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.

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.

Milan was brought to Kragujevac by Prince Mihailo Obrenović III who also arranged for a governess to raise the youngster.

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.

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.

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.

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.

[3] 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.

When Serbs from the neighbouring Bosnia Vilayet (also part of the Ottoman Empire, though more integrated and loyal due to its large Muslim population) began an uprising in July 1875 on the outskirts of Nevesinje, protesting the tax system as well as harsh treatment under local beys and aghas, Prince Milan condemned the uprising and refused to take part in it.

The rival House of Karađorđević, whose members lived in exile across Europe, had a different approach, taking part in organising and implementing the uprising.

As the uprising grew, spreading to the rest of Herzegovina and soon engulfing the entire Bosnia Vilayet, domestic pressure in the Serbian principality increased on young Prince Milan to help his Serb brethren.

[5] Natalie, sixteen years of age, was the daughter of Bessarabian nobleman Petre Ivanovich Keschko, who served as a colonel in Imperial Russian Army.

[3] A son, Alexander, was born to Natalija and Milan in 1876, but their relationship showed signs of friction right from the start.

[6] As the Serbian military situation became desperate Prince Milan asked for the Great Powers to intervene, and an armistice was granted by the Ottomans, but it fell apart in the wake of the Deligrad Event.

Such an armistice to last for two months was granted on November 1, 1876, and subsequently extended until March 1, 1877, when a definitive peace treaty was signed between the Ottoman Empire and the Kingdom of Serbia.

[6] At the end of the Serbo-Turkish War (1876–78), Europe's powers induced the Sublime Porte to acknowledge Serbian independence at the Treaty of Berlin.

[7] Acting under Austro-Hungarian influence, King Milan devoted all his energies to the improvement of the means of communication and the development of natural resources.

In reply to the queen's remonstrances, Milan exerted considerable pressure upon the Metropolitan of Belgrade, and procured a divorce, which was afterwards annulled as illegal.

In the letter Milan I of Serbia advised his son how to rule and gave critical comments on political figures of his time, such as PM Nikola Pašić.

The queen, who had been residing chiefly at Biarritz, returned to Belgrade in May 1895, after four years of absence, and was greeted by the populace with great enthusiasm.

The Serbian pro-Democratic opposition blamed him for the increasingly authoritarian rule of the young King, and a member of the Radical Party attempted to kill him on 6 July 1899 (24 June OS), on the Orthodox holiday of Ivanjdan (Birth of St. John the Baptist).