His military defeats in the Serbo-Bulgarian War and the Timok Rebellion, led by elements of the People's Radical Party, were serious blows to his popularity.

As a reply to the queen's remonstrances, Milan exerted considerable pressure upon the Metropolitan and obtained a divorce which was later declared illegal.

On the 1st (13th) of April 1893, Prince Alexander, by a successful stratagem, imprisoned the regents and the ministers in the palace and, declaring himself of age, called the Radicals to office.

In quick succession, the new prime ministers were Radicals Lazar Dokić, Sava Grujić, Đorđe Simić and Svetozar Nikolajević.

At the beginning of his reign, King Alexander was prescribing a program of Government in matters of the military, the economical and the financial life of the state.

Under the pretext of negotiating his marriage to the German Princess Alexandra Caroline zu Schaumburg-Lippe, sister of Queen Charlotte of Württemberg, Alexander sent his father to Karlsbad and Prime Minister Đorđević to Marienbad to sign a contract with Austria-Hungary.

King Alexander's popularity further declined after his marriage to Draga, the former lady-in-waiting of his mother Queen Natalija and widow of engineer Svetozar Mašin.

[13] Another opponent of the marriage was the dowager queen Natalija, who wrote a letter to Alexander containing all of the ugliest rumors regarding Draga circulating in Russia.

Minister of foreign affairs Andra Đorđević visited Jakov Pavlović, archbishop of Belgrade and metropolitan of Serbia, and asked him to refuse to grant his blessing.

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 neighbouring monarchy by adopting one of the descendants of the female line of Obrenovićs living in Austria-Hungary.

[citation needed] Dimitrije Tucović organized a rally of dissatisfied workers and students on 23 March 1903, which escalated to open conflict with the police and the army, resulting in the deaths of six people.

They were also unhappy with the constant temper tantrums thrown by her brother Nikola Lunjevica, himself a junior military officer who once killed a policeman whilst drunk.

The plot was first introduced to Đorđe Genčić, who discussed the idea with foreign representatives in Belgrade and also travelled abroad trying to learn how to create changes to the Serbian throne if the king died without children.

Influenced by his views, a group of older conspirators headed by general Jovan Atanacković proposed that King Alexander be forced to abdicate the throne and then sent into exile.

Together with their Belgrade comrades, they were divided into five groups and spent the early evening drinking in various hotels in the town, before gathering in the Officers' Club.

Several groups of the conspirators surrounded the houses of prime minister Dimitrije Cincar-Marković and senior officers loyal to King Alexander.

During this time, captain Jovan Miljković, an aide familiar with the conspiracy but who refused to participate, and Mihailo Naumović (unknown to the conspirators) were killed.

[16] Nervous because of the failure of the search, the approaching dawn and the disappearance of Apis, who was lying wounded in the basement of the palace, the conspirators believed that the plot had failed.

According to one version, the officers again entered the royal bed chamber where cavalry lieutenant Velimir Vemić observed a recess in the wall that appeared to be the keyhole of a secret door.

Cupboards covered a hole in the floor that was the entrance to a secret passage (which allegedly led to the Russian embassy located opposite the palace).

Sulzberger relates an account relayed to him by a friend who had participated in the assassination under Captain Apis: the assassination squad "burst into the little palace, found the king and queen cowering in a closet (both in silken nightgowns), stabbed them and chucked them out the window onto garden manure heaps, hacking off Alexander's fingers when he clung desperately to the sill".

That same night, the queen's brothers Nikola and Nikodije Ljunjevica were arrested and executed by a firing squad commanded by lieutenant Vojislav Tankosić.

Nikola Pašić, Stojan Ribarac and Jovan Žujović were also considered members of the new government but were absent from Belgrade at the time of the overthrow.

The National Assembly conducted a session on 4 June 1903, voted Peter Karađorđević as king of Serbia and elected the mission that went to Geneva to retrieve him.

Angry elements within the army mutinied in Niš in 1904, taking control of the Nišava District in support of the fallen king, demanding that the assassins be tried for their crimes.

As a result, the new King Peter decided to remove from court the aides-de-camp who had taken part in the coup, while at the same time promoting them to higher positions.

During this time, Serbian statesmen became increasingly nervous because of Britain's refusal to reestablish diplomatic relations, especially after the Ilinden Uprising and because of the deteriorating situation in Macedonia.

[18] After the coup, life in Serbia continued as before, with King Peter exerting a minimal interference in politics, not wishing to oppose the Black Hand, which had become increasingly powerful.

On 23 May 1917, following the Salonika Trial, Colonel Dimitrijević, Major Ljubomir Vulović and Rade Malobabić were found guilty of treason and sentenced to death.

After World War II, Apis and his associates were rehabilitated in a mock trial staged for propaganda purposes by the communist government.