Umberto II of Italy mother Elena of Montenegro
Umberto II, full name Umberto Nicola Tommaso Giovanni Maria di Savoia (15 September 1904 – 18 March 1983), was the last King of Italy. He reigned for 24 days, from 9 May 1946 to 2 June 1946, although he had been de facto head of state since 1944 and was nicknamed the May King (Italian: Re di Maggio).
Umberto was the only son among the five children of King Victor Emmanuel III and Queen Elena. To repair the monarchy's image after the fall of Benito Mussolini's regime, Victor Emmanuel transferred his powers to Umberto in 1944 while retaining the title of king. As a referendum on the abolition of the monarchy was in preparation, Victor Emmanuel abdicated his throne in favour of Umberto in the hope that his exit might bolster the monarchy. However, the referendum passed, Italy was declared a republic, and Umberto lived out the rest of his life in exile in Cascais, on the Portuguese Riviera.Early life
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 became heir apparent upon his birth since the Italian throne was limited to male descendants. Umberto was given the formal military education of a Savoyard prince. 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. Like the other Savoyard princes before him, Umberto received a military 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. He was accorded the title Prince of Piedmont, which Royal Decree formalised on 29 September. 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".
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