⭐ 👋 Le 85e anniversaire de la princesse Élisabeth de Yougoslavie

Princesse Elisabeth de Yougoslavie, 1961.

Princesse Elisabeth de Yougoslavie.

Aujourd’hui, la princesse Elisabeth de Yougoslavie fête son quatre-vingt-cinquième anniversaire !

Le prince George, duc de Kent, avec sa nièce, la princesse Elizabeth, lors d'une des visites du duc en Yougoslavie. Le duc de Kent était un bon ami de son beau-frère, le prince Paul. Photographie (c) Getty Images/Hutton Archive.

Le prince Paul et la princesse Olga de Yougoslavie avec leurs enfants : Alexandre, Nicolas et Élisabeth.

La princesse Olga de Yougoslavie avec ses fils le prince Alexandre et le prince Nicolas et sa fille la princesse Elizabeth.

Le 7 avril 1936, la princesse Élisabeth de Yougoslavie naît au Palais Blanc de Belgrade. Elle est la première fille et la plus jeune enfant du prince Paul de Yougoslavie et de son épouse la princesse Olga de Grèce et du Danemark. Sa marraine et homonyme est sa tante maternelle, la princesse Élisabeth de Grèce et du Danemark, comtesse de Törring-Jettenbach. Paul et Olga se marient en 1923. Élisabeth a deux frères aînés : le prince Alexandre (1924-2016) et le prince Nicolas (1928-1954). Après l'invasion nazie de la Yougoslavie en 1941, Paul et Olga ainsi que leurs enfants vivent sous surveillance britannique (c'est-à-dire assignés à résidence) au Kenya. Leur fille Élisabeth fait ses études au Kenya, en Suisse et en France.

M. Howard Oxenberg et la princesse Elizabeth de Yougoslavie.

La princesse Elisabeth de Yougoslavie avec ses filles Catherine et Christina Oxenberg.

Elizabeth porte un collier plastron Van Cleef & Arpels composé de fers à cheval en diamants avec un gros diamant rond en leur centre et de sept pendants en perles. Boucles d'oreilles pendantes en perles assorties. La princesse est photographiée ici avec les bijoux qu'elle portait au Diamond Ball à New York en 1964.

On 21 January 1961, the attractive twenty-five year-old Elizabeth married Howard Oxenburg (1919 – 2010), who was seventeen years her senior, at Manassas, Virginia. The couple had been an item for over a year; indeed, the news rags had incorrectly reported that the couple had eloped in either June or July of 1960. Almost eight months to the day after their wedding, Elizabeth of Yugoslavia and Howard Oxenberg welcomed the arrival of their first child, Catherine Oxenberg, who was born in New York City on 22 September 1961. On 27 December 1962, Princess Elizabeth of Yugoslavia, Mrs. Howard Oxenberg, gave birth to her second daughter, Christina, in New York City. Princess Olga of Yugoslavia had flown in from Europe to be with her daughter and to be present at her granddaughter’s birth. Queen Mother Helen of Romania was Christina’s godmother: Queen Mother Helen and Christina’s grandmother Princess Olga were first cousins. Elizabeth of Yugoslavia and Howard Oxenberg divorced in 1966.

Neil Balfour and Princess Elizabeth of Yugoslavia.

On 23 September 1969, Princess Elizabeth married Neil Roxburgh Balfour (b.1944), the son of Archibald Roxburgh Balfour and Lilian Helen Cooper. Elizabeth and Neil couple had one son, Nicholas Augustus Roxburgh Balfour, in 1970. The princess and Mr Balfour divorced in 1978. Neil Balfour went on to serve as the member of the European Parliament for Yorkshire North from 1979 to 1983.

Manuel Ulloa Elías and Princess Elizabeth of Yugoslavia, late 1980s.

On 28 February 1987, Princess Elizabeth married a third time to Manuel Ulloa Elías (1922–1992), a former Prime Minister of Peru. Manuel had been married three times previously: his first wife was Carmen García Elmore; his second wife was Nadine van Perborgh; his third wife was Isabel Zorraquín y de Corral, the mother of Isabel Sartorius y Zorraquín (a youthful beau of Felipe, Prince of Asturias) and the former wife of Vicente Sartorius y Cabeza de Vaca, who subsequently married Princess Nora of Liechtenstein. Manuel and Elizabeth separated in 1989, but they never divorced. Upon the death of Ulloa Elías, the princess became a widow.

Prince Alexander, his sister Princess Elizabeth, and his wife Princess Barbara of Yugoslavia at the funeral of Princess Olga of Yugoslavia in 1997. Photograph (c) Getty Images/Pool Benainous Cochard.

Prince Paul of Yugoslavia died in Paris in 1976, aged eighty-three. In 1997, his widow Princess Olga passed away in Paris at the age of ninety-four. The couple were buried at the Bois-de-Vaux Cemetery in Lausanne with their son Prince Nicholas, who had tragically died in a car accident in 1954.

Princess Elizabeth with her son Nicholas Balfour and daughter Catherine Oxenberg oversee the exhumation of the graves of Elizabeth’s father, mother, and brother in Switzerland, September 2012. Photograph (c) Alamy/Reuters/Denis Balibouse.

Catherine Oxenberg and her mother Princess Elizabeth of Yugoslavia attend the reburial of Prince Paul, Princess Olga, and Prince Nicholas at St. George’s Church in Oplenac, October 2012.

Photograph (c) Alamy/Reuters/Marko Djurica.

Princess Elizabeth of Yugoslavia at the reburial of her father, mother, and brother.

Beginning in the 1980s, Princess Elizabeth of Yugoslavia started a campaign to rehabilitate the legacy of her father. The image of Prince Regent Paul had been terribly maligned since his regency. A man deeply devoted to peace and maintaining the neutrality of Yugoslavia during World War II, Paul did his utmost to keep his homeland safe and from falling under the tyranny of Nazi Germany and Soviet Russia. Alas, many historians had painted the prince regent as a Nazi sympathiser, which could not have been further from the truth. Princess Elizabeth’s relentless desire to rehabilitate her father was ultimately met with success in 2011, when the Serbian courts ruled that the prince regent had not been an “enemy of the state,” as he along with other members of the royal family had been designated after the Communists overtook Yugoslavia. In 2012, the remains of Prince Paul, Princess Olga, and Prince Nicholas were brought to rest in Serbia, where they were granted a quasi-state funeral. This event was attended by the President of Serbia, Crown Prince Alexander and Crown Princess Katherine of Serbia, Hereditary Prince Peter of Serbia and his brother Prince Philip, Prince Alexander and Princess Barbara of Yugoslavia, as well as by Princess Elizabeth of Yugoslavia and her daughter Catherine Oxenberg and her son Nicholas Balfour. Several other members of the Serbian royal family and other relatives were also present.

Princess Elizabeth of Yugoslavia and Princess Alexandra of Kent.

Princess Olga of Yugoslavia, Queen Marie-José of Italy, and Princess Elizabeth of Yugoslavia.

Princess Olga of Yugoslavia; Princess Marina, Duchess of Kent; Prince Paul of Yugoslavia; Archduchess Helen of Austria; Prince Edward, Duke of Kent; Princess Elizabeth of Yugoslavia, 1956.

Princess Elizabeth of Yugoslavia lives in Belgrade.