VITTORIO EMANUELE III, KING OF ITALY. — Born in Naples on 11 November 1869, died in Alexandria, Egypt, on 28 December 1947. The only son of Umberto I and Margherita di Savoia, at birth he received the title of Prince of Naples.
Rigidly educated under the guidance of Col. Osio, he alternated his studies with travels and the duties of the military commands successively entrusted to him. On 24 October 1896 he married Princess Elena Petrovic-Njegos of Montenegro, by whom he had five children: Jolanda, Mafalda, Umberto, Giovanna, and Maria. Following the assassination of Umberto I (29 July 1900), V. E. ascended the throne at the age of thirty-one and, while observing the Constitution with absolute and scrupulous respect, pursued a personal direction in Italian politics. Assisted by Giolitti, the statesman in whom he placed his greatest confidence, he encouraged at home the most enlightened social initiatives for the benefit of the working classes and the country’s economic development, as well as the reintegration of Catholic forces into national life. In the sphere of international relations, while maintaining Italy’s adherence to the Triple Alliance, he promoted a rapprochement with the powers of the Triple Entente (France, England, and Russia), so as to be able to negotiate with Paris, London, and Petersburg their consent to the Italian occupation of Libya (1911–12). When the First World War broke out, V. E, outside and above Parliament, took up the Nation’s demand in favor of intervention against the Central Empires: once hostilities had begun (24 May 1915), he was the « Soldier King », who, far from assuming the role of strategist, identified his functions as supreme commander with a continuous presence at the fighting front, in direct contact with the troops. It was, moreover, his personal merit that he appointed Gen. Diaz to replace Cadorna after Caporetto and convinced the Allies (the Peschiera conference, 7 November 1917) that it was possible to defend the Piave line, guaranteeing that the Italian army would continue to fight. He thus became the « Victorious King », with the glory of having restored the nation’s natural frontiers. During the turbulent postwar period he knew how to keep the Crown above partisan struggles; but when, for reasons that would be too lengthy to analyze, a constitutional solution to the crisis into which the nation had fallen proved unavailable, he accepted the accomplished fact of the Fascist insurrection and entrusted the government to Benito Mussolini (October 1922): the vote of confidence given by the Chambers to the new ministry brought the « March on Rome » back, at least formally, within legality. It was precisely his respect for the constitutional organs, even though they had been altered and transformed by the regime through juridical devices of a merely formal nature, that prevented V. E. from opposing the rise and consolidation of Mussolini’s dictatorship, which he personally abhorred, as numerous testimonies show: hence the accusation of « compromise » with Fascism that the regime’s opponents later directed against him. The King who in 1929 witnessed, without fully understanding the moral and political significance of the great event, the resolution of the Roman Question through the Lateran Agreements, who after the campaign of 1935–36 assumed the title of Emperor of Ethiopia and in 1939 that of King of Albania, was progressively stripped of authority by the « duce », who appeared to enjoy national support (« diarchy »), and failed to prevent Italy’s entry into the Second World War. Yet, as soon as Mussolini was placed in a minority even by a typically dictatorial body such as the Grand Council of Fascism, V. E. revoked his presidential mandate and replaced him with Marshal Badoglio (25 July 1943). The course of the war led to the armistice of 8 September, after which the sovereign transferred himself to southern Italy, the only means of ensuring the continuity of the legitimate government. Subjected to attacks from public opinion, which demanded his immediate abdication, V. E. was virtually forced by the Allies to transfer his powers to the Crown Prince (10 April 1944), but obtained permission for this transfer to take effect upon the liberation of Rome (4 June). From that date V. life, deciding to abdicate on 9 May 1946 in order to facilitate Umberto II’s exercise of power on the eve of the institutional « referendum », and the following day he departed into exile in Egypt.
The passions are still too intense to permit a serene judgment of V. E.’s political personality from 1922 onward, whereas history has judged the first twenty years of his reign favorably. He must also be credited with outstanding individual virtues, pronounced family affections, and clear scholarly abilities, realized in the publication of the Corpus Nummorum Italicorum. The widespread opinion concerning his « anticlericalism » must likewise be modified, at least in part. Although he had received a rigorously « secular » education, V. E. gradually arrived at faith through personal maturation: he was then sufficiently observant, wished his children to be religiously educated, showed respect for worship and its ministers, and, as he was dying, asked for the supreme consolations, which he received with devotion.