Victor Emmanuel of Savoy, the son of the last king of Italy, Umberto II, died this morning, at the age of 86, at his home in Geneva, as announced by the office of the self-styled Royal House of Savoy. The claimant to the non-existent Italian throne died early this morning in the Swiss city after a life marked by exile and notorious scandals, such as the episode involving the murder of the German Dirk Hamer on the island of Cavallo in 1978; or the fight in the Zarzuela Palace with another claimant to the non-existent Italian throne, his cousin Amadeo of Aosta, during the wedding of the then princes of Asturias Felipe de Borbón and Letizia Ortiz, an incident that cornered him from the rest of the European royal houses. .
Victor Emmanuel of Savoy was born in Naples on February 12, 1937, son of Maria José of Belgium and Umberto II, known as “the May King” because he only reigned for 33 days in 1946, after Victor Emmanuel III abdicated after the disaster that the Second World War meant for Italy. His father had intended to abdicate and name him king, but the result of the popular referendum that turned Italy into a Republic ended his dream of ascending the throne.
The Republican Constitution stipulated that the male descendants of the Savoy family had to go into exile, without being able to set foot in the country. His reputation was greatly damaged by the connivance of his grandfather, King Victor Emmanuel III, with the fascist regime of Benito Mussolini. The family then settled between Portugal, Switzerland, France and Corsica, until they were able to return to the homeland of their ancestors when the Italian Parliament, in 2002, abolished the measure that forced them into exile after they swore allegiance to the Republic. and distanced themselves for the first time from fascist racial laws.
Victor Emmanuel of Savoy hoped that his return to Italy would arouse enormous monarchical clamor, but this was not the case. Various episodes ended up convincing the Italians that they had chosen well in the plebiscite by getting rid of this family. The first was the investigation into the death of Dirk Hamer in 1978, a German boy who was sleeping with a boat among his friends next to an island in Corsica and ended up wounded by a gunshot after Víctor Manuel took his rifle and would start shooting.
Once he returned to Italy, in June 2006, Victor Manuel was arrested for alleged corruption, forgery and exploitation of prostitutes in the Campione d’Italia casino, an Italian enclave in Switzerland. Two years earlier, invited to the wedding of the princes of Asturias, he slapped his cousin and rival, Amadeo of Aosta, in the face. The fight caused enormous discomfort in Juan Carlos I, who threw them both out of the Zarzuela, shouting “Never again.”
But even so, Victor Emmanuel of Savoy never ceased his efforts to claim what he considered his rights: in 2007 he asked the Italian State for compensation of 260 million euros for the exile and the restitution of assets confiscated in 1948, something that It irritated the Italians. And in 2022, instead, the family sued Italy to claim the royal family’s jewels kept in a vault at the Bank of Italy for almost 80 years.
Regarding his personal life, Víctor Manuel married, despite his father’s opposition, the ski champion Marina Doria, with a civil ceremony in Las Vegas in 1970 and another religious ceremony in Tehran the following year. From this marriage, his son Manuel Filiberto de Savoy was born, who has never stopped providing gossip either. He has participated in television contests such as the national versions of Look Who’s Dancing or The Island of the Famous, he has dedicated himself to appearing in advertisements for luxury goods, he has tried to enter politics and even started a business selling pasta on the street in USA under the name of one of his titles, “Prince of Venice”.
