30th Anniversary of King Umberto's passing away

After the Italians elected their 630 deputies and 315 senators for the 17th Parliament of the Italian Republic on 24th/25th February 2013, Euronews commented: 

"The results of the Italian general election are threefold, political gridlock, market jitters and a slap in the face for European austerity.

"The numbers mean that the country faces stalemate in the coming weeks as former foes try to put hostilities to bed in order to govern a country in difficulty."

In a couple of weeks the term of president Napolitano will come to an end and the deputies and senators have to find a replacement of the 87-year-old former Communist deputy.

It is rather ironic that at a time, when Italy does not have a functioning government and is looking for a head of state, Italian Monarchists commemorate the late King Umberto II who died 30 years ago on 18th March 1983 in Switzerland.

Proclamation of King Umberto II on 10th May 1946 under the thundering joy of tenths of thousands of Romans at a balcony of the Quirinale Palace.

After the rigged referendum of 2nd June 1946 the Monarch left Italy to avoid a civil war and bloodshed and went into a life-long exile in Portugal, never to be allowed back to Italy, not to die there and not to be buried in his own country. His body was put to rest in the monastery Hautecombe, France. The Radical Royalist commemorated King Umberto’s accession to the Italian throne on 9th May 1946 and called it La grande tragedia d'Italia - Umberto II.

But King Umberto is not forgotten in Italy, as this graffito shows.

The politicial and economic mess Italy is in at the moment is the right time to reflect how Italy could flourish under a Constitutional Monarchy with an impartial King above the parties, above the politicians and overlook an impartial judicial system.

Never did Italy need a King more urgently than now. Viva King Umberto! Viva Italia!

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Commissario Montalbano comes out as a Monarchist




Ma io un commissario MONARCHICO SONO.

This version with subtitles was shown in Australia by SBS. The translation handled the Monarchist confession of Commissario Montalbano in a correct manner.

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Head of Italy’s Royal Family turns 75

Prince Vittorio Emanuele, Prince of Naples, son of King Umberto II of Italy, and head of the Royal House of Savoy celebrates his 75th birthday today. He was born on 12th February 1937 in Naples to then Crown Princess Marie-José and Crown Prince Umberto of Italy. As a coincidence his wife, Princess Marina, Princess of Naples, née Marina Ricolfi-Doria, was also born on 12th February, but in 1935.


After the rigged referendum in May 1946, the newly proclaimed Italian republic sent the whole Royal Family into exile. For more then five decades the Savoy family lived in exile, mostly in Switzerland and Portugal, Prince Vittorio Emanuele lived with his mother in an estate in Merlinge, Switzerland. After his wedding in 1971, Prince Vittorio Emanuele, Princess Marina and their son, Prince Emanuele Filiberto, Prince of Venice and Piedmont, born in Geneva on 22nd June 1972, resided in Geneva, Switzerland.

For 56 years, Prince Vittorio Emanuele lobbied the Italian Parliament against the law prohibiting the return to his home country. In 1999, he filed a case at the European Court of Human Rights, in which the Prince charged that his lengthy exile violated his human rights. In September 2001, the court decided to hold a hearing on the case at a date later to be fixed.

In 2002 Prince Vittorio Emanuele dropped his case at the European Court of Human Rights and instead he and his son, Prince Emanuele Filiberto, wrote a signed letter, published through a law firm, in which they formally expressed their loyalty to the Constitution of Italy. On 23rd October 2002, the provision in the Constitution of Italy that prohibited Prince Vittorio Emanuele's return to Italy was repealed, after he signed an agreement recognizing the republic as the valid government of the state. Prince Vittorio Emanuele was permitted to re-enter the country from 10th November 2002. On 23rd December 2002 he made his first trip home in over half a century. On the one-day visit he, his wife and his son had a 20-minute audience with Pope John Paul II at the Vatican.

The position of Prince Vittorio Emanuele is also claimed by the head of a junior branch of the House of Savoy, his third cousin, Duke Amadeo of Aosta, born 27th September 1943. Duke Amadeo argues that his cousin was no longer eligible to call himself Prince of Savoy because he had failed to secure the legally-required permission of his father, King Umberto II, to marry a Swiss commoner.


The Duke also argued that Prince Vittorio Emanuele forfeited his right to the dynastic title because in order to be allowed to return to Italy from exile in 2002, Prince Victor Emmanuel had to formally recognise the Italian republic as the country's legitimate government. The Duke of Aosta and his family were not forced to go into exile, because the republic did not consider them to be in direct line to the throne, and they stayed in the bilingual autonomous region of Aosta, in the Italian North West. On 22nd July 1964 Duke Amedeo married Princess Claude of France (born 11th December 1943) in Sintra, Portugal. She was the ninth child and fifth daughter of Henri, comte de Paris, de iure King of France, and of Princess Isabelle of Orléans-Braganza, de iure Queen of France.

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La grande tragedia d'Italia - Umberto II

The Radical Royalist commemorated King Umberto’s accession to the Italian throne on 9th May 1946 here .

Fellow blogger Matterhorn has already paid tribute to His Majesty King Umberto II of Italy who was forced to go into exile 65 years ago. Matterhorn published the King’s noble last message he addressed to the Italian people upon departing into exile. This is the last passage:

With a spirit full of sorrow, but with the serene consciousness of having made every effort to carry out my duties, I leave my country. Let those who have taken the oath and kept faith through the hardest trials, consider themselves released from their oath of allegiance to the King, but not from their oath of allegiance to the Country. I think of all those who have fallen in the name of Italy, and I salute all the Italians. Whatever destiny awaits our Country, she will always be able to count on me, as on the most devoted of her sons.

Long live Italy!

13th June 1946

On 13th June 1946 the King left the Quirinale Palace, the only official building in Rome which was still flying the royal standard. The Royal Guard saluted their King for the last time.

Il re Umberto II si appresta a lasciare per sempre il Quirinale, e qui lo vediamo nel Cortile d’Onore del palazzo con il duca Riario Sforza, comandante dei corazzieri, mentre passa in rassegna il picchetto che rende omaggio all’ultimo dei Savoia. Sono attimi di profonda commozione, per tutti e in mode particolare per Umberto chi si trova nel ruolo di protagonist del tramonto di una dinastia.

“Guardia del re, salute al re!”, dice Riario Sforza ai suoi uomini.

“Viva il re!”, gridano per l’ultima volta i corazzieri. E viene ammainata la bandiera con lo stemma sabaudo.

King Umberto did not want a throne covered with blood: Non voglio un trono macchiato di sangue."

At four o'clock in the afternoon King Umberto reached Ciampino Airport, greeted by his most fervent supporters, he is guided to the military plane, Savoia Marchetti S 95, that would take him from Rome into the Portuguese exile. He never abdicated - neither for himself nor for his descendants.

Sono le quattro del pomeriggio del 13 giugno 1946. Umberto II ha raggiunto l'aeroporto di Ciampino e, salutato dagli fedelissime, si avvia a passo spedito verso l'aereo militare, un Savoia Marchetti S 95, che lo porterà da Roma nell'esilio portoghese. ... senza tuttavia rinunciare ai suoi diritti sul trono e quelli dei suoi discendenti.

From the aeroplane's door the King greeted the Italians for the last time on Italian soil.

Dal portellone dell'aereo Umberto rivolge un ultimo saluto ai pochi che, informati all'ultimo momento della sua partenza, lo hanno accompagnato. Un ultimo, mesto, forzato sorriso. Un ultimo sguardo a quell'Italia su cui ha regnato per un solo mese e che non rivedrà più. Anche il cielo sembra intristire, in quel giorno di tarda primavera.

In 1962 King Umberto attended the wedding of Prince Juan Carlos of Spain and Princess Sophia of Greece and Denmark. On the right is the father of the bride, King Paul I of Greece.

Il re Paolo di Grecia presenta ai dignitari di Corte le re Umberto II.

His private study in his exile home, Villa Italia, near the Atlantic Ocean in Cascais, Portugal.

Il re Umberto nel suo studio privato di Villa Italia, la piccola reggia del lungo esilio a Cascais. "Cala la notte e prima di spegnere la luce e riposare ho la visione della piazza del Quirinale, di Roma, della città che non si può non amare. L'Italia è sempre nel mio cuore".

The King's library in 1970. Although he received a military education, Umberto always loved books and was interested in the arts.

Umberto nella sua grande biblioteca di Villa Italia. Dopo aver recevuto una rigida educazione militare, era stato considerato dai più come un uomo dai limitati interessi culturali. Al contrario il re Umberto era un raffinato umanista, un profondo conoscitore di storia, di letteratura e d'arte.

In 1982 Pope John Paul II visited Portugal. On 14th April 1982 the pontif and the king met in the residence of the Patriarch of Lisbon. At this stage King Umberto was already seriously sick and suffered from lung cancer.

He died on 18th March 1983 in Geneva, Switzerland. His body was not allowed to repatriated to Italy and was interred in Hautecombe Abbey in France.

Un affettuoso abbraccio, spontane e informale, tra Papa Giovanni Paolo II e il re Umberto II: è il 14 prile del 1982, il Papa si è recato in pellegrinaggio al santuario di Nostra Signora di Fatima, in Portogallo, e nella residenzia del cardinale di Lisbona ha concesso un'udienza privata alla re d'Italia. Umberto si è inginocchiato di fronte a lui, ma il Pontefice lo ha fatto subito rialzare e ha voluto abbracciarlo. Il sovrano sa di essere molto malato, che gli resta poco da vivere, e di certo in quel lungo colloquio ne parla con Papa Giovanni Paolo.

While King Umberto was totally ignored by the Italian officials, the Portuguese kept an affectionate memory of the Monarch they hosted for 37 years.

In 1987 a bust of the Italian King was unveiled in Cascais, in front of the Villa Italia, where he spent three and a half decades. The ceremony in the newly named Avenida Rei Humberto II de Itália was attended not only by King Umberto's only son, Prince Vittorio Emanuele, but also by the Portuguese President Mário Soares. Also present were Queen Marie José of Italy, King Umberto's widow, Queen Joana of the Bulgarians, the deceased King's sister, and Portugal's King-in-waiting, Dom Duarte Pio, Duke of Bragança.

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9th May 1946:
Accession of King Umberto II of Italy

Today 65 years ago King Umberto II ascended to the Italian throne. He succeeded his father, King Vittorio Emanuele who had abdicated in his favour.

The Italian cabinet approved Crown Prince Umberto's assumption of the throne on 10th May 1946, and it decided that King Umberto could approve decrees "up until the referendum date". He was able to sign as Umberto II, King of Italy, but the Cabinet ordered the elimination of the phrase "By the grace of God and the will of people." Right from the beginning of his reign the socialists ridiculed King Umberto as the King of May.

Nevertheless King Umberto appeared eight times on the palace balcony to acknowledge the acclaim of an estimated 10,000 cheering Romans
.

The referendum on the Italian Monarchy was held on 2nd and 3rd June 1946. For details see Wikipedia.

Although the official result that declared a republican victory has been highly doubtful, King Umberto decided to leave the country to avoid civil war. He settled in Cascais, Portugal. The republican constitution not only exiled King Umberto but forbade all male members of the House of Savoy from setting foot in Italy thereafter. This harsh order condemned the exiled King to die abroad.


King Umberto lived 37 of his 79 years in exile. He is buried in the Abbey of Hautecombe, France, which was founded by the Savoys. Thousands of Italians paid their last respect to their King. The only official Italian representative was the Italian consul from Lyon.

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Accession of King Umberto II of Italy

Yesterday marked the 63rd anniversary of the accession of King Umberto II and his Belgian-born wife, Queen Marie-José, to the Italian throne. On May 9, 1946, Umberto's father, King Vittorio Emanuele III abdicated in his son's favour.

I highly recommend this blog: The Cross of Laeken for more information on the Italian royal couple.

The last Savoy to have reigned in Italy died March 18, 1983 in Geneva, at the age of 79. He lived 44 of his 83 years in exile. His funeral was ignored by the Italian authorities (only the Italian consul in Lyon was present), but it was attended by ten thousand Italians who made their way to the abbey of Hautecombe near Aix-les-Bains in High Savoy, France. The funeral was attended by the King and Queen of Spain, the King and Queen of the Belgians, the Grand Duke and Grand Duchess of Luxembourg, Prince Rainier III of Monaco with his son and heir, Prince Albert, the Duke of Kent represented the Queen of the United Kingdom. The King of the Bulgarians, the King of Romania and the King of the Hellenes paid their last respect to King Umberto. The Vatican was represented by the Apostolic Nuncio in France.

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Not for Australian eyes and ears

Later this April Prince Charles and the Duchess of Cornwall will visit Rome and Venice before flying on to Berlin. Both visits will focus on the Prince of Wales passion: The sharpening the awareness for the dangers of climate change. While he will discuss the matter with the Potsdam-Institut für Klimafolgenforschung (Potsdam Institute for Research of Climatic Effects) his audience in Rome will be a complete different one: He will give a speech to the lower house of the Italian Parliament, the Chamber of Deputies, on the urgent need to address climate change, one of the issues he has warned must not be forgotten in the current pre-occupation with economic recession.

When will he address the Australian Parliament?
Or to put the question differently: When will those whose say they are concerned about the effects of climate change ask the Prince of Wales to assist them in their effort to convince the Australian public that more should be done?. Why not let Prince Charles talk to those sceptics who try to block measures being taken? Especially those sitting in Parliament?

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