The last king of Italy 🇮🇹

The last king of Italy was Umberto II of the House of Savoy.

Key Facts About Umberto II

• Reign: He ruled for just 34 days, from May 9, 1946, to June 12, 1946, earning him the nickname Re di maggio (the "May King").
• Accession: He took the throne after his father, King Victor Emmanuel III, abdicated in a final attempt to save the monarchy.
• End of Monarchy: On June 2, 1946, Italian citizens voted in a constitutional referendum to abolish the monarchy and establish a republic.
• Exile: Following the vote, Umberto left Italy and lived out the rest of his life in exile in Cascais, Portugal.
• Death: He died in Geneva, Switzerland, on March 18, 1983.

Umberto II (Italian: Umberto Nicola Tommaso Giovanni Maria di Savoia; 15 September 1904 – 18 March 1983) was the last King of Italy. Umberto's reign lasted for 34 days, from 9 May 1946 until his formal deposition on 12 June 1946, although he had been the de facto head of state since 1944. Due to his short reign, he was nicknamed the May King (Italian: Re di maggio).

Umberto was the third child and only son among the five children of Victor Emmanuel III and Elena of Montenegro. As heir apparent to the throne, he received a customary military education and pursued a military career afterwards. In 1940, he commanded an army group during the brief Italian invasion of France shortly before the French capitulation. In 1942, he was promoted to Marshal of Italy but was otherwise inactive as an army commander during much of World War II. Umberto turned against the war following Italian defeats at Stalingrad and El Alamein, and tacitly supported the ousting of Benito Mussolini.

In 1944, Victor Emmanuel, compromised by his association with Italian fascism and desperate to repair the monarchy's image, transferred most of his powers to Umberto. He transferred his remaining powers to Umberto later in 1944 and named him Lieutenant General (Luogotenente) of the Realm; while retaining the title of King. As the country prepared for the 1946 Italian institutional referendum on the continuation of the Italian monarchy, Victor Emmanuel abdicated his throne in favour of Umberto, aspiring to bolster the monarchy with his exit. The June 1946 referendum saw voters voting to abolish the monarchy, and Italy was declared a republic days later. Umberto departed the country; he and other male members of the House of Savoy were barred from returning. He lived out the rest of his life in exile in Cascais, on the Portuguese Riviera. He died in Geneva, Switzerland in 1983.

Umberto was born at the Castle of Racconigi in Piedmont. He was the third child and the only son of King Victor Emmanuel III of Italy and his wife, Jelena of Montenegro. As such, he was heir apparent from birth since the Italian throne was limited to male descendants. He was accorded the title Prince of Piedmont, which the Royal Decree formalised on 29 September 1904.

During the crisis of May 1915, when Victor Emmanuel III decided to break the terms of the Triple Alliance by declaring war on the Austro-Hungarian Empire, he found himself in a quandary as the Italian Parliament was against declaring war; several times, the king discussed abdication, with the throne to pass to the 2nd Duke of Aosta instead of Umberto. The British historian Denis Mack Smith wrote that it is not entirely clear why Victor Emmanuel was prepared to sacrifice his 10-year-old son's right to succeed to the throne in favour of the Duke of Aosta.

Umberto 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 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 was given the formal military education of a Savoyard prince and like the other Savoyard princes before him, Umberto received an education that was notably short on politics; Savoyard monarchs customarily excluded politics from their heirs' education with the expectation that they would learn about the art of politics when they inherited the throne.

Umberto was the first cousin of King Alexander I of Yugoslavia. In a 1959 interview, Umberto told the Italian newspaper La Settimana Incom Illustrata that in 1922 his father had felt that appointing Benito Mussolini as prime minister was a "justifiable risk".

Umberto II lived for 37 years in exile, in Cascais, on the Portuguese Riviera; 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 returning to Italian soil. Female members of the Savoy family were not barred, except former queens consort.

Together with their four children, Umberto and Marie José took part in the ship tour organized by Queen Frederica and her husband King Paul of Greece in 1954, which became known as the "Cruise of the Kings" and was attended by over 100 royals from all over Europe. Since the ship tour began in Naples, the family could only board in Corfu, Greece, as they were not allowed to set foot on Italian soil. On this trip their daughter Princess Maria Pia met her future husband Prince Alexander of Yugoslavia.

Relations between Umberto and Marie José grew more strained during their exile, and their marriage broke up, with Marie José moving to Switzerland. At the same time, Umberto remained in Portugal, though, as devout Catholics, the couple did not divorce.

Umberto II died on 18 March 1983 in Geneva, Switzerland and was interred in Hautecombe Abbey, France, which for centuries was the burial place of the members of the House of Savoy.