan Simović became prime minister and Yugoslavia backed out of the Axis sphere in all but name.
Although the new rulers opposed Germany, they also feared that if Hitler attacked Yugoslavia, the United Kingdom was not in any real position to help. For the safety of the country, they declared that Yugoslavia would adhere to the Tripartite Pact. However, Nazi Germany invaded the Kingdom of Yugoslavia anyway and the royal family escaped abroad, Prince Paul included.
For the remainder of the war, Prince Paul was kept, with his family, under house arrest by the British in South Africa.
Princess Elizabeth, his only daughter, obtained and published information from the Special Operations Executive files in the Foreign Office in London and published them in Belgrade, in the 1990 edition of the Serbian-language biography of her father. The original book Paul of Yugoslavia was written by Neil Balfour and the first was published by Eaglet Publishing in London in 1980.
Prince Paul died in Paris on September 11, 1976 without ever returning to Yugoslavia.
Prince Paul is father of Princess Elizabeth of Yugoslavia, Prince Alexander of Yugoslavia the Elder and Prince Nikola of Yugoslavia, and a grandfather of American actress Catherine Oxenberg.
| Preceded by: Aleksandar Karađorđević |
House of Karađorđević | Succeeded by: Petar II Karađorđević |
