page_title: Peter II of Yugoslavia
section_title: Deposition and exile
hierarchical_section_title: Peter II of Yugoslavia / Deposition and exile
caption_attribution_description: Ex-King Peter of Yugoslavia &amp; Mayor of Wellington Frank Kitts
context_page_description: Peter II was the last King of Yugoslavia, reigning from 1934 to 1945. He was the last reigning member of the Karađorđević dynasty which came to prominence in the early 19th century.
context_section_description: Though the war ended, Peter was not allowed to return home. Prime Minister Šubašić arrived in Belgrade in November 1944 and shortly afterwards went to Moscow to negotiate an agreement with Stalin that Peter would not be allowed to return until a plebiscite was held on if Yugoslavia should become a republic or remain a monarchy. Šubašić also agreed to Stalin's demand for a three man regency council to govern until the plebiscite, which enraged Peter who noted that he was 21 years old and not a minor anymore. Peter also objected to the regents who numbered 1 Croat, 1 Slovene and 1 Serb as they were all nominated by Tito, complaining the regents were biased against him. In March 1945, the regency council started to govern in Belgrade while a cabinet was formed what was now called the Democratic Federation of Yugoslavia numbering 28 men, of whom 23 were Partisans. The National Liberation Front government was in theory a coalition, but in fact it was a Communist-dominated regime with the non-communist ministers there only as a "window dressing" to disguise the extent of Communist dominance. The new government attempted to freeze Peter's assets abroad, claiming that they were stolen. Peter and Tito took to denouncing each other with Tito telling the press that he was creating a democracy in Yugoslavia while Peter accused him of creating a communist dictatorship. In the elections for the constituent assembly on 11 November 1945 there was widespread voting fraud and intimidation and opposition newspapers were prevented from publishing by the government denying them paper.
  Peter was deposed by Yugoslavia's Communist Constituent Assembly on 29 November 1945 with Yugoslavia proclaimed a republic. After that, he settled in the United States. In 1948, Peter visited Chicago, staying at the Drake hotel, visited the Inland Steel works and Armour stockyards "where many Yugoslavs work" and spent much time at the Serbian Orthodox Seminary of St. Sava. As a king without a throne, Peter was something of a novelty for Americans, and addressed various civic groups in the Midwest, for example in 1949 it was reported that the  “young, modern, democratic monarch who refused to accept the situation in his country” spoke to the Kohler Woman’s club in Sheboygan on the subject of "My kingdom for freedom". In 1951, Peter went on the Ford Festival TV show, where he was described as a "sad-eyed youth" who was "a flop as a TV personality" as he was noticeably nervous in front of the TV cameras and was quickly dismissed by the host, James Melton. Right up until his death, Peter continued to nurture hopes that one day he would be restored to the Yugoslav throne, in the words of the American journalist Peter Hockenos being a "forlorn figure" while "rival emigre groups drew the hapless king into their incessant schemings and quarrels. The royalist community resembled a bad caricature of a powerless, squabbling diaspora". A romantic, impractical man, Peter held to a completely unrealistic hope that there were still bands of Chetniks active in the rural areas of central Serbia who would rise up at the right moment when Peter led an army of emigres in an invasion of Yugoslavia, and together they would overthrow Marshal Tito.
  
  In 1953, the Sunday Express newspaper in London reported that Peter who was living in France was suffering from a "money tangles", had a "cheque bounce in Paris" and was involved in an "unpleasant scene" in a party in Biarritz hosted by the Marquis de Cuevas. Peter filed for divorce in 1953. He hired attorney René de Chambrun, the son-in-law of former Vichy French Prime Minister Pierre Laval. The couple reconciled in 1955. While living in France in the 1950s, Peter whose life style was beyond his means, had a problem with the "bouncing cheques" he kept writing and which led him to being banned from the expensive French restaurants and hotels he loved so much, as he spent money that he did not have. The actress Ilka Chase who met the former king and queen Alexandra on the French Riveria in 1955, and wrote: 
  "Much of his behavior in futile p
caption: Peter and Mayor of Wellington Frank Kitts in 1960
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