Prince-Bishopric of Montenegro

Prince-Bishopric of Montenegro Митрополство Црногорско Mitropolstvo Crnogorsko
1516–1852
Flag Coat of arms
Unification of (old) Montenegro and the Hills (1796)   Area Old Montenegro (1)   Area of two hill tribes Bjelopavlići (2) and Piperi (3)
Status	Independent state (1516–1696) Ottoman vassal state (1696–1852)
Capital	Cetinje
Official languages	Serbian
Religion	Serbian Orthodoxy (official)
Demonym(s)	Montenegrins
Government	Theocratic Serbian Orthodox ecclesiastical principality (1516–1767, 1773–1852)
Prince-bishop
• 1516–1520	Vavila (first) (de jure)
• 1697–1735	Danilo (first) (de facto)
• 1851–1852	Danilo II (last)
Head of the Senate of Montenegro and the Highlands[1]
• 1831–1834	Ivan Vukotić
• 1834–1852	Pero Petrović
Legislature	Assembly of Montenegro and the Highlands
History
• Establishment	1516
• Secularisation	13 March 1852
Currency	Montenegrin perun (proposed)
Preceded by Succeeded by Zeta under the Crnojevići Sanjak of Montenegro Montenegro vilayet Principality of Montenegro
Today part of	Montenegro

The Prince-Bishopric of Montenegro (Serbian: Митрополство Црногорско, romanized: Mitropolstvo Crnogorsko, lit. 'Metropolitanate of the Black Mountain') was a Serbian Orthodox ecclesiastical principality that existed from 1516 until 1852. The principality was located around modern-day Montenegro. It emerged from the Eparchy of Cetinje, later known as the Metropolitanate of Montenegro and the Littoral, whose bishops defied the Ottoman Empire overlordship and transformed the parish of Cetinje into a de facto theocracy, ruling it as Metropolitans (Vladike, also known as prince-bishops).

The first prince-bishop was Vavila. The system was transformed into a hereditary one by Danilo Šćepčević, a bishop of Cetinje who united the several tribes of Montenegro into fighting the Ottoman Empire that had occupied all of Montenegro (as the Sanjak of Montenegro and Montenegro Vilayet) and most of southeastern Europe at the time. Danilo was the first in the House of Petrović-Njegoš to occupy the position as the Metropolitan of Cetinje in 1851, when Montenegro became a secular state (principality) under Danilo I Petrović-Njegoš. The Prince-Bishopric of Montenegro also briefly became a monarchy when it was temporarily abolished in 1767–1773: this happened when the impostor Little Stephen posed as the Russian Emperor and crowned himself the Tsar of Montenegro.