Queen Alexandra, 71; Widow of the Exiled King of Yugoslavia

LONDON —  Queen Alexandra, widow of the exiled king of Yugoslavia and daughter of a Greek monarch, has died in England. She was 71.

Alexandra died Jan. 30 of cancer, according to the London office of her son, Crown Prince Alexander of Yugoslavia. She died at her home in Sussex, south of London, the national news agency Press Assn. reported.

Alexandra was born in Tatoi, near Athens, on March 25, 1921, five months after the death of her father, King Alexander I of the Hellenes. When Alexandra was 3, her mother, Princess Aspasia, took her to Italy after a coup in Greece.

Alexandra was married in London in 1944 to King Peter II of Yugoslavia, who had moved to London with his government-in-exile after the Axis powers occupied Yugoslavia in 1941. Peter was crowned less than a month before Yugoslavia surrendered to Adolf Hitler.

Josip Tito, who led Yugoslavia at the end of World War II, forced Peter’s abdication in 1945 and would not permit the family to return to the country.

Peter and Alexandra lived in exile in several places, including Paris, New York, Monte Carlo and Madrid.

Their son, Crown Prince Alexander, was born in London in 1945 and became head of the Royal House of Karadjordjevic in 1970 after his father’s death in the United States. The king is buried in Libertyville, Ill.

The crown prince was their only child.