Monarch buried at Libertyville monastery
Lake County Discovery Museum column
(This column first ran in August, 2009)
The only king buried in the United States is King Peter II, the exiled king of Yugoslavia, who rests in St. Sava’s Serbian Orthodox Monastery Church in Libertyville.
Peter II Karadordevic (1923-70) was the third and last King of Yugoslavia. He succeeded the Yugoslav throne in 1934 on the assassination of his father, King Alexander, while on a state visit to France.
His father had been ruler of the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes from 1921 to 1929 when he became the first king of a united Yugoslavia.
Though only 11 years old, Crown Prince Peter was now king. His great uncle, Prince Paul, became Prince Regent. Prince Paul supported the fascist dictators of Europe, while King Peter opposed them. This schism resulted in Peter supporting a British-backed coup d’etat in March 1941, which deposed Prince Paul.
The young king’s strong opposition to Nazi Germany led to the Germans attacking Yugoslavia for three days and nights in Operation Punishment.
Following the Axis invasion, Peter was forced to leave the country with the Yugoslav government.
Peter settled in England in June 1941, where he joined other governments in exile from Nazi-occupied Europe. He completed his education at Cambridge University and joined the Royal Air Force, and was recognized by the government-in-exile as the commander-in-chief of Yugoslav forces.
Peter married Princess Alexandra of Greece and Denmark in London March 20, 1944. They had one son, Alexander, Crown Prince of Yugoslavia.
While still in exile, Peter was deposed by Yugoslavia’s Constituent Assembly Nov. 29, 1945. He refused to abdicate, and after the war he went into exile in the United States. He died in 1970 in Denver, Colo., after a long struggle with chronic liver disease and an unsuccessful liver transplant.
It was the monarch’s wish to be buried at St. Sava’s Serbian Orthodox Monastery Church in Libertyville in order to be close to the thousands of Serbians living in the Chicago area. King Peter’s funeral in Libertyville drew more than 10,000 people.
In 1976, the king’s son came from Yugoslavia to visit the gravesite at St. Sava’s under police guard. In 2007, Crown Prince Alexander declared his intent to rebury his father in Serbia. The king’s remains would be transferred to the Karadjordjevic Dynasty Mausoleum of St. George in Oplenac, Serbia, where he would join other members of the Royal Family.
The plan has upset some Serbian-Americans, who wish to uphold the king’s wishes that he be buried at St. Sava. As of this writing, King Peter is still buried at St. Sava’s.