Local Observation / THE HOUSE OF O!

In retrospect maybe it was inevitable, he was ever more despised and she was outwardly loathed.

Reasons were he was weak and indecisive and she was barren and positioning her brothers to succeed. The desire to hold on to power is too heady for some, and despite reason or logic they cling. To their own eternal peril.

One night when the King and Queen were attempting to sleep the noise of turncoat guards surging about the palace and toward the royal chamber alerted them. Legend hints they hid in a closet, adding only seconds of terror to their lives before bayonets were plunged in inexorably ending one hundred years of intermittent rule.

So concludes the House of Obrenovic though they would be supported by Churchill due to his aunt’s affair with an Obrenovic ex-King. The connection was so strong rumors later circulated Churchill himself had Obrenovic blood…

The House of Karageorgevic was back in the saddle, literally, when King Peter I rode through the streets of Belgrade upon being invited to serve. After years in exile Peter was ready. He gathered his three children, and a stray cousin who had been orphaned becuse his parents gave him away as they had better things to do.

This orphan, my grandfather HRH Prince Paul of Serbia, was born in Russia, but his parents were emotionally disconnected, even from each other, and he was dispatched to his uncle Peter.

Thus he was part of the entourage packed up to Serbia. My grandfather was 10 years old. He was given a set of pistols and a room in the palace and inculcated in military life.

He had no specific role, He was an extra. His personal love was art. Life was somewhat normal until 1934 when his cousin King Alexander, the eldest son of Peter, was assassinated and my grandfather became Regent.