Prince-Bishopric of Montenegro

The Prince-Bishopric of Montenegro was a Serbian Orthodox ecclesiastical principality that existed from 1516 until 1852, 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's overlordship and transformed the parish of Cetinje into a de facto theocracy, ruling it as Metropolitans, the Vladike, also known as prince-bishops. From their seat at Cetinje the prince-bishops welded the Montenegrin tribes into a small state that acknowledged no Ottoman master, defending their karst strongholds through generations of raids and wars. The wars of the late eighteenth century brought the polity into recognized statehood: in 1789, under Petar I Petrović Njegoš, the Ottoman Porte formally recognized Montenegro's independence as a state — the moment the map's record of the polity begins. Metropolitan Danilo's line was succeeded by co-rulers Metropolitan Sava and Metropolitan Vasilije; Sava was predominantly occupied with clerical duties and did not enjoy much influence among the tribes, while the bishop's authority increasingly rested on the warrior households gathered at the capital. In 1852 the prince-bishopric became the secular Principality of Montenegro under Danilo II, closing the theocratic era.