THE CHILDHOOD OF MILAN OBRENOVIĆ, THE FIRST KING OF THE SERBIAN RESTORATION: CONTRIBUTIONS TO HIS BIOGRAPHY

This paper deals with establishing basic biographical information about the Serbian prince and king Milan Obrenović, (1854–1901), which has been very arbitrarily cited in popular and academic publications. The aim is to direct the public to first-rate historical sources that provide information about where he was born, his childhood and education, and the people he encountered before he ascended Serbian throne in 1868. He is an important modern Serbian monarch whose views and actions have become controversial, so it is thus of the utmost importance to ascertain the circumstances surrounding his upbringing and coming-of-age. This is compounded by an ongoing tendency to create myths around his early life based on the content of numerous pamphlets published in the late 19th and early 20th centuries.