Italy didn’t exist as a unified country until 1861. Until then, there were several independent Italian states, including the Kingdom of Piedmont-Sardinia in the north, the Papal States in the center, and the Kingdom of the Two Sicilies in the south. In the 1850s there was a political movement for Risorgimento, national Italian unity, and political leaders such as Giuseppe Garibaldi and Giuseppe Mazzini used wars, territorial acquisitions, and political pressure to finally unite the Italian states under the monarchy of the Savoy dynasty.
King Vittorio Emanuele II—The King Who United Italy
The House of Savoy had ruled in northern Italy since 1060, and had gradually grown in power, eventually becoming rulers of the Kingdom of Piedmont-Sardinia. In 1848, King Vittorio Emanuele II of Savoy (1820–1878) ascended the throne and was a major player in the fight for Italian unity.
In 1861, the separate Italian states and principalities were joined with Piedmont-Sardinia through territorial conquests and local elections, and Vittorio Emanuele was able to declare himself ruler of the Kingdom of Italy. In 1866 Italy was given Venice after warring against Austria, and in 1870 Vittorio Emanuele II entered Rome and made it his capital city, uniting the Papal States with the Kingdom of Italy.
After King Vittorio Emanuele II died, he was succeeded by his son Umberto (1844–1900). King Umberto I was assassinated twelve years later.
King Vittorio Emanuele III—The King Who Ruled Fascist Italy
King Vittorio Emanuele III (1869–1947) was not a strong enough king to protect Italy from the rise of fascism, which eventually led to the overthrowing of the Savoy dynasty. Initially, he tried to keep Italy neutral during WWI, but in 1915 Italy entered the war on the Allied side. In the Treaty of Versailles ending the war, Italy lost some territories, leading to a loss of Italian morale and some violent political infighting.
Benito Mussolini was able to come to power during this troubling time, creating the Fascist Party in 1921. The next year he marched on Rome, and King Vittorio Emanuele III was too weak to resist the fascists and instead made Mussolini the Prime Minister. It’s probable that the king was able to keep his throne during the fascist uprising because he never protested Mussolini’s dictatorship.
Italy expanded its territory and power under Mussolini, with King Vittorio Emanuele III still nominally the ruler. In 1936, Italy invaded Ethiopia and the king declared himself emperor of the African country. In 1939, Italy annexed Albania with Vittorio Emanuele declaring himself king there as well, but the invasion went badly and the Italian troops had to be rescued by the Nazis.
Things never recovered for the Italian monarchy. Italy entered WWII in June of 1940 on the side of the Nazis. Soon an Italian Grand Council tried to overthrow Mussolini, but the Nazis rescued him and set him up in a puppet government. In 1945, an ailing King Vittorio Emanuele III made his son regent, and officially abdicated the next year. But King Umberto II (1904–1983) did not rule for long. A few weeks later, a communist-supported referendum voted for a republic, ending the monarchy of the Savoy dynasty in Italy.
The Savoy Dynasty in Exile
After the referendum, Umberto II went into exile in Portugal, and Vittorio Emanuele went to Spain where he died the next year. For many years the Savoys were not welcome in Italy, but before his death Umberto was able to regain a great deal of the Savoy estate so his heirs are quite wealthy.
His son Prince Vittorio Emanuele (b.1937), however, may have some problems if he ever wants to regain the Italian throne. In order to be allowed back into Italy in 2002, he had to renounce all claim to the Italian throne. Therefore, many monarchists now support his distant cousin Amadeo of Savoy, Duke of Aosta, as the rightful heir to the Italian throne. But the Italians in general don’t seem to be interested in a return to the monarchy, so the Savoy dynasty will probably never regain power in Italy.
Source:
Opfell, Olga S. Royalty Who Wait: The 21 Heads of Formerly Regnant House of Europe. Jefferson, NC: McFarland & Company, 2001.
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