VITTORIO EMANUELE III, KING OF ITALY. — Born in Naples on 11 Nov. 1869, died in Alexandria, Egypt, on 28 Dec. 1947. The only son of Umberto I and Margherita of Savoy, he bore the title of Prince of Naples at birth.
Raised under the strict guidance of Col. Osio, he combined his studies with travel and the military commands successively entrusted to him. On 24 Oct. 1896 he married Princess Elena Petrovic-Njegoš of Montenegro, by whom he had five children: Jolanda, Mafalda, Umberto, Giovanna and Maria. Following the assassination of Umberto I (29 July 1900), Vittorio Emanuele III ascended the throne at the age of thirty-one and, while maintaining absolute and scrupulous respect for the Constitution, imparted a personal direction to Italian politics. Assisted by Giolitti, the statesman in whom he reposed the greatest trust, he promoted within Italy the most enlightened social experiments 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 Italy remained formally aligned with the Triple Alliance, he fostered a rapprochement with the powers of the Triple Entente (France, England and Russia), thereby securing their consent to Italy’s occupation of Libya (1911–12). With the outbreak of the First World War, Vittorio Emanuele III, acting outside and above Parliament, embraced the national demand for intervention against the Central Powers. Once hostilities began (24 May 1915), he became the “Soldier King,” not by posing as a strategist but by identifying his role as supreme commander with continuous presence at the front, in direct contact with the troops. It was, however, his personal merit to have designated General Diaz to replace Cadorna after Caporetto and to have convinced the Allies (at the conference of Peschiera, 7 Nov. 1917) that the Piave line could be held, guaranteeing that the Italian army would continue to fight. Thus he became the “Victorious King,” with the glory of having restored Italy’s natural frontiers.
In the turbulent post-war period he succeeded in keeping the crown above partisan strife, but when a constitutional resolution to the crisis engulfing the nation failed to materialise—reasons for which are too lengthy to analyse here—he accepted the fait accompli of the Fascist insurrection and entrusted the government to Benito Mussolini (Oct. 1922). The confidence voted by Parliament to the new ministry, at least formally, brought the “March on Rome” within the bounds of legality. It was precisely his respect for constitutional organs, even when these were reshaped and transformed by the regime through purely formal legal devices, that prevented Vittorio Emanuele III from opposing the rise and consolidation of Mussolini’s dictatorship, which, as numerous testimonies attest, he personally abhorred. Hence the accusation of “compromise” with Fascism later levelled against him by the regime’s opponents. The King who, in 1929, witnessed—without fully grasping its moral and political significance—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 power by the “Duce,” who seemed to enjoy national consensus.
(“dyarchy”), he 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 Fascist Grand Council, Vittorio Emanuele III revoked his mandate and replaced him with Marshal Badoglio (25 July 1943). The course of the war led to the armistice of 8 Sept., after which the sovereign transferred to southern Italy, the only means of ensuring the continuity of legitimate government. Facing public attacks demanding his immediate abdication, Vittorio Emanuele III was virtually compelled by the Allies to transfer his powers to the Prince of Piedmont (10 Apr. 1944), though he secured that this take effect upon the liberation of Rome (4 June). From that date he completely withdrew from political life, deciding to abdicate on 9 May 1946 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.
Passions remain too raw to render a calm assessment of Vittorio Emanuele III’s political role from 1922 onward, whereas history has pronounced favourably on the first two decades of his reign. To him must also be ascribed personal virtues, a pronounced family affection, clear scholarly aptitudes evidenced in the publication of the *Corpus Nummorum Italicorum*. The widespread opinion of his “anti-clericalism” must likewise be corrected, at least in part. Although he had received a rigorously “lay” upbringing, Vittorio Emanuele III arrived at personal faith through maturation: he then became a practising Catholic, insisted on the religious education of his children, showed respect for worship and its ministers, and on his deathbed sought and received the last rites with piety.