Umberto II of Italy

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Umberto II
King of Italy
Image:Ximenes, Ettore - Busto di Umberto II di Savoia - 1925 ca - Roma, Altare della Patria. Foto Giovanni Dall'Orto.jpg
Reign	May 9, 1946 - June 12, 1946
Coronation	May 9, 1946
Born	September 15 1904(1904-09-15)
	Racconigi, Cuneo, Italy
Died	March 18 1983 (aged 78)
	Geneva, Switzerland
Predecessor	Victor Emmanuel III
Successor	Monarchy abolished Alcide De Gasperi (Temporary Head of State) Enrico De Nicola as President of the Italian Republic Victor Emmanuel IV (claimant)
Consort	Marie José of Belgium
Issue	Maria Pia, Victor Emmanuel, Maria Gabriella, Maria Beatrice.
Royal House	House of Savoy
Royal anthem	Marcia Reale
Father	Victor Emmanuel III
Mother	Jelena of Montenegro

Umberto II, occasionally anglicized as Humbert II, (September 15, 1904 - March 18, 1983) the last King of Italy, nicknamed the King of May (Italian: Re di Maggio), was born the Prince of Piedmont. He was the third child of King Victor Emmanuel III of Italy and Elena Petrovich of Montenegro. He served as the last King of Italy for slightly over a month, from May 9, 1946 to June 12, 1946. He renounced the title of King of Albania, which was held by his father after Italy's invasion of the country and personally asked King Zog I for forgiveness for taking his throne.

He was married in Rome on January 8, 1930 to Marie José of Belgium (August 4, 1906 - January 27, 2001). His children included:

1 Prince of Piedmont
2 King of Italy
3 Sexuality
4 In exile
5 Ancestors
- 5.1 Patrilineal descent
6 See also
7 External links
8 Additional reading

[edit] Prince of Piedmont

The Prince of Piedmont was educated to a military career and in time became the commander in chief of the Northern Armies, and then of the Southern ones. However his role was merely formal, the concrete command belonging to Mussolini. By mutual agreement Umberto and Mussolini always kept at distance. It has been conjectured that Mussolini had collected a secret dossier on Umberto, but this folder (which is said to have been found after the dictator was shot), was never seen.

Following the Savoyards' tradition ("Only one Savoy reigns at a time"), he kept apart from active politics until he was finally named the Lieutenant. Only in one case, while he was in Germany for a royal wedding, did he make an exception, Hitler asked for a meeting. This action was not considered proper, given the international situation, and Umberto was later even more severely banned from political events.

In 1943, the Crown Princess Maria José, the daughter of King Albert I of Belgium, was involved in vain attempts to arrange a separate peace treaty between Italy and the United States, and her interlocutor from the Vatican was Monsignor Giovanni Battista Montini, a senior diplomat who later became Pope Paul VI. Her attempts were not sponsored by the king and Umberto was not (directly, at least) involved in them. After her failure (she never met the American agents), she was sent with her children to Sarre, in Aosta Valley, and isolated from the political life of the Royal House.

Following the overthrow of Benito Mussolini in 1943, King Victor Emmanuel handed over his constitutional functions to Umberto, who was made Lieutenant General of the Realm, and left Italy for Egypt.

[edit] King of Italy

Umberto earned for himself widespread praise for his role in the following three years. Some believe that had Victor Emmanuel III handed over the throne in 1943, the monarchy would have won the 1946 referendum on its survival. Victor Emmanuel's failure to do so proved to be one of his many major misjudgments.

Many Italian monarchists expressed doubts about the correctness of the referendum, claiming that millions of voters, many of them pro-monarchist, were unable to vote because they had not yet been able to return to their own local areas to register. Nor had the issue of Italy's borders, and so the voting rights of those in disputed areas, been satisfactorily clarified. Other allegations too have been made about voter manipulation, while even the issue of how to interpret the votes became controversial, as it appeared that not just a majority of those validly voting but of those votes cast (including spoiled votes), was needed to reach an outcome in the event the monarchy lost by a tight margin.

Umberto had by the time of the referendum become king, Victor Emmanuel having reluctantly and belatedly abdicated a few weeks before. Umberto served as king for 33 days. The monarchy formally ended on June 12, 1946 and Umberto became a king in exile, leaving Italy forever. Prime Minister Alcide De Gasperi assumed office as Italy's interim Head of State.

[edit] Sexuality

Umberto and Maria José separated in exile; it was indeed an arranged marriage, following a long tradition of royal families, even if some observers alleged that she was really fascinated by her husband, an elegant tombeur de femmes. However, Umberto's sexual interests lay elsewhere, he was a playboy of 'peculiar tastes' (in the words of one royal website) or had an 'inability to distinguish between the sexes' (as another royal biographer put it - a reference to the former king's rumoured bisexuality). This knowledge was used by foreign governments hostile to the Savoyard monarchy's survival to ensure the Vatican's opposition to the monarchical cause in the 1946 referendum ^[1]. Pope Pius XII atoned for this 'failure' by refusing to meet the elected presidents of Italy during his lifetime. Pope John XXIII reversed this policy on his election.

Umberto did little to avoid such a reputation. For instance, he spent his wedding-night and his entire honeymoon in Courmayeur not with his wife but with a group of Turin officials and 'friends', to whom Umberto presented diamonds in the shape of a 'U'^[2]. Afterwards, when Umberto called on his wife, he always had himself announced and visited her accompanied by someone else. It is not surprising that the Fascist secret police soon began to gather information about the 'pederasty' of the heir, either in order to blackmail him or as leverage to control him in the future. Furthermore, Umberto and his wife lived apart, except for a minimum of contact necessary for the sake of appearances; they kept separate apartments, separate beds and separate friends ^[3].

Umberto, unlike his Savoy predecessors, was a fervent Catholic. He experienced his sexual transgressions, according to his biographers, as guilt-inducing erotic raptures. For Bartoli^[4], 'The Prince was a true believer and a practising Catholic almost to the point of fanaticiscm. Therefore, sensual urges had a satanic origin, yet he was unable to resist then... Thus the consequences of his sins became a devastating burden. The exact nature of the sins, however, could only be whispered'.

Umberto liked to choose his partners from the military, with a preference for officers - the director Luchino Visconti was an officer at the time of their liasion - rather than common soliders. Later, in exile in Cascais, where Bartoli ^[5] says euphemistically that the king enjoyed no 'female distractions', he again chose his friends from among young regimental officers. Even before his marriage, Umberto's custom of giving a fleur-de-lis made of precious stones to the young officials and lovers in his entourage was well known; they flaunted the gifts in public.

Among his supposed lovers at the time were the handsome French actor Jean Marais and the boxer Primo Carnera^[6]. In response to questions about why Umberto once wanted to meet him in private, Carnera simply answered that 'the prince had received him wearing a swimming costume and asked to go for a swim in the pool. They then spend the afternoon alone together'^[7].

[edit] In exile

King Umberto lived for 37 years in exile, first in Switzerland and later at Cascais in Portugal, a popular old gentleman, nicknamed 'Europe's grandfather', at many of Europe's royal weddings. While during Umberto's lifetime the 1947 constitution of the Italian Republic barred all male heirs to the defunct Italian throne from setting foot on Italian soil again, female members of the Savoy family were not barred, but out of respect for Umberto and his son, Crown Prince Victor Emmanuel, Maria José and her daughters declined to return to their native land, the exiled queen making her first return to her late husband's kingdom only in the 1980s. When it was revealed that the exiled king was terminally ill, President Sandro Pertini, who as a young republican firebrand had played a leading role on the republican side in campaigning against the monarchy and Umberto, urged the Italian Parliament to amend the constitution to let the King return to die in his homeland. However, before this could happen, Umberto died. The funeral for the last King of Italy was held in Savoy, but no member of the Italian Government attended. Looking back later, former Prime Minister Andreotti believed their absence a mistake and disrespectful to a decent and honourable man, who in different circumstances could have made a fine Italian king. But by the time he inherited the throne, the monarchy, through its association with Mussolini and fascism, had been fatally undermined. The 980-year reign of the Savoyards in various duchies and kingdoms, first in Northern Italy, then over the whole peninsula, had come to an end.

[edit] Ancestors

**Umberto II's ancestors in three generations**
Umberto II of Italy	Father: Victor Emmanuel III of Italy	Paternal Grandfather: Umberto I of Italy	Paternal Great-grandfather: Victor Emmanuel II of Italy
			Paternal Great-grandmother: Marie Caroline of Austria
		Paternal Grandmother: Margherita of Savoy	Paternal Great-grandfather: Ferdinand, 1st Duke of Genoa
			Paternal Great-grandmother: Elizabeth of Saxony
	Mother: Elena of Montenegro	Maternal Grandfather: Nicholas I of Montenegro	Maternal Great-grandfather: Mirko Petrović Njegoš
			Maternal Great-grandmother: Anastasija Martinović
		Maternal Grandmother: Milena Vukotić	Maternal Great-grandfather: Peter Vukotić
			Maternal Great-grandmother: Jelena Voivodić

[edit] Patrilineal descent

Umberto's patriline is the line from which he is descended father to son.

Patrilineal descent is the principle behind membership in royal houses, as it can be traced back through the generations - which means that if Umberto II were to have chosen an historically accurate house name it would have been Ferreolus, as all his male-line ancestors were of that house.

Assuming the section between Humbert and Childebrand is correct, Umberto II was the last reigning monarch in the world to be descended from the Romans.

Ferreolus, b. 390
Tonantius Ferreolus (prefect), 412 - 475
Tonantius Ferreolus (senator), 445 - 515
Ferreolus, Senator of Narbonne, 470 - 531
Ansbertus, 520 - 591
Arnoald, 560 - 611
Arnulf of Metz, 582 - 641
Ansegisel, 602 - 662
Pepin of Herstal, 635 - 714
Childebrand, 684 - 751
Nivelon of Perracy, 725 - 768
Childebrand II of Perracy, 760 - 831
Theodoric I, Duke of Burgundy, 799 - 881
Richard of Autunois, 833 - 885
Garnier of Troyes, 870 - 925
Hugh, Count Palatine of Vienna, 900 - 948
Hubert of Vienna, 928 - 976
Humbert I of Savoy, 980 - 1047
Otto of Savoy, 1015 - 1057
Amadeus II of Savoy, 1039 - 1080
Humbert II of Savoy, 1070 - 1103
Amadeus III of Savoy, 1095 - 1148
Humbert III of Savoy, 1135 - 1189
Thomas I of Savoy, 1176 - 1233
Thomas II, Count of Piedmont, 1199 - 1259
Amadeus V, Count of Savoy, 1251 - 1323
Aimone, Count of Savoy, 1291 - 1343
Amadeus VI, Count of Savoy, 1334 - 1383
Amadeus VII, Count of Savoy, 1360 - 1391
Amadeus VIII, Duke of Savoy, 1383 - 1451
Louis, Duke of Savoy, 1402 - 1465
Philip II, Duke of Savoy, 1438 - 1497
Charles III, Duke of Savoy, 1486 - 1553
Emmanuel Philibert, Duke of Savoy, 1528 - 1580
Charles Emmanuel I, Duke of Savoy, 1562 - 1630
Thomas Francis, Prince of Carignan, 1596 - 1656
Emmanuel Philibert Amadeus, 2nd Prince of Carignano, 1628 - 1709
Victor Amadeus I, 3rd Prince of Carignano, 1690 - 1741
Louis Victor, 4th Prince of Carignano, 1721 - 1778
Victor Amadeus II, 5th Prince of Carignano, 1743 - 1780
Charles Emmanuel of Savoy, 6th Prince of Carignano, 1770 - 1800
Charles Albert of Sardinia, 1798 - 1849
Victor Emmanuel II of Italy, 1820 - 1878
Umberto I of Italy, 1844 - 1900
Victor Emmanuel III of Italy, 1869 - 1947
Umberto II of Italy, 1904 - 1983

[edit] See also

[edit] External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to:

Umberto II of Italy

[edit] Additional reading

Denis Mack Smith Italy and Its Monarchy (Yale University Press, 1989)
Robert Katz The Fall of the House of Savoy

Regnal titles
Umberto II of Italy House of Savoy Born: 15 September 1904 Died: 19 March 1983
Preceded by Victor Emmanuel III	King of Italy 9 May 1946 - 12 June 1946	Succeeded by Enrico De Nicola as President of the Republic
Titles in pretence
Loss of title Republic declared	— TITULAR — King of Italy 12 June 1946 - 19 March 1983	Succeeded by Vittorio Emanuele, Prince of Naples