BLIND AMBITION: She was the uncrowned ruler of Serbia but ended up in a mass grave for the poor!

She was spoken of as a grand lady of inexhaustible wealth—intelligent, educated, driven, sharp-tongued, unrestrained, unstoppable, and of limitless ambition.

Sara Sarka Anastasijević Karađorđević was the daughter of Serbia’s wealthiest man, the wife of the rightful heir to the throne, and the uncrowned ruler of Serbia.

THE HEADSTRONG CAPTAIN’S DAUGHTER

Toward the end of his life, when he decided to spend almost his entire fortune on travel and a luxurious lifestyle, Captain Miša Anastasijević explained his actions by saying that, without a male heir, there was “no one to save it for.” What he failed to mention was that he and his wife, Hristina, had five daughters, whom he had been preparing from childhood to be valuable assets in arranged marriages that would grant him powerful connections in all aspects of 19th-century Serbian life.

The youngest of them, his favorite, Sara, was born in 1836 in Belgrade. From an early age, she was known as a lively and astute child, “born” for great things. Once she had outgrown her governesses and Belgrade, she continued her education at a women’s college in Paris, where she expanded her knowledge of French and German, as well as piano and violin.

When she returned to Belgrade a few years later as a young woman ready for marriage, neither she nor the patriarchal town were prepared for each other. Tall, with brown hair and piercing green eyes, she was an exceptional beauty who enjoyed horseback riding and hunting, but also balls and parties, where she outshone all other young women. She had a passion for philosophy and fine arts and was a staunch opponent of Vuk Karadžić and his linguistic reforms. Both Serbian and foreign princes, counts, and noblemen competed for her hand (and her substantial dowry).

However, her ambitious father had other plans. Miša Anastasijević arranged for twenty-year-old Sara to marry Lieutenant Colonel Đorđe Karađorđević, the grandson of Karađorđe himself, through the older branch of the family, and an aide-de-camp to Prince Aleksandar Karađorđević. Their wedding, held in 1856, was the grandest event in Serbia at the time. From this marriage, Sara and Đorđe had two sons—Aleksa and Božidar—and a daughter, who tragically died in early childhood.

A PALACE WITHOUT A RULER

Father and daughter had a straightforward plan—to overthrow Aleksandar Karađorđević and install Sara and her husband as Serbia’s rulers. Miša spared no expense in this endeavor. He began constructing a magnificent palace near the Great Market, intended for the future prince and princess. At the same time, he launched a political campaign against Prince Aleksandar, which culminated in the Saint Andrew’s Assembly. Just when he thought fortune was on his side, fate took a turn—while Aleksandar was indeed deposed, it was the “old fox” Prince Miloš who was restored to the throne.

Disheartened, Miša abandoned his homeland and business ventures, donated the palace to the state, and devoted himself to travel and leisure, lamenting his unfulfilled ambitions.

Sara took her father’s failure just as hard. Along with her husband and children, she left Serbia and resided on her father’s estates in Romania, as well as in Nice and Paris. However, unlike Miša, she did not abandon her dream of returning to Serbia in grand fashion.

She sought to use her sons, Aleksa and Božidar, as pawns in her game. She introduced them to Russian Tsar Alexander II, hoping they would be admitted to the Page Corps, an elite military school for aristocratic sons, where both their father and grandfather had studied. However, after a confrontation with the tsar himself, Sara furiously left Russia and relocated to France.

With her father’s unwavering financial support and the income from Romanian estates she had received as part of her dowry, she purchased a home in the Bois de Boulogne, which became a gathering place for Parisian bohemians, Russian émigrés, Serbian politicians, and cadets. It is said that she frequently hosted Victor Hugo, and some believe that her tumultuous life served as inspiration for Alphonse Daudet’s novel Kings in Exile.

STRONGER THAN EXILE

While her husband and sons lacked ambition, Sara Karađorđević was unstoppable. She was the only member of the Karađorđević family to break the ban on their return to Serbia following the assassination of Prince Mihailo in 1868. When she learned that her mother was gravely ill, she decided to return to Serbia despite the prohibition. Upon hearing of her arrival, the authorities dispatched a gendarmerie unit to arrest her. Proud and defiant, Sara confronted them with a weapon in hand:

“If the son of an adventuress fears for his throne because of me, a woman, then let him know that he will have an international scandal if he even tries to expel me by force. I will leave Belgrade on my own tomorrow, as I have no intention of staying! I came only to see my ailing mother because I love her. King Milan, who does not love his mother, cannot understand what a mother is, nor what a child’s love for a good mother means! But I will teach him a lesson! I will show him that above both him and me, there is European public opinion and a different moral order than the one he enforces in Serbia, where he rules with fire and sword…”

King Milan relented, and the headstrong princess later claimed she had not been expelled but had left Belgrade of her own accord.

After the deaths of her daughter and husband, Sara’s desire for revenge and restoration to power only grew stronger. She tried to steer her sons toward politics, but they resisted. While Božidar was an artist, painter, and adventurer, Aleksa preferred an easy life of gambling and the bright lights of Moulin Rouge.

Disillusioned and embittered, Sara began conspiring against King Milan, whose scandalous lifestyle and troubled marriage provided endless fodder for gossip. Thanks to her numerous connections, she spread sensational stories in European newspapers. Then, as now, the public loved a juicy scandal, and she took delight in spreading the rumor that Milan was actually the illegitimate son of an unknown Romanian nobleman with whom his mother, Marija, had secretly met. The Obrenovićs were no less vengeful, and the poison-tipped arrows fired between the rival dynasties entertained European courts.

THE UNCROWNED RULER IN A MASS GRAVE

She patiently awaited her moment, and she almost got it. In the tragic May of 1903, when the last of the Obrenović dynasty were slain by the Black Hand, Sara believed her time had finally come. She saw her son, Aleksa, as the rightful heir to the Serbian throne, given his lineage as the senior Karađorđević descendant. However, Aleksa disappointed her once again—he declared before journalists that he had no interest in the Serbian throne. Božidar expressed the same lack of ambition. Their refusal sent Sara into a spiral of rage and hatred. It was no surprise, then, that she was absent from the coronation of King Peter I Karađorđević in 1904.

After Božidar’s death in 1908, Sara spent her final decades secluded in Paris, nearly forgotten, writing memoirs about 1860s Belgrade. Her name appeared in public only sporadically, mostly in connection with scandals.

Her final betrayal came just before her death. She entrusted her secretary, Žika Ranković, to purchase a burial plot for her in Père Lachaise Cemetery. Ranković bought the grave in his own name and, five years after her death in 1936, sold it. The remains of Princess Karađorđević were removed and placed in a mass grave for the poor, where she rests to this day.