Last Yugoslav King Reburied After Return From US

Peter II was only king buried in America
By Rob Quinn,  Newser Staff
Posted May 27, 2013 1:19 AM CDT
Last Yugoslav King Reburied After Return From US
The coffins of King Peter II, second from left, his wife Queen Aleksandra, first from left, mother Queen Maria, third from left and brother Prince Andrej, are draped in Serbian royal flags.   (AP Photo/Andrej Cukic)

After more than 40 years as the only European king buried in the US, the last king of Yugoslavia has been reburied in the homeland he fled after 11 days on the throne. Peter II received a state funeral in Serbia along with his mother and his wife, whose bodies were returned from Greece and from Britain, the BBC reports.

Peter was 17 when he acceded to the throne in 1941 amid a military coup that overthrew the Prince Regent for signing a non-aggression pact with Nazi Germany. The Nazi invasion of Yugoslavia soon afterward forced him to flee. The monarchy was abolished in 1945 and he never returned—he died in the US in 1970 and was interred for many years in a Serbian Orthodox cemetery in Libertyville, Illinois. His son moved to Serbia in 2001, but with polls showing only 40% of Serbians favoring a return of the monarchy, a return to the throne seems unlikely. (More King Peter II stories.)

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