The Sommergibili of the Regia Marina

At the start of World War II the Regia Marina could boast of having the largest submarine fleet by tonnage in the world. Only the Soviets had more in terms of numbers and these were of a smaller size. The King's underwater fleet consisted of 172 submarines that were quite capable at hunting enemy ships, scouting for the surface fleet, carrying valuable cargo through dangerous waters and laying mines. Almost half were quite large vessels capable of operating for cruises of up to six months with an effective range of 20,000 miles, well beyond the ability of the submarine forces of other powers. Their torpedoes were reliable, their crews were all-volunteer and very well trained and during the course of the war proved to be extremely capable at bringing down enemy planes with their anti-aircraft guns. Of course, there were also some problems. The vessels were made for operations in the Mediterranean and could not operate well in the fierce seas of the North Atlantic. They were slower to turn and took twice as long to crash dive as the average German submarine. Nonetheless, they performed feats that others were incapable of. Lt. Commander Franco Tosoni Pittoni of the submarine Bagnolini was the first to slip through the British-held Straits of Gibraltar. No Italian submarine was ever lost going through the straits even though the Germans lost numerous submarines in their runs in and out of the Mediterranean. At one point there were actually more Italian submarines operating in the North Atlantic against Allied convoys than German ones. The most successful Italian submarine of the war was the Leonardo Da Vinci which sank 120,243 tons of enemy shipping. In 39 months of combat, from the start of the war until the King sacked Mussolini and declared an armistice, Italian submarines sank 13 enemy warships of 24,554 tons and 129 merchant ships for a total of 668,311 tons of enemy shipping.

The Crown Passes to Umberto II

It was on this day in 1946 that, with the abdication of HM King Vittorio Emanuele III, the Italian throne passed to his son, the last to occupy it, HM King Umberto II. He had already served some time as effective head-of-state since his father had semi-retired and made the Prince of Piedmont the "Lieutenant General of the Realm". In that capacity he had worked well with the Allied commanders on the scene, who were impressed by his devotion to his country and his diligence. However, most of the Allied governments were opposed to him and to the continuation of the Kingdom of Italy to varying degrees. He appointed new ministers, bringing in representatives from every level of society. Because the question of whether Italy would remain a monarchy or become a republic had not been settled, in an effort at even-handed fairness, King Umberto II did not require his new ministers to take the usual oath of allegiance to him, though Ivanoe Bonomi chose to do so anyway. In an interview he said that, after the fascist era, Italy would have to move to the left but that the monarchy was needed to stabilize the country during such a shift and warned that a republic could lead to a presidential dictatorship. He also pledged considerable reforms to the Italian constitution.

However, the Allied powers were not receptive to the efforts of King Umberto II to encourage friendship and closer cooperation. He supported Italy becoming a fully independent member of the western alliance, already envisioned at that time because of the growing communist force in the east and hoped that by showing good faith the Kingdom of Italy would be allowed to keep her colonies (gained before the Fascists came to power) and be given a fair and just frontier with Yugoslavia. All of these efforts were blocked, partly because of the attitudes of the Allies themselves and partly because of pressure brought on them by their Soviet partners. They refused to permit the printing of monarchist newspapers and when the King asked British Prime Minister Churchill for a message of support for the Italian Crown he was met only with silence. The other powers proved unwilling to grant the slightest favor to the side which had turned Italy from an enemy into an ally, even though previously great promises had been made to Mussolini if he would only have done the same. It is ironic that what had been offered to the Duce by his enemies would not be granted to the King who had always opposed him. Whereas Mussolini had been offered the restoration of all pre-war Italian territory and even territorial gains in the Balkans if he would abandon the Axis, after the King did just this, Italy was to gain nothing, maintain nothing and lose everything.

King Umberto II came to the throne with a great deal more support, among Italians at least, than he is usually given credit for. He was very popular with the army (most of whom would not be allowed to vote in the upcoming referendum), those on the right and the moderate left supported him (the center was ambiguous) and he was well liked by the Vatican because of his sincere Catholic faith. The biggest obstacles to his short reign were the communists, whose partisan bands re-emerged as soon as the Fascist threat had passed, and the die-hard Fascists of Mussolini's puppet Social Republic. It would certainly have been better for Italy and for the Allies themselves to have supported the King in standing opposed to these revolutionary factions. With the country under occupation, there was very little the King could do to support his own cause so long as the Allies remained opposed or at best indifferent to him. The referendum went ahead, rigged though it was, and King Umberto II agreed to abide by the outcome, knowing it had been unfair, because he refused to see his already war-torn country thrown into conflict again. Today we can see very well the results of his exile and the downfall of the monarchy. Italy is deeply in debt thanks to a political class that buys votes (and are the most lavishly paid in Europe), the country is divided, an un-elected Prime Minister runs the government and a communist is President. HM King Vittorio Emanuele III had predicted that a republic would be the ruin of Italy and that only the communists would benefit from it. His foresight could not have been more accurate.

Grand Duke Leopold II of Tuscany

Effectively, though not officially, Leopold II was the last Grand Duke of Tuscany. He was born in Florence on October 3, 1787 to Grand Duke Ferdinand III and Princess Luisa Maria Amelia Teresa of Bourbon-Two Sicilies. He had a normal childhood and in 1817 married Princess Maria Anna of Saxony by whom he had 3 daughters. He succeeded his father as Grand Duke on June 18, 1824. Always popular amongst his people, Italy was in the throws of revolutionary, nationalist agitation yet even the liberals had to regard Leopold II as the most benign of the monarchs of the Italian princely states. He was very hard working and allowed a measure of freedom of speech, freedom of the press and allowed political exiles to return. Nonetheless, he could not keep revolutionary fervor out of Tuscany altogether.

Tragedy struck in 1832 when Grand Duchess Luisa died and the following year the Grand Duke married Princess Maria Antoinetta of the Two-Sicilies by whom he had a further 10 children. Leopold II showed himself willing to work with the liberal elements in enacting constitutional government after the kingdoms of Piedmont-Sardinia and the Two-Sicilies did the same. He showed himself to be an Italian nationalist by supporting the war by Piedmont against Austria in Lombardy but despite the Tuscan troops fighting well the overall campaign was a failure. Riots broke out and the Grand Duke had to call in moderate liberals to form a government in the hopes of keeping the revolutionary republicans at bay. The situation seemed to be falling out of control with the republicans gaining strength, the Austrians victorious and even the Pope being forced out of Rome by revolutionary mobs. Leopold II finally left Florence in 1849 saying that after hearing from the Pope he could not agree to the demand for a constituent assembly.

Anarchy prevailed in Florence and a republic was declared. A dictatorship was set up but even this could not keep order following the defeat of King Carlo Alberto of Piedmont by the Austrians. The public, which largely never stopped holding Leopold II in high regard, called on their Grand Duke to return to establish a liberal, constitutional monarchy and prevent a foreign invasion. However, Leopold II had already made agreements with the Austrians who were marching on Tuscany. On May 25 the Austrians entered Florence. Three days later Leopold II returned with a new outlook on life. To put it bluntly, there would be no more ‘mister nice guy’ and many people who cheered when he had stood with the Italians against the Austrians would never trust him again.

In April the following year he agreed to the indefinite occupation of Tuscany by 10,000 Austrians and that fall he dissolved parliament and signed a new, very pro-Church concordat. When he asked the Austrians if the constitution might be maintained the Austrian prime minister grimly advised him to ask the opinion of the Pope, the King of Naples and the dukes of Parma and Modena; all of whom had been deposed after giving in to calls for constitutional rule only to revoke those constitutions later. In 1852 the constitution in Tuscany was formally revoked as well and a crackdown ensued on all liberal, revolutionary and even moderate elements. Some continued to cling to a constitutional monarchy under an Italian nationalist grand duke while others insisted that Leopold II had to go and be replaced by republican rule.

Things began to come to a head again in 1859 when France and Piedmont-Sardinia went to war against Austria. Leopold II was powerless to prevent a considerable number of Tuscans from volunteering to join the fight against Austria. A political coalition finally demanded the Grand Duke to enter the war against Austria yet again. Leopold II first felt he had no option but to go along but then came new demands for his abdication in favor of his son, an alliance with Piedmont-Sardinia and promises of local autonomy and monarchial cooperation within a new organization of Italy. Leopold II rejected the demands and any offer to remain on the throne in a federal Italy. He made his choice and the people made their own. By late April the Italian tricolor was appearing all over Florence. The soldiers kept order but Leopold could see where things were going and quickly left with his family for Bologna. With no bloodshed a provisional government was set up which quickly called for union with the rest of Italy. Leopold II abdicated in favor of his son on July 21 who then became Grand Duke Ferdinand IV of Tuscany but he never reigned or ruled at all, his sole official act being to issue a formal protest from Dresden in 1860. Leopold II spent the rest of his life in Austria and died in Rome on January 29, 1870.

Grand Duke Ferdinand III of Tuscany

Grand Duke Ferdinand III of Tuscany was born on May 6, 1769 to the future Holy Roman Emperor Leopold II and his wife the Infanta Maria Luisa of Spain. He succeeded to the throne of Tuscany when his father was elected Emperor in 1790 and that same year was married to his cousin Princess Luisa of the Two Sicilies. The couple eventually had six children though the last was stillborn. However, Ferdinand was to have a very troubled reign due to the effects of the French Revolution and the Napoleonic Wars. When the French Revolutionary Wars first broke out Ferdinand III, understandably for the ruler of a small country, tried to remain neutral but his efforts in this regard went unappreciated and in 1799 French troops marched in to occupy Florence to the cheers of local Tuscan revolutionary republicans.

The loyal people of Tuscany, encouraged by Pope Pius VII, rose up in a counterrevolutionary movement in the name of Ferdinand III against the French. The fighting was often extremely brutal but in the end the French were driven out and with Austrian support Florence was also recovered. However, in October of 1800 the French came back and due to the fact that the occupying Austrians had not always behaved with the best manners there was more local support for France this time around. A provisional government was set up by the French marshal Joachim Murat and in the treaties of Luneville and Aranjuez the Grand Duchy of Tuscany became the Kingdom of Eturia as part of the Spanish empire and with the former Duke Louis of Bourbon-Parma as king.

In an effort to keep the deposed Ferdinand III placated he was made the Duke-Elector of Salzburg in Austria; a duchy made from the seized lands of the former Prince-Archbishop of Salzburg. At the end of 1802 he was further promoted to Prince-Elector of the Holy Roman Empire but that body itself would ultimately be dissolved in 1806. However, it did not matter much to Ferdinand at that point as a year earlier he had been forced to relinquish his rule of Salzburg when it was annexed by his brother, Emperor Francis II, in the Treaty of Pressburg. 1802 was a particularly difficult year for Ferdinand as it was also in that year that his wife Luisa died in Vienna during childbirth. The baby boy was still born and was entombed in his mother’s arms in the Imperial Crypt of the Hapsburgs.

Again, using lands seized from the Bishop of Würzburg, Ferdinand was made Duke of Würzburg, retaining his electoral title for another year until the Empire was dissolved at which time he was compensated by a promotion to Grand Duke of Wü rzburg. It was not until Napoleon had been defeated that on May 30, 1814 Ferdinand III was restored to his original place as Grand Duke of Tuscany, though he would suffer another minor territorial loss the following year. In 1821 Grand Duke Ferdinand married again to Princess Maria of Saxony in Florence. They never had any children and Ferdinand III died a few years later on June 18, 1824. He was succeeded by his son Leopold II who would be the last Grand Duke of Tuscany.

MM Movie Review: Tempo di uccidere

“Time to Kill” or “Tempo di uccidere” is a 1989 film starring Nicholas Cage about the troubles of an Italian soldier during the war in Abyssinia. The director was Giuliano Montaldo and it was an English-language production. The film begins near the end of the war in Abyssinia. First Lieutenant Enrico Silvestri (Nicholas Cage) has a toothache and leaves his camp early to go to the dentist. Unfortunately, his truck breaks down on the way and so he sets out on foot. When the rest of the convoy arrives he is nowhere to be found. Finally he arrives after being picked up by another truck, putting to rest the fears that he had been killed by rebels. His hand is hurt and he still has the toothache and goes to the dentist (the dentist appears to be played by the same actor who played Oliver Reed’s aide in “Lion of the Desert”). He starts asking about how long a person could live with a bullet in their guts. All very mysterious … and then we cut to a flashback. After the accident that caused the breakdown Lt. Silvestri sets out on foot for the construction site where the Italian military engineers are building a huge bridge. He arrives but finds no dentist, gets some painkillers and starts walking back to the highway. But, a “helpful” soldier offers him a shortcut through the wilderness and gives him some (rather vague) directions about a stream and a lake and a road to division HQ. The soldier cryptically wishes him “good luck” and smiles as he leaves.

While walking through the wilderness, he gives a cigarette to a lizard in what has to be the most bizarre and pointless scene of this bizarre and pointless movie. He stumbles later and appears to hurt his hand, then finds a waterfall where he also finds a nubile young Abyssinian girl wearing a white turban (and nothing else) taking a bath. He asks her for directions, starts to wash himself a bit, gives her some soap and keeps asking for directions to the lake. She doesn’t speak his language and so that goes nowhere and (there’s no polite way to put this) his lust overcomes him and he rapes the girl. Trying to make himself feel better afterwards, I suppose, he offers her some money (she refuses), some canned food (she refuses), a Bible (she accepts that), some breeches (she accepts) and she seemed very interested in his broken watch. He finds out her name is Marian but, we’re told, all the girls are named Marian in Ethiopia. When he starts to leave she runs after him and, well, invites him to have another roll in the grass (I guess the first time ended up impressing her). On the bright side, it got rid of his toothache, though he is a little worried that the girl might be thinking of herself as his wife and, oh yeah, he’s already married and has a wife back in Italy.

The girl then brings him some food but he seems to scare her by drawing a picture of a crocodile. She shows him where the lake is but it’s too late for him to move on and so the two love birds settle into a cave for the night. She bandages his hand and then, yep, they do it again and fall asleep. Silvestri wakes up, his toothache back, and takes another pain pill when he hears an animal outside. It’s a hyena, which he shoots but one of the bullets ricochets and hits his little Abyssinian sweetie pie in the stomach. She dies and he wraps her up, lays her in a crevice and covers it with rocks, removing all trace of their presence at the ‘scene of the crime’. He finds his way to the road and gets a ride to camp as he planned. The flashback finished for the moment, we go back to the camp where we are told that rebels overran the construction site of the bridge and they have to move out and start combing the area for them. Back at the bridge, Silvestri finds the soldier dead who gave him the shortcut directions. As they move through the area they cover the same ground Silvestri covered, finding dead Abyssinians along the way. They reach what he assumes is Marian’s village where the people are burying more dead.

Silvestri goes back to the cave where he and Marian spent their night together and he finds one shell casing he must have overlooked in his cleanup. They also find a young boy wearing a pair of Italian army breeches who gives Silvestri an odd look. Once back at camp, Silvestre is informed that he’s been granted leave and he’s so happy to be going back to see his wife because, as he exclaims, “Yes, I’m in love with my wife!” But then a second later he’s drunk and moping over how pretty Marian was. That doesn’t last long though and Silvestri and his friend Mario fall in with an eccentric, crooked, over-the-top major played by the incomparable Giancarlo Giannini. He takes them out carousing and they see some girls with leprosy. The major informs them that girls who wear white turbans have leprosy. This puts the thought in Silvestri’s head that he might have picked up leprosy from Marian. He starts to obsess over his wounded hand (which I swear he got before he even met Marian but the film is purposely vague on that point). He sees a doctor who tells him it takes years for leprosy to show itself but that there are cases in which it manifests in a few days. He tells the doctor he is doing research for a novel (he doesn’t want anyone to know he might have the disease).

The doctor acts as though he knows Silvestri is really talking about himself, telling him that the authorities must report all cases of leprosy and that the victims will spend the rest of their lives in a leper colony. He shoots at the doctor and runs off. He tries to get himself on a ship for home without going through the proper procedures but has no luck. He runs away again, sees a man (an Italian) being executed, he then tries to buy his way onto another ship as a stowaway but doesn’t have 30,000 lire to cover it. While moping around, becoming more and more parnoid and convinced he has leprosy, he runs into the eccentric major again who takes him to a brothel and then, on their way back to the major’s camp, they spot an army of rebels coming down from the mountains and stop to let them pass. He robs the major to get the money to buy himself on to the ship, having taken the bullets out of the major’s gun so he can’t stop him as he starts walking back to town. He doesn’t get back to town but wanders back to the same native village he thinks Marian was from. He makes nice with the locals, gives up on the ship home and decides he wants to stay with the natives because he’s ‘sick in his soul’.

The old man tells him that Marian was not sick and he tells the old man what happened to Marian. This time, he tells the whole story though. Marian didn’t just die of her wound. Knowing stomach wounds are the most slow and painful of all, he shot her himself to put her out of her misery. Silvestri then leads the old man to where he buried Marian. The old man wants to kill him, but doesn’t and the two make a little shrine for Marian (the old man’s daughter we are led to believe). He puts some native paste on Silvestri’s wound. He returns to the port as news arrives that Abyssinia is conquered and the war is over. He joins his friend Mario on the ship home, all smiles, telling him about what happened. Turns out, no one was even looking for him, he was in no trouble with the authorities and he never had leprosy. Mario took over the narrative and says that the major was killed by the rebels thanks to Silvestri taking his bullets but Mario never told anyone, including Silvestri, about it. He felt somewhat responsible for the whole thing since he had been unable to convince Silvestri to wait and tolerate his toothache a while until they could leave together in the convoy. The end.

This is not a well known movie and not a well reviewed one in the vast majority of cases. I just found it, again, bizarre and pointless. Some have argued that there is a deeper meaning and that it’s really some profound work but, seriously, you have to stretch things pretty far for that. Any deeper meaning you get out of this is one YOU came up with, not the filmmakers. I don’t think it’s terrible. There was some good acting on display and you do get the message that this is about a man wrestling with his conscience but it is a message hammered into you relentlessly. I did not find it deep or meaningful, just odd, disjointed and, by the end, I just see no real reason for it. This is not an easy movie to find if you want a copy but it’s sufficiently poorly rated to be featured on Hulu so those interested can watch it free on-line. I would not encourage anyone to but, if you have ‘time to kill’ I would not discourage anyone from watching it either.

The Italian Presence in China

Most of those familiar with Italian history will be aware of the Italian presence in places such as Eritrea, Libya and Somalia but relatively few are aware of the Italian presence in the Far East. Early on there were high hopes and some preliminary proposals for Italian colonial expansion in southeast Asia, mostly in Burma and Thailand. Nothing ever came of such plans but the Kingdom of Italy did establish a foothold in China. Italy had for some time been working with China and the other European powers to obtain a coaling station on the Chinese coast for her trade traffic. However, Italian aspirations depended a great deal on the goodwill of the British whose Royal Navy ruled the waves and who held a stronger position in China than any other European power. However, the British were reluctant to take any risks, diplomatic or otherwise, on behalf of Italy which might jeopardize her own position. This was not immediately clear, however, and in early 1899 an Italian expedition was dispatched to China with the goal of establishing a coaling station in the bay of San Mun, near Ningpo south of the Chusan islands.

The effort was hampered, however, by opposition from the other powers and by division amongst the Italians at home. The British were not supportive, nor were the Germans (supposedly Italy’s ally at the time) who advised against it and at home leftists opposed such efforts to expand Italian trade and influence, feeling instead that Italy should be content to be a ‘second-rate’ power. King Umberto I was supportive as was Admiral Canevaro, the Foreign Minister, but the political establishment in Rome refused to make a definite commitment. The situation was exacerbated when the Chinese government, which had previously seemed open to the idea, suddenly refused the Italian request when it was presented. Admiral Canevaro was outraged at this turnaround, broke off diplomatic relations between Rome and Peking and resigned from office to be replaced by Senator Visconti-Venosta. The plan was dropped and the British breathed a sigh of relief as they had feared Italian competition in the Yangtze basin. German and Russian advanced were also of concern but these were far enough removed not to cause undue difficulty to the “Yangtze First” policy advocated by British statesmen such as Salisbury and Balfour.

However, Great Britain and Germany had made a serious mistake in not supporting the Italian effort. When Italy backed down this provided a major morale boost to the anti-foreign element in China which was rising already and would soon give birth to the so-called “Boxer Rebellion”. Anti-foreign Chinese elements pointed to this turn of events as proof that the foreign powers would retreat in the face of opposition, that they were not united in their common interests and that if the Chinese moved against them with sufficient boldness and fervor they could wipe out all the foreign elements in China. It must be remembered that these “foreign elements” consisted largely of European missionaries and those Chinese who had converted to Christianity were also included amongst the enemies of this new movement. A terrible famine had also struck China and the suffering this caused aroused immense discontent. The foreigners were a convenient scapegoat for Chinese suffering and in the summer of 1900 this powder keg erupted as the Boxers unleashed a bloodbath against Christian missionaries and Chinese converts. Boxers besieged the foreign legation in Peking and eventually Chinese Imperial forces were drawn in as well as the ruling Empress-Dowager decided to take a chance on the Boxers being victorious.

Italians to the rescue! From the film "55 Days at Peking"

Italian troops were dispatched to meet this threat, put down the rising and rescue the besieged foreign legation in Peking where Italians were being held under threat along with Americans, French, British, German, Austrian, Russian and Japanese. Along with the others, Italian military forces on hand to guard their legation helped hold off the Boxer hordes for 55 days when the combined forces of the “8 Nation Alliance” arrived to save the day. The Boxers were suppressed and in the subsequent peace agreement the Kingdom of Italy was granted a concession in Tientsin on September 7, 1901. The following year the Italian government took control of the concession and appointed a consul to administer the area. Following World War I the former Austrian concession was added to the Italian concession, doubling its size. The Italian concession in Tientsin also served as the base of operations for the Italian Legion “Redenta” who were sent to the Far East as part of the effort of the Allies to aid the White forces against the Bolsheviks in the Russian Civil War. Their name came from the fact that the legion was made up of Italians from the “unredeemed” areas previously under Austro-Hungarian rule. They fought against the Russian communists in 1919 throughout large parts of Siberia and Manchuria, keeping the Trans-Siberian Railway open to friendly White Russian forces.

The Italian foothold in China remained unchanged until 1943 when the Kingdom of Italy agreed to an armistice with the Allies prior to declaring war on Nazi Germany. When this happened Imperial Japanese forces occupied the Italian concession, taking prisoner the 600 Italian troops stationed there. Later in the year the puppet Italian Social Republic in the Nazi occupied north of Italy under Mussolini agreed to sign over the Italian concession to the Republic of China government under Wang Jingwei. This was not the officially recognized “Republic of China” but was the Chinese regime allied with Japan. The Kingdom of Italy did not recognize this government nor that of the Italian Social Republic which claimed to have handed the concession over. However, nothing would ever come of this dispute. King Umberto I had been one those who believed that great opportunities would come from the Far East in the future and he had pushed for a greater Italian role in the region. King Vittorio Emanuele III had never had much interest in the Far East (though he knew a great deal about it). After he abdicated and the Italian monarchy came to an end the new republican government formally surrendered the Italian concession in Tientsin to the Republic of China government under Generalissimo Chiang Kai-shek on February 10, 1947.

Queen Margherita of Savoy

Margherita of Savoy, the future Queen consort of Italy, was born on November 20, 1851 in Turin to Prince Ferdinand, Duke of Genoa, and Princess Elisabeth of Saxony. She was a granddaughter of the famous King Carlo Alberto of Piedmont-Sardinia who introduced constitutional monarchy to the Italian peninsula and, in many ways, started the effort to ensure that the unification of Italy would have a monarchist (rather than a republican) outcome. She grew to be a refined, well mannered but lively girl, well educated and, like all members of the House of Savoy, very much impressed, from her earliest days, with the history of her dynasty and of her duty toward it. It was thus with no love or eagerness but rather that sense of devotion to duty that prevailed in her marriage to her first cousin Crown Prince Umberto on April 21, 1868. The Prince of Piedmont was no more anxious to marry her. The first bride chosen for him, a Hapsburg in keeping with tradition, had died in a tragic accident, though he had not been enthusiastic about that arrangement either. However, with Umberto and Margherita their devotion to duty came first and though there was never really any great love between them, Margherita determined to be the best royal consort she could be and compensate for those areas in which her husband was at a disadvantage.

One year later, on November 11, 1869 the new Princess of Piedmont did her duty and gave birth to an heir to the throne, the future King Vittorio Emanuele III. It was a case of “mission accomplished” and the two never had anymore children. Still, they complemented each other well. Umberto was the quiet, solid soldier while Margherita was the charming, talkative one who memorized Dante and adored music and entertaining. When Rome became the capital of Italy the aristocracy divided into two mutually hostile camps; the “White Nobility” who embraced the Italian monarchy and the “Black Nobility” which remained loyal to the Pope in refusing to recognize the new state of affairs. For those occasions when there was a reconciliation of one family or another it was largely thanks to the efforts of Princess Margherita. In 1878 her husband succeeded his father as King Umberto I and Margherita officially became Queen of Italy, a position she took extremely seriously, even if it did not always seem so. The Queen, however, understood that appearances matter and she knew how to use the social sphere to its best advantage, winning over the elites and the common people alike through her mastery of good entertaining and the appropriate behavior for any occasion.

No one would deny that Queen Margherita had a winning personality and was almost instantly extremely popular with the Italian people. When she and King Umberto first arrived in Rome to take up residence in the Quirinale Palace, huge crowds stood in the pouring rain to greet them. They roared with delight as Margherita had the canopy removed from the carriage, drenching herself and her husband, but allowing her to stand up and greet the crowds. They had all stood in the rain to see her and she would not see them disappointed because of little dampness. Her soft beauty no doubt added to her popularity but she was the not the sort to abide sycophants. The Queen, unlike most Italians, was fair-haired and blue eyed but she reacted quite angrily to any who tried to flatter her by extolling the racial superiority of north Europeans over the Latins of the south. The Queen was Italian to the core and would display nor tolerate the slightest talk that might divide the newly united country. Even though Italian had not been her first language as a child, she was as ardent a patriot as could be imagined.

When in public the Queen was always a uniting figure, saying all the right things and never saying anything that might be divisive. Yet, privately, all who knew her knew that she had very strong social and political opinions. Compared to her conservative husband she was positively reactionary (which is a good thing of course) but she also knew how to get along with everyone and would even dance with politicians of the far left at court functions. The Queen despised parliament as a troublesome talking shop but was intelligent enough to know that the monarchy would have to get along with it. She was among those who reacted with great anger when Italy allowed France to beat them to the annexation of Tunisia and she generally favored a strong and aggressive foreign policy, being one of many who held that Italy would not be taken seriously by the other more well-established powers of Europe until they won a significant war. She had such a reputation for patriotism that a special pizza was named after her which featured green, white and red toppings.

Queen Margherita was much more well rounded than most would assume of someone who held such strident views. She was intelligent, spoke Latin fluently, well-read and played the piano. She enjoyed the arts, intelligent conservation and the company of well educated people. During her time, she made her salon a center of artistic and intellectual lights and so won many people from diverse walks of life to supporting the monarchy, even some who had previously been adamantly opposed to it. Her grace and charm were legendary, impressing even Queen Victoria whose impeccably high standards made her a woman rather hard to impress. She founded several societies dedicated to the study of Italian literature, was patron of numerous charities and was most highly involved in the Italian Red Cross. The Queen was also brave enough to do a little mountain climbing, there being few experiences she was not open to. She was a very religious woman, zealously devoted to her royal house and, though she never had nor sought much political influence, advocated the pursuit of Italian greatness and the glory of the Savoy monarchy. It was, for this reason, that she was an ally of Prime Minister Francesco Crispi who pursued a policy of development and expansion.

When King Umberto I was assassinated Queen Margherita was extremely distraught but quickly took charge of things. She composed a special liturgical prayer for her husband in the form of a rosary extolling the sufferings and goodness of her late husband. She requested that it be recited in all the churches of Italy but, though the Bishop of Cremona endorsed it, the Pope overruled him as the Holy See was still officially ignoring the Kingdom of Italy. Nonetheless, it became popular and spread amongst the people, touched by the words of a devoted wife and thus Queen Margherita cemented in the public mind the image of her husband as “King Umberto the Good”. The dazzling, cultured Queen consort from then on became the mournful, but still strong, widowed Queen Mother. Her ardent patriotism was still very much on display during the First World War and she deplored the chaos that followed. Her sympathy for Mussolini and the Fascist Party has been greatly overstated in more recent years. The Queen mother knew little about him but appreciated a strong, dynamic force in politics that would bring stability and strength to Italy. For someone so committed to the House of Savoy, if she had known more about the republican past of Mussolini she would certainly have been horrified. Still, the Fascists had made an effort to ingratiate themselves to the nationalists and monarchists and the “quadrumvirs” made a show of coming to call on the admired Queen mother before setting out for their March on Rome in 1922.

Queen Margherita did not live long enough to see much of fascist governing first-hand. She would not see the Kingdom of Italy reach its apex of expansion but she was also spared the downward spiral and eventual fall of the monarchy she so dearly loved. Queen Margherita of Savoy died in Bordighera on January 4, 1926 at the age of 74.