The Serbian ruler Milan Obrenović, who had previously been a prince, became the King of Serbia. He was strongly influenced by Austria-Hungary, and his reign lasted for around seven years.
On this day in 1882, Serbia was raised from a princedom to a kingdom and its ruler Milan Obrenović, who had previously been a prince, now became the King of Serbia. At that time there was a sort of trend in the Balkans, where states were being made into kingdoms en masse. Namely, Romania became a kingdom the year before Serbia, when the Romanian king Carol from the Hohenzollern-Sigmaringen dynasty became King Carol I. The neighboring Bulgaria became a kingdom in 1908, and Montenegro in 1910. Greece had already become a kingdom back in 1832.
In contrast to Greece, Romania and Bulgaria, whose kings were members of German dynasties, Serbia and Montenegro were ruled by local dynasties. Indeed, Serbia and Montenegro were the only countries in the Balkans which had rulers from local dynasties before World War I (even Albania was ruled by a prince from the German Wied dynasty).
Serbian king Milan Obrenović was strongly influenced by Austria-Hungary, and his reign lasted for around seven years. He then abdicated in favor of his son Alexander Obrenović and retreated from public life. He died in Vienna in 1901, and was allegedly under the care of Hungarian count Zichy before his death.
