The May Coup (Serbian: Мајски преврат, Majski prevrat) was a coup d'état in which Serbian King Alexander Obrenović and his wife, Queen Draga, were assassinated inside the Royal Palace in Belgrade on the night of 28-29 May 1903 by the Julian calendar (10-11 June by the Gregorian calendar). This act resulted in the extinction of the House of Obrenović which had been ruling Serbia since the middle of the 19th century. The assassination of the royal couple was organised by a group of army officers led by then-Captain Dragutin Dimitrijević Apis. After the May Overthrow, the Serbian throne passed to the rival House of Karađorđević. The coup had a significant influence on Serbia's relations with other European powers; the house of Obrenović was allied to Austria-Hungary, while the Karađorđević dynasty had close ties both with Russia and France. Both dynasties were receiving financial support from their powerful foreign sponsors.
Marriage to Draga Mašin Lunjevica
King Alexander invited his father to return once more to Serbia. Upon the arrival of former King Milan in Serbia on October 7, 1897, a new Government was formed with Vladan Đorđević as the new Prime Minister. Milan was appointed to the position of Supreme Commander of the Active Army of the Kingdom of Serbia. Together with the new Government, Milan tried to find a suitable princess from some Western court to become Alexander's bride not knowing that Alexander was meeting regularly with Draga.
Due to the growing involvement of King Milan in daily Serbian political life, and especially due to his anti-Radical policy, an unemployed worker tried to assassinate Milan on 24 June 1899 causing Milan to begin reckoning with the Radicals in every way. However, Alexander now had to find a way to get rid of his father so that he could marry Draga. He decided to send King Milan and Prime Minister Đorđević outside the country. Under the pretext of negotiating his marriage to the German Princess Alexandra zu Schaumburg-Lippe, Alexander sent his father to Karlsbad and Prime Minister Đorđević to Marienbad to sign a contract with Austro-Hungary. As soon as he removed the opponents, Alexander was able to announce his engagement to Draga Mašin.
King Alexander's popularity further declined after his marriage to Draga Mašin, the former lady-in-waiting of his mother Queen Natalija and widow of engineer Svetozar Mašin. Draga was 12 years older than Alexander. At that time it was very unusual for a king or heir to the throne to marry a woman who was not a member of the nobility. Alexander's father, the former King Milan Obrenović, did not approve of the marriage and refused to return to Serbia. He died in Vienna in 1901. Another opponent of the marriage was the Dowager Queen Natalija who wrote a letter to Alexander containing all of the ugliest rumors regarding Draga that were circulating in Russia. Minister of Foreign Affairs Andra Đorđević visited the Belgrade Metropolitan and asked them to refuse to give their blessing. Alexander also visited the Metropolitan and threatened that he would abdicate if he could not receive their blessing. As a sign of protest, the entire Đorđević's government resigned. Among the fiercest opponents to the marriage was Đorđe Genčić, Minister of the Interior in Vladan Đorđević's government. Due to his public condemnation of the engagement, Alexander had him jailed for seven years. The situation was resolved by Russian Tsar Nicolas Romanov who agreed to be Alexander's honorary best man.
The wedding took place on 23 July 1900. One of officers in the procession was Dragutin Dimitrijević Apis. Over strained relations with the outside world due to his unpopular marriage, King Alexander's foreign policy turned to Russia. The King had previously released the radicals from prison who had been accused of backing the Ivandan attempt on former King Milan.
After the death of his father Milan, King Alexander, as a sign of good will due to the Queen's alleged pregnancy (a public secret existed that she was actually sterile since an accident in her youth, which Alexander refused to believe), pardoned all political prisoners, including Đorđe Genčić and the remaining Radicals. On 20 March 1901, he put together a new government led by the Radical Mihailo Vujić. The government consisted of representatives from the People’s Radical Party and the Liberal Party. King Alexander then brought about a new octroyed constitution whose main feature was the introduction of a bicameral system consisting of the Senate (upper house) and the National Assembly (lower house). The new constitution gave the monarch the right to appoint the majority of the Senators, which would defend his interests.
The false pregnancy of Queen Draga created a huge problem for King Alexander. The first reaction came from Russian Tsar Nicholas II who did not want to receive the King and Queen upon the latter's planned visit to Russia. Alexander blamed Radicals for it, made a new coup and installed a government headed by General Dimitrije Cincar-Marković on 6 November 1902.
Due to increasing repulsion by the Russian court, King Alexander again tried to approach Austria in the autumn of 1902. He had taken some earlier steps in January 1902 when he sent his personal secretary to Vienna with the promise that it would solve the question of his successor in agreement with the neighboring monarchy by adopting one of the descendants of female line of Obrenovićs, living in Austria-Hungary. On the other hand, Draga believed that Alexander should adopt her brother Nikodije Lunjevica for the succession.
Dimitrije Tucović organized a rally of dissatisfied workers and students on 23 March 1903 which turned into open conflict with the police and the army resulting in the deaths of six people. Knowing that he would not be able to win new elections, the king staged two coups within one hour. With the first coup Alexander abolished his octroyed constitution and disbanded the Senate and National Assembly. Then the King appointed new members to the Senate, the State Council and the courts. In the second coup, the King restored the constitution he had abolished just a few hours earlier.Following this, the government conducted elections on 18 May 1903 (31 May by Gregorian calendar) which the government won. This was the final political victory for King Alexander I.
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