King Umberto II Portraits

The Death of the King

It was on this day in 1983 that HM King Umberto II of Italy left this life for his eternal reward. On such an occasion, it is important to remember that the last Italian monarch was a King who, though forced to leave his homeland, always kept Italy, the Italian people and the House of Savoia in his heart. King Umberto II was a man of duty and responsibility and he never recognized the Italian republic, built on a fraudulent referendum, never abdicated or renounced his title and responsibilities as King of Italy and never ceased for the rest of his life to work toward putting the country to rights again. Despite some family problems, it was clear at his funeral that the monarchist community, the faithful of Italy and all the crowned heads of the world (as well as his fellow royals in exile) held the late King of Italy in the very highest regard for his firm commitment to upholding the legacy handed down to him by one of the oldest and longest-reigning dynasties in the world.

Among those who made the trip to attend his funeral were King Juan Carlos and Queen Sofia of Spain, King Constantine II of Greece, Tsar Simeon II of Bulgaria, King Baudouin and Queen Fabiola of the Belgians, Prince Rainier III of Monaco, a representative of Pope John Paul II and many others. It was a very sad occasion and would be the beginning of an era of hardship for loyal Italians as the Royal House lost its undisputed leader. The King had maintained a court-in-exile and had worked closely with the Unione Monarchica Italian, despite his dislike of political parties, to try to set things right again. That unity that the loyal Italian monarchists had mostly enjoyed during his lifetime would be gone and remains somewhat elusive even now. It was a sad occasion for Italy and for monarchists everywhere. On such an occasion, it is perhaps best to call to mind the last message King Umberto II gave to the Italian nation, exhorting all to never cease to keep Italy first in their hearts and to do what is best for the country:

Italians!
While the Country, barely emerged from a tragic war, sees her frontiers menaced, and her own unity in peril, I believe my duty is to do all that I still can in order that further sorrow and further tears may be spared the people who have already suffered so much.
I trust that the Magistrature, whose traditions of independence and liberty are among the glories of Italy, will be able to have its free say, but not wanting to oppose force to the abuse of power, nor to render myself complicit in the illegality that the government has committed, I leave the threshold of my Country, in the hope of averting from the Italians new struggles and new sorrows. Accomplishing this sacrifice in the supreme interest of the Fatherland, I feel the duty, as an Italian and as a King, to raise my protest against the violence which has been committed, a protest in the name of the Crown and of all the people, within and without the borders, who had the right to see its destiny decided with respect for the laws, and in such a manner as to dissipate every doubt and every suspicion.
For those who still maintain fidelity to the Monarchy, for those whose spirit rebels against injustice, I record my example, and I exhort them to avoid worsening the dissensions which would threaten the unity of the Country, fruit of the faith and the sacrifice of our fathers, and which could render more severe the conditions of the peace treaty.
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!
June 13, 1946 

King Umberto II at the Front

Crown Prince Umberto on a troop inspection

Crown Prince Umberto reviewing defensive networks

Crown Prince Umberto in Sicily with German

Air Marshal Albert Kesselring

Crown Prince Umberto with troops for the Russian front

Umberto II Becomes King

It was on this day in 1946 that HM Umberto II officially became King of Italy upon the abdication of his father King Vittorio Emanuele III. He had, however, been acting in the capacity of head of state since 1944 due to the war situation and the efforts by Italy to come to terms with the Allies and break with Germany. A loyal and dedicated man, he had all the qualities to make a successful monarch yet, thanks to subversion at home and Allied opposition abroad, was never given the chance to prove himself and Italy has never recovered from his loss.

Remember

Umberto II

(1904-1983)

MM Special Report: The Referendum in Italy

 

Today is the “birthday” of the Italian republic, marking the day in 1946 that the referendum was held which abolished the Savoy monarchy in favor of the current republic. It was such a grossly undemocratic charade of the order that only democratic republicans seem capable of producing. There remains a great deal of confusion and misinformation about this referendum which brought down the Kingdom of Italy and it deserves being closely examined. The first myth that should be exploded is the idea that the Allies, (of whom the ‘big three’ were Great Britain, the United States and the Soviet Union) were completely impartial in the question of whether the monarchy would be preserved or overthrown in favor of a republic. It goes without saying that the Soviets were opposed to the monarchy on principle and while they had no forces on the ground in Italy they were certainly supporting the communist partisans in the north of the country whose leaders took their marching orders from Moscow. U.S. General Maitland Wilson, who took over for Eisenhower in 1943, sided with the American political leaders who wanted an immediate abdication, however, President Roosevelt sided with British Prime Minister Churchill who favored keeping King Vittorio Emanuele III on the throne, so long as he made no trouble, for the time being in order to avoid political distractions when they still had to focus on defeating the Germans.

The Allies were certainly not impartial. British Foreign Secretary Anthony Eden despised Crown Prince Umberto and Harold Macmillan, British Minister Resident in the Mediterranean, worked for two days to get the King to abdicate or retire and achieved, at the last minute, the ‘final and irrevocable’ surrender of royal authority. In that first action the Allies, despite their talk of neutrality, took the first step in tearing down the existing legal Italian government. From the very beginning the Allied Control Commission in Italy exhibited an anti-monarchy bias. When the King did abdicate, fuming over the large communist presence in the new government, the British Foreign Office even downplayed the danger of Italy becoming a communist dictatorship, believing it would still be closer to the west than to the Soviets! Most assumed that there would be some sort of vote after the war to determine the Italian form of government but there was no consensus over how this was to be done. King Umberto II favored a plebiscite of the whole people while the leftist enemies of the monarchy (the socialists and communists) wanted the leftist-dominated temporary government to vote on the issue. Clearly there would be some sort of vote but while the leftists were spreading every bit of anti-monarchy propaganda they could, even digging up stories fabricated by the Fascists and kept on file to use against the monarchy, the Allies “advised” King Umberto II not to engage in partisan politics any time he tried to encourage the case for keeping the monarchy.

In terms of who supported and who opposed the monarchy there remains some confusion to be cleared up. One misconception is that the Vatican was opposed to the monarchy and favored a Christian Democratic republic under Alcide De Gasperi who was a very popular man in the Vatican. However, this is simply not true. De Gasperi indeed had many friends in the Holy See but he kept mostly silent about the debate over the monarchy and most in the Vatican favored the monarchy. King Umberto II was very well regarded in the Holy See and the monarchy was seen as the only bulwark capable of keeping the revolutionary communists from gaining a foothold and taking over the country. Far from being in opposition, the Catholic Church actively encouraged people to support the monarchy and vote for the King. Another popular misconception is that the Crown and the Fascists were, and always had been, good friends. Quite the contrary, there was no place more opposed to the monarchy than those areas where support was strongest for the Italian Social Republic (Mussolini’s puppet state in the north) where the most diehard Fascists had migrated at the end of the war. The Fascists themselves launched a propaganda campaign against the monarchy, accusing it of betraying the nationalist movement from the time of unification to push a reactionary agenda on Italy.

So, when it came time for the referendum to be held, the communists, socialists and fascists had been spreading republican propaganda for some time while King Umberto II was largely prevented from making his own case. About all he could do was to travel around the country and meet as many people as possible in an effort to convince them that Italy would be better off under his guidance. Most of the mainstream politicians sat on the sidelines, fearful of being in the losing camp. No honest person could in any way call the referendum a fair expression of the wishes of the whole Italian people. The minister in charge of managing the elections was Giuseppe Romita, a socialist and an avowed republican! In addition to the referendum being held in the aftermath of a terrible war, with the country in ruins and still under Allied occupation, it was decided that this would also be a good time to let all women vote for the “first” time in Italian politics. Actually, Mussolini had given some women the vote in 1925 but based on past experience in other countries, most knew which way this new voting bloc would go. In addition to this, the South Tyrol and the Julian March were not allowed to vote at all as they were still under the rule of the United Nations as disputed territory. There were also still many thousands of Italian military personnel outside the country who were not allowed to vote and nowhere was support for the monarchy higher than amongst the armed forces. Similarly, there were still many Italians abroad in the former Italian colonies who were likewise denied the opportunity to vote (King Umberto II had hoped, in vain as it turned out, that the Allies would not confiscate Italian colonies gained prior to the Fascist era).

The vote was held from June 2-4 and the returns that came in were very telling. Most expected the more conservative south to be more pro-monarchy just as most expected the north, where the communists and fascists were concentrated, to be most republican, however, the resulting returns were extremely dubious. Starting in the south, the returns on June 2 favored the monarchy. By June 3 the returns were even more pro-monarchy and no doubt the republicans were beginning to get nervous. Even in the early hours of June 4 the returns favored the monarchy moving toward the north. However, all of a sudden, support for the monarchy seemed to stop completely and the returns became almost unanimously republican. Reports almost immediately surfaced from northern areas of monarchists being assaulted by communist gangs to prevent them from casting their votes for the King. Yet, immediately the government went to King Umberto II to report a victory for the republic, claiming that the votes from less than one day were more numerous than the monarchist majorities of the more than 2 days previous.

Obviously, King Umberto II had doubts about the process and refused to accept the results at first glance. There had been numerous disturbances after all, to such an extent that a special auxiliary security force had to be dispatched to maintain order at the polling stations. Sadly, not surprisingly, this force was organized and commanded by a republican. The very next day after the referendum, June 5, De Gasperi went to tell the King that the republic had won and to vacate the Quirinale to make room for the President who would soon take his place. Umberto II, however, refused to submit to this until all the votes had been properly counted. The republicans began to flaunt themselves almost immediately and in Naples a group of monarchists were shot down with machine guns when they tried to remove a defaced Italian tricolor from which the Savoy royal arms had been removed, killing 9 and injuring 150. On June 10 the Supreme Court ruled that the referendum had been a victory for the republicans. However, the actual final count was not to be completed until June 18 and King Umberto said he would await the results. The government refused to accept this, saying that the court ruling was sufficient even though the count was not final and ordered the King to immediately leave the country.

There were, of course, those who urged Umberto II to use any means necessary to oppose this obviously fraudulent referendum. With so much support for the monarchy in the south, it was proposed to send the King to Naples, raising his flag there and leading a separate regime, holding a last bastion of monarchy on the Italian peninsula with the ultimate goal of reuniting the country again. However, Umberto II, after witnessing the horrors of World War II, could not bring himself to take any action that would provoke a civil war. Already there had been monarchist demonstrations in Naples, Taranto and Rome that were bloodily suppressed by the republicans and quickly hushed up by the pro-republic press. King Umberto II stated his objections, refused to abdicate or recognize the clearly improper referendum and then peacefully left the country after which the republican authorities showed how shaky their hold on power was by their paranoid persecution of the Savoy Royal House. This was the shameful beginning of the Italian republic and the end of the Kingdom of Italy which had created the united nation in the first place. No honest observer could ever claim it was a free and fair exercise of the democratic process or a true reflection of the will of the Italian people. It was a blatant example of gross injustice from start to finish and the sooner it is repudiated and the lawful monarchy restored the better Italy will be.

Re Vittorio Emanuele III in Libia con Italo Balbo

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.

King Umberto II Flag Photos

King Umberto II

Officially the last King of Italy and last reigning member of the venerable royal house of Savoy, Umberto II occupied the throne for so short a time that he has gone down in popular memory as the “King of May”. His life was one of great early promise and high hopes for the future which ended in one of the (many) gross injustices following World War II. He was born on September 15, 1904 in Racconigi, Piedmont to Their Majesties King Vittorio Emanuele III and Queen Elena of Montenegro. He was their third child but only son and was raised with the certain destiny that he would become King of Italy. From early in his youth he was given a practical education and extensive military training to prepare him to carry on the illustrious military tradition of the House of Savoy. The importance of the monarchy to the unity of Italy and the glorious history they were expected to live up to were heavily stressed on the young man and he became very meticulous about royal protocol and presenting just the right public appearance for any occasion.

As he grew up, his attention to detail paid off as the Italian press hailed him as the handsomest prince in Europe. The tall, dashing, soldierly Prince of Piedmont had mastered perception but he still needed a proper, royal beauty to be his princess. After World War I, the number of reigning Catholic royals had been considerably reduced but an ideal candidate was found in the strong-willed and stunning Princess Maria Jose of Belgium. By this time, Italy was under the rule of the fascist party but radical socialists were still a problem and when Prince Umberto went to Brussels to propose to his Belgian bride one tried to assassinate him. Of course, the effort was unsuccessful and on January 8, 1930 the couple were married in Rome in a magnificent ceremony with all of the pomp and pageantry the ancient House of Savoy could muster. Still, there were problems. The couple were initially happy enough but were not well suited to each other and the antagonism between the new Princess of Piedmont and Mussolini was evident from the start.

In keeping with Italian tradition, Prince Umberto stayed strictly out of political matters. He was expected to deal with those when he became king and not a day before. Nonetheless, Mussolini was wary enough of him to keep him closely watched and under tight control. Aside from the usual royal engagements Prince Umberto was mostly kept busy with his military career becoming commander of the Northern Armies and later of the Southern Armies. He was a good soldier, despite some claims to the contrary, but was kept from active service in most campaigns by the government, due both to concerns over his security as well as (perhaps even more so) worries that he was insufficiently supportive of the fascist regime. Nonetheless, he could not be ignored and in 1942, with the Second World War well under way, he was promoted to the rank of Marshal of Italy. However, by that time it was all too clear that the war was going against Italy.

A sense of duty and deferment to his father kept Prince Umberto out of politics but he was well aware that Princess Maria Jose was working through the Vatican, trying to coordinate anti-fascist elements in Rome with representatives of the United States, to take Italy out of the Axis and into the Allied camp. The Prince himself could not be involved in this but he supported the efforts of his wife and kept silent about the whole affair. A single report could have ended it all but the Prince showed his support by saying nothing even though suspicions were eventually raised enough for the Princess to be sent away. By that time, Allied forces had overrun Italian East Africa, Libya (Italy’s “Fourth Shore”) and when British and American forces invaded Sicily there was no longer any doubt as to the outcome of the conflict. Support for Mussolini fell away and King Vittorio Emanuele III was finally in a strong enough position to dismiss the dictator and have him arrested, after which Italy made a separate peace and shifted to the Allied nations.

However, the Germans quickly occupied northern Italy while the Allies moved into the south. The King was urged by others in the House of Savoy to step aside as many considered him tainted for having been so long associated with the old fascist regime. Torn between what he regarded as his sacred duty and the practical reality of the situation the King declined to abdicate but stepped aside from political affairs in favor of Prince Umberto, naming him Lieutenant General of the Realm with full power to act in his name. The King then left for what he hoped would be a temporary relocation to Egypt where King Farouk had been friendly toward the Italians and had a rather tense relationship with the British. In his absence Prince Umberto won praise from every quarter for his astute handling of the situation, cooperation with the Allies and continued resistance to the German occupation and the fascist puppet-state set up in the north by Mussolini following his rescue by Nazi special forces.

Under Prince Umberto the Royal Italian forces joined the war again to assist the Allies as much as possible, continuing to the final defeat of the Nazis in 1945. Yet, the republican revolutionaries had again come out of hiding once the fascist presence was gone and there were the occupying Allied forces who often were prejudiced against the House of Savoy. A new clique began to push for the overthrow of the monarchy, whether by democratic or violent means, and they had a great deal of Allied support. Finally, King Vittorio Emanuele III was persuaded that the only hope to save the monarchy was to abdicate in favor of his son. He did so on May 9, 1946 at which time his son became King Umberto II. However, the new political factions had already pushed the Royal Family aside and ugly accusations were abounding as the abdication brought back painful memories from the time of Italian defeat. Instead of focusing on King Umberto II and his record of success since 1944 attention shifted back to his father, the fall of Rome and the fascist regime.

Within weeks a referendum was held on the abolition of the monarchy. King Vittorio Emanuele III had once said that no nation was less suited for a republic than Italy and the referendum which created the Italian Republic was enough to prove his words prophetic. The entire process made a farce of the democratic concept. Voters were intimidated, poll numbers skewed and the decision announced before all the votes had even been counted. Indeed, many had been prevented from casting a vote and disenfranchisement was worst in the south where monarchist sentiment was the strongest. Nonetheless, the powers that be had spoken and on June 12, 1946 the Savoy reign and the Kingdom of Italy came to an end.

King Umberto II and Queen Maria Jose were forced into exile and soon separated. King Umberto II spent most of his years in exile in Portugal. He traveled extensively, winning probably more friends and admirers than he had ever had before. However, the new political class in Italy only hardened their position and banned any male heirs of the Savoy dynasty from setting foot on Italian soil. The excuse given for this was that the government had decided to blame the rule of Mussolini on the Royal Family and yet, in the ultimate show of hypocrisy, the Mussolini family itself was not barred from the country or suffered any loss of liberties at all. The true reason, of course, was that a strong royalist element remained and the republican government wanted to see it suffocated by the absence of any Savoy royal in the country. His Majesty Umberto II, the last King of Italy, died still in exile, in Switzerland, on March 18, 1983. It was noteworthy that kings, queens and princes from across Europe came to his funeral to pay their respects, even from countries which had been the enemies of the Kingdom of Italy during the war but not one representative of the Italian government was present.