A place in history
Sir: It is evident that Alexander Chancellor (Notebook, 30 January) has not the fog- giest notion about the place in history of HM the King of Serbia. He lumps him together with 'Prince Chula Birabongse' of Siam and extends the analogy between the two from their ownership of a Rolls-Royce to a shared obscurity. This is outrageous.
The king in question is Peter I of the Karageorgevich dynasty, the Serbian monarch between 1903 and 1918, and subsequently the first king of Yugoslavia from 1918 until his death in 1921. A fine soldier (he fought in the Franco-Prussian war on the French side, earning himself the Cross of the Legion of Honour), he was also a distinguished statesman who intro- duced constitutional monarchy in Serbia (it was he who had, in 1868, translated Mill's On Liberty into Serbian).
In the course of his reign Serbia played an outstanding part in the affairs of Europe: in 1908 over the issue of Bosnia- Herzegovina, in 1912-13 during the Balkan wars, and in 1914 in the events im- mediately preceding the outbreak of the first world war. Every 'A' level history book mentions Peter 1.
I admit that a Rolls-Royce and history- shaping are not necessarily related, but in the case of HM the King of Serbia there can at least be no question of historical anonymity.
0. Zametica
Greenways, The Grove, Epsom, Surrey
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