Zorka Petrović-Njegoš of Montenegro was the eldest child of King Nicholas I of Montenegro and Milena Vukotić, and the wife of Peter Karađorđević (who would become King Peter I, King of the Serbs, Croats, and Slovenes).
Zorka was born in Cetinje, Montenegro on 23 December 1864 and was educated in Russia before returning to Montenegro to be engaged to Karađorđević. The ability of Zorka's father Nicholas to arrange his daughters’ dynastically beneficial marriages cannot be denied; Zorka's sister Elena married the future King Victor Emmanuel III of Italy.
Described as "exuberant" by one commentator, Zorka married Peter on 1 August 1883 and produced four children:
Zorka died aged just 25 on March 16, 1890 in Cetinje and was buried in the Church of St. George (Oplenac) in Topola, Serbia.
Perhaps fortunately, her early death spared her the ordeal of seeing her son George, heir to the throne of Serbia, forced to renounce his rights to the Serbs, Croats, and Slovenes throne after kicking a groom to death and subsequently incarcerated as insane. Instead, Zorka's youngest child, Alexander, would ascend the Serbs, Croats, and Slovenes (and subsequently Yugoslav) throne.
