58 Facts About Umberto II

Umberto II reigned for 34 days, from 9 May 1946 to 12 June 1946, although he had been de facto head of state since 1944 and was nicknamed the May King .

Umberto II was the only son among the five children of King Victor Emmanuel III and Queen Elena.

However, the referendum passed, Italy was declared a republic, and Umberto II lived out the rest of his life in exile in Cascais, on the Portuguese Riviera.

Umberto II was born at the Castle of Racconigi in Piedmont.

Umberto II was the third child, and the only son, of King Victor Emmanuel III of Italy and his wife, Jelena of Montenegro.

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Umberto II was given the standard military education of a Savoyard prince.

Umberto II was brought up in an authoritarian and militaristic household and was expected to "show an exaggerated deference to his father"; both in private and public, Umberto II always had to get down on his knees and kiss his father's hand before being allowed to speak, even as an adult, and he was expected to stand to attention and salute whenever his father entered a room.

Umberto II was the first cousin of King Alexander I of Yugoslavia.

However, a major rebellion broke out on 5 July 1924, when Umberto II had already departed from Europe, imposing a change in the Royal tour.

Umberto II was educated for a military career and in time became the commander-in-chief of the Northern Armies, and then the Southern ones.

Umberto II's trial was a major political event, and although he was found guilty of attempted murder, he was given a light sentence of five years in prison.

In 1928, after the colonial authorities in Italian Somaliland built Mogadishu Cathedral, Umberto II made his first publicised visit to Mogadishu, the territory's capital.

Umberto II made his second publicised visit to Italian Somaliland in October 1934.

Umberto II was married in Rome on 8 January 1930 to Princess Marie Jose of Belgium, the beautiful and glamorous daughter of King Albert I of the Belgians and his wife, Queen Elisabeth .

Umberto II made an exception when Adolf Hitler asked for a meeting.

In 1935, Umberto II supported the war against the Ethiopian Empire, which he called a "legitimate war" that even Giovanni Giolitti would have supported had he still been alive.

Umberto II wanted to serve in the Ethiopian war, but was prevented from doing so by his father, who did however allow four royal dukes to serve in East Africa.

Umberto II conformed to his father's expectations and behaved like an army officer; the prince always obediently got down on his knees to kiss his father's hand before speaking.

However, Umberto II privately resented what he regarded as a deeply humiliating relationship with his cold and emotionally distant father.

Umberto II shared his father's fears that Mussolini's policy of alliance with Nazi Germany was reckless and dangerous, but he made no serious move to oppose Italy becoming one of the Axis powers.

When Mussolini decided to enter the Second World War in June 1940, Umberto II hinted to his father that he should use the royal veto to block the Italian declarations of war on Britain and France, but was ignored.

At the beginning of the war, Umberto II commanded Army Group West, made up of the First, Fourth and the Seventh Army, which attacked French forces during the Italian invasion of France.

Umberto II was appointed to this position by his father, who wanted the expected Italian victory to be a victory for the House of Savoy, as the King feared Mussolini's ambitions.

In June 1941, supported by his father, Umberto II strongly lobbied to be given command of the Italian expeditionary force sent to the Soviet Union, saying that, as a Catholic, he fully supported Operation Barbarossa and wanted to do battle with the "godless communists".

In late 1942, Umberto II had his cousin, the 4th Duke of Aosta, visit Switzerland to contact the British consulate in Geneva, where he passed on a message to London that the King was willing to sign an armistice with the Allies in exchange for a promise that he be allowed to keep his throne.

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Umberto II was seen as supportive of these efforts to depose Mussolini, but as Ciano complained in his diary, the prince was far too passive, refusing to make a move or even state his views unless his father expressed his approval first.

Just before the invasion of Sicily, Umberto II had gone on an inspection tour of the Italian forces in Sicily and reported to his father that the Italians had no hope of holding Sicily.

On 16 July 1943, the visiting Papal Assistant Secretary of State told the American diplomats in Madrid that King Victor Emmanuel III and Prince Umberto II were now hated by the Italian people even more than Mussolini.

The King bitterly told Lieutenant-General Sir Noel Mason-MacFarlane that Umberto II was unqualified to rule, and that handing power over to him was equivalent to letting the Communists come to power.

The Catholic Church was in favour of Umberto II, who, unlike his father, was a sincere Catholic who it was believed would keep the Communists out of power.

Umberto II later stated that he would have never signed the peace treaty of 1947 under which Italy renounced its empire.

On 15 April 1944, in an interview with The Daily Express, Umberto II stated his hope that Italy would become a full Allied power, expressing his wish that the Regia Marina would fight in the Pacific against the Japanese Empire and the Regio Esercito would march alongside the other Allied armies in invading Germany.

Umberto II admitted that, in retrospect, his father had made grave mistakes as King and criticised Victor Emmanuel for a suffocating childhood, where he was never permitted to express his personality or hold views of his own.

Umberto II chooses to do this at the very moment when, having been designated lieutenant of the kingdom, he ought to be overcoming doubt and distrust as I personally hoped he would succeed in doing.

On 5 June 1944, Victor Emmanuel formally gave up his powers to Umberto II, finally recognising his son as Lieutenant General of the Realm.

Umberto II had ordered The Duke of Addis Abeba to bring in members of the Committee of National Liberation into his cabinet, after the liberation of Rome, to broaden his basis of support and ensure national unity by preventing the emergence of a rival government.

Umberto II moved into the Quirinal Palace, while at The Grand Hotel the Rome branch of the CLN met with the cabinet.

Lieutenant-General Sir Noel Mason-MacFarlane of the ACC visited the Quirinal Palace and convinced Umberto II to accept Bonomi as Prime Minister, on the grounds that the Crown needed to bring the CLN into the government, which required sacrificing The Duke of Addis Abeba.

Churchill especially disapproved of the replacement of Addis Abeba with Bonomi, complaining that, in his view, Umberto II was being used by "a group of aged and hungry politicians trying to intrigue themselves into an undue share of power".

On 25 June 1944, the Bonomi government, which like The Duke of Addis Abeba's government, ruled by Royal Decree as there was no parliament in Italy, had a Royal Decree issued in Umberto II's name promising a Constituent Assembly for Italy after the war.

Croce advised him to make a break with his father by choosing his advisers from the democratic parties, and it was due to Croce's influence that Umberto II appointed Falcone Lucifero, a socialist lawyer, as Minister of the Royal House.

Umberto II, in September 1944, vetoed an attempt by the Bonomi government to start an investigation of who was responsible for abandoning Rome in September 1943 as he feared that it would show his father was a coward.

Umberto II's interview caused some controversy as it was widely feared by the republican parties that a referendum would be rigged, especially in the south of Italy.

Umberto II spoke favourably of Togliatti as he was "clever, agreeable, and easy to discuss problems with".

In private, Umberto II said he found Togliatti "to be a very congenial companion whose intelligence he respected, but was afraid that he suited his conversation according to his company".

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The crisis ended on 12 December 1944 with Umberto II appointing a new government under Bonomi consisting of ministers from four parties, the most important of which were the Communists and the Christian Democrats.

An attempt by Umberto II to have Churchill issue a public statement in favour of the monarchy led Macmillan to warn Umberto II to try to be more politically neutral as regent.

In December 1945, Umberto II appointed a new more conservative government under Alcide De Gasperi.

Umberto II earned widespread praise for his role in the following three years, with the Italian historian Giuseppe Mammarella calling Umberto II a man "whose Fascist past was less compromising" than that of Victor Emmanuel and who, as Lieutenant General of the Realm, showed certain "progressive" tendencies.

Umberto II believed that the support from the Catholic Church would be decisive and that he would win the referendum by a narrow margin.

The republicans charged that Umberto II had done nothing to oppose Fascism, with his major interest being his "glittering social life" in the high society of Rome and Turin, and that as a general knew that Italy was unready for war in 1940, but did not warn Mussolini against entering the war.

In northern Italy, which had been ruled by the Italian Social Republic, the charges of homosexuality made against Umberto II had an impact on the voters, causing at least some conservatives to vote for the republic.

Umberto II himself had expected to win the referendum and was deeply shocked when the majority of his subjects chose a republic.

King Umberto II lived for 37 years in exile, in Cascais, on the Portuguese Riviera.

Umberto II never set foot in his native land again; the 1948 constitution of the Italian Republic not only forbade amending the constitution to restore the monarchy, but until 2002 barred all male heirs to the defunct Italian throne from ever returning to Italian soil.

At the time when Umberto II was dying, in 1983, President Sandro Pertini wanted the Italian Parliament to allow Umberto II to return to his native country.

Umberto II died in Geneva and was interred in Hautecombe Abbey, for centuries the burial place of the members of the House of Savoy.

At birth, Umberto II was granted the traditional title of Prince of Piedmont.