Almanach de Saxe Gotha - The Royal House of Montenegro - Petrovich Njegosh Dynasty

 

The Kingdom of Montenegro, was a monarchy in southeastern Europe during the tumultuous years on the Balkan Peninsula leading up to and during World War I. Legally it was a constitutional monarchy, but absolutist in practice. On 28 November 1918 Montenegro was unified with the Kingdom of Serbia, then three days later, on 1 December 1918, it was incorporated into the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes.

House of Petrović-Njegoš - The House of Petrović-Njegoš (Serbian Cyrillic: Петровић-Његош) was the reigning family 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 his formal deposition by the Podgorica Assembly 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. Later, he served the Yugoslav Communist regime as Head of Protocol. 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.

Royal Family Titles and Styles - The members of this family bear the title Prince or Princess Petrovich Njegosh of Montenegro, together with the formal appellation of His or Her Royal Highness.

Almanach de Saxe Gotha Page:
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