Prince Milan IV Obrenović of Serbia in Romania (1874)

Milan Obrenovic (1854-1901) in his youth

In the spring of 1874 the young prince of Serbia, Milan Obrenović, together with his prime-minister and foreign minister, Jovan Marinović, went to Constantinople in order to obtain Sultan’s consent regarding some Serbian foreign policy matters. Travelling by Danube, on April 14^th/26^th Milan’s ship stopped in Romania, at Turnu Severin, where he was welcomed by his maternal uncle, Lascăr Catargiu (1823-1899), who was Romania’s prime-minister at that time. Milan travelled along the Danube up to Giurgiu / Ruse, where this time he was welcomed by the Romanian Minister of Foreign Affairs, Vasile Boerescu (1830-1883). From Ruse Milan went to Varna by train and from there, by sea, to Constantinople.

The visit in Romania took place between May 5^th and 17^th 1874 on his return from the capital of the Ottoman Empire, probably because Milan wanted to congratulate Prince Carol on the eighth anniversary of his accession to the Romanian throne, or possibly because of family circumstances.

Milan found the Romanian dynasty during an extremely unhappy moment caused by the death of Princess Maria, the only child of the Romanian princely family, who had died a month prior to the event due to respiratory angina. Even so Carol went to Giurgiu and welcomed the Prince of Serbia himself.

During the evening of his arrival in Bucharest, Milan went to the grave of the little princess where he prayed and laid flowers. Due to the mourning process Carol could not assist the ceremonies in the honour of the Serbian Prince, but he met Milan and Jovan Marinović (1821-1893), several times during the visit. On May 9^th Milan left Bucharest in order to spend a few days in the countryside with his maternal relatives in Romania.

Prince Carol of Romania writes about this visit in a letter addressed to his father. Thus, he explains that because of the terrible moments he and his wife, Elisabeth, were living those days, they kept their distance from the public ceremonies held in the honour of the Serbian guest. Nevertheless, Milan was invited several times to have dinner or tea with them. Carol himself remembers that every time Milan visited him at Cotroceni he brought a crown of flowers which he laid on Maria’s tomb. Carol was quite impressed by his guest and depicts him as being a handsome and pleasant person, with a natural intelligence and an excellent speaker, but it was obvious that he lacked cultural literacy. In a letter sent after he came back to Belgrade, Milan mentioned about the wonderful moments he had experienced in Bucharest and also about the friendship and sympathy of the Romanian nation. In his opinion, that visit in Romania remained as one of his most wonderful and pleasant memories.

During that visit in Romania, on May 16^th 1874 Milan received the rank of honorary colonel of the Romanian army and the command of the 6^th Infantry Regiment from Prince Carol. On the occasion of those ceremonies Milan was already wearing a colonel’s uniform of the Romanian Army. Within that cordial atmosphere Carol declared that by Milan’s appointment to the command of a Romanian regiment “a close link has been made between the Romanian and the Serbian army and thus the fellowship of the two neighbouring peoples was prepared”.

That was one of Milan’s first visits in Romania after he had become the prince of Serbia. Nevertheless he must have been familiar with Romanians since he spent an important part of his childhood in Moldavia, nowadays eastern Romania. In the following years there would be several such visits in Romania.