Mikhail Petrovich Negosh

Representative of the Petrovichi Negoshi Dynasty . Born on September 14, 1908 in Podgorica (Montenegro). The third son of Mirko Dmitry Petrovich-Negosh (April 17, 1879 - March 2, 1918 ), the great governor Grakhov and Zeta, and Natalia Konstantinovich (October 10, 1882 - August 21, 1950 ), the daughter of Alexander Konstantinovich and his wife Milena Opuich, grandson of the first king of Montenegro, Nikola I Petrovich .

In 1916, after the occupation of Montenegro by the troops of Austria-Hungary during the First World War, the entire royal family fled to Italy. There, Mikhail Petrovich-Negosh studied at a boarding school in Naples , then moved with his mother to Eastbourne ( UK ), where he completed his primary education.

In 1918, after the death of his father, Michael inherited the title of the great governor Grakhov and Zeta.

In 1921, after the death of his grandfather Nicola and the abdication of Uncle Danila , the crown prince of Montenegro, the teenager Mikhail headed the royal house of Petrovichi Negosha and became the titular king of Montenegro (Mikhailo I) under the leadership of the regent, Montenegrin general Anto Gvozdenovich . On September 14, 1929, 21-year-old Mikhail Negosh renounced dynastic claims to the Montenegrin throne and swore allegiance to the Kingdom of Yugoslavia . In gratitude, the King of Yugoslavia Alexander I Karageorgievich awarded Mikhail Petrovich with a pension and cash support .

In 1941, after the defeat of France, Prince Mikhailo and his wife were arrested by the German occupation authorities. They were deported to German territory and imprisoned in a castle on the shores of Lake Constance. Here the prisoners were visited by Count Galeazzo Ciano and Joachim von Ribbentrop , offering Michael the throne of the new, independent kingdom of Montenegro under Italian and German “protection”. He rejected this offer and remained in prison in Germany. In 1943, at the request of his aunt, Queen of Italy Elena Montenegrin , Mikhail and his wife were released. They returned to France, where they were again arrested by the German authorities and sent to an internment camp in the castle of Jezerzha in occupied Czechoslovakia . Their only son Nicola was born in 1944 in France.

At the end of World War II, Mikhail, his wife and young son were released, they returned to France, where they settled for permanent residence in Paris . It soon became known that Marshal Tito , the leader of socialist Yugoslavia, suggested that Mikhail's family visit their homeland. In 1947, Mikhail and his family settled in Belgrade , where the prince became the head of the protocol at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Yugoslavia. Prince Mikhailo was able to visit Montenegro , which he had not seen since 1916 , where he realized that the memory of the royal family was still alive among the locals. In June 1948, the family, disappointed in Tito , returned to France.

Since the emergence of the opposition in 1964 , Mikhail Petrovich spent his years as an active political dissident who opposed the communist regime of Yugoslavia. He was a member of the revolutionary Serbian Liberation Movement "Fatherland", aimed at uniting the Serbian diaspora and internal dissidents.

After a break with the communist government of Yugoslavia, Mikhail Petrovich stopped receiving money for his maintenance . Soon after, he divorced his wife. Michael remained in exile until his death in 1986 . His son Nicola was raised by his mother. Prince Mikhailo was buried in a Serbian Orthodox cemetery in Paris .

On January 27, 1941, in Paris (France), Mikhail Petrovich married Genevieve Prizhan ( December 4, 1919 , Saint-Brieuc - January 26, 1990 , Lannion ), the second daughter of Francois Prizhan (1883-1947), a tram driver who later became a private detective (according to to other sources, he was a surgeon in Saint-Brieuc or Lannion ), and his wife Blanche Bitte (1883-1958). On August 11, 1947, the couple divorced in Paris . Soon after, Genevieve began working as a speech therapist in Treberden . They had one son:

• Nikola Petrovich Negosh (born July 24, 1944 )

• The Njegoskij Fund Public Project : Biography of Prince Michel of Montenegro (1908-1986).
• The Njegoskij Fund Public Project : Biography of Genevieve Prigent, Militant Princess and French Resistant (1919-1990).