In 1858, the rival Obrenović dynasty seized power in the country and forced Prince Alexander Karađorđević into exile. Ljotić's father was forced out of the country in 1868 after being implicated in a conspiracy against the Obrenović dynasty and its head, Prince Milan. He did not return to Serbia until Milan's abdication on 6 March 1889. Apart from being a close friend of Serbia's future king, Peter I, Ljotić's father was also the first person to translate "The Communist Manifesto" into Serbian. Ljotić's maternal great-grandfather, "knez" Stanoje, was an outlaw who was killed in the Slaughter of the Knezes in January 1804.