# Alexandra of Yugoslavia
**Alexandra of Yugoslavia** (born Alexandra, Princess of Greece and Denmark) was queen consort of [Yugoslavia](https://www.edgepedia.org/yugoslavia) as the wife of King Peter II, the country's last king, and the mother of Crown Prince Alexander. Born in Greece in 1921, the posthumous daughter of King Alexander I of the Hellenes and [Aspasia Manos](https://www.edgepedia.org/aspasia-manos), she spent most of her life in exile and never set foot in Yugoslavia as queen; the monarchy was abolished five months after her son's birth.
| Key fact | Detail |
|---|---|
| Born | 25 March 1921, Athens (Tatoi), Greece; only child of King Alexander I of the Hellenes and Aspasia Manos[1](https://royalfamily.org/dinasty/hm-queen-alexandra-of-yugoslavia/) |
| Father's death | Alexander I died of sepsis on 25 October 1920, five months before her birth, after being bitten by his pet monkey[1](https://royalfamily.org/dinasty/hm-queen-alexandra-of-yugoslavia/) |
| Marriage | 20 March 1944, at the Yugoslav Embassy in London, to King Peter II of Yugoslavia; King George VI and King George II of the Hellenes were best men[1](https://royalfamily.org/dinasty/hm-queen-alexandra-of-yugoslavia/) |
| Only child | Crown Prince Alexander, born 1945 in Suite 212 of Claridge's Hotel, London, declared Yugoslav territory so the heir would be born on Yugoslav soil[1](https://royalfamily.org/dinasty/hm-queen-alexandra-of-yugoslavia/) |
| End of monarchy | The Yugoslav monarchy was abolished on 29 November 1945; in 1947 the royal family was stripped of citizenship and property and banned from returning[2](https://royalfamily.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/03/Press-Kit-2023-ENGLISH-1.pdf) |
| Death | 30 January 1993, East Sussex, England, after several years of serious illness with cancer[1](https://royalfamily.org/dinasty/hm-queen-alexandra-of-yugoslavia/) • [3](https://www.encyclopedia.com/women/encyclopedias-almanacs-transcripts-and-maps/alexandra-1921-1993) |
| Burial | Buried 7 February 1993 at the Tatoi Palace Royal Cemetery near Athens; reinterred at the Royal Mausoleum of the Karađorđevićs at Oplenac, Serbia, on 26 May 2013[1](https://royalfamily.org/dinasty/hm-queen-alexandra-of-yugoslavia/) |
## Birth and disputed succession in Greece
Alexandra's birth carried a double political problem. Her father, King Alexander I of the Hellenes, had married Aspasia Manos, a daughter of a prominent Phanariote family from Constantinople, without the royal family's permission; the Greek government at first considered the marriage void, and the king died of sepsis on 25 October 1920, five months before his daughter was born on 25 March 1921[1](https://royalfamily.org/dinasty/hm-queen-alexandra-of-yugoslavia/). When her grandfather, King Constantine I, returned to the throne, a law and Royal Decree of July 1922 granted [Alexandra](https://www.edgepedia.org/alexandra) and her mother the titles of Princesses of Greece and Denmark[1](https://royalfamily.org/dinasty/hm-queen-alexandra-of-yugoslavia/). The *Women in World History* encyclopedia dates her formal recognition as a princess to 18 months of age, with exile in England the following year because of shifting Greek politics[3](https://www.encyclopedia.com/women/encyclopedias-almanacs-transcripts-and-maps/alexandra-1921-1993).
After Greece became a republic in 1924, she and her mother left the country and settled for a time in Paris, then in London; after King George II's restoration in 1935 she could live again in Greece and at her mother's Venetian villa[1](https://royalfamily.org/dinasty/hm-queen-alexandra-of-yugoslavia/) • [4](https://www.independent.co.uk/news/people/obituary-queen-alexandra-of-yugoslavia-1470477.html). She was educated in England at Westfield, the junior school of Heathfield, and then at Heathfield School, finishing at Mademoiselle Ozanne's in Paris[1](https://royalfamily.org/dinasty/hm-queen-alexandra-of-yugoslavia/). Her childhood acquaintance with her second cousin Prince Philip, later [Duke of Edinburgh](https://www.edgepedia.org/duke-of-edinburgh), belongs to the same circle of exiled Greeks[4](https://www.independent.co.uk/news/people/obituary-queen-alexandra-of-yugoslavia-1470477.html).
When Italy attacked Greece in October 1940, Alexandra and her mother were in Venice and set out for home, stopping in Belgrade, where they received a ceremonial welcome at the railway station; this visit is why the claim that Alexandra never set foot on Yugoslav soil is imprecise, though she never did so as queen[1](https://royalfamily.org/dinasty/hm-queen-alexandra-of-yugoslavia/). After the German invasion of Greece in 1941 she went into exile with the rest of the [Greek royal family](https://www.edgepedia.org/greek-royal-family), staying in Crete and South Africa before reaching London[1](https://royalfamily.org/dinasty/hm-queen-alexandra-of-yugoslavia/).
## Marriage to King Peter II
In 1942, at a tea party of the Allied Officers' Club in [Grosvenor House](https://www.edgepedia.org/grosvenor-house), London, Alexandra met the 19-year-old [Peter II of Yugoslavia](https://www.edgepedia.org/peter-ii-of-yugoslavia), who had been king since the assassination of his father, King Alexander I of Yugoslavia, in [Marseille](https://www.edgepedia.org/marseille) in 1934[4](https://www.independent.co.uk/news/people/obituary-queen-alexandra-of-yugoslavia-1470477.html). The match met resistance on both sides: Peter's mother, Queen Maria, opposed it, and it took the approval of King George VI and Prime Minister Winston Churchill before the wedding could take place in March 1944[4](https://www.independent.co.uk/news/people/obituary-queen-alexandra-of-yugoslavia-1470477.html). Churchill had by then already decided to shift British support in Yugoslavia from the royalist forces of General Mihailovich to Tito's partisans, a decision that shaped the couple's subsequent fate[4](https://www.independent.co.uk/news/people/obituary-queen-alexandra-of-yugoslavia-1470477.html).
## A queen who never reigned
On 17 July 1945 Alexandra gave birth to her only child, Crown Prince Alexander, at Claridge's Hotel in London. So that the heir would be born a Yugoslav national, the British government declared her suite of rooms Yugoslav territory for that day[1](https://royalfamily.org/dinasty/hm-queen-alexandra-of-yugoslavia/). It was, in effect, the only part of Yugoslavia she entered as queen. Peter II never abdicated, but the Constituent Assembly abolished the monarchy on 29 November 1945, and in 1947 a decree of the communist regime stripped the king, queen, and their son of citizenship and rights and confiscated their property, banning them from return[1](https://royalfamily.org/dinasty/hm-queen-alexandra-of-yugoslavia/) • [2](https://royalfamily.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/03/Press-Kit-2023-ENGLISH-1.pdf).
## Exile and marriage breakdown
The confiscation of the family's fortune left the couple nearly penniless; Peter sold Alexandra's jewels, spent most of their remaining capital in the United States on a failed shipping venture and a plastics factory scheme, and by the late 1940s was seeing other women, after which Alexandra returned to Europe with her son[4](https://www.independent.co.uk/news/people/obituary-queen-alexandra-of-yugoslavia-1470477.html). In October 1953 Peter sued for divorce in Paris on grounds of desertion; Alexandra, by then bankrupt, cut her wrists in a half-serious suicide attempt, a doctor arrived in time, and the petition was rejected, but the marriage never recovered[4](https://www.independent.co.uk/news/people/obituary-queen-alexandra-of-yugoslavia-1470477.html). Peter returned to the United States, became an alcoholic, and died in 1970 in Denver, Colorado, following a liver transplant[4](https://www.independent.co.uk/news/people/obituary-queen-alexandra-of-yugoslavia-1470477.html) • [3](https://www.encyclopedia.com/women/encyclopedias-almanacs-transcripts-and-maps/alexandra-1921-1993).
## Writing and later life
Alexandra settled as a private citizen in England. Her memoirs appeared in 1956 under two titles for two markets: *For Love of a King*, published by Doubleday in New York, and *For a King's Love*, published by Odhams in London[5](https://openlibrary.org/books/OL6198914M/For_love_of_a_king) • [6](https://openlibrary.org/books/OL18847779M/For_a_King%27s_Love). The Independent's obituary dates *For a King's Love* to 1960 and adds a biography of her cousin Prince Philip, published in 1959[4](https://www.independent.co.uk/news/people/obituary-queen-alexandra-of-yugoslavia-1470477.html). A contemporary review described *For Love of a King* as an intimate, personal account of a childhood spent moving between exile households[7](https://www.kirkusreviews.com/book-reviews/a/queen-of-yugoslavia-alexandra/for-love-of-a-king/).
She was seriously ill with cancer for several years before her death[3](https://www.encyclopedia.com/women/encyclopedias-almanacs-transcripts-and-maps/alexandra-1921-1993).
## Death and reburial
Most sources give her death date as 30 January 1993 in [East Sussex](https://www.edgepedia.org/east-sussex)[1](https://royalfamily.org/dinasty/hm-queen-alexandra-of-yugoslavia/) • [4](https://www.independent.co.uk/news/people/obituary-queen-alexandra-of-yugoslavia-1470477.html); the *Women in World History* entry instead gives September 30, 1993, at her home outside London[3](https://www.encyclopedia.com/women/encyclopedias-almanacs-transcripts-and-maps/alexandra-1921-1993). She was buried on 7 February 1993 at the Tatoi Palace Royal Cemetery near Athens[1](https://royalfamily.org/dinasty/hm-queen-alexandra-of-yugoslavia/). Twenty years later, her son arranged the return of the family's remains to Serbia: her remains were exhumed and transferred to the Palace Chapel of St. Andrew the First-Called in Belgrade on 9 May 2013, and during the state funeral of 26 May 2013 they were interred in the [Royal Mausoleum](https://www.edgepedia.org/royal-mausoleum) of the Karađorđevićs at Oplenac, in the country of which she had been queen[1](https://royalfamily.org/dinasty/hm-queen-alexandra-of-yugoslavia/) • [8](https://www.srbija.gov.rs/vest/190343/posmrtni-ostaci-karadjordjevica-polozeni-u-kriptu-na-oplencu.php).
## References
1. [HM Queen Alexandra of Yugoslavia, The Royal Family of Serbia](https://royalfamily.org/dinasty/hm-queen-alexandra-of-yugoslavia/)
2. [History of the Dynasty, Press Kit 2023, The Royal Family of Serbia](https://royalfamily.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/03/Press-Kit-2023-ENGLISH-1.pdf)
3. [Alexandra (1921–1993), Women in World History: A Biographical Encyclopedia, Encyclopedia.com](https://www.encyclopedia.com/women/encyclopedias-almanacs-transcripts-and-maps/alexandra-1921-1993)
4. [Obituary: Queen Alexandra of Yugoslavia, The Independent, 2 February 1993](https://www.independent.co.uk/news/people/obituary-queen-alexandra-of-yugoslavia-1470477.html)
5. [For love of a king, Open Library (Doubleday, 1956)](https://openlibrary.org/books/OL6198914M/For_love_of_a_king)
6. [For a King's Love, Open Library (Odhams Press, 1956)](https://openlibrary.org/books/OL18847779M/For_a_King%27s_Love)
7. [Review of For Love of a King, Kirkus Reviews](https://www.kirkusreviews.com/book-reviews/a/queen-of-yugoslavia-alexandra/for-love-of-a-king/)
8. [Посмртни остаки Карађорђевића положени у крипту на Опленцу, Government of Serbia, 26 May 2013](https://www.srbija.gov.rs/vest/190343/posmrtni-ostaci-karadjordjevica-polozeni-u-kriptu-na-oplencu.php)
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*Topic: Encyclopedia › Society and history › Politics and government › Government and public administration › Royal consorts and dynastic families › Queens and empresses consort › Modern and living consorts*
*Initially written Sep 17, 2026 · Reviewed: Sep 18, 2026; Sep 30, 2026; Oct 25, 2026 · Edited: Sep 18, 2026; Sep 30, 2026; Oct 12, 2026; Oct 25, 2026 · Last review: Oct 25, 2026*
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