Vittorio Emanuele of Savoy, son of Italy’s last king, has died – Technologist

“At 7:05 this morning, on February 3, 2024, His Royal Highness Vittorio Emanuele, Duke of Savoy and Prince of Naples, passed away peacefully in Geneva, surrounded by his family.” It was with this sober statement that the House of Savoy announced, on Saturday, the death of Victor-Emmanuel, a few days before his 87^th birthday.

Born in Naples on February 12, 1937, he was just 9 years old when he went into exile after the Italians chose the Republic in a referendum on June 2, 1946. Nicknamed “the King of May” because he reigned for just over a month, his father, Umberto II, had intended to abdicate in favor of Vittorio Emanuele, but was unable to do so.

The nascent Republic loathed this royal family, the symbol of more than 20 years of compromise with fascism. Many did not forgive Vittorio Emanuele III (1869-1947), king from 1900 to 1946, for having accommodated the rise of Benito Mussolini, and in particular for having signed the racial laws of 1938. Post-fascist Italy turned its back on the House of Savoy. The new Italian Constitution, which came into force on January 1, 1948, prohibited “the former kings of the House of Savoy, their wives and their male descendants from entering and residing on national territory.”

After a short stay in Portugal, Vittorio Emanuele spent most of his exile in Switzerland. The prince was bored and his youth was spent gambling. A lover of speed, he nearly killed himself at the wheel of his Ferrari and spent several periods in hospital. In the summer, he could be found at posh parties in Saint-Tropez or in winter at Crans-Montana, in the Swiss canton of Valais.

It was in this chic Swiss resort in 1957 that he met Marina Doria, a former world champion water skier and daughter of a Swiss food industrialist. His father opposed their union, as Doria was not of noble descent, but in 1969 Vittorio Emanuele came up with a stratagem: He signed a decree proclaiming himself king and creating a bespoke title of duchess for Doria. Their civil marriage took place in Las Vegas in 1970, with a religious wedding a year later in Tehran, in the presence of the Shah and Princess Pahlavi, with whom he had developed a close friendship.

A troubled reunion

The summer of 1978 marked a turning point in the life of the exiled prince. While vacationing at his Cavallo estate in Corsica, Vittorio Emanuele found himself the protagonist of a brawl: An Italian yachtsman had borrowed the dinghy moored to his yacht. Furious, the prince tried to scare him off with a rifle. Not far away, a 19-year-old German, Dirk Geerd Hamer, was hit by a stray bullet. He died a few weeks later. The scandal made the front pages of the international press. This was the start of a long legal process, which ended in 1991, before the Paris Court of Appeal. The Prince was acquitted of homicide but convicted of weapons offenses.

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