Bjelopavlići

The valley has historically been densely populated, as fertile lowlands are rare in mountainous Montenegro, and it provided a corridor for road and rail connection between the two biggest Montenegrin cities, Podgorica and Nikšić.

According to an oral tradition recorded by Špiro Kulišić, the Bjelopavlići claim to descend from a son of the medieval Albanian noble Lekë Dukagjini named Pal Bardhi (Bjelo Pavle).

However, according to an alternate tradition, Lekë Dukagjini fathered two sons: Nikolla from whom the Mirdita and Shala descend, and Pal Bardhi from whom the Bjelopavlići and Gashi stem.

[4] Another similar folk tradition considers their progenitor to be a Bijeli Pavle who was the son of a Kapetan Leka who moved to Montenegro from Dukagjini (western Kosovo) in the 15th century after the Ottoman conquest.

[14][15] The anthroponymy recorded in the nahiyah of Bjelopavlići predominantly belonged to the Slavic onomastic sphere, although a minority of household heads bore Albanian or mixed Albanian-Slavic personal names.

[16] Based on the archival material, Selami Pulaha considered regions such as Bjelopavlići to be zones of ethno-linguistic contact between Albanian and Slavic-speaking groups during the medieval period.

The Pasha remained in Podgorica for three months and then decided to ravage the Bjelopavlići, taking 80 women and children as slaves, setting the village on fire and stealing animals.

Later that year, the Bjelopavlići, Kuči, Piperi, and Kelmendi sent a letter to the kings of Spain and France claiming they were independent from Ottoman rule and did not pay tribute to the empire.

[22] Prince-Bishop Petar I (r. 1782-1830) waged a successful campaign against the bey of Bosnia in 1819; the repulse of an Ottoman invasion from Albania during the Russo-Turkish War (1828–29) led to the recognition of Montenegrin sovereignty over Piperi.

[25] A civil war broke out in 1847, in which the Piperi, Kuči, Bjelopavlići and Crmnica sought to confront the growing centralized power of new prince of Montenegro; the secessionists were subdued and their ringleaders shot.

[27] A conspiracy was formed against Danilo, led by his uncles George and Pero, the situation came to its height when the Ottomans stationed troops along the Herzegovinian frontier, provoking the mountaineers.

[27] Some urged an attack on Bar, others raided into Herzegovina, and the discontent of Danilo's subjects grew so much that the Piperi, Kuči and Bjelopavlići, the recent and still unamalgamated acquisitions, proclaimed themselves an independent state in July, 1854.

[29] During the rule of Nikola I Petrović-Njegoš, the Bjelopavlići had bad relations with the prince, which deteriorated further after 1908 when a prominent member of the tribe, Andrija Radović, was sentenced to 15 years in prison during the Cetinje bombing trial.