The Prince does not Want the Crown
Montenegro:Montenegro's Royal Family & Politics
For a long time prince Nikola, the only descendant of the famous King of Montenegro, lived far from the country of his ancestors. When he visited, as a tourist, nobody believed he was of a noble blood. When at the beginning of the 1990s he publicly opposed the mad war raging in the former Yugoslavia, most of Montenegro would not believe him. Only in the past three years have Montenegro and its potential monarch gotten closer.
"I do not mind dying, but I do mind that the world will be able to see who the Montenegrins are," the last Montenegrin king, Nikola Petrovic, allegedly said on his deathbed, defeated by his exile and orchestrated dethronement, sending a bitter warning to his people. His bitterness had much to do with the events that occurred after 1916, the second year of World War One, when he was forced out of the country by conquering Austrian troops. But it also owed much to the events of 1918, when an illegal and illegitimate Podgorica assembly stripped him of his title and criticized him.
At the time, unitarian supporters in Montenegro, who were mostly educated in Belgrade, assisted by Serbian Premier Nikola Pasic and the Karadjordjevic dynasty, succeeded in including Montenegro as part of Serbia in the newly formed kingdom of Yugoslavia. King Nikola's attempts to restore his influence and Montenegro from exile, through his remaining diplomatic relations with the leading European countries, were in vain. After 60 years of rule, his death in 1921 marked the end of the last vestiges of Montenegro's monarchy.
His son, King Danilo, wore the royal insignia only formally, and that is why it was easy for him to transfer his "power" to his infant son, Mihailo I, on behalf of whom all decisions were to be made by a regent, Queen Milena, Nikola's wife.
The end of the Montenegrin monarchy has been a political issue ever since and every opportunity has been used to bring up the matter all over again. During World War Second, with Italy's assistance, the separatist movement "restored" Montenegro and offered its crown to Prince Mihailo. The proud heir of King Nikola rejected the offer, viewing it as a false proposition made under the patronage of Italy.
After Communism triumphed in 1945 in the new Republic of Yugoslavia, in which a part of Montenegro's sovereignty was restored, the monarchy only naturally took its place in the history textbooks. The communist regime did not have any room for royal families, leaving the only Montenegrin prince, Nikola II Petrovic, who today lives in Paris, France, to be forgotten.
His surprise visit to Montenegro in the 1970s was quite a shock to most employees at the National Museum of Montenegro, and the police, who diligently noted that after writing down his impressions in the book of visitors he signed his name as Nikola Petrovic. The court of his great grandfather was for him a tourist attraction rather that a site of dynastic importance. Montenegro was for him, as he put it in an interview, only a shadow, a family fairy tale. Prince Nikola II Petrovic-Njegos, however, would see another Montenegro after the remains of the royal couple were transferred from San Remo, Italy, to Cetinje, in October, 1989. Thousands of Montenegrins passed through Cetinje to pay their belated respect to their late sovereign, King Nikola. This must have attracted the attention of the "foreigner" Prince Nikola was at the time. Maybe it was this that prompted him not to forget Montenegro ever again. During the years that followed Prince Nikola would enter the public scene in a most original fashion, not demonstrating any political aspirations, but stressing the role of good taste. The prince's idea of culturally intertwining the East and the West and organizing the Cetinje Biennial were, as it turned out later, a vain attempt to relativize the Yugoslav pre-war drama. The Biennial's motto -- "Only one step separates kitsch from bloodshed" -- failed in becoming popular.
At the time the Montenegrin government was more interested in the borders between neighboring republics than its international image. The only assistance Prince Nikola could get was from the feeble opposition intellectual elite and the emerging independent media outlets. The authorities were indifferent and would not offer much media coverage. That meant Prince Nikola would have to overcome some ordinary technical problems. No one even dared mention that he should be given an apartment or part of his family property. His only satisfaction was the warm welcome offered by Cetinje residents, who still remembered the period of the "heroic Montenegro" personified in his great grandfather.
Certain political parties (both pro-Serb and pro-Montenegrin) attempted to take advantage of his occasional visits to Montenegro. Some of them, like the Federalist Movement, advocated restoring the monarchy, but could not attract sufficient support.
The political climate of the 1990s in Montenegro and its immediate neighborhood did not favor democratic change, and any attempt by Prince Nikola to be politically active would have been useless and exposed him to strong criticism from political parties. Then, Milosevic's generals were more important in Montenegro than the "obscure" heir to Montenegro's throne. Still, the prince tried to find his place in Montenegro's public life during his occasional summer visits, by organizing art gatherings and founding a humanitarian non-government organization. His anti-war views were thus widely publicized -- although not directly active in politics, Prince Nikola had a chance to go public with his views for a peaceful separation of the former Yugoslavia's republics.
During his occasional sojourns in Montenegro he was unable to do more, and maybe he did not want to do more. In an interview with the independent Montenegrin weekly Monitor he said: "As a prince I am, in fact, a staunch republican," dismissing all rumors of his plans to ascend to the throne of Montenegro. Accurate forecasting is like a job well done. After all, since the split in the ruling Democratic Party of Socialists of Montenegro in 1997, things turned for the better. The distancing from Milosevic's policies offered a chance to all those who viewed Montenegro as part of Europe. There was finally room for the prince, even in the state-run news media.
Today, the government perceives Prince Nikola as a man whose authority and knowledge can help reforms in Montenegro. This is why he was appointed Montenegro's representative in Paris.
History indeed plays strange games: the grandson of the exiled King Nikola will after seventy years become an informal diplomatic representative in the city where he lives.
Radovan Popovic (AIM Podgorica)