Jelena Petrovic, born Jovanovic, was the wife of the Supreme Leader Djordje Petrovic Karadjordje, the leader of the First Serbian Uprising and the founder of the Karadjordjevic Dynasty. She was born in the village of Maslosevo in 1765 or 1771, as the daughter of Bosiljka and Nikola Jovanovic, Jasenica’s “obor-knez” (senior chief of a group of villages). She lost her mother early, and later her father and two brothers died as hajduks, so she lived with her aunt Biseniјa in the village of Jagnjilо.
She married Djordje Petrovic in 1785 and had seven children with him: Sima (who died immediately after birth), Sava, Sara, Poleksija, Stamenkа, Aleksa (died at 29 in Chisinau, today’s Romania) and Karadjordje’s heir, Alexander, later the Prince of Serbia.
She was the maid of honour at the wedding of Princess Ljubica and Prince Milos Obrenovic. Later in her life she spent a long time at the Krusedol Monastery in Srem.
She died in Belgrade on 9 February (January 29 OS) 1842. By order of Princess Ljubica, there was a Requiem Mass for her, after which she was taken by sleigh to Topola, where she was buried.