Montenegro, What Royalist Progress Looks Like

One of the most hopeful areas for monarchists in recent times has been the Balkans. For a number of years the country which offered the most promise for a royal restoration was Serbia. HRH Alexander, Crown Prince of Yugoslavia was granted Serbian citizenship in 2001, along with his family and the government restored the seized palaces and other properties to the Royal Family. Increasingly since that time the Crown Prince has been a high profile figure, appearing alongside government officials and has been accorded a certain recognition at least in social matters while being free to actively campaign for the restoration of the monarchy with the full support and backing of the Serbian Orthodox Church. However, his status as the most likely to be restored was surpassed in 2011 by HRH Nicholas II, Crown Prince of Montenegro. To understand the significance of this, a brief look at the brief rise and sudden downfall of the Montenegrin monarchy is in order.

The Principality of Montenegro was long under the nominal control of the Turkish Ottoman Empire but that changed in the reign of Prince Danilo I. He secured the independence of the country and gained the recognition of the Czar of Russia before being assassinated in 1860. He was succeeded by his nephew, Prince Nicholas I, who won more land from Turkish control in a war with the Ottoman Empire and secured the recognition of the Great Powers of Europe at the Congress of Berlin. In 1910 he assumed the status of King of Montenegro and was an enthusiastic supporter of the Balkan Wars against the Turks. A long-time friend of Imperial Russia and a staunch ally of the Kingdom of Serbia, when World War I broke out in 1914 he was the first to come to the aid of the Serbs and declare war on Austria-Hungary. However, while very supportive of Serbia, he was not on good terms with the Serbian Royal Family and was given little to no consideration by the other Allied nations in the course of the war. When Austro-German forces defeated Serbia the Montenegrins were conquered as well and King Nicholas I was forced into exile, first in Italy and later the French Republic. At the end of the war he was unceremoniously deposed as Montenegro was handed over to the Serbian Royal Family as part of what became the Kingdom of Yugoslavia.

King Nicholas I never recognized the validity of his removal and upon his death in 1921 was succeeded in his claim by his son Crown Prince Danilo. However, within a week he renounced his claim to the throne in favor of his nephew Prince Michael. In 1929 Prince Michael renounced his claim to the Montenegrin throne and pledged his allegiance to the King of Yugoslavia. In France when World War II broke out, he was arrested by the Germans but offered the throne of a revived Kingdom of Montenegro as an Italian protectorate. He refused and remained in prison until his aunt, Elena of Montenegro, Queen of Italy etc, secured the release of Prince Michael and his wife. After the war, he was invited back to Yugoslavia by the communist dictator Tito and accepted a post in his government. However, quickly seeing what the situation was like in his country, he left in 1948 and remained committed to the downfall of the communist regime until his death in 1986. He was succeeded by his son Crown Prince Nicholas II, current head of the Montenegrin Royal Family.

Crown Prince Nicholas II carried on his father’s opposition to the communist regime and for the restoration of Montenegrin independence. In 1996 independence was asserted but not fully achieved following the fall of communism across Eastern Europe. However, the two countries grew farther apart and in 2006 Montenegro fully separated itself from Serbia. The Royal Family supported all of these moves but the restored Montenegro was established as a republic despite the fact that many people had remained loyal to their exiled royals. The government was fully aware of the widespread support Crown Prince Nicholas II enjoyed and were no doubt alarmed when he announced publicly that he was ready and willing to resume the throne if the people so desired it.

In 2010 the first steps toward a possible reconciliation were made when the government offered the Crown Prince a state pension equal to that of the President and the return of the primary royal residence. However, the Crown Prince refused due to the refusal of the regime to restore all of the seized property of the Royal Family or to adequately compensate them for its loss. The fact that such an offer was made also suggested that he was in a stronger position in regards to the republican government than was publicly admitted. Finally, the following year in 2011, the Montenegrin government enacted what was effectively a limited restoration of the monarchy in Montenegro. With the passage of the “Law on the Status of the Descendants of the Petrovic Njegos Dynasty”, signed by President of the Parliament Ranko Krivokapic, the Royal Family was formally rehabilitated and the abolition of the monarchy declared to have been an illegal act. The Crown Prince was recognized as head of the Royal Family and accorded official status in social and cultural matters along with use of the royal symbols and the establishment of a foundation under the leadership of the Crown Prince. Funding was authorized, property was restored and the royals were granted use of government facilities and resources as the duties assigned them by the President may require. In the performance of their duties they are to be accorded the treatment of official representatives of Montengro.

This has been called a partial restoration of the monarchy or a limited restoration of the monarchy but, whatever one chooses to call it, there is no doubt that it comes closer to a royal restoration without going all the way as there has probably ever been. Given what has been seen in France and some other countries there are doubtless some who will shrug this off as being insufficient and perhaps even some who would criticize the Crown Prince for having accepted anything short of a total and complete restoration of the monarchy as it had been. Those people, however, are simply turning their back on reality, who wish to make the perfect the enemy of the good. It is a far cry from Caesar’s line in the 1963 film “Cleopatra” when, after first balking at the idea of accepting the title of King of the Roman Empire outside of Italy, ultimately decides to agree saying, “Tomorrow in the Senate, let them offer the sands of Libya as my kingdom…I will accept.” It is certainly to reason for Montenegrin royalists to rest on their laurels but it is a foot in the door on such a scale as is almost unheard of and the Crown Prince was right to accept it. It is a cause for optimism but not for complacency and should serve to reinvigorate the royalist cause to take what has been given and continue to push onward for the total restoration of the monarchy.

Yugoslav Prince Honors Italian Queen

Recently, on the feast day of St Helena (Roman Empress and mother of Constantine the Great) HRH Prince Sergius of Yugoslavia (son of Princess Maria-Pia of Bourbon-Parma and Prince Alexander of Yugoslavia) was in Valdieri, Italy to remember Elena of Montenegro, Queen of Italy, consort of King Vittorio Emanuele III and the Prince’s great-grandmother. He was also there to express his support and appreciation for the Queen Elena Foundation which endeavors to carry on the charitable work that the late Queen was famous for. Queen Elena gained a great deal of popularity in her time for the many hospitals she founded, her relief work after the tragic earthquake in Messina numerous other activities to benefit the most vulnerable in society. HH Pope Pius XI recognized her good work by presenting her with the Golden Rose, the last to be given to a Queen and in Italy, where almost every royal had a nickname, she was known as the “Queen of Charity”.

The Queen Elena Foundation was established in 1985 to support humanitarian and spiritual causes and has helped many throughout Italy and in troubled spots around the world from Kosovo and central Africa to Iraq and Afghanistan. Several of the international projects were undertaken in cooperation with the Sovereign Military Order of Malta. The Foundation also helps fund the restoration of churches, monuments and scholarships. Prince Serge was very proud to talk about his Italian great-grandmother and her many good deeds, which have not been forgotten and indeed are even being continued. It does make me rather exasperated with those who dismiss all the good work royals do around the world, considering how many are helped even by those who have gone on to their reward. It was also noted that such love for the late Queen of Italy remains, because of all of those she helped in her life, that the preliminary steps have to taken toward opening a possible cause for her beatification. Another cause I would whole-heartedly support.

A special thanks to Monarchici in Rete for bringing this to my attention.

Consort Profile: Elena of Montenegro

It might seem strange to some that virtually every King of Italy seems controversial in some way and yet virtually every Queen consort of Italy seems to have been widely beloved and respected. Such was certainly the case with Queen Elena of Montenegro, consort to King Victor Emanuel III of Italy. She was born Princess Jelena Petrovic-Njegos of Montenegro on January 8, 1873 to Prince Nicholas I of Montenegro and his wife the Princess Milena Vukotic, the fifth of nine children. With the rest of her siblings she was raised in the Serbian Orthodox Church and this caused some major problems when, as a young lady, she married the very Catholic Prince of Naples, heir to the Italian throne. In fact, her conversion to Catholicism had to be done on a boat in the sea between the two countries and her mother was so offended by her daughter becoming Catholic that she refused to attend the wedding. However, she gained quite a bit of attention when she arrived in Italy with her exotic background, striking features and (like most) standing quite a bit taller than her husband.

The couple had met in Venice where the Prince of Montenegro mentioned that the Prince of Naples was looking for a wife, however it was in Russia that the paths of the two later crossed and where it had first been thought that the princess might have found an Orthodox husband. In 1888 the Tsarevich invited her to a ball at St Petersburg and some began to whisper that it might have been her rather than Alix of Hesse who would one day become Tsarina. However, at the ball she was rather too popular on the dance floor and sparked a fight that led to a duel between Prince Arsen of Serbia and Baron Carl Gustav von Mannerheim of Finland (who was wounded). This left a rather bad impression on the Russian court, nonetheless it was at the later coronation of Tsar Nicholas II that she met the Prince of Naples and the two were immediately love struck. The formidable Queen Margherita was more concerned with the diversity of the royal bloodline (fearing too many cousins being married) and so warmly encouraged the match.

The two were married on October 24, 1896 and in 1900, after the assassination of King Umberto I, her husband became King Victor Emmanuel III and she became Queen consort of Italy. In 1901 she gave the King his first child, a daughter, followed by another in 1902, a son and heir in 1904 and two more daughters in 1907 and 1914. The King and Queen had a very happy marriage, the couple were very devoted to each other and the King would bring his wife roses from the garden every morning he collected himself. She was not totally without her detractors in Italy but she devoted herself to her new country, her people and her family. If there is one word to describe Queen Elena it is charitable. Almost her entire royal allowance, as soon as it was given, would be distributed by her amongst the poor. She was so generous in fact that the King could look quite stingy by comparison, something which was not lost on the Italian monarch. By nature a practical and frugal man he remarked once that if he were not so careful about his money the Queen would reduce them to poverty by giving it all away to the poor.

It was no empty gesture when she set an example for Italian wives in giving up her gold wedding rings to aid the war effort in Africa when the League of Nations had put a trade embargo on Italy. Of course, the Fascists had arranged the whole thing but, in time of war, country came first and Queen Elena led the other ladies of the Royal Family in being the first to sacrifice. After dropping her cherished rings into the urn, replacing them with iron “patriotic” rings, she said, “These rings, symbols of our first joys, symbols of our extreme renunciation now, make the purest offering to our country. With them we invoke before God victory for the young sons of Italy who defend rights which are sacred. We pray for the triumph of Roman civilization in Africa.” This was, for the Queen, national and not political and, unlike her mother-in-law who was suspected of fascist sympathies, Queen Elena stayed away from politics for the most part. Her only intervention of any significance was when she urged the King to press Mussolini for the creation of an independent Kingdom of Montenegro in 1941 as her homeland had previously been absorbed by Yugoslavia after World War I. The Queen also intervened, after the German takeover of former Italian areas, to obtain the release of Prince Michael of Montenegro from German captivity after he refused to collaborate with the Nazis. She was, alongside her husband, as a result of the war briefly Queen of Albania and Empress of Ethiopia but these titles were renounced in 1943.

Few other royals lost as much as the Italians in World War II and any efforts to smear their character by the political associations of the Italian government with Nazi Germany should always be taken alongside the fact that the King and Queen of Italy lost one of their daughters to Nazi persecution as Princess Mafalda was killed in 1944 in the concentration camp at Buchenwald. When everything came to an end for Italy regarding World War II and the fascist era, some allege that it was the Queen who convinced the King to flee Rome, causing some to accuse her of dooming the monarchy by that action. However, it would be hard to believe that she was solely responsible and, in any event, circumstances left very little choice with most of Italy in the hands of the Nazis and the fascist remnant that instantly became the implacably hostile to the Savoy monarchy. Ultimately, as we know, the Italian monarchy did not long survive the end of the war and Queen Elena was forced into exile alongside her husband. She died in Montpellier, France on November 28, 1952 at the age of 79.

MM Video: Royal Montenegro

Favorite Royal Images: Italian Queen

Elena of Montenegro, Queen of Italy