page_title: Prince-Bishopric of Montenegro
section_title: Danilo
hierarchical_section_title: Prince-Bishopric of Montenegro / History / Danilo
context_page_description: The Prince-Bishopric of Montenegro, located around modern-day Montenegro, was an ecclesiastical principality that existed from 1516 until 1852. It emerged from the bishops of Cetinje, later metropolitans, who defied Ottoman overlordship and transformed the parish of Cetinje to a de facto theocracy, ruling as Metropolitans. The history starts with Vavila, and 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 most of southeastern Europe. Danilo was the first of the House of Petrović-Njegoš to occupy the office as Metropolitan of Cetinje until 1851, when Montenegro became a secular state under Danilo I Petrović-Njegoš. It also became a brief monarchy when it was temporary abolished 1767–1773, during which impostor Little Stephen posed as Russian Emperor and crowned himself Lord of Montenegro.
context_section_description: During the reign of Danilo two important changes occurred in the wider European context of Montenegro: the expansion of the Ottoman state was gradually reversed, and Montenegro found in the Russian Empire a powerful new patron to replace the declining Venice. The replacement of Venice by Russia was especially significant, since it brought financial aid (after Danilo visited Peter the Great in 1715), modest territorial gain, and, in 1789, formal recognition by the Ottoman Porte of Montenegro's independence as a state under Petar I Petrović Njegoš.
caption: Danilo I of Montenegro
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