Franjo I

Franjo I, emperor of Serbia, in 1936.

Franjo I, was the first Emperor of the Serbian empire, he was also the son of the former King of Serbia, Zivko I, meaning he also took the title of Head of the house of Karađorđević

Franjo was a very controversial emperor to the other ethnic groups in the realm, as he was heavily against them and advocated for the replacing of all of the cultures with Serbian culture.

## History

Franjo was born on the 6th of May, 1887, in the city of Niš, formerly located in the Ottoman empire. He was born when his father was on a state visit to Niš to speak with the Ottoman sultan, soon enough, after the visit, Franjo moved to his real home in the Royal palace of Belgrade.

Franjo started studying in a private school by the young age of 5, so that he could get an early education into law and military. Franjo had graduated from a private university at the very young age of 16 in February of 1897. After graduation, Franjo was enlisted into the army and would complete his military training at the age of 18, after that, he would start studying in law school and eventually becoming a full fledged lawyer by the age of 24 in 1904.

Soon, Franjo would get elected into the parliament of Serbia in early April of 1911, at the age of 30. This didn't last long, however, as the First world war broke out in 1914 and Franjo was forced to fight in the war. During his fighting, he was promoted to Brigadier general in 1916, but after this promotion, Franjo would leave the country and flee to the Albanian capital of Tirana.

## Interwar period

After the eventual Serbian victory in the First world war, Franjo decided to move back to Belgrade in June of 1918, where in 1920 he would start studying in military school, getting his final promotion to Field marshal of the army in March of 1925 at the age of 44.

Franjo would see his first action as a field marshal during the Serbo-Croatian war of 1926-1927. Here, he would plan the siege of Dubrovnik late into the war, which became a game changing victory for the Serbs, securing their victory as the Croatian forces had by now split in two. Franjo would also be at the short-lived trial of Vladislav Vukovic where he insulted the defendant furiously.

He also saw action in the Yermanian independence rebellion, even having to fight General Draza II's men at the battle of Zagreb. After the war had ended, Franjo made a secret prison camp in Bosnia, where over 300 soldiers who were loyal to Yermania perished under terrible living conditions.

## World War 2

Franjo was made a field marshal in the front that was going towards Vienna in June of 1940. Here, he would use his high-profile to get away with crimes against humanity such as massacres and the torture of prisoners of war.

Franjo would also use propaganda tactics, such as making grand speeches on the radio for the soldiers in the other front, making fun of the leaders of the Axis, this would prove to be a terrible move, as Hitler would eventually hear about the things Franjo had said about him, causing Hitler to focus more divisions on the Serbian front and commit more atrocities on the Serbian people.

Franjo was supposed to return back home to Belgrade in October of 1943, but as he was riding his train back home, German soldiers sabotaged the train and Franjo was forced to get off the train and hide in the forests around 90 kilometres away from Belgrade.

## Post-war

In April of 1945, Franjo finally moved back to Belgrade and established the Yugoslav Monarchist Party, which tried to get Franjo onto the throne of Yugoslavia. To help him get his opinions out to fellow politicians, Franjo got himself elected into the Belgrade city Secretary and started influencing the opinions of the Secretary's deputies.

In 1948, after Petar Oskar Potocnik had announced his coronation as the King of Yugoslavia, Franjo became very angry and actually went to the convention to yell at the new King. This led to the King ordering Franjo to leave the convention. Franjo tried to gain support for his legitimist party so that he can get back on his "rightful throne," he was helped by his son, Stefan Borislav I.

## Rise to the throne of the Serbian empire

In February of 1949, Franjo's monarchist party had over 60 000 members. The rise in membership caused him to order his members to attend a protest against the king of Yugoslavia to try and put himself on the throne. Soon, he stormed the parliament and gave the king an ultimatum, where if he accepted it, he would be demoted to a general and Franjo would become king, but if he refused it, Franjo would order his members to start a revolution.

Petar I agreed to the ultimatum, making Franjo the new king of Yugoslavia, after this, he immediately cut off all trade with the 4th Reich and it's closest allies. He soon annexed Albania on the 19th of November, 1949 and eventually on the 23rd of January, 1950, he re-named the nation into the Empire of Serbia.

## Bosnian revolution

In March of 1951, the Bosnian revolution broke out after citizens and soldiers loyal to Islam seized Mostar and put up defenses around the city. Franjo immediately traveled to the safe part of Bosnia, in a military base in Sarajevo.

It was in the military base that he ended up staying for the 8 months that the revolution went on. In the military base, he was accompanied by 4 generals at first, until one of them, Petar I, was deployed in Mostar. After the end of the revolution, Franjo went to the trial of David Beganovic and Stjepan Dedic, where he was accused by Stjepan of burning a mosque. It is still unknown if this is true, or just propaganda made up by Stjepan himself.

## Romanian revolution and death

On the 23rd of February, 1952, the Romanian revolution broke out in the city of Lipova, due to Franjo's terrible treatment of the Romanian population in Serbian occupied Banat. The city was immediately reinforced with 1 000 men from the army of Romania, who were snuck into the city without any other power noticing.

Franjo was furious with the Romanians and demanded his generals to travel to his military base in Romania to crush the revolution with superior strategy. However, Franjo's mistake was that he did not bring enough men for the revolution, as he thought that even if they were almost outnumbered by the soldiers in Lipova, he would still be able to win with his strategy and considered the Romanians to be stupid, as he thought of them as an inferior ethnic group.

On the 27th of March, 1952, Franjo traveled to the outskirts of Lipova to meet some of the commanders who were stationed there and to shake the hands of soldiers. However, after around 30 minutes, he and the soldiers were ambushed by around 20 Romanian soldiers, one proceeded to shoot Franjo 3 times, causing him to collapse.

During the midst of the chaos, Franjo called out for help, but he was then silenced by 4 more gunshots. The soldiers then proceeded to throw burning pieces of wood at the fallen emperor, hoping to catch him on fire, which worked. The fire was put out 3 minutes after it was set and Franjo's corpse was eventually put into a highly secured coffin at the Church of Saint Sava on the 3rd of April, 1952, where it lies to this day.

## Legacy

Franjo is known as a tyrant in the territories of Bosnia and Romania, which has caused the Romanians to also believe that his son, Stefan Borislav I might act the same way. His tyranny has given him nicknames such as Franjo the oppressor in Bosnia and Franjo the terrible in Romania.

During the reign of Borislav III, many policies that Franjo had made in early 1952 were brought back by the nationalists, with a resurgence of crimes against Bosniaks and Muslims in general due to this. Franjo had been praised as a hero and many propaganda posters were made with the face of Franjo on them, with people considering Franjo as a legend and a "hero of Serbia."

After the reign of his grandson ended, hate against the former emperor rose to an extent never seen before, with the famous statue in Banja Luka of Franjo being vandalised and removed in September of 1990.

## Awards and medals

* Order of Karađorđe's Star (Awarded: 13th of January, 1906)
* Order of the white eagle (Awarded: 23rd of March, 1915)
* Sretenje Order, 2nd class (Awarded: 9th of March, 1925)
* Medal for Merits, silver (Awarded: 13th of April, 1925)
* Medal for bravery, gold (Awarded: 27th of February, 1927)
* Order of the Serbian flag, 1st class (Awarded: 10th of November, 1941)
* Order of Merits in Defense and Security, 3rd class (Awarded: 21st of January, 1943)
* Order of St. Prince Lazar (Awarded: 5th of March, 1949)
* Order of the Empire of Serbia, 1st class (Awarded: 24th of November, 1951)