House of Petrović-Njegoš

House of Petrović-Njegoš
Country Montenegro
Ancestral house None
Titles
Founder Danilo I Petrović-Njegoš
Final sovereign Nicholas I
Current head Nicholas II
Founding 1696
Deposition 26 November 1918
Cadet branches None

The House of Petrović-Njegoš (Serbian Cyrillic: Петровић-Његош) was the Royal House of Montenegro from 1696 to 1918. Montenegro had enjoyed de facto independence from the Ottoman Empire from 1711 but only received formal international recognition as an independent principality in 1878.

Montenegro was ruled from inception by Vladikas, Prince-Bishops, who had a dual temporal and spiritual role. In 1852 this role was amended to be a purely temporal office. In 1910 the ruling prince Nikola I announced his elevation to King. In 1916 King Nikola I was ousted by the invasion and occupation of his country by Austria-Hungary that was followed by invasion and occupation by Serbia and his formal deposition in 1918 as Montenegro was annexed by the emergent Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes.

A period of eighty years of control from Belgrade followed during which Nikola I died in exile in France in 1921 followed shorty afterwards by the surprise abdication of his son and heir, Danilo III, the same year. The latter's nephew, Michael Petrović-Njegoš, inherited the titles of his predecessors whilst in exile in France and survived arrest and internment by order of Adolf Hitler for refusing to head up a puppet Montenegrin state aligned to the Axis Powers. He was succeeded by his son Nicholas Petrović-Njegoš in 1986. Nicholas returned to Montenegro to support the Montenegrin independence movement that went on to achieve full sovereignty for the Republic of Montenegro in 2006 referendum.

The present head of the house is Nicholas II of Montenegro.

Contents

Origin

The first known ancestor, Vojvoda Bogut, held a city near Ugljevik during the rule of Emperor Dušan the Mighty (r. 1331-1355). His son, Đurađ Bogutović, migrated to a village named Muževice in Banjani from Bosnia, fleeing the Ottoman Turks. By the end of the 14th-century, however, Bogutović and his children are seen living in Drobnjaci.

Heads of the House of Petrović-Njegoš (1696–Present)

Prince-Bishops (Vladikas) of Montenegro (1696–1852)

Princes (Knyazs) of Montenegro (1852-1910)

King (Kralj) of Montenegro (1910-1918)

Line of Succession post-monarchy (1918–Present)

See also

References

External links