Jevrem Obrenović

Jevrem Teodorović, later known as Jevrem Obrenović, was the youngest brother of Serbian Prince Milos Obrenović and was also the youngest of his nine siblings.

Life

Jevrem Teodorović's mother Višnja Urosovic married twice, first to Obren Martinovic, with whom she had three children.Višnja Urosovic died in 1817.^[1] After his death, she married a poor widower Todor Mihailovic, in the village of Dobrinja.

Višnja and Todor had three sons: Milos, Jovan and Jevrem. Both Višnja and Todor's ancestors were immigrants from Herzegovina migrating in the late seventeenth or early eighteenth century.

Todor Mihailovic died in 1802 leaving the family in poverty.^[2] A few years later, the half-brothers by their mother - Jakov and Milan, took their mother, along with Milos, Jovan and Jevrem to live on their estate.

Milan Obrenović had a great influence on the upbringing and development of his younger brothers, as evidenced by the fact that Milos, Jovan and Jevrem took their half-brothers surname Obrenović.

Active in the Serbian independence movement from his youth, Jevrem travelled to Ostružnica to sell oxen for weapons and ammunition His brother Milos became a leader in the First Serbian Uprising, lead by Karadjordje . For a while he lived in Belgrade, but the Turks seized and shut in the Kalemegdan fortress. Upon learning that the Serbs again were revolting against the Turks at the beginning of April 1815 (the Second Serbian Uprising), led by his brother Milos; Jevrem again took up arms, Suleiman Pasha Skopljak, sentenced Jevrem to death, but in August 1815 Milos and The Ottoman governor Ali Pasha had made peace, and Jevrem was released from prison, where he had spent about six months.

In 1816, Miloš made Jevrem governor of the Sabacka district; and in 1817 he was sent to govern Sokol district.

In 1817, his elder brother Miloš concluded a peace with the Turks and was appointed Prince of Serbia by the Ottoman Sultan, subject to tribute to the Porte. As such; Jevrem was in line to the succession to the Serbian throne behind his brother Jovan and the sons of Miloš.

n 1819, he was appointed governor of Valjevo. Jevrem ruled autocratically in the districts under his governance. There was nothing could happen without his knowledge or consent.

The same year he married Tomania Bogićević, with whom he had eight children - seven daughters (whose eldest daughter Jelena married Prince Miloš' secretary Konstantin Hadija) and one son.

Jevrem, as younger brother of the ruling Prince of Serbia had numerous responsibilities. His role in the organization and work of the nascent Serbian judiciary was of paramount importance. He was instrumental in combating banditry, which was especially rampant after 1817. Applying harsh, sometimes even cruel measures, Milos and Jevrem managed to reduce, virtually eradicate brigandage to a reasonable level.

In the period from 1817 to 1835, Jevrem participated in the suppression of several rebellions, during the Russo-Turkish war his task was to prevent the transfer of Turkish troops from Bosnia to Serbia over the eastern front.

Until 1842. Jevrem at first secretly, but later publicly fought for power. The opposition was able to remove Milos from power, but then Jevrem realised that his chances of being elected Serbian Prince collapsed, and therefore committed his support to Miloš' second son Mihailo Obrenović III.

Sabac town, where Jevrem lived from 1816 until 1831, was completely modernised and 'Europeanised' under Jevrem's auspices. His house, which was completed in 1824, was a multi-storey building that "symmetry, architecture and beauty precedes all residences and palaces in Serbia." Thanks to Jevrem understanding the importance of popular education, Jevrem built schools and invited many teachers, doctors, pharmacists, and artisans to the city. Sabac also had a well-stocked pharmacy with drugs valued at 5,000 pence. The same year. Jevrem also built a hospital in Sabac, and he built the first barracks in the city with four departments, which could accommodate 60 soldiers.

In 1829, he appointed Joseph Schlesinger, music teacher for his children. Schlesinger soon formed in Sabac his own "music chapel". After a written order from Miloš Obrenović in 1830 that the Serbian army needed military music, Schlesinger was in June 1, 1831 appointed Kapellmeister of military music in Kragujevac.

Jevrem hosted many of the intelligentsia of Europe, played a significant role in raising the general cultural level of the then Serbia. His library at his residence in Sabac, with the works of La Fontaine, Cooper, Scott, Schiller and others, is among the richest in Serbia.

Under Jevrem's auspices, the Belgrade Public Library was founded in 1832.

After a long illness, Jevrem pood at his home in Wallachia, on September 9, 1856.

References