"Prince Paul" redirects here, for the American disc jockey see Prince Paul (producer).
Prince Paul of Yugoslavia
(also known as Prince Paul Karadordevic
(Serbo-Croatian: Pavle Karadordevic
, Cyrillic script: ????? ????????????
; Slovene: Pavel Karadordevic
) KG (27 April 1893 – 11 September 1976) of the Yugoslav Royal House of Karadordevic was Regent of the Kingdom of Yugoslavia during the minority of King Peter II. Peter was the eldest son of his first cousin Alexander I. His title in Yugoslavia was Knez
(Knez Pavle Karadordevic
), which translates best as "Prince".
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PRINCE PAUL TICKETS
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Early life
Prince Paul of Yugoslavia was the only son of Prince
Arsen Karadordevic (a brother of
Peter I of Yugoslavia) and Princess
Aurora Demidov (a granddaughter of the
Finnish philanthropist
Aurora Karamzin and her Russian husband
Paul Demidov). 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.
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 was installed as a
Knight of the Garter in 1939.
Regent of Yugoslavia
On 9 October 1934, 41-year-old Prince Paul took the
Regency after his cousin
King Alexander was assassinated in
Marseille,
France. Alexander's son whom became King Peter II was 11 years at the time of his father's death.
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In 1939, Paul and his wife Olga made a state visit to
Nazi Germany during which time he was treated to a banquet given by German leader
Adolf Hitler.
[1] Paul was a recipient of the
Combined Pilots-Observation Badge (
Flugzeugführer-und Beobachterabzeichen
), a German military award.
Prince Paul was regent of the Kingdom of Yugoslavia and although King Peter and his advisors were opposed to Nazi Germany, Regent Prince Paul declared that Yugoslavia would adhere to the Tripartite Pact and on 25 March 1941 in Vienna he officially signed the treaty with the
Tripartite Pact with the
Axis Powers of
World War II. Massive demonstrations took place in
Belgrade almost immediately the treaty signing. On 27 March 1941, his cousin and ward, King Peter II, together with a group of pro-British officers and middle class politicians, staged a
coup d'état
. General
Dušan Simovic became
Prime Minister and Yugoslavia backed out of the Axis sphere in all but name.
Although King Peter II and his new Government opposed Nazi Germany, they also feared that if Hitler attacked Yugoslavia, the United Kingdom was not in any real position to help. In April 1941, fearing that Yugoslavia would become a British or Soviet base, Germany
invaded the Kingdom of Yugoslavia. At the advice of the Government, King Peter II was asked to lead the country from abroad and ask for Allied support. The only legal body of Yugoslavia became the Royal Yugoslav Government in exile. Yugoslavia itself was dismembered and occupied by Nazi Germany and its satellites.
Exile
For the remainder of the war, Prince Paul was kept, with his family, under
house arrest by the British in
Kenya.
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 11 September 1976, aged 83, 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.
Art Collections
Prince Paul collected, donated and dedicated huge number of Art works to Serbia and Serbian people ,including foreign masterpieces.There is especially significant Italian ,French and Dutch/Flemish Collections.Most of works are in
National Museum of Serbia,including artists such as
Rubens,
Renoir,
Monet,
Rembrandt,
Picasso,
Van Gogh,
Cezanne,...
See also
- List of Knights and Ladies of the Garter
References
- Tanner, Marcus. ''Croatia: A Nation Forged in War''. Yale University Press, 2007. (pg. 135)