Karadjordje

Karadjordje (born Nov. 3 [Nov. 14, New Style], 1762, Viševac, Serbia—died July 13 [July 25], 1817, Radovanje) was the leader of the Serbian people in their struggle for independence from the Turks and founder of the Karadjordjević (Karađorđević) dynasty.

The son of a peasant, Karadjordje (“Black George”), so named because of his dark complexion and penetrating eyes, in his youth herded swine and goats. In 1787 he migrated to Austria, where he joined the army and served with distinction in Italy and against the Turks. At the end of the Austro-Turkish war in 1791, Karadjordje made his home in Topola, Serbia, and prospered by trading in livestock. Among his seven children was Alexander, a future prince of Serbia (1842–58).

In the spring of 1804 the Serbs decided to rise against the tyrannical regime of the Janissaries, the elite corps of the Turkish army, and elected Karadjordje their leader. The Janissaries were swiftly defeated with the tacit approval of the sultan, Selim III, who regarded them as rebels. His Serbian subjects, however, flushed by their successes, wanted local autonomy. When Selim refused their demands, Karadjordje launched a war of independence in 1805. A brilliant guerrilla fighter and a natural leader, he defeated the Turks and liberated his country. When Russia went to war with Turkey (1807), the Serbs had a powerful ally, but the Russians offered only a token force. Their failure to mention Serbia in the truce of Slobozia with Turkey convinced Karadjordje that his nation was regarded as a mere pawn in the turbulent politics of the Napoleonic era. When Russian influence threatened to become paramount, the State Council gave Serbia its first constitution and declared Karadjordje the “first and supreme Serbian hereditary leader” (1808).

Serbo-Russian relations improved when Russia renewed the war with the Turks in 1809. A Serbo-Russian army defeated the Turks at Varvarin and Loznica (1810). In 1812, however, on the verge of Napoleon’s invasion, the Russians concluded a hasty treaty with the Turks at Bucharest, leaving Serbia with little more than paper guarantees of autonomy. The sultan, his powerful forces freed, invaded Serbia from three sides. Soon all opposition was crushed (1813).

Sick with typhus and broken in spirit, Karadjordje fled to Austria. Serb autonomy was, however, lost only temporarily, for in 1815 another national leader, Miloš Obrenović, arose to direct a successful rebellion against the Turks. Karadjordje, who was regarded by Miloš as an enemy, was not allowed to return to Serbia. After living for a time in Russia, where he was well received, he secretly returned to Serbia hoping to organize an uprising against the Turks in alliance with Greek patriots. Fearing the presence of such a dangerous rival, Miloš had him murdered in his sleep. To ingratiate himself with the sultan, he sent the slain man’s head to Constantinople. The assassination initiated a vendetta between the rival dynasties descending from the two leaders that was to plague Serbian politics until the assassination of King Alexander (Aleksandar Obrenović) in 1903.