Zorka of Montenegro
Princess Ljubica, better known as
Princess Zorka (
1864-
1890), born
Ljubica Petrović-Njegoš of Montenegro became Princess Petar Karađorđević in Serbia.
She was the eldest child of the Montenegrin Monarch
Nicholas I and
Milena Vukotić, and the wife of
Petar Karađorđević (who would become King of the Serbs, Croats, and Slovenes in 1904, long after her death).
Zorka was born in
Cetinje,
Montenegro on
December 23 1864 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:
*
Elena Petrovna (Jelena) of Serbia (born
November 4 1884)
*
Milena of Serbia (
April 28 1886)
*
Prince George of Yugoslavia (born
September 8 1887)
*
Alexander (born
December 16 1888)
*
Andrija died as a child
Death
Zorka died aged just 25 on
March 16,
1890 in Cetinje and was buried in the Church of St. George (Oplenac) in Topola,
Serbia.
Her widower Peter was called to the throne of Kings of Serbia in 1904.
Her father, the reigning princely monarch, took the title of
King of Montenegro in 1910, long after her death.
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.
*
The Njegoskij Fund Public Project : Private family archives-based digital documentary fund focused on history and culture of Royal Montenegro.
