Danilo I, Prince of Montenegro

Short Biography

Danilo Petrović Njegoš (Cyrillic: Данило Петровић Његош; 25 May 1826 – 13 August 1860), was the Metropolitan or Prince-Bishop of Montenegro (as Danilo II) and later prince of Montenegro from 1851 to 1860 (as Danilo I). During his reign, Montenegro became a secular state, a lay principality instead of a bishopric-principality. He became involved in a war with the Ottoman Empire in 1852, the Porte claiming jurisdiction in Montenegro, and the boundaries between the two countries were not defined until 1858. Danilo, with the help of his elder brother, Voivode Mirko, defeated the Ottomans at Ostrog in 1853 and in the Battle of Grahovac in 1858. On January 12, 1855 at Njegoš he married Darinka Kvekić, who was born in a wealthy Serbian merchant family in Trieste on December 31, 1837 and died on February 14, 1892), daughter of Marko Kvekić and wife Jelisaveta Mirković. They had one daughter, Olga (Cetinje, March 19, 1859 - Venice, September 21, 1896), who never married and died young.