Princess Zorka of Montenegro

Infobox Serbian Royalty|princess
name = Zorka of Montenegro
title = Princess consort of Serbia

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caption =
issue = Princess Helen
George, Crown Prince of Yugoslavia
Alexander I
royal house =House of Karageorgevich
House of Petrović-Njegoš
date of birth = birth date|1864|12|23|mf=y
place of birth = Cetinje
date of death = death date and age|1890|03|16|1864|12|23|mf=y
place of death = Cetinje
father = Nicholas I of Montenegro
mother = Milena Vukotić

Princess Ljubica Petrović-Njegoš of Montenegro ( _sr. Љубица Петровић-Његош; December 23, 1864-March 16, 1890), and later became Princess Zorka Karageorgevich in Serbia. She was better known as Princess Zorka.

She was the eldest child of the Montenegrin Monarch Nicholas I and Milena Vukotić, and the wife of Peter Karageorgevich (who would become King of Serbia in 1903, long after her death).

Life

Zorka was born in Cetinje, Principality of Montenegro on December 23, 1864 at the time when her father was already the reigning Prince of Montenegro (his uncle Danilo II Petrovic Njegos having died in 1860). She was educated in Russia before returning to Montenegro to be engaged to Karađorđević. The ability of Zorka's father Nicholas to arrange his daughters’ dynastically beneficial marriages cannot be denied; Zorka's sister Elena married the future King Victor Emmanuel III of Italy.

Marriage and children

Described as "exuberant" by one commentator, Zorka married Peter on August 1 1883 and they had five children:
* Helen (November 4, 1884 - October 16, 1962).
* Milena (April 28, 1886 - December 21, 1887).
* George (September 8,1887 - October 17, 1972).
* Alexander (December 16, 1888 - October 9, 1934).
* Andrew (born and died March 16, 1890).

Death

Zorka died aged just 25 on March 16, 1890 in Cetinje during childbirth and was buried in the Church of St. George (Oplenac) in Topola, Serbia.

Her father, the reigning princely monarch, took the title of King of Montenegro in 1910.

Perhaps fortunately, her early death spared her the ordeal of seeing her son George, heir to the throne of Serbia, forced to renounce his rights to the throne of the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats, and Slovenes after kicking a groom to death and subsequently incarcerated as insane. Instead, Zorka's youngest surviving child, Alexander, would ascend the throne of the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats, and Slovenes (and subsequently Yugoslav) throne, also deposing his maternal grandfather Nicholas I and taking Montenegro to the new united realm.

External links

* [http://www.njegoskij.org/ The Njegoskij Fund Public Project] : Private family archives-based digital documentary fund focused on history and culture of Royal Montenegro.
* [http://wikii.itam.ws/index.php/Zorka_%28crnogorska_princeza%29 Crnogorska princeza Zorka]
* [http://wikii.itam.ws/index.php/Princeze_Crne_Gore Crnogorske princeze]