Funeral of King Alexander

Alexander I Karađorđević (Serbo-Croatian: Александар I Карађорђевић, Aleksandar I Karađorđević, 16 December [O.S. 4 December] 1888 – 9 October 1934) was King of the Serbs, Croats and Slovenes from 16 August 1921 to 3 October 1929 and King of Yugoslavia from 3 October 1929 until his assassination. His thirteen-year reign was the longest of the kingdom's three monarchs. He served as the de facto head of state of the Kingdom of Serbia from 1914 to 1918 and of Yugoslavia from 1918 to 1921 as prince regent for his father, Peter I. Born in Cetinje, Montenegro, Alexander was the second son and fourth child of Peter and Zorka Karađorđević. The House of Karađorđević had been deposed in Serbia 30 years earlier by the rival House of Obrenović, and Alexander spent his early life in exile with his father in Montenegro and later Switzerland. He subsequently moved to the Russian Empire and enrolled in the imperial Page Corps. Following the May Coup and the assassination of King Alexander I Obrenović in 1903, Peter ascended the Serbian throne. In 1909, Alexander's elder brother, Prince George, renounced his succession rights, making Alexander heir apparent. Alexander distinguished himself as a field commander during the Balkan Wars, leading Serbian forces to victories over the Ottoman Empire and the Bulgarians. In 1914, he was appointed prince regent after his father transferred his royal duties due to ill health. During the First World War, he held nominal supreme command of the Royal Serbian Army. In 1918, Alexander oversaw the unification of Serbia and the former Austro-Hungarian provinces of Croatia-Slavonia, Slovenia, Vojvodina, Bosnia and Herzegovina, and Dalmatia into the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes, in accordance with the Corfu Declaration. He subsequently became known as Alexander the Unifier. Alexander continued as prince regent and de facto head of state until ascending the throne upon his father's death in 1921. An extended political crisis followed, culminating in the assassination of Croat political leader Stjepan Radić. In response, Alexander abolished the Vidovdan Constitution in 1929, prorogued parliament, renamed the state the Kingdom of Yugoslavia, and instituted a royal dictatorship. The 1931 Constitution formalised his personal rule and established Yugoslavia as a unitary state, increasing resentment among the non-Serb population. Domestic tensions were further exacerbated by the onset of the Great Depression, which severely affected the country's agrarian economy. In foreign policy, Alexander promoted the Balkan Pact with Greece, Romania, and Turkey, and sought closer relations with Bulgaria. In October 1934, Alexander made an official visit to the French Republic to consolidate support for the Little Entente against Hungarian revanchism and Italian expansionism. While traveling through Marseille, he was assassinated by Vlado Chernozemski, an operative of the Internal Macedonian Revolutionary Organization acting with support from