Milan Obrenović IV (; 22 August 1854 – 11 February 1901) reigned as the Prince of Serbia from 10 June 1868 until 1882, and then King of Serbia, a title he held until his abdication on 6 March 1889. Most important events during Milan's reign was the First and Second Serbian–Ottoman War and the Serbo-Bulgarian War. At the beginning of his reign, the Principality of Serbia was still de jure part of the Ottoman Empire, but became fully independent in 1878 with the Treaty of Berlin (1878). In 1882, the Principality was elevated to the status of a kingdom, and Milan became a king.

Milan abdicated the throne in 1889 and left Serbia, after which his son, Alexander I, became the second King of Serbia. After a few years, Milan returned to Serbia and in 1897 his son appointed him the commander-in-chief of the Royal Serbian Army. Milan did not approve his son's marriage to Queen Draga, so he left Serbia again in 1900 and died in exile in 1901.

Early years

Birth and infancy in exile

Milan Obrenović was born in 1854 in Mărășești in Moldavia, where his family had lived in exile ever since the return of the rival House of Karađorđević to the Serbian throne in 1842 when they managed to depose Milan's cousin Prince Mihailo Obrenović III.

Milan was the son of and of his Moldavian wife Marija Obrenović, née Elena Maria Catargiu. Milan's paternal grandfather (Miloš's father) was Jevrem Obrenović (1790–1856), brother of Miloš Obrenović I, Prince of Serbia from 1815 to 1839 and from 1858 to 1860. Milan was therefore Prince Miloš's grandnephew. He had only one sibling — his older sister Tomanija.

In 1855, shortly after Milan's birth, his parents divorced. When Milan was aged 7, his father Miloš died on 20 November 1860 (or 1861) while fighting the Turks near Bucharest as a foreign mercenary in the Romanian Army, meaning that his mother Marija got legal custody. Marija, however, lived a lavish aristocratic lifestyle, soon becoming Romanian ruler Alexandru Ioan Cuza's mistress and bearing him two sons — Alexandru Al. Ioan Cuza (nicknamed Sașa) and Dimitrie. As a result, she showed little interest in her children from her previous marriage with Miloš. Therefore, an agreement was reached for young Milan to be legally adopted by his cousin Mihailo Obrenović, who in the meantime, following the 1858 expulsion of the House of Karađorđević, had returned to Serbia and had become the ruling prince in 1860.

Arriving in Serbia

Milan was brought to Kragujevac by Prince Mihailo Obrenović III who also arranged for a governess to raise the youngster. Decades later, once Milan became a king, details of his mother's personal life were often used by his political opponents, notably People's Radical Party (NRS) leader Stojan Protić who went as far as making an untrue accusation in his paper Samouprava that King Milan's father was actually Alexandru Ioan Cuza, referring to King Milan pejoratively as Kuzić instead of Obrenović.

After bringing his nephew to Serbia, Prince Mihailo also took care of the youngster's education, sending him to Lycée Louis-le-Grand in Paris where young Milan reportedly displayed considerable maturity.

Prince of Serbia (1868–1882)

thumb|Portrait of Prince Milan by [[Stevan Todorović, 1881]]

On 10 June 1868, when Milan was only fourteen years of age, Prince Mihailo Obrenović III was assassinated. As the late prince did not have any male heirs, the question of who was to succeed him on the Serbian throne became a pressing one. In the post-assassination chaos and the resulting power vacuum, influential senior statesman Ilija Garašanin re-emerged in Serbian political life, despite only eight months earlier being removed by the late prince from the post of Prime Minister of Serbia and replaced with Jovan Ristić. While consolidating forces within the state to prevent the conspirators from taking over the power, Garašanin also reportedly contemplated solving the throne issue by starting a third royal dynasty. General political consensus was that the new ruler should be selected by the Visoka narodna skupština (Grand National Assembly). However, cabinet minister Milivoje Petrović Blaznavac was rapidly increasing his power and influence. He had managed to consolidate his control over the army and stage a coup d'état. So when Blaznavac suggested the young Milan as the successor to Prince Mihailo, Garašanin had no choice but to yield to the more powerful authority.

Regency of Milivoje Petrović Blaznavac

As Milan was still underage to rule on his own, a regency was established to rule in Milan's name. The three-man council was headed by Blaznavac. Statesman and historian Jovan Ristić and Jovan Gavrilović, a politician and historian from a wealthy merchant family rounded out the trio.

Young Milan was brought back to Serbia from Paris and enthroned in front of the Topčider assembly while the Blaznavac-controlled army surrounded the building just in case. Furthermore, a prominent Serb nobleman from Dubrovnik, Medo Pucić, was brought to Belgrade to serve as a teacher and adviser to the prince.

Under Blaznavac's tutelage, both personally and politically, the prince deferred to the head of the regency council in all matters of state. Prince Milan did not benefit from a large inheritance from his wealthy family as all of Prince Mihailo's vast property went to Mihailo's sisters (Prince Miloš's daughters) Petrija's and Savka's children. The only property young Prince Milan did inherit was his late father's compound in Mărășești that had an overwhelming amount of debt associated with it. On the other hand, historian Leontije Pavlović in his book Smederevo u XIX veku (Smederevo in the Nineteenth Century) states the conspirators doused the wooden floor with nitric acid that ate away at the planks. However, these claims couldn't be confirmed as he based them on an item from the historical archives that has since disappeared. Natalie, sixteen years of age, was the daughter of Bessarabian nobleman Petre Ivanovich Keschko, who served as a colonel in Imperial Russian Army. Natalie's mother, Pulcheria, was by birth Princess Sturdza, meaning that the couple were fairly close second cousins because Milan's mother Elena and Natalie's father Petre were the children of two sisters, meaning that Milan and Natalija shared a set of great-grandparents.

Post-monarchical role

In February 1891, a Radical ministry was formed. Queen Natalija and the ex-Metropolitan Mihailo returned to Belgrade, and Austrian influence began to give way to Russian. Fear of a revolution and King Milan's return led to a compromise, by which, in May 1891, the queen was expelled, and Milan was allowed a million francs from the civil list, on condition of not returning to Serbia during his son's minority.

In March 1892, Milan renounced all his rights and even his Serbian nationality. The situation altered dramatically, however, after the young Alexander I had effected his coup d'etat and taken the government into his own hands in April 1893. Serbian politics began to grow more complicated, and Russian influence was rife. In January 1894, Milan suddenly appeared in Belgrade, and his son gladly welcomed his experience and advice.