Introducing, His Imperial and Royal Highness, Stephan (sometimes known as Stefan, or Stefano) Tchernetich, Hereditary Prince of Montenegro, Serbia, and Albania, Voivodina, Hereditary Titular Emperor of Constantinople, Romania and Greece.

You can find more about Stefan on his website here, but be warned, you’ll have to endure some very, very bad music if you want to read any of the content on it. Stefan comes from an ancient and noble family, so ancient, in fact, that nobody (except Stefan) seems to have heard of them. We are told that they are:

“Nobles of Serbia, Croatia, Hungary and Jugoslavia, Earls in Russia; of Hungarian origin, living in Belgrade (Serbia), they are the most ancient and eminent house of Belgradian nobility. In Serbia they have been honored of nobility status since immemorial times. Nobles of Agram (XVIII century); officers of cavalry, diplomatics, engineers and, more recently, university teachers (at polytechnic of Zurich, Switzerland). Title of nobles of SRI and coat-of-arms were recognized by Empress Mary Theresa of Austria with letters patent dated 1.III.1751-family of the mother of present Heir Prince, born in Belgrade (Serbia).”

From Stefan’s ‘official residence’ in Belgrade, he seems to undertake a number of highly important official Royal duties. Stefan even bestows “the nobility titles of Noble, Hereditary Knight, Baron, Viscount, Count, Marquis, Duke, Prince” to the poor sods that’ve been sad enough to buy into his nonsense. Not only this, Stefan also bestows five different Chivalric Orders upon his naive followers, which are as follows:

The Imperial Equestrian Order of St. Hubert.

The Imperial Orthodox Equestrian Order of the Holy Sepulchre of Jerusalem.

The Dynastic Equestrian Order of Merit “Goldener Doppeladler” (Golden Eagle), the Imperial House Cernetic.

The Angelico Sacro Imperiale Equestrian Order of St. George Orthodox Constantinian.

The Cernetic Imperial Order.

From what I’ve seen, anyone can get into one of these ‘Orders’ if they make a ‘small donation’ to ‘Prince’ Stefan’s office… How very generous of him! I don’t want to ramble on about the dubious titles and honours this man awards, because frankly I could write pages about the ridiculous things, so to keep this article as concise as possible, lets get back to Stefan’s Royal activities…

A few weeks ago, he attended a Gala dinner in his honour at the Hilton, Portomaso, Malta. Oddly, Stefan was only addressed as ‘H.R.H. Prince Stefano Cernetich, Prince of Montenegro’- His Imperial and Royal Highness clearly didn’t want to make a fuss about titles…

The dinner’s other guest of honour was a man called ‘Prince Cammarano Zampeschi di Forlinpopoli’. Now, aside from the fact that his name sounds like an exotic dessert, it appears nowhere on Google, neither does the Principality of Forlinpopoli. ‘His Royal Highness’ has also been addressed as ‘SAS Principe don Cosimo Cammarano of Zampeschi Forlinpopoli’. Things really couldn’t get any more far-fetched than this, could they?

But, they do… You haven’t heard who was hosting…

“His Eminence, the Admor of Malta, High Priest of God and Spiritual Grand Master of the Supreme Order of the University of Light.”

Now, granted, there is an Admor of Malta. Whether the real one hosted Stefan at the Hilton I don’t know. But what I do know, is that I doubt he has the right to call himself ‘High Priest of God’ nor ‘Spiritual Grand Master of the Supreme Order of the University of Light’ (most importantly because no such ‘Order’ exists, as far as I can see. Furthermore if it did, it would not be a real Chivalric Order so should not be called and treated as such).

But, back to Stefan. So, we’ve learnt that some of his chums have dodgy backgrounds. But what about his background? After an extensive internet search on the “Royal and Imperial House of Tchernetich”, the only links I could find leading to information about this family were to Stefan’s own website or to one of his various Facebook pages. So the honest answer is, he doesn’t have one.

Stefan Cernetic, if that even is his real name, is a liar and a fake. His claimed links to European Royalty are obscure and not to be relied upon. He is by no means a member of any Royal or Imperial House, let alone is he the head of one. He has no connections to the Royal Houses of Montenegro, Serbia, or Albania whatsoever. The titles and Orders he bestows upon those foolish enough to believe his arrant nonsense are just as bogus as his own. His companions seem to be just as deluded and this writer would advise anyone coming into contact with him or his supporters to avoid them like the plague.

The Real Royals

I’m going to try and keep this as short as possible, but the real title holders of the places Stefan (claims) to be Prince (or Emperor) of, are as follows:

Alexander II Karađorđević, is the current head of the House of Karađorđević. He is the rightful King of Serbia, and would be so were the throne to be restored (which, hopefully, will be sooner rather than later).

Nikola II Petrović-Njegoš, is the current head of the House of Petrović-Njegoš (and actually second cousin once removed of the above), making him rightful heir to the Kingdom of Montenegro, were it to be restored.

Leka II of Albania, is the current head of the House of Zogu, the Royal House of Albania. He is the Grandson of King Zog I of the Albanians, making him rightful King of Albania. Leka currently works for the Albanian Ministry of Foreign affairs, and would reign as King Leka II were Albania to restore its monarchy.

Michael I of Romania, is the former King of Romania, having already been restored once in the 1940s. He is currently the rightful King of Romania. Hopefully, in time the Romanian monarchy will be restored, in which case he will again reign as King Michael I.

Constantine II of Greece, is the former King of Greece. He was forced to flee the country in 1967 following a coup and Greece declared itself a republic in 1973, confirmed by a referendum the following year. Constantine and the Greek Royal family have now finally been allowed to return to Greece and will hopefully be restored within the coming years.