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Princess Elizabeth of Yugoslavia

Princess Elizabeth of Yugoslavia, (Serbian Cyrillic: Њ.К.В. Кнегиња Јелисавета Карађорђевић) (born 7 April 1936) is a member of the Serbian-Yugoslavian Karageorgevich dynasty, a human rights activist and a former candidate for President of Serbia. She is also known as Jelisaveta Karageorgevich and Princess Jelisaveta of Yugoslavia.

Biography

She was born in Belgrade, the only daughter of Prince Paul of Yugoslavia (who served as regent for his cousin's eldest son King Peter II of Yugoslavia) and of Princess Olga of Greece and Denmark. Her older brother is Prince Alexander of Yugoslavia, who married, firstly, Princess María Pia of Savoia and, secondly, Princess Barbara of Liechtenstein. She is a second cousin of Queen Sofía of Spain and Charles, Prince of Wales. She is also a first cousin of the present Duke of Kent and his siblings, Prince Michael and Princess Alexandra of Kent. Also, she is a great-great-granddaughter of Karađorđe, who started the first Serbian uprising against the Turks in 1804. Prior to his marriage to Fabiola de Mora y Aragón in 1960, Princess Elizabeth was considered a strong contender to become Queen Consort of Belgian King Baudouin I.

Princess Elizabeth married, on 21 May 1960 (divorced 1966), Howard Oxenberg, an American clothing manufacturer, by whom she is mother of actress Catherine Oxenberg and sweater designer Christina Oxenberg. She married as her second husband, on 23 September 1969 (divorced), in London, banker Neil Balfour (born 1944); they had one son, Nicholas Augustus Balfour. She married as her third husband, on 28 February 1987, in New York City, Dr. Manuel Ulloa Elias (1922-1992), the former Prime Minister of Peru as well the country's Minister of Economy, Finance, and Commerce. Between her marriages to Balfour and Ulloa, she was engaged to the Welsh actor Richard Burton.

Her education started in South Africa, then in Great Britain and Switzerland, finally she studied the history of fine art in Paris. She speaks English, French, Spanish, Italian, and Serbian and is a citizen of the United Kingdom, United States and Serbia. She lives in Belgrade, where she has caused some friction within her family by demanding to set up residence in the Beli Dvor (White Palace), her childhood home, but not hers, and for running for public office.

Princess Elizabeth recognized early the dangerous signs that would turn the former Yugoslavia upside down in a bloodbath of historic religious and ethnic rivalries long suppressed by Communist rule. She spoke out in Europe and America on behalf of bridging the gap between ethnic hatreds. Working behind the scenes through United Nations programs, she also journeyed to the Vatican in 1989 to ask Monsignor Taurant, the Minister of Foreign Affairs, to help improve relations between Catholic and Orthodox communities in Yugoslavia.

At the end of 1990 she created the Princess Elizabeth Foundation, a non-political, not-for-profit organization after foreseeing the crucial importance of a vehicle to address the tension brewing just below the surface. Since the subsequent civil wars, her efforts have focused heavily on transporting medical supplies, food, clothing and blankets to refugee camps, in addition to finding homes for children victimized by war and placing older students in schools and colleges in America.

Before civil war began in Yugoslavia, in January of 1990 she invited the Orthodox Bishop Sava and the Mufti of Belgrade, along with the Yugoslav Minister for Religious Affairs to attend a conference in Moscow that was hosted by Gorbachev. This was the second international gathering of political and religious leaders committed to world reform that included Mother Teresa, the Archbishop of Canterbury, the Dalai Lama, Al Gore and Carl Sagan.

She decided to run for President of Serbia in the Serbian presidential elections, 2004, despite her cousin Aleksandar's objections. After the end of World War II, the ex-royal family was banished from the country, and their goods confiscated.

"In case of victory," she stated, "my priority would not be to return to a monarchy, but to form a real State." She got 63,991 votes or 2.1% finishing in 6th place.

Princess Elizabeth is a businesswomen and writer, author of four storybooks for children. She also has created perfumes that are sold on television shopping programs.

In 2002 Princess Elizabeth received the first Nuclear Disarmament Forum Award, the Demiurgus Peace International, (accompanying president Vladimir Putin, The Honorable Dr. Desmond Tutu, Mr. Ted Turner and others) for outstanding achievements in the field of strengthening peace among nations in Zug, Switzerland.

Arms

HRH Princess Jelisaveta was granted heraldic arms in June 2008Њено Краљевско Височанство Кнегиња Јелисавета Карађорђевић. Her motto translates into English as "Service Is Love In Action"Њено Краљевско Височанство Кнегиња Јелисавета Карађорђевић.

Quote

"I do not understand how people can feel superior to those of another faith or race. Such intolerance is deeply rooted in fear, which helps to perpetuate injustice and hatred. This deep programming prevents people from honouring and celebrating life's differences."

Princess Elizabeth of Yugoslavia

Biography

Arms

Quote

See also