200-580: Victor Emmanuel III (11 November 1869 – 28 December 1947), born Vittorio Emanuele Ferdinando Maria Gennaro di Savoia , was King of Italy from 29 July 1900 until his abdication on 9 May 1946. A member of the House of Savoy , he also reigned as Emperor of Ethiopia (1936–41) and King of the Albanians (1939–43) following the Italian invasions of Ethiopia and Albania. During his reign of nearly 46 years, which began after
400-511: A Catholic social and democratic movement, the National Democratic League, led by Romolo Murri . In 1904, Pope Pius X authorized Catholics to participate individually in political life, but in 1909 he condemned the National Democratic League created by Romolo Murri, who was excommunicated. Finally, a law of 3 June 1912 marked Italy's evolution towards a certain political liberalism by establishing universal male suffrage. In 1914, at
600-521: A certain social conservatism. The Republicans took part in the elections to the Italian Parliament, and in 1853 they formed the Action Party around Giuseppe Mazzini . Although in exile, Mazzini was elected in 1866, but refused to take his seat in parliament. Carlo Cattaneo was elected deputy in 1860 and 1867, but refused so as not to have to swear loyalty to the House of Savoy . The problem of
800-609: A choice of attire he considered very disrespectful. Victor Emmanuel was ultra-critical of the slow progress made by the American 5th Army and the British 8th Army as the Allies fought their way up the Italian peninsula , saying he wanted to return to Rome as soon as possible, and felt that all of the Allied soldiers fighting to liberate Italy were cowards. Likewise, Victor Emmanuel refused to renounce
1000-504: A concept known as "thought and action" in which thought and action must be joined together and every thought must be followed by action, therefore rejecting intellectualism and the notion of divorcing theory from practice. In July 1831, in exile in Marseille , Giuseppe Mazzini founded the Young Italy movement, which aimed to transform Italy into a unitary democratic republic, according to
1200-450: A force of his Fascist supporters on a March on Rome . Prime Minister Luigi Facta and his cabinet drafted a decree of martial law . After some hesitation the King refused to sign it, citing doubts about the ability of the army to contain the uprising without setting off a civil war. Fascist violence had been growing in intensity throughout the summer and autumn of 1922, climaxing in rumours of
1400-620: A key event of contemporary Italian history . Until 1946, Italy was a kingdom ruled by the House of Savoy , reigning since the unification of Italy in 1861 and previously rulers of the Kingdom of Sardinia . In 1922, the rise of Benito Mussolini and the creation of the Fascist regime in Italy , which eventually resulted in engaging the country in World War II alongside Nazi Germany , considerably weakened
1600-526: A large number of injuries. Calm returned to the city only on 13 June. The protests of the monarchists, like those bloodily repressed the day before in Naples and a new monarchist demonstration dispersed on 12 June, aroused the concerns of the ministers intending to establish the Republic as soon as possible (according to the famous phrase of the socialist leader Pietro Nenni : "either the Republic or chaos!"). On
1800-527: A meeting with Count Ciano on 24 August 1939, the king stated that "we are absolutely in no condition to wage war"; the state of the Regio Esercito was "pitiful"; and since Italy was not ready for war, it should stay out of the coming conflict, at least until it was clear who was winning. More importantly, Victor Emmanuel stated that as the king of Italy he was the supreme commander-in-chief, and he wanted to be involved in any "supreme decisions", which in effect
2000-473: A mere journalist". Grandi told Ciano that the king must be either "crazy" and/or "senile" as he was utterly passive, refusing to act against Mussolini. In late 1942, Italian Libya was lost. During Operation Anton on 9 November 1942, the unoccupied part of France was occupied by the Axis forces, which allowed Victor Emmanuel to proclaim in a speech at long last Corsica and Nice had been "liberated". Early in 1943,
2200-601: A new kingdom in place of Odoacer's. Officially, the Ostrogothic kings ruled the Roman citizens in Italy as a viceroy of the Roman emperors, and their own Gothic people as their king, though functionally they ran their kingdom entirely independently from the Roman authority in Constantinople. Their greatest extent was during Theodoric's reign; as Roman Emperors from the east began to exert more power and retake control of Roman territory,
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#17328455466302400-681: A number of kings attempted to establish themselves as independent Italian monarchs. During this period, known as the Feudal Anarchy (888–962), the title Rex Italicorum ("King of the Italians" or "King of the Italics") was introduced. After the breakup of the Frankish Empire, Otto I added Italy to the Holy Roman Empire and continued the use of the title Rex Italicorum . The last to use this title
2600-531: A possible coup. On 24 October 1922, during the Fascist Congress in Naples, Mussolini announced that the Fascists would march on Rome to "take by the throat our miserable ruling class". General Pietro Badoglio told the King that the military would be able without difficulty to rout the rebels, who numbered no more than 10,000 men armed mostly with knives and clubs whereas the Regio Esercito had 30,000 soldiers in
2800-491: A premier with whom he found it so satisfactory to deal as with Signor Mussolini, and I know from private sources that recent events have not changed his opinion". The Matteotti affair did much to turn Italian public opinion against Fascism, and Graham reported to London that "Fascism is more unpopular by the day" while quoting a high Vatican official as saying to him that Fascism was a "spent force". The fact that Matteotti had been tortured by his killers for several hours before he
3000-436: A red flag, but also a tricolor flag from which the royal coat of arms had been cut. Despite the presence of armored vehicles, the demonstrators attempted to storm the communist party headquarters. Protesters and law enforcement officers exchange gunfire. According to the prefect's report, the demonstrators shot first. In any case the response was deadly, with machine gun fire. There were nine deaths among royalist demonstrators and
3200-477: A republic. By this time, plans were being discussed within the Italian elite for replacing Mussolini. Victor Emmanuel stated that he wanted to keep the Fascist system going after dismissing Mussolini, and he was seeking to correct merely some of "its deleterious aspects". The two replacements that were being mooted for Mussolini were Marshal Pietro Badoglio and his rival, Marshal Enrico Caviglia . As Marshal Caviglia
3400-487: A responsibility in the success of the fascist movement. The final agreement between the parties was to ask that at the end of the war, as soon as conditions were favourable, the calling of elections, an institutional referendum and the formation of a constituent assembly. Until then, on 31 January 1945, the Council of Ministers , chaired by Ivanoe Bonomi, issued a decree which recognized women's right to vote. Universal suffrage
3600-422: A result of individual action and influence". Victor Emmanuel was tired of the recurring crises of parliamentary government and welcomed Mussolini as a "strong man" who imposed "order" on Italy. Mussolini was always very respectful and deferential when he met him in private, which was exactly the behaviour which the king expected of his prime ministers. Many Fascist gerarchi , most notably Italo Balbo , regarded as
3800-478: A royal prerogative that Victor Emmanuel rejected, and was finally settled by the compromise of giving Mussolini operational command powers. On 10 June 1940, ignoring advice that the country was unprepared, Mussolini made the fatal decision to have Italy enter World War II on the side of Nazi Germany . Almost from the beginning, disaster followed disaster. The first Italian offensive, an invasion of France launched on 17 June 1940, ended in complete failure, and only
4000-497: A secret meeting Victor Emmanuel told Badoglio that he would soon be sworn in as Italy's new prime minister and the king wanted no "ghosts" (i.e. liberal politicians from the pre-fascist era) in his cabinet. On the night of 25 July 1943, the Grand Council of Fascism voted to adopt an Ordine del Giorno (order of the day) proposed by Count Dino Grandi to ask Victor Emmanuel to resume his full constitutional powers under Article 5 of
4200-522: A special judicial tribunal to try political crimes with no possibility of a royal pardon. Even though the right of pardon was part of the royal prerogative, the king gave his assent to the law. However, the king did veto an attempt by Mussolini to change the Italian flag by adding the fasces symbol to stand beside the coat of arms of the House of Savoy on the Italian tricolour. The king considered this proposal to be disrespectful to his family, and refused to sign
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#17328455466304400-560: A surprise to many observers inside and outside Italy. Unfavourable comparisons were drawn with King George VI and Queen Elizabeth , who refused to leave London during the Blitz , and of Pope Pius XII , who mixed with Rome's crowds and prayed with them after Rome's working-class neighbourhood of Quartiere San Lorenzo had been destroyed by bombing. Despite the German occupation, Victor Emmanuel kept refusing to declare war on Germany, saying he needed
4600-553: A villa owned by the Pirzio Biroli family at Brazzacco in order to be close to the front. In May 1941, Victor Emmanuel gave permission to his unpopular cousin, Prince Aimone , to become King of Croatia under the title Tomislav II, in an attempt to get him out of Rome, but Aimone frustrated this ambition by never going to Croatia to receive his crown . During a tour of the new provinces that were annexed to Italy from Yugoslavia, Victor Emmanuel commented that Fascist policies towards
4800-715: A vote by Parliament first, though that had not stopped him from signing declarations of war on Ethiopia, Albania, Great Britain, France, Greece, Yugoslavia, the Soviet Union and the United States, none of which had been sanctioned by Parliament. Under strong pressure from the Allied Control Commission, the king finally declared war on Germany on 8 October 1943. Ultimately, the Badoglio government in Southern Italy raised
5000-488: Is adopted as the national anthem ... "Il Canto degli Italiani" was therefore chosen, on 12 October 1946, as the provisional national anthem, a role that it later preserved while remaining the de facto anthem of the Italian Republic. Over the decades there were several unsuccessful attempts to make it the official national anthem, until it finally gained official status on 4 December 2017. On 18 June 1946 at 6 pm, in
5200-417: Is squared (1:1). Each comune also has a gonfalone bearing its coat of arms. On 27 May 1949, a law was passed that described and regulated the way the flag was displayed outside public buildings and during national holidays. After the birth of the Italian Republic, " La leggenda del Piave " was temporarily chosen as the provisional national anthem, which replaced " Marcia Reale ", the national anthem of
5400-568: Is therefore considered the first martyr of the modern Italian Republic and a symbol of republican ideals in Italy. The balance of power between the Chamber and Senate initially shifted in favor of the Senate, composed mainly of nobles and industrial figures. Little by little, the Chamber of Deputies took on more and more importance with the evolution of the bourgeoisie and the large landowners, concerned with economic progress, but supporters of order and
5600-627: The Statuto Albertino , or constitution, granted the king considerable residual powers. For instance, he had the right to appoint the prime minister even if the individual in question did not command majority support in the Chamber of Deputies . A shy and somewhat withdrawn individual, the King hated the day-to-day stresses of Italian politics, though the country's chronic political instability forced him to intervene on no fewer than ten occasions between 1900 and 1922 to solve parliamentary crises. When
5800-673: The Allied invasion of Italy in 1943, Victor Emmanuel discharged Mussolini from the office of Prime Minister and signed the armistice of Cassibile with the Allies in September 1943. In the face of the coming German reprisal ( Operation Achse ), he and the government fled to Brindisi while the Germans established the Italian Social Republic as a puppet state in Northern Italy . Having signed
6000-793: The First World War began, Italy at first remained neutral, despite being part of the Triple Alliance (albeit it was signed on defensive terms and Italy objected that the Sarajevo assassination did not qualify as aggression). In April 1915, Italy signed the secret Treaty of London committing itself to enter the war on the side of the Triple Entente . Most of the politicians opposed the war, and Italy's Chamber of Deputies forced Prime Minister Antonio Salandra to resign. At this juncture, Victor Emmanuel declined Salandra's resignation and personally made
6200-682: The Italian Co-Belligerent Army ( Esercito Cobelligerante del Sud ), the Italian Co-Belligerent Air Force ( Aviazione Cobelligerante Italiana ), and the Italian Co-Belligerent Navy ( Marina Cobelligerante del Sud ). All three forces were loyal to the King. Relations with the Allied Control Commission were very strained as the king remained obsessed with protocol, screaming with fury when General Noel Mason-Macfarlane met him wearing shirt sleeves and shorts,
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6400-582: The Italian Communist Party , called for the formation of a government of national unity and no longer required the king's abdication as a prerequisite. This declaration pushed the parties of the National Liberation Committee to rally around a compromise drawn up by Enrico De Nicola , president of the Chamber of Deputies until 1924, by Benedetto Croce of the liberal party and by the king's entourage. As foreseen in this agreement, upon
6600-470: The Italian Parliament , which states: [...] The flag of the Republic is the Italian tricolour: green, white, and red, in three vertical bands of equal dimensions. [...] The Republican tricolour was then officially and solemnly delivered to the Italian military corps on 4 November 1947 on the occasion of National Unity and Armed Forces Day . The universally adopted ratio is 2:3, while the war flag
6800-534: The Italian Social Republic , heavily dependent on the Germans, and by the division of Italy into two antagonistic territories, one occupied by the allied forces, the other occupied by Nazi Germany . In these dramatic circumstances, in the two territories the civil administration gave way to a military and police administration. However, the parties that existed before fascism were reconstituted, alongside new political parties. On 9 September 1943, in Rome (still occupied by
7000-494: The Italian Socialist Party . His government included the anti-fascist liberals Carlo Sforza and Benedetto Croce, as well as Palmiro Togliatti. Although temporarily put aside, the question of Italian institutions remained one of the main open political questions. Most of the forces supporting the National Liberation Committee were openly republicans and believed that the monarchy, in particular Victor Emmanuel III, had had
7200-532: The Julian March and the province of Zara ). These provinces, however, were all located in the north of the country, an area where the Republican vote obtained a fairly large majority. The conservative, rural Mezzogiorno (southern Italy) region voted solidly for the monarchy (63.8%) while the more urbanised and industrialised Nord (northern Italy) voted equally firmly for a republic (66.2%). The referendum
7400-787: The Mediterranean Sea was not in any real sense Italy's Mare Nostrum . While the Air Force generally did better than the Army or the Navy, it was chronically short of modern aircraft. As Italy's fortunes worsened, the popularity of the King suffered. One coffee-house ditty went as follows: Quando Vittorio era soltanto re Si bevea del buon caffè. Poi divenne Imperatore Se ne sentì solo l'odore. Oggi che è anche Re d'Albania Anche l'odore l' han portato via. E se avremo un'altra vittoria Ci mancherà anche la cicoria. When our Victor
7600-709: The Ostrogothic king Theoderic the Great killed Odoacer, and set up a new dynasty of kings of Italy. Ostrogothic rule ended when Italy was reconquered by the Byzantine Empire in 552. In 568, the Lombards entered the peninsula and ventured to recreate a barbarian kingdom in opposition to the Empire, establishing their authority over much of Italy, except the Exarchate of Ravenna and
7800-461: The Peschiera conference , where he defended Italy's strategic decisions. The economic depression which followed World War I gave rise to much extremism among Italy's sorely tried working classes. This caused the country as a whole to become politically unstable. Benito Mussolini , soon to be Italy's Fascist dictator, took advantage of this instability for his rise to power. In 1922, Mussolini led
8000-521: The Regio Esercito , Regina Marina and the Regia Aeronautica all took their oaths of loyalty to the king, not Mussolini. The vast majority of the Italian officers in all three services saw Victor Emmanuel as opposed to Mussolini as the principal locus of their loyalty, allowing the king to check decisions by Mussolini that he disapproved of. Italy declared neutrality in September 1939, but Mussolini always made it clear that he wanted to intervene on
8200-591: The Statuto. In effect, this was a motion of no confidence in Mussolini. The following afternoon, Mussolini asked for an audience with the king at Villa Savoia . When Mussolini tried to tell Victor Emmanuel about the Grand Council's vote, Victor Emmanuel abruptly cut him off and dismissed him in favour of Badoglio. He then ordered Mussolini's arrest. Publicly, Victor Emmanuel and Badoglio claimed that Italy would continue
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8400-637: The Western Roman Empire . The first to take the title was Odoacer , a barbarian warlord, in the late 5th century, followed by the Ostrogothic kings up to the mid-6th century. With the Frankish conquest of Italy in the 8th century, the Carolingians assumed the title, which was maintained by subsequent Holy Roman Emperors throughout the Middle Ages. The last Emperor to claim the title was Charles V in
8600-632: The clientelism prevalent in the South favored a vote that tended to be conservative, and therefore monarchist. Some analysts also cite the influence of the Catholic Church or the Catholic press. Other authors have highlighted more structural factors, such as differences in family organization or production by region. Thus Carlo Bacetti compared, in Tuscany, the importance of metayage in the organization of work on
8800-450: The provinces of Bolzano , Gorizia , Trieste , Pola , Fiume and Zara , located in territories not administered by the Italian government but by the Allied authorities, which were still under occupation pending a final settlement of the status of the territories (in fact in 1947 most of these territories were then annexed by Yugoslavia after the Paris peace treaties of 1947 , such as most of
9000-511: The squadristi used violence to prevent opposition MPs from entering Parliament and in November 1926, Mussolini arbitrarily declared that all of the opposition MPs had forfeited their seats, which he handed out to Fascists. Despite this blatant violation of the Statuto Albertino , the king remained passive and silent as usual. In 1926, Mussolini had violated the Statuto Albertino by creating
9200-504: The "majority of electors", as an article of the electoral law provided. The public prosecutor of the Supreme Court of Cassation, Massimo Pilotti , deemed this appeal admissible. In his indictment Pilotti believed that the spirit and letter of the decrees as well as jurisprudence provide for the counting of voters, without excluding blank or invalid ballots. But the Supreme Court of Cassation ruled against him, with 12 votes against to 7. On
9400-513: The 16th century. During this period, the holders of the title were crowned with the Iron Crown of Lombardy . A Kingdom of Italy was restored from 1805 to 1814 with Napoleon as its only king, centred in Northern Italy . It was not until the Italian unification in the 1860s that an independent Kingdom of Italy covering the entire Italian Peninsula was restored. From 1861 the House of Savoy held
9600-588: The 18-year-old Albanian patriot Vasil Laçi . Later, this attempt was cited by Communist Albania as a sign of the general discontent among the oppressed Albanian population. A second attempt by Dimitri Mikhaliov in Albania gave the Italians an excuse to affirm a possible connection with Greece as a result of the monarch's assent to the Greco-Italian War . Under the terms of the Pact of Steel signed on 22 May 1939, which
9800-426: The 1930s newsreel images of King Victor Emmanuel and Queen Elena evoked applause, sometimes cheering, when played in cinemas, in contrast to the hostile silence shown toward images of Fascist leaders. On 30 March 1938, the Italian Parliament established the rank of First Marshal of the Empire for Victor Emmanuel and Mussolini. This new rank was the highest rank in the Italian military. His equivalence with Mussolini
10000-632: The American people; because Britain was "rotten to the core" and would soon cease to be a great power; and because everything he kept hearing about the massive losses sustained by the Red Army convinced him that Germany would win on the Eastern Front at least. Another excuse used by Victor Emmanuel was that Mussolini was allegedly still popular with the Italian people and that it would offend public opinion if he dismissed Mussolini. The Vatican favoured Italy exiting
10200-511: The Americans and English, anxious to prepare for the post-war period, facilitated the entry into German-occupied territory of Italian democratic and republican activists aimed at counterbalancing the communist influence in the leadership of the National Liberation Committee. This was the case, for example, of Leo Valiani , future member of the triumvirate responsible for the partisan insurrection in Piedmont and Lombardy . On 31 March 1944, in Salerno , Palmiro Togliatti , general secretary of
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#173284554663010400-413: The Aventine Hill , a clumsy maneuver which, in effect, left the field open to the fascists. They then had the fate of Italy in their hands for two decades. Not only did Victor Emmanuel III appeal to Mussolini to form the government in 1922 and allow him to proceed with the domestication of Parliament, but he did not even draw the consequences of the assassination of Giacomo Matteotti in 1924. He accepted
10600-472: The Balkans. Mack Smith wrote that these demands were "unrealistic" and caused much time to be wasted in the Lisbon peace talks as the Allies were willing to concede that Victor Emmanuel could keep his throne and rejected all of his other demands. In the meantime, German forces continued to be rushed into Italy. On 8 September 1943, Victor Emmanuel publicly announced an armistice with the Allies . Confusion reigned as Italian forces were left without orders, and
10800-437: The Blackshirts marched past the Quirinal Palace and he lit votive lamps at public ceremonies to honour the Fascist "martyrs" killed fighting against the Socialists and Communists. At the same time, the Crown became so closely identified with Fascism that by the time Victor Emmanuel was able to shake himself loose from it, it was too late to save the monarchy. In what proved to be a prescient speech, Senator Luigi Albertini called
11000-448: The Byzantine Romans back from the peninsula until only the Exarchate of Ravenna remained under Roman control. This finally fell in the 750s, with the Lombards gaining control of most of the peninsula. The last Lombard King of Italy, Desiderius, was deposed by his son-in-law Charlemagne, who folded it into the larger Carolingian Empire , which evolved over time into the Holy Roman Empire . Charlemagne ruled over northern Italy as King of
11200-425: The Constitutions, Emperor of the French and King of Italy. During and after the Revolutions of 1848 , sentiment on the peninsula grew for the establishment of a unified Italian kingdom. Southern Italy had not been united with northern Italy since the early medieval period, being mostly under the rule of the Kingdom of Naples and the Kingdom of the Two Sicilies . Northern Italy, in the early 19th century, came under
11400-412: The Croats and Slovenes were driving them towards rebellion, but chose not to intervene to change the said policies. On 22 June 1941, Germany launched Operation Barbarossa , the invasion of the Soviet Union. Mussolini had the king issue a declaration of war, and sent an Italian expeditionary force to the Eastern Front , through Victor Emmanuel was later to claim that he wanted only a "token" force to go to
11600-399: The Fascist regime was becoming very unpopular, but he had decided to keep Mussolini on as a prime minister because there was no replacement for him. Because the king had supported Fascism, he feared that to overthrow the Fascist system would mean the end of the monarchy as the anti-Fascist parties were all republican. During the invasion of Yugoslavia in April 1941, Victor Emmanuel moved to
11800-402: The Fascist regime. In the summer of 1941, the carabinieri generals told the king that they were prepared to have the carabinieri serve as a strike force for a coup against Mussolini, saying if the war continued, it was bound to cause a revolution that would sweep away both the Fascist regime and the monarchy. Victor Emmanuel rejected this offer, and in September 1941, when Count Ciano told him
12000-416: The Fascist system was destroyed; when the king rejected that course under the grounds that the Fascist Grand Council would never vote against Mussolini, Grandi assured him that it would, saying the majority of the gerarchi were now against Mussolini. Using the Vatican as an intermediary, Victor Emmanuel contacted the British and American governments in June 1943 to ask if they, the Allies, were willing to see
12200-420: The Germans), a National Liberation Committee (CLN) was created, which brought together the parties and movements opposed to fascism and German occupation. It was made up of representatives of the Italian Communist Party, members of the Action Party, Christian Democrats, liberals, socialists and progressive democrats. The National Liberation Committee gave priority to the fight against the Nazi-fascists, postponing
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#173284554663012400-562: The Germans, who had been expecting this move for some time, quickly disarmed and interned Italian troops and took control in the occupied Balkans, France and the Dodecanese , as well as in Italy itself. Many of the units that did not surrender joined forces with the Allies against the Germans. Fearing a German advance on Rome, Victor Emmanuel and his government fled south to Brindisi . This choice may have been necessary to protect his safety; indeed, Hitler had planned to arrest him shortly after Mussolini's overthrow. Nonetheless, it still came as
12600-555: The Grand Council as a precondition for giving his consent to declaring war. On 31 March 1940, Mussolini submitted to Victor Emmanuel a long memorandum arguing that Italy to achieve its long-sought spazio vitale had to enter the war on the Axis side sometime that year. However, the king remained resolutely opposed to Italy entering the war until late May 1940, much to Mussolini's intense frustration. At one point, Mussolini complained to Ciano that there were two men, namely Victor Emmanuel and Pope Pius XII , who were preventing him from doing
12800-413: The House of Savoy continue after the war. On 19 July 1943, Rome was bombed for the first time in the war, further cementing the Italian people's disillusionment with their once-popular King. When the King visited the bombed areas of Rome, he was loudly booed by his subjects who blamed him for the war, which caused Victor Emmanuel to become worried about the possibility of a revolution which might bring in
13000-442: The Italian elite was his way of trying to avoid making a decision. Moreover, Victor Emmanuel had considerable respect for Mussolini, who he saw as his most able prime minister, and appeared to dread taking on a man whose intelligence was greater than his own. In a conversation with the papal nuncio, the king explained that he could not sign an armistice because he hated the United States as a democracy whose leaders were accountable to
13200-406: The Italian municipalities and provinces. These elections, which mainly involved left-wing cities, brought out three parties, with a clear advantage for the Christian Democrats , led by Alcide De Gasperi , which exceeded the sum of votes cast for the Italian Communist Party and the Italian Socialist Party . After these administrative elections, the monarchists, already worried about the outcome of
13400-410: The Italian state as illegitimate and that a treaty with the Vatican was necessary. However, when Orlando attempted to open negotiations with the Vatican in 1919, he was blocked by the king who was furious at the way in which the Catholic Church had maintained pro-Austrian neutrality during World War I. Aside from championing the authenticity of the Shroud of Turin , which belonged to the House of Savoy,
13600-449: The Kingdom of Italy. For the choice of the national anthem a debate was opened which identified, among the possible options: the " Va, pensiero " from Giuseppe Verdi's Nabucco , the drafting of a completely new musical piece, " Il Canto degli Italiani ", the "Inno di Garibaldi" and the confirmation of "La Leggenda del Piave". The political class of the time then approved the proposal of the War Minister Cipriano Facchinetti , who foresaw
13800-400: The Kingdom of Italy. He established himself as King of Italy, in personal union with his role as Emperor of the French . This client state did not survive the end of the Napoleonic era; in its place, the Congress of Vienna established a number of independent duchies and kingdoms in the region. This title is present in Italian laws proclaimed by Napoleon I: [Name], by the Grace of God and
14000-419: The Lombards . In 781, he named his son Pepin as King of Italy, though he still maintained suzerainty over the land. Charlemagne was crowned Roman Emperor in 800, while the Kingdom of Italy became one of the constituent kingdoms of the Empire. Beginning with Louis the Pious in 818, the Kingdom was ruled directly by the Carolingian Emperor himself. After 887, Italy fell into instability, with many rulers claiming
14200-423: The Low Countries and France , and as the Wehrmacht continued to advance into France, the king's opposition to Italy entering the war started to weaken by the second half of May 1940. Mussolini argued all through May 1940 that since it was evident that Germany was going to win the war that here was an unparalleled chance for Italy to make major gains at the expense of France and Britain that would allow Italy to become
14400-457: The Marquisate of Ceva , Overlord of Monaco , Roccabruna and eleven-twelfths of Menton , Noble Patrician of Venice , Patrician of Ferrara . 1946 Italian institutional referendum An institutional referendum ( Italian : referendum istituzionale , or referendum sulla forma istituzionale dello Stato ) was held by universal suffrage in the Kingdom of Italy on 2 June 1946,
14600-656: The Papal States and the city of Rome were annexed to the Kingdom in 1870, completing the Unification of Italy . This kingdom lasted until the aftermath of World War II , when the 1946 Italian institutional referendum ended the monarchy. Up until the dissolution of the monarchy in 1946, the full titles of the Kings of the Kingdom of Italy (1861–1946) were: [Name], by the Grace of God and
14800-629: The Republican Party on the one hand, and the maximalist socialists. In the 1919 elections, the parties most imbued with republican ideology (the maximalist socialists and the Republican Party) won, obtaining 165 out of 508 seats in the Chamber of Deputies. In the 1921 elections, after the foundation of the Italian Communist Party, the three parties republican, maximalist socialist and communist obtained 145 deputies out of 535. Overall, at
15000-528: The Rome area armed with heavy weapons, armoured cars, and machine guns. During the "March on Rome", the Fascist squadristi were halted by 400 lightly armed policemen, as the squadristi had no desire to take on the Italian state. The troops were loyal to the King; even Cesare Maria De Vecchi , commander of the Blackshirts , and one of the organisers of the March on Rome, told Mussolini that he would not act against
15200-450: The Sala della Lupa of Palazzo Montecitorio in Rome, the Supreme Court of Cassation proceeded to proclaim the results of the referendum, without accompanying this formalization with reservations as it had done previously. Many years later, in 1960, the president of this Court, Giuseppe Pagano, declared that the law establishing the organization of the referendum was incompatible with the slowness of
15400-539: The Soviet Union, rather than the 10 divisions that Mussolini actually sent. In late 1941, Italian East Africa was lost. The loss of Italian East Africa together with the defeats in North Africa and the Balkans caused an immense loss of confidence in Mussolini's ability to lead, and many Fascist gerarchi such as Emilio De Bono and Dino Grandi were hoping by the spring of 1941 that the king might sack him in order to save
15600-466: The United States was a harmless move. The king was pleased by the news of Japan entering the war, believing that with Britain's Asian colonies in danger that this would force the British to redeploy their forces to Asia and might finally allow for the Axis conquest of Egypt. Marshal Enrico Caviglia wrote in his diary that it was "criminal" the way that Victor Emmanuel refused to act against Mussolini despite
15800-620: The Vatican to end the "Roman Question". In 1929, Mussolini, on behalf of the King, signed the Lateran Treaty . The treaty was one of the three agreements made that year between the Kingdom of Italy and the Holy See . On 7 June 1929, the Lateran Treaty was ratified and the " Roman Question " was settled. The Italian monarchy enjoyed popular support for decades. Foreigners noted how even as late as
16000-408: The abuses of the squadristi , of which the murder of Matteotti was only the most notorious example, and were hoping that he would dismiss Mussolini, saying that one word from the king would be enough to bring down his unpopular prime minister. The newspaper Corriere della Sera in an editorial stated the abuses of the Fascist government such as the murder of Matteotti had now reached such a point that
16200-454: The adoption of "Il Canto degli Italiani" as a provisional anthem of the State. "La Leggenda del Piave" then had the function of the national anthem of the Italian Republic until the Council of Ministers of 12 October 1946, when Cipriano Facchinetti (of republican political belief), officially announced that during the celebrations of 4 November for National Unity and Armed Forces Day , in which
16400-518: The allegorical personification of Italy had, and still has, a universal and unifying meaning that should have been common to all Italians and not only to a part of them: this was the last appearance in the institutional context of Italia turrita . However, some voters were unable to vote. Before the closure of the electoral lists in April 1945, many Italian soldiers were still outside the national territory, in detention or internment camps abroad. Citizens of
16600-525: The alternative: socialism and anarchism . Both the spectre of the Russian Revolution and the tragedies of World War I played a large part in these political decisions. Victor Emmanuel always saw the Italian Socialists and Communists as his principal enemies, and felt that Mussolini's dictatorship had saved the existing status quo in Italy. Victor Emmanuel always returned the fascist salute when
16800-450: The ancient Roman Republic and the medieval maritime republics . From Cicero to Niccolò Machiavelli , Italian philosophers have imagined the foundations of political science and republicanism. But it was Giuseppe Mazzini who revived the republican idea in Italy in the 19th century. An Italian nationalist in the historical radical tradition and a proponent of a republicanism of social-democratic inspiration, Mazzini helped define
17000-475: The arch-conservative Antonio Salandra as well as General Armando Diaz , that it would be better to do a deal with Mussolini. On 1 November 1922, the king reviewed the squadristi as they marched past the Quirinal Palace giving the fascist salute. Victor Emmanuel took no responsibility for appointing Mussolini prime minister, saying he learned from studying history that events were "much more automatic than
17200-516: The aristocracy chose to erect fascism as a bulwark against, in their way of seeing, these dangers. In October 1922, the nomination of Benito Mussolini as prime minister by King Victor Emmanuel III , following the march on Rome , paved the way for the establishment of the dictatorship. The Albertine Statute was progressively emptied of its content. Parliament was subject to the will of the new government. The legal opposition disintegrated. On 27 June 1924, 127 deputies left Parliament and retreated to
17400-525: The armed services of the republic will perform their oath of loyalty to the young republic, as a provisional anthem, "Il Canto degli Italiani" would have been adopted. The press release stated that: ... On the proposal of the Minister of War it was established that the oath of the Armed Forces to the Republic and to its Chief would be carried out on November 4th p.v. and that, temporarily, the anthem of Mameli
17600-552: The armistice with the Allies he then declared war on Germany in October. He clashed constantly with Allied command. Under pressure from the Allies, Victor Emmanuel transferred most of his powers to his son in June 1944, effectively ending his involvement in the war and in the government of Italy. Victor Emmanuel officially abdicated his throne in 1946 in favour of his son, who became King Umberto II . Victor Emmanuel hoped to strengthen support for
17800-491: The assassination of his father Umberto I , the Kingdom of Italy became involved in two world wars . His reign also encompassed the birth, rise, and fall of the Fascist regime in Italy . The first fourteen years of Victor Emmanuel's reign were dominated by prime minister Giovanni Giolitti , who focused on industrialization and passed several democratic reforms, such as the introduction of universal male suffrage . In foreign policy, Giolitti's Italy distanced itself from
18000-558: The ballots of the candidates for the constituent assembly had to precede that of the referendum. If the monarchy had won, it would have been the Constituent Assembly that would have had to choose the head of state. Wanted by the Allies to verify that the conditions existed for voting in a country torn apart by the civil war only a few months earlier, partial municipal and provincial elections were held in March and April 1946 in half of
18200-399: The beginning of the interwar period, less than 30% of those elected were in favor of the establishment of a republican regime. In this context, the rise of Benito Mussolini 's fascist movement was based on the bitterness generated by the " mutilated victory ", the fear of social unrest and the rejection of revolutionary, republican and Marxist ideology. The liberal political system and part of
18400-653: The centre was lowered from the Quirinal Palace . The Italian flag was modified with the decree of the president of the Council of Ministers No. 1 of 19 June 1946. Compared to the monarchic banner, the Savoy coat of arms was eliminated. This decision was later confirmed in the session of 24 March 1947 by the Constituent Assembly , which decreed the insertion of article 12 of the Italian Constitution , subsequently ratified by
18600-616: The college of Naples. But, in other regions, the vote was very fragmented. There was not a total break with the past, but an interference between the two possible choices, which was expressed everywhere. The occupation of the North by the German army and the period of the Italian Civil War , with the last gasps of the fascist movement , undoubtedly favored an increase in the importance of the socialist and communist parties in this region, which were republican in tendency. During these dark years,
18800-516: The conquest of the whole of southern Italy during the Expedition of the Thousand , Garibaldi handed over the conquered territories to the king of Sardinia Victor Emmanuel II , which were annexed to the Kingdom of Sardinia after a plebiscite. This earned him heavy criticism from numerous republicans who accused him of treason. While a laborious administrative unification began, a first Italian parliament
19000-580: The country. Initially named Dux Italiae (Duke of Italy) by Zeno, the Roman Emperor in Constantinople, he later was recognized as King of Italy by the foederati in control of the Italian peninsula. He was deposed by the Ostrogoths, who established their own kingdom. Theodoric the Great was invited by the emperor Zeno to take Italy from Odoacer and rule it in Zeno's name. He defeated Odoacer in 493, establishing
19200-623: The crown as Emperor of Ethiopia . His decision to do this was not universally accepted. Victor Emmanuel was only able to assume the crown after the Italian Army invaded Ethiopia (Abyssinia) and overthrew Emperor Haile Selassie during the Second Italo-Abyssinian War . Ethiopia was annexed to the Italian Empire . The League of Nations condemned Italy's participation in this war and the Italian claim by right of conquest to Ethiopia
19400-453: The death of Felice Cavallotti in 1898, the radical left gave up on posing the institutional problem. In Italian politics, the socialist party progressively divided into two tendencies: a maximalist one, led among others by Arturo Labriola and Enrico Ferri , and supporting the use of strikes; the other, reformist and pro-government, was led by Filippo Turati . A nationalist movement emerged, led in particular by Enrico Corradini , as well as
19600-533: The decision for Italy to enter the war. The king possessed the right to do so under the Statuto, which stipulated that ultimate authority for declaring war rested with the crown. Demonstrations in favour of the war were staged in Rome, with 200,000 gathering on 16 May 1915, in the Piazza del Popolo. The corrupt and disorganised war effort, the stunning loss of life suffered by the Royal Italian Army , especially at
19800-647: The dissolution of the Empire in 1806. Southern Italy had never been part of the Holy Roman Empire; it remained initially under the control of various Byzantine fiefs until the Norman Kingdom of Sicily (later the Kingdom of Naples ) took control of the area in the 11th century. Central Italy, along the Rome-Ravenna axis, was part of the Papal States , under the direct personal rule of the pope. The Duke of Savoy
20000-457: The domestic political abuses of Fascist Italy , and he accepted the additional crowns of the Emperor of Ethiopia in 1936 and the King of Albania in 1939 as a result of Italian imperialism under fascism . When World War II broke out in 1939, Victor Emmanuel advised Mussolini against entering the war. In June 1940, he relented and granted Mussolini sweeping powers to enter and conduct the war. Amidst
20200-498: The dominant power in the Mediterranean. On 1 June 1940, Victor Emmanuel finally gave Mussolini his permission for Italy to enter the war, though the king retained the supreme command while only giving Mussolini power over political and military questions. The delay between the king's permission to enter the war and the declaration of war was caused by Mussolini's demand that he have the powers of supreme command, an attempt to take away
20400-590: The domination of the Kingdom of Sardinia , which besides its namesake island, also ruled the expansive Piedmont and Savoy regions along the French-Italian borderlands. The formerly republican leader in southern Italy, Giuseppe Garibaldi , made common cause with the House of Savoy to overthrow the Kingdom of the Two Sicilies, and the people voted in a plebiscite to join Sardinia to form the Kingdom of Italy in 1861;
20600-643: The duchies of Rome , Venetia , Naples and the southernmost portions. In the 8th century, estrangement between the Italians and the Byzantines allowed the Lombards to capture the remaining Roman enclaves in northern Italy. However, in 774, they were defeated by the Franks under Charlemagne , who deposed their king and took up the title "king of the Lombards". After the death of Charles the Fat in 887, Italy fell into instability and
20800-545: The early 1920s, several short-serving prime ministers, including the well-respected Giolitti, serving an unprecedented fifth term as prime minister, could not unify the country in the face of the growing Italian fascist movement. Strengthened by the economic downturn facing the country, the National Fascist Party led the March on Rome , and Victor Emmanuel appointed Benito Mussolini as prime minister. He remained silent on
21000-552: The examination of numerous appeals regarding the contested referendum ballots. In fact, 21,000 disputes occurred over the referendum ballots, most of which were quickly resolved. However, the period of uncertainty between the end of the vote and the final official announcement of the results only strengthened tensions in the country. In the city of Naples , in Apulia , in Calabria and in Sicily ,
21200-870: The fact that France signed an armistice with Germany on 22 June, followed by another armistice with Italy on 24 June allowed Mussolini to present it as a victory. Victor Emmanuel sharply criticized the terms of the Franco-Italian Armistice , saying he wanted Italy to occupy Tunisia , Corsica , and Nice , though the fact the armistice allowed him to proclaim a victory over France was a source of much pleasure to him. In 1940 and 1941, Italian armies in North Africa and in Greece suffered humiliating defeats. Unlike his opposition over going to war with major powers like France and Britain (who might actually defeat Italy), Victor Emmanuel blessed Mussolini's plans to invade Greece in
21400-456: The fact that he was clearly mismanaging the war. One Italian journalist remembered that by the fall of 1941 he did not know anyone who felt anything other than "contempt" for the king who was unwilling to disassociate himself from Fascism. The British historian Denis Mack Smith wrote that Victor Emmanuel tended to procrastinate when faced with very difficult choices, and his unwillingness to dismiss Mussolini despite mounting pressure from within
21600-458: The fall of 1940, saying he expected the Greeks to collapse as soon as Italy invaded. Through the carabinieri (para-military police), Victor Emmanuel was kept well informed of the state of public opinion and from the autumn of 1940 onward received reports that the war together with the Fascist regime were becoming extremely unpopular with the Italian people. When Mussolini made Marshal Pietro Badoglio
21800-630: The fellow members of the Triple Alliance (the German Empire and Austria-Hungary ) and colonized Libya following the Italo-Turkish War . Giolitti was succeeded by Antonio Salandra , Paolo Boselli , and Vittorio Emanuele Orlando . The First World War brought about Italian victory over the Habsburg Empire and the annexation of the Italian-speaking provinces of Trento and Trieste and
22000-405: The great defeat of Caporetto , and the post–World War I recession turned the King against what he perceived as an inefficient political bourgeoisie . Nevertheless, the King visited the various areas of Northern Italy suffering repeated strikes and mortar hits from elements of the fighting there, and demonstrated considerable courage and concern in personally visiting many people, while his wife,
22200-466: The impetus of these groups, the Action Party , Mazzini's former republican party, was re-established. Between the end of 1942 and the beginning of 1943, Alcide De Gasperi wrote The reconstructive ideas of Christian Democracy , which laid the foundations of the new Catholic-inspired party, the Christian Democracy . It brought together the veterans of Luigi Sturzo 's Italian People's Party and
22400-519: The king a "traitor" to Italy by supporting the Fascist regime and warned that the king would one day regret what he had done. Victor Emmanuel was disgusted by what he regarded as the superficiality and frivolity of what he called the "so-called elegant society" of Rome, and as such, the king preferred to spend his time out in the countryside where he went hunting, fishing and reading military history books outside. A taciturn man who felt deeply uncomfortable expressing himself in conversation, Victor Emmanuel
22600-455: The king had both a legal and moral duty to dismiss Mussolini at once and restore the rule of law. During the Matteotti affair, even pro-Fascist politicians like Salandra started to express some doubts about Mussolini after he took responsibility for all the Fascist violence, saying he did not order Matteotti's murder, but he did authorise the violence of the squadristi , making him responsible for
22800-459: The king had little interest in religion. In private Victor Emmanuel regarded the Catholic Church with a jaundiced eye, making remarks about senior clerics as being greedy, cynical and oversexed hypocrites who took advantage of the devout faith of ordinary Italians. In 1926, the king allowed Mussolini to do what he prevented Orlando from doing in 1919, giving permission to open negotiations with
23000-408: The kingship simultaneously: In 896, Arnulf and Ratold lost control of Italy, which was divided between Berengar and Lambert: In 951 Otto I invaded Italy and was crowned with the Iron Crown of Lombardy . In 952, Berengar and Adalbert became his vassals but remained kings until being deposed by Otto. Otto is considered to be the founding emperor of the Holy Roman Empire , and the Kingdom of Italy
23200-624: The land, and the weight of the Communist Party in this region, which had republican tendencies. On 10 June, at 6 pm, in the Sala della Lupa ("Hall of the Wolf"), which owes its name to the presence of a bronze sculpture of the Capitoline Wolf , of Palazzo Montecitorio in Rome, the Supreme Court of Cassation read out the partial results of the referendum, postponing the definitive proclamation of
23400-514: The last Ostrogothic king fell to the Emperor Justinian in 553. Roman authority in Italy was briefly re-established under Justinian, though his gains were lost under his successor Justin II, after a new Germanic tribe, the Lombards , invaded from the north and established their kingdom in 568. The Lombards under Alboin established their kingdom in the extreme north of Italy in 568, gradually pushing
23600-520: The law when Mussolini submitted it to him. By 1928, practically the only check on Mussolini's power was the King's prerogative of dismissing him from office. Even then, this prerogative could only be exercised on the advice of the Fascist Grand Council , a body that only Mussolini could convene. Whatever the circumstances, Victor Emmanuel showed weakness from a position of strength, with dire future consequences for Italy and fatal consequences for
23800-455: The liberation of Rome, on 4 June 1944, Victor Emmanuel III proclaimed his son Umberto lieutenant general of the kingdom , and the parties took political control of the nation, even if the war continued, stabilizing on the front on the Gothic line until April 1945. From June 1944 to December 1945, three provisional coalition governments followed one another. The first was led by Ivanoe Bonomi , of
24000-554: The modern European movement for popular democracy in a republican state. Mazzini's thoughts had a very considerable influence on the Italian and European republican movements, in the Constitution of Italy , about Europeanism and more nuanced on many politicians of a later period, among them American president Woodrow Wilson , British prime minister David Lloyd George , Mahatma Gandhi , Israeli prime minister Golda Meir and Indian prime minister Jawaharlal Nehru . Mazzini formulated
24200-405: The monarchists carried out protest demonstrations, sometimes violent. On 7 June, a monarchist student, soon transformed into a martyr, was killed. One of the complaints submitted to the Supreme Court of Cassation is particularly delicate. This controversy was over the definition of "majority". The monarchists believed that it was necessary to take into account not the majority of votes cast, but
24400-492: The monarchy against an ultimately successful referendum to abolish it. After the 1946 Italian institutional referendum established the Republic, Victor Emmanuel went into exile to Alexandria , where he died and was buried the following year in St. Catherine's Cathedral, Alexandria . In 2017, his remains were returned to rest in Italy following an agreement between presidents Sergio Mattarella and Abdel Fattah el-Sisi . Victor Emmanuel
24600-411: The monarchy itself. Fascism was a force of opposition to left-wing radicalism. This appealed to many people in Italy at the time, and certainly to the King. In many ways, the events from 1922 to 1943 demonstrated that the monarchy and the moneyed class, for different reasons, felt Mussolini and his regime offered an option that, after years of political chaos, was more appealing than what they perceived as
24800-467: The monarchy. The event is commemorated annually by the Festa della Repubblica . The former King Umberto II voluntarily left the country on 13 June 1946, headed for Cascais , in southern Portugal , without even waiting for the results to be defined and the ruling on the appeals presented by the monarchist party, which were rejected by the Supreme Court of Cassation on 18 June 1946. With the entry into force of
25000-402: The monarchy. During the local meetings of the leaders of this party, in Rome and Milan, motions were presented aimed at making official a political line favorable to a democratic republic. The central political office tried to curb these pressures and maintain an intermediate position. On 16 March 1946, Prince Umberto decreed, as expected in 1944, that the question of the institutional form of
25200-605: The murder of Matteotti. The king affirmed that "the Chamber and the Senate were his eyes and ears", desiring a parliamentary initiative, according to the Statuto Albertino. The knowledge that the king and the Parliament would not dismiss the prime minister led to the Mussolini government winning a vote of no confidence in November 1924 in the chamber of deputies by 314 votes to 6 and in the Senate by 206 votes to 54. The deputies and
25400-460: The new Constitution of the Italian Republic , on 1 January 1948, Enrico De Nicola became the first to assume the functions of president of Italy . It was the first time that the whole Italian Peninsula (excluding Vatican City ) was under a form of republican governance since the end of the ancient Roman Republic . In the history of Italy there are several so-called "republican" governments that have followed one another over time. Examples are
25600-499: The new demonstrations announced by the monarchists worried the ministers. On 13 June, the Council of Ministers, extending the meeting begun the previous day, resolved that, following the proclamation of the provisional results on 10 June, the functions of provisional head of state would be exercised by Prime Minister Alcide De Gasperi, without wait for the final official confirmation from the Court of Cassation. The Prime Minister collected all
25800-418: The night of 12 June the government met at Alcide De Gasperi 's invitation. The Prime Minister received a written communication from the King, in which he said he was ready to respect the verdict of the electors' vote, but adding that he would await the final declaration of the Supreme Court of Cassation. The letter and the protests of the monarchists, like the bloody events of the day before in Naples, as well as
26000-442: The north of Rome gave the majority to the republic, while those located to the south chose the monarchy. The electoral college of Rome was very divided and gave a slight majority to the choice of the monarchic regime. The Republican choice turned into a plebiscite, with over 80% of the votes cast in the electoral college of Bologna , and even more in that of Trento . In the South, however, the monarchist choice reached nearly 80% in
26200-491: The number two-man in Fascism, remained republicans, and the king greatly appreciated Mussolini's conversion to monarchism. In private, Mussolini detested Victor Emmanuel as a tedious and tiresomely boring man, whose only interests were military history and his collections of stamps and coins, a man whom Mussolini sneered was "too diminutive for an Italy destined to greatness" (a reference to the king's height). However, Mussolini told
26400-445: The oath of loyalty to the monarchy, necessary to be elected, was the subject of controversy within the republican forces. In 1873 Felice Cavallotti , one of the most committed Italian politicians against the monarchy, preceded his oath with a declaration in which he reaffirmed his republican beliefs. In 1882, a new electoral law lowered the census limit for voting rights, increasing the number of voters to over two million, equal to 7% of
26600-532: The one hand, it was believed that the vote, as a legal act, manifested a will and that the blank or null vote could be assimilated to the absence of expression of will. The Supreme Court of Cassation also identified another decree which specified that only "validly cast" votes should be preserved. The Supreme Court of Cassation finally announced that no law or decree dealt with the need for an absolute majority. The final results were announced on 18 June 1946. According to these results, 24,947,187 people participated in
26800-451: The other gerarchi that he needed the king's support and that one day, another fascist revolution would take place "without contraceptives". The King failed to move against the Mussolini regime's abuses of power (including, as early as 1924, the assassination of Giacomo Matteotti and other opposition MPs). During the Matteotti affair of 1924, Sir Ronald Graham, the British ambassador, reported: "His Majesty once told me that he had never had
27000-466: The outbreak of World War I , Italy began to be counted among the world's liberal democracies. After World War I, Italian political life was animated by four great movements. Two of these movements were in favor of democratic development within the framework of existing monarchical institutions: the reformist socialists and the Italian People's Party . Two other movements challenged these institutions:
27200-471: The parties in favor of the Republic protested, arguing the assumption of royal powers by the lieutenant general conflicted with an article of the legislative decree of 16 March 1946 that aimed at guaranteeing institutional stability before the announcement of the results. For observers, the gap between republicans and monarchists was narrowing, which increased tension in the final phase of the electoral campaign. In fact, some scuffles broke out between activists of
27400-620: The popular Catholic movement and other liberal movements. This coalition dissolved on 5 May 1934 and, in August of the same year, the pact of unity of action was signed between the Italian Socialist Party and the Italian Communist Party. In the meantime, in Italy, clandestine anti-fascist nuclei were formed, in particular in Milan with Ferruccio Parri and in Florence with Riccardo Bauer . Under
27600-567: The population. In the same year the Italian Workers' Party was created, which in 1895 became the Italian Socialist Party . In 1895 the intransigent republicans agreed to participate in the political life of the Kingdom, establishing the Italian Republican Party . Two years later, the far left reached its historical maximum level in Parliament with 81 deputies, for the three radical-democratic, socialist components and Republican. With
27800-401: The populations concerned placed part of their hopes in dreams of revolution, or at least of change. The South, not having experienced this situation and having welcomed King Victor Emmanuel III and his government, was perhaps more wary of these parties and placed its trust in the monarchic regime, preferring continuity to the "leap into the unknown" represented by the republican form. Furthermore,
28000-583: The presidency of the Pope . Subsequently, the philosopher Carlo Cattaneo promoted a secular and republican Italy in the extension of Mazzini's ideas, but organized as a federal republic. The political projects of Mazzini and Cattaneo were thwarted by the action of the Piedmontese Prime Minister Camillo Benso, Count of Cavour , and Giuseppe Garibaldi . The latter set aside his republican ideas to favor Italian unity. After having obtained
28200-480: The press, and declared the Fascist Party to be the only legal party in Italy. In December 1925, Mussolini passed a law declaring that he was responsible to the King, not Parliament. Under the Statuto Albertino Italian governments were legally answerable to Parliament, but politically answerable to the monarch. However, it had been a strong constitutional convention since at least the 1860s that they were legally and politically answerable to Parliament. In January 1926,
28400-424: The principles of freedom, independence and unity, but also to oust the monarchic regimes pre-existing the unification, including the Kingdom of Sardinia . The foundation of the Young Italy constitutes a key moment of the Italian Risorgimento and this republican program precedes in time the proposals for the unification of Italy of Vincenzo Gioberti and Cesare Balbo , aimed at reunifying the Italian territory under
28600-443: The queen, took turns with nurses in caring for Italy's wounded. It was at this time, the period of World War I, that the King enjoyed the genuine affection of the majority of his people. Still, during the war he received about 400 threatening letters from people of every social background, mostly members of the working class . On 8 November 1917, he met with the prime ministers of Britain ( Lloyd George ) and France ( Paul Painlevé ) at
28800-416: The question of the institutional form of the Italian state until after the victory, but made the abdication of the king in favor of his son a prerequisite for the establishment of an anti-fascist government. The patriotic war of liberation led by the National Liberation Committee was also, for a significant part of its supporters, a war of social liberation, a war against a collaborationist elite. However,
29000-407: The referendum, became even more discouraged. But a political event changed the situation during the referendum campaign. A month before the referendum, Victor Emmanuel III abdicated in favor of his son Umberto, who was proclaimed king and took the name Umberto II . The act of abdication, drawn up privately, is dated 9 May 1946. This abdication was desired by the monarchists, since the crown prince
29200-425: The republicans", and completed its coverage by asking: "the question is whether the republic has been proclaimed or not". In Naples, a city with a population largely supportive of the monarchy, an incident occurred on 11 June. A procession of supporters of the monarchy advanced towards the municipal buildings and then changed objective and headed towards the headquarters of the Italian Communist Party . The crowd saw
29400-413: The results to Parliament for 18 June, after having taken the relevant decisions on appeals, protests and complaints. At the same time, republican demonstrations took place in many cities. The Milanese newspaper, Corriere della Sera , on Tuesday 11 June, ran the headline: "The Italian Republic is born". La Stampa , a Turin daily newspaper, declared more soberly: "The government confirms the victory of
29600-409: The results to be defined and the ruling on the appeals presented by the monarchist party, to avoid the clashes between monarchists and republicans, already manifested in bloody events in various Italian cities, for fear they could extend throughout the country. He went into exile in Cascais , Portugal . On the same day as the former king's departure, the flag of Italy with the Savoy coat of arms in
29800-402: The right to vote. In the political panorama of the time there was a republican political movement which had its martyrs, such as the soldier Pietro Barsanti . Barsanti was a supporter of republican ideas, and was a soldier in the Royal Italian Army with the rank of corporal. He was sentenced to death and shot in 1870 for having favored an insurrectional attempt against the Savoy monarchy and
30000-408: The role of the royal house. Following the Italian Civil War and the Liberation of Italy from Axis troops in 1945, a popular referendum on the institutional form of the state was called the next year and resulted in voters choosing the replacement of the monarchy with a republic . The 1946 Italian general election to elect the Constituent Assembly of Italy was held on the same day. As with
30200-399: The scapegoat for the failure of the invasion of Greece and sacked him as Chief of the General Staff in December 1940, Badoglio appealed to the king for help. Victor Emmanuel refused to help Badoglio, saying that Mussolini would manage the situation just always as he had in the past. In January 1941, the king admitted to his aide-de-camp, General Paolo Puntoni , that war was not going well and
30400-443: The senators were unwilling to risk their lives by voting for a no-confidence motion as the king had made it clear that he would not dismiss Mussolini even if the motion did carry the votes of the majority. Victor Emmanuel remained silent during the winter of 1925–26 when Mussolini dropped all pretence of democracy. During this time, the king signed without protest laws that eliminated freedom of speech and assembly, abolished freedom of
30600-433: The side of Germany provided that this would not strain Italy's resources too much (the costs of the wars in Ethiopia and Spain had pushed Italy to the verge of bankruptcy by 1939). On 18 March 1940, Mussolini met Hitler at a summit at the Brenner Pass and promised him that Italy would soon enter the war. Victor Emmanuel had powerful doubts about the wisdom of going to war, and at one point in March 1940 hinted to Ciano that he
30800-433: The simultaneous Constituent Assembly elections, the referendum was not held in the Julian March , in the province of Zara or the province of Bolzano , which were still under occupation by Allied forces pending a final settlement of the status of the territories. The results were proclaimed by the Supreme Court of Cassation on 10 June 1946: 12,717,923 citizens in favor of the republic and 10,719,284 citizens in favor of
31000-435: The southern part of German-speaking Tirol (Sued-Tirol). For this reason, Victor Emmanuel was labelled the "King of Victory". However, a part of Italian nationalists protested against the partial violation of the 1915 Treaty of London and what they defined as a " mutilated victory ", demanding the annexation of Croatian-speaking territories in Dalmatia and temporarily occupying the town of Fiume without royal assent. During
31200-419: The state would be decided by a referendum organized simultaneously with the election of a constituent assembly. The date was set for 2 June 1946. The Supreme Court of Cassation was responsible for examining the appeals. Its role was to be limited to observing the progress of voting operations and consolidating the bulletins issued by the offices that communicated the results in each constituency. The counting of
31400-441: The summer of 1943. Besides rejecting unconditional surrender as "truly monstrous", Victor Emmanuel wanted from the Allies a guarantee that he would keep his throne; a promise that Italian colonial empire in Libya and the Horn of Africa would be restored; that Italy would keep the part of Yugoslavia that had been annexed by Mussolini; and finally the Allies should promise not to invade the Italian mainland, and instead invade France and
31600-407: The ten divisions of the " Italian Army in Russia " ( Armata Italiana in Russia , or Armir) were crushed in a side-action in the Battle of Stalingrad . By the middle of 1943, the last Italian forces in Tunisia had surrendered and Sicily had been taken by the Allies . Hampered by lack of fuel as well as several serious defeats, the Italian Navy spent most of the war confined to port. As a result,
31800-399: The things that he wanted to do, leading to state he wanted to "blow" the Crown and Catholic Church "up to the skies". Victor Emmanuel was a cautious man, and he always consulted all of the available advisors before making a decision, in this case, the senior officers of the armed forces who informed him of Italy's military deficiencies. On 10 May 1940, Germany launched a major offensive into
32000-469: The title of King of Italy until the last king, Umberto II , was exiled in 1946 when Italy became a republic. After the deposition of the last Western Emperor in 476, Heruli leader Odoacer was appointed Dux Italiae (Duke of Italy) by the reigning Byzantine Emperor Zeno . Later, the Germanic foederati , the Scirians and the Heruli, as well as a large segment of the Italic Roman army, proclaimed Odoacer Rex Italiae ('King of Italy). In 493,
32200-486: The title of emperor in 1936 at the end of Second Italo-Ethiopian War , then the alliance with Nazi Germany and Italy's entry into World War II on 10 June 1940. With the implementation of fascist laws (Royal Decree of 6 November 1926), all political parties operating on Italian territory were dissolved, with the exception of the National Fascist Party . Some of these parties expatriated and reconstituted themselves abroad, especially in France. Thus an anti-fascist coalition
32400-401: The titles of Emperor of Ethiopia and King of Albania, recognizing the previous holders of those titles as legitimate. The crown of the King of the Albanians had been assumed by Victor Emmanuel in 1939 when Italian forces invaded the nearly defenceless monarchy across the Adriatic Sea and caused King Zog I to flee. In 1941, while in Tirana , the King escaped an assassination attempt by
32600-451: The two sides in the tense climate. The vote for the choice between monarchy or republic took place on 2 June and on the morning of 3 June 1946. After the transfer of the electoral cards from all of Italy and the minutes of the 31 constituencies to Rome, the results were expected on 8 June. On 10 June, the still provisional results were announced, and the final ones were communicated later due to missing data in some polling stations and after
32800-406: The usurped Ethiopian and Albanian crowns in favour of the legitimate monarchs of those states, claiming that the Fascist-dominated Parliament had given him these titles and he could only renounce them if parliament voted on the matter. King of Italy King of Italy (Italian: Re d'Italia ; Latin: Rex Italiae ) was the title given to the ruler of the Kingdom of Italy after the fall of
33000-413: The vote, or 89% of the electorate. The official results of the referendum recorded 12,718,641 votes for the republic, or 54.3% of the votes cast, and 10,718,502 votes for the monarchy, or 45.7%. 1,498,136 ballots were annulled. The analysis of the data by region showed an Italy practically divided in two: in the North the Republic won with 66.2% of the votes cast, and the Monarchy in the South with 63.8% of
33200-465: The votes of the government members, with the exception of the liberal minister Leone Cattani. Although some members of his entourage encouraged him to oppose this decision, the king, informed, decided to leave the country the following day, thus making a peaceful transfer of power possible, not without having denounced De Gasperi's "revolutionary gesture". The former King of Italy, Umberto II , decided to leave Italy on 13 June, without even waiting for
33400-400: The votes. The supporters of the republic chose the effigy of the Italia turrita , the national personification of Italy, as their unitary symbol to be used in the electoral campaign and on the referendum ballot on the institutional form of the State, in contrast to the Savoy coat of arms, which represented the monarchy. This triggered various controversies, given that the iconography of
33600-417: The war as a member of the Axis . Privately, they both began negotiating with the Allies for an armistice. The king was advised by his generals to sign an immediate armistice, since German troops in Italy were still outnumbered by Italian troops. But Victor Emmanuel was unwilling to accept the Allied demand for unconditional surrender, and as a result, the secret armistice talks in Lisbon were dragged out over
33800-400: The war by 1943, but papal diplomats told their American counterparts that the king was "weak, indecisive and excessively devoted to Mussolini". In the summer of 1942, Grandi had a private audience with Victor Emmanuel, where he asked him to dismiss Mussolini and sign an armistice with the Allies before the Fascist regime was destroyed only to be told to "trust your king" and "stop speaking like
34000-445: The war was lost, blasted him for his "defeatism", saying he still believed in Mussolini. On 11 December 1941, Victor Emmanuel rather glibly agreed to Mussolini's request to declare war on the United States . Failing to anticipate the American "Europe First" strategy, the king believed that the Americans would follow an "Asia First" strategy of focusing all their efforts against Japan in revenge for Pearl Harbor, and that declaring war on
34200-442: The war would soon turn around for the Axis powers because it had to. Even Victor Emmanuel was forced to concede that Mussolini had taken a turn "for the worse", which he blamed on "that woman" as he called Mussolini's mistress, Clara Petacci . On 15 May 1943, the king sent Mussolini a letter saying Italy should sign an armistice and exit the war. On 4 June 1943, Grandi saw the king and told him that he had to dismiss Mussolini before
34400-1354: The will of the Nation, King of Italy, King of Sardinia , Cyprus , Jerusalem , Armenia , Duke of Savoy , count of Maurienne , Marquis (of the Holy Roman Empire ) in Italy; Prince of Piedmont , Carignano , Oneglia , Poirino , Trino ; Prince and Perpetual Vicar of the Holy Roman Empire; Prince of Carmagnola , Montmélian with Arbin and Francin , Prince bailiff of the Duchy of Aosta , Prince of Chieri , Dronero , Crescentino , Riva di Chieri and Banna , Busca , Bene , Bra , Duke of Genoa , Monferrat , Aosta , Duke of Chablais , Genevois , Duke of Piacenza , Marquis of Saluzzo (Saluces), Ivrea , Susa , of Maro , Oristano , Cesana , Savona , Tarantasia , Borgomanero and Cureggio , Caselle , Rivoli , Pianezza , Govone , Salussola , Racconigi over Tegerone , Migliabruna and Motturone , Cavallermaggiore , Marene , Modane and Lanslebourg , Livorno Ferraris , Santhià , Agliè , Centallo and Demonte , Desana , Ghemme , Vigone , Count of Barge , Villafranca , Ginevra , Nizza , Tenda , Romont , Asti , Alessandria , of Goceano , Novara , Tortona , Bobbio , Soissons , Sant'Antioco , Pollenzo , Roccabruna , Tricerro , Bairo , Ozegna , delle Apertole, Baron of Vaud and of Faucigni , Lord of Vercelli , Pinerolo , of Lomellina , of Valle Sesia , of
34600-426: The wishes of the monarch. De Vecchi went to the Quirinal Palace to meet the king and assured him that the Fascists would never fight against the king. It was at this point that the Fascist leader considered leaving Italy altogether. But then, minutes before midnight, he received a telegram from the King inviting him to Rome. Facta had the decree for martial law prepared after the cabinet had unanimously endorsed it, and
34800-417: The young people of Catholic associations, in particular of the University Federation. On 10 July 1943, the Allies landed in Sicily in Operation Husky . On 25 July 1943, Victor Emmanuel III revoked Mussolini's mandate as prime minister and had him arrested, entrusting the government to Marshal Pietro Badoglio . The new government contacted the Allies to reach an armistice. When the Armistice of Cassibile
35000-438: Was de jure a vassal of the Holy Roman Emperor, with the Duke being Prince and Perpetual Vicar of the Holy Roman Empire. Charles V was the last emperor to be crowned king of Italy or to officially use the title. The Habsburg emperors claimed the Italian crown until 1801. The empire continued to include Italian territories until its dissolution in 1806. In 1805, Napoleon established a client state in northern Italy, named
35200-410: Was Henry II (1004–1024). Subsequent emperors used the title "King of Italy" until Charles V . They were crowned in Pavia , Milan and Bologna . In 1805, Napoleon I was crowned with the Iron Crown of Lombardy at the Milan Cathedral . The next year, Holy Roman Emperor Francis II abdicated his imperial title. From the deposition of Napoleon I (1814) until the Italian Unification (1861), there
35400-427: Was "Remember: to be a king, all you need to know is how to sign your name, read a newspaper, and mount a horse." His early years showed evidence that, by the standards of the Savoy monarchy, he was a man committed to constitutional government. Even though his father was killed by an anarchist , the new king showed a commitment to constitutional freedoms. Although parliamentary rule had been firmly established in Italy,
35600-434: Was also called Sciaboletta ("little sabre") by some Italians. Victor Emmanuel III was born in Naples in the Kingdom of Italy to King Umberto I and Margherita of Savoy , the Queen consort . He was named after his grandfather, Victor Emmanuel II , King of Sardinia and later King of Italy . Unlike his paternal first cousin's son, the 1.98 m (6 ft 6 in) tall Amedeo, 3rd Duke of Aosta , Victor Emmanuel
35800-442: Was an offensive and defensive alliance with Germany, Italy would have been obliged to follow Germany into war in 1939. As the Pact of Steel was signed, the German Foreign Minister, Joachim von Ribbentrop , told Mussolini that there would be no war until 1942 or 1943, but the Italian ambassador in Berlin, Baron Bernardo Attolico , warned Rome that the information he was hearing from sources in the German government suggested that Hitler
36000-422: Was an opportunist who was well known for his sycophancy towards those in power, which led the king to choose him as Mussolini's successor as he knew that Badoglio would do anything to have power whereas Caviglia had a reputation as a man of principle and honour. The king felt that Badoglio as prime minister would obey any royal orders whereas he was not so certain that Caviglia would do the same. On 15 July 1943, in
36200-407: Was announced on 8 September 1943, the Germans reacted by placing under their control all the part of Italian territory that still escaped the Allied advance and by disarming the Italian Royal Army . Victor Emmanuel III and Badoglio's government fled Rome and reached Brindisi , in southern Italy . The war continued, but was also accompanied by the Italian Civil War , with the creation by Mussolini of
36400-406: Was claiming a right to veto any decision Mussolini might make about going to war. On 25 August, Ciano wrote in his diary that he informed a "furiously warlike" Mussolini that the king was against Italy going to war in 1939, forcing Il Duce to concede that Italy would have to declare neutrality. Unlike in Germany where officers from 1934 onward took an oath of personal loyalty to Hitler, officers of
36600-469: Was considered one of the constituent realms of the Empire. Beginning in the 12th century, states such as the Republic of Venice and the Papal States captured more and more territory from the Kingdom of Italy, and the Empire's territory on the Peninsula shrunk over time. After Charles V , the emperors stopped being crowned with the Iron Crown of Lombardy and the Italian title fell into disuse. Imperial control in Italy receded to Trent and South Tyrol until
36800-499: Was considering dismissing Mussolini as Ciano wrote in his diary: "the King feels that it may become necessary for him to intervene at any moment to give things a different direction; he is prepared to do this and to do it quickly". Victor Emmanuel hoped that a vote against Italy entering the war would be registered in the Fascist Grand Council, as he knew that the gerarchi Cesare Maria De Vecchi , Italo Balbo and Emilio De Bono were all anti-war, but he refused to insist upon calling
37000-447: Was content to let Mussolini rule Italy as he regarded Il Duce as a "strong man" who saved him the trouble from meeting various politicians as he had done before 1922. Victor Emmanuel was anti-clerical, being greatly embittered by the refusal of the Catholic Church to recognize Rome as the capital of Italy, but he realized that as long as the Catholic Church remained opposed to the Italian state, that many Italians would continue to regard
37200-421: Was elected and, on 17 March 1861, Victor Emmanuel II was proclaimed king of Italy . From 1861 to 1946, Italy was a constitutional monarchy founded on the Albertine Statute , named after the king who promulgated it in 1848, Charles Albert of Sardinia . The parliament included a Senate , whose members were appointed by the king, and a Chamber of Deputies , elected by census vote. In 1861 only 2% of Italians had
37400-410: Was formed on 29 March 1927 in Paris, the " Concentrazione Antifascista Italiana ", which brought together the Italian Republican Party , the Italian Socialist Party , the Socialist Unitary Party of Italian Workers , the Italian League for Human Rights and the foreign representation of the Italian General Confederation of Labour . Some movements remained outside, including the Italian Communist Party ,
37600-399: Was intent on seeing the Danzig crisis escalate into war that year. Between 11 and 13 August 1939, the Italian Foreign Minister, Count Galeazzo Ciano , visited Hitler at the Berghof, and learned for the first time that Germany was definitely going to invade Poland later that same summer. Mussolini at first was prepared to follow Germany into war in 1939, but was blocked by Victor Emmanuel. At
37800-403: Was killed especially shocked Italian public opinion, who were much offended by the gratuitous cruelty of the squadristi killers. Given the widespread public revulsion against Mussolini generated by the murder of Matteotti, the king could have dismissed Mussolini in 1924 with a minimum of trouble and broad public support. Orlando told the king that the majority of the Italian people were tired of
38000-435: Was less compromised than his father in Mussolini's rise to power and in coexistence with the fascist forces. It is also possible that the command of the allied forces present on Italian territory encouraged the sovereign to abdicate in favor of his son. The former king immediately left Italy for Alexandria in Egypt . Umberto II confirmed his promise to respect the popular decision regarding the referendum. The representatives of
38200-480: Was no Italian monarch claiming the overarching title. The Risorgimento successfully established the House of Savoy dynasty over the whole peninsula and, uniting the kingdoms of Sardinia and the Two Sicilies , it formed the modern Kingdom of Italy . The monarchy was superseded by the Italian Republic , after a constitutional referendum was held on 2 June 1946, after World War II . The Italian monarchy formally ended on 12 June of that year and Umberto II left
38400-420: Was not held in the Julian March , in the province of Zara or the province of Bolzano , which were still under occupation by Allied forces pending a final settlement of the status of the territories. The distribution of votes is as follows: At first glance, the referendum seemed to simply divide Italy in two, between North and South, but the situation was more complex. For example, the districts located to
38600-450: Was one of the few officers of the Regio Esercito who kept his distance from the Fascist regime, he was unacceptable to Victor Emmanuel who wanted an officer who was committed to upholding Fascism, which led him to choose Badoglio who had loyally served Mussolini and committed all sorts of atrocities in Ethiopia, but who had a grudge against Il Duce for making him the scapegoat for the failed invasion of Greece in 1940. In addition, Badoglio
38800-508: Was plain King, Coffee was a common thing. When an Emperor he was made, Coffee's odour it did fade. Since he got Albania's throne, Even the odour has flown. And if we have another victory We're also going to lose our chicory . By early 1943, Mussolini was so psychologically shattered by the successive Italian defeats that he was so depressed and drugged out as to be almost catatonic at times, staring blankly into space for hours while high on various drugs and mumbling incoherently that
39000-417: Was rejected by some major powers, such as the United States and the Soviet Union , but was accepted by Great Britain and France in 1938. In 1943, Italy's possession of Ethiopia came to an end. The term of the last acting Viceroy of Italian East Africa , including Eritrea and Italian Somaliland , ended on 27 November 1941 with surrender to the allies. In November 1943 Victor Emmanuel renounced his claims to
39200-583: Was seen by the king as offensive and a clear sign that the ultimate goal of the fascist was to get rid of him. As popular as Victor Emmanuel was, several of his decisions proved fatal to the monarchy. Among these decisions was his assumption of the crowns of Ethiopia and Albania and his public silence when Mussolini's Fascist government issued German-style racial purity laws . Prior to his government's invasion of Ethiopia, Victor Emmanuel travelled in 1934 to Italian Somaliland , where he celebrated his 65th birthday on 11 November. In 1936, Victor Emmanuel assumed
39400-420: Was short of stature even by 19th-century standards, to the point that today he would appear diminutive. From birth until his accession, Victor Emmanuel was known as " The Prince of Naples ". On 24 October 1896, he married Princess Elena of Montenegro . On 29 July 1900, at the age of 30, Victor Emmanuel acceded to the throne upon his father's assassination. The only advice that his father Umberto ever gave his heir
39600-481: Was thus recognized, after the vain attempts made in 1881 and 1907 by women of the various parties. The Bonomi governments ( II then III ) were succeeded by the Parri government in June 1945, then by the First De Gasperi government in December 1945. The question of the future form of the state, monarchy or republic, absorbed the minds of political circles. The majority of Christian Democratic activists, especially young people, increasingly distanced themselves from
39800-437: Was very surprised when he learned about 9 am on 28 October that the king had refused to sign it. When Facta protested that the king was overruling the entire cabinet, he was told that this was the royal prerogative and the king did not wish to use force against the Fascists. The only politician Victor Emmanuel consulted during the crisis was Antonio Salandra , who advised him to appoint Mussolini prime minister and stated he
40000-453: Was willing to serve in a cabinet headed by Mussolini. By midday on 30 October, Mussolini had been appointed President of the Council of Ministers (Prime Minister), at the age of 39, with no previous experience of office, and with only 32 Fascist deputies in the Chamber . Though the King claimed in his memoirs that it was the fear of a civil war that motivated his actions, it would seem that he received some 'alternative' advice, possibly from
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