Supreme Leader Karađorđe 

(14. November 1762/16. November 1768.- 25. July 1817.)

Đorđe, son of Petar Jovanović and mother Marica, was born in Viševac near Rača in Šumadija on November 16, 1768, as their third child and first son.

His grandfather Jovan perished in combat with the Turks in 1715. He married Jelena Jovanović in 1785, the daughter of the Jasenica district prince Nikola Jovanović and Bosiljka from the village of Masloševo. She was early bereaved of her mother, and later her father and two brothers were killed as rebels.

Đorđe and Jelena had seven children: Sima (died shortly after birth), Sava, Sara, Poleksija, Stamenka, Aleksa (died at 29 years in Chișinău, present-day Moldova), and their heir Alexander. Đorđe Petrović distinguished himself during the Austro-Turkish War (1787–1791) as a member of the Serbian Freikorps, a Habsburg militia composed of Serbs. Fearing retaliation after the Austrian defeat in 1791, he fled with his family to Austria, where they lived until 1794 when a general amnesty was declared. Đorđe returned to Šumadija and became a livestock trader.

For his merits in the fight against the Turks and his courage and bravery, he was nicknamed by his enemies as Black Đorđe or Karađorđe.

Following the execution of the princes, at a gathering in Orašac on the Feast of the Presentation in 1804, he was elected Supreme Leader of the uprising. He was the third choice for the leader of the uprising, after the first two declined. The position was first offered to Stanoje Stamatović Glavaš, a great hero and rebel leader (hajduk harambashi), who refused, as he was a hajduk believing he could not maintain good relations with the princes. And then it was offered to Prince Teodosije Marićević, who also declined due to lack of military experience and being far from the rebels. Both supported Karađorđe, who was respected by both rebels and princes, had significant military experience, and was feared by the Turks.

He personally participated in all the major battles, leaving behind many victories against the often more numerous and better-armed Turkish army: Ivankovac on August 18, 1805, Mišar on August 13, 1806, Suvodol on June 10, 1809, and Varvarin on September 18, 1810. He was a great diplomat, troubling 10 Grand Viziers of the Ottoman Empire, three Sultans – Selim III, Mustafa IV, and Mahmud II, and corresponded with Napoleon, Russian Emperor Alexander I, and Austrian Emperor Francis I. Napoleon was asked in Aspern near Vienna in 1809 if he was the greatest commander. He replied: “It’s easy for me to be great with our experienced army and vast resources, but far to the south, in the Balkans, there is a commander who, gathering his shepherds around him, managed without weapons and only with cherry cannons, to shake the foundations of the mighty Ottoman Empire and thus liberate his enslaved people. That is Black Đorđe, to him belongs the glory of the greatest commander.”

For the sake of order and justice, Karađorđe killed his brother Marinko after he dishonoured a girl, considered the greatest insult to a family. A mother personally told him: “Wait, we fight against Turkish oppression, and your brother has struck the face of my daughter.” Karađorđe gave a rope to his aide, Dukić, to hang his brother. Dukić missed intentionally, hoping Karađorđe’s anger would pass and not lead to his brother’s death. After missing intentionally again, Karađorđe, realising the seriousness, took a pistol and aimed at Dukić, who then saw there was no joke and hanged his brother Marinko.

After the uprising’s defeat in 1813, he crossed into Austria with his family and many prominent people, as well as tens of thousands of refugees, fleeing Turkish retaliation. In 1816, Karađorđe joined the Filiki Eteria, an Orthodox movement for the liberation of all enslaved Balkans, wishing to continue the fight to expel the Turks from Serbia. His assassination on the night between July 25 and 26, 1817, in the village of Radovanje near Velika Plana, was ordered by Prince Miloš Obrenović, leader of the Second Serbian Uprising, organised by Vujića Vulićević, and carried out by Nikola Novaković, a native of Kolašin, a settler from the Smederevo Jasenica. Prince Miloš Obrenović ordered Karađorđe’s head to be sent to Belgrade, then to the Sultan in Istanbul.

The great Serbian poet, Bishop Petar II Petrović Njegoš, dedicated his most famous work, “The Mountain Wreath” from 1847, to “the dust of the father of Serbia” Karađorđe. His remains rest today in the Church of Saint George at Oplenac, in Topola, a foundation of his grandson His Majesty King Peter I the Liberator. At the entrance to the church stands a depiction of Saint George slaying the dragon, with Karađorđe’s head replacing George’s.