Victor Emmanuel III of Italy Victor Emmanuel III ( Italian : " Vittorio Emanuele III " ; 11 November 1869 – 28 December 1947 ) was a member of the House of Savoy and King of Italy ( 29 July 1900 – 9 May 1946 ) . In addition , he claimed the thrones of Ethiopia and Albania as Emperor of Ethiopia ( 1936 – 41 ) and King of the Albanians ( 1939 – 43 ) , which were unrecognised by the Great Powers . During his long reign ( 46 years ) , which began after the assassination of his father Umberto I , the Kingdom of Italy became involved in two World Wars . His reign also encompassed the birth , rise , and fall of Italian Fascism . Victor Emmanuel abdicated his throne in 1946 to his son Umberto II , hoping to strengthen the support for the monarchy against an ultimately successful referendum to abolish it . He then fled to Alexandria , Egypt , where he died and was buried the following year . He was nicknamed by the Italians as " Re soldato " ( Soldier King ) and " Re vittorioso " ( Victorious King ) after Italy was victorious in the First World War . He was also called " Re tappo " ( Bottle - top King ) due to his 1 . 53m height . Biography . Early years . Victor Emmanuel was born in Naples , Italy . He was the only child of Umberto I , King of Italy , and his consort ( first cousin by his grandfather Charles Albert of Sardinia ) , Princess Margherita of Savoy . Margherita was the daughter of the duke of Genoa . Unlike his paternal first cousin ' s son , the 1 . 98 m ( 6 - foot 6 " ) tall Amedeo , 3rd Duke of Aosta , Victor Emmanuel was short of stature even by 19th - century standards , to the point that today he would appear diminutive . He was just 1 . 53 m tall ( just over 5 feet ) . From birth , Victor Emmanuel was known by the title of Prince of Naples . On 24 October 1896 , Prince Victor Emmanuel married Princess Elena of Montenegro . Accession to the throne . On 29 July 1900 , at the age of 30 , Victor Emmanuel ascended the throne upon his father ' s assassination . The only advice that his father Umberto ever gave his heir was " " Remember : to be a king , all you need to know is how to sign your name , read a newspaper , and mount a horse " " . His early years showed evidence that , by the standards of the Savoy monarchy , he was a man committed to constitutional government . Indeed , even though his father was killed by an anarchist , the new King showed a commitment to constitutional freedoms . Though parliamentary rule had been firmly established in Italy , the Statuto Albertino , or constitution , granted the king considerable residual powers . For instance , he had the right to appoint the Prime Minister even if the individual in question did not command majority support in the Chamber of Deputies . A shy and somewhat withdrawn individual , the King hated the day - to - day stresses of Italian politics , though the country ' s chronic political instability forced him to intervene no fewer than ten times between 1900 and 1922 to solve parliamentary crises . When World War I began , Italy remained neutral at first , despite being part of the Triple Alliance ( albeit it was signed on defensive terms and Italy objected that the Sarajevo assassination did not qualify as aggression ) . However , in 1915 , Italy signed several secret treaties committing to enter the war on the side of the Triple Entente . Most of the people opposed war , however , and the Italian Chamber of Deputies forced Prime Minister Antonio Salandra to resign . Victor Emmanuel , however , declined Salandra ' s resignation and personally made the decision for Italy to enter the war . He was well within his rights to do so under the " Statuto , " popular opposition to the war notwithstanding . However , the corrupt and disorganised war effort , the stunning loss of life suffered by the Italian army , especially at the great defeat of Caporetto , and the Post – World War I recession that followed the war turned the King against what he perceived as an inefficient political bourgeoisie . Nevertheless , the King visited the various areas of northern Italy suffering repeated strikes and mortar hits from elements of the fighting there , where he demonstrated considerable courage and care in personally visiting many people , with his wife the queen taking turns with nurses in caring for Italy ' s wounded . It was at this time , the period of World War I , that the King enjoyed genuine affection from the majority of his people . Support to Mussolini . The economic depression which followed World War I gave rise to much extremism among the sorely tried working classes of Italy . This caused the country as a whole to become politically unstable . Benito Mussolini , soon to be Italy ' s Fascist dictator , took advantage of this instability for his rise to power . March on Rome . In 1922 , Mussolini led a force of his Fascist supporters on a March on Rome . Prime Minister Luigi Facta and his cabinet drafted a decree of martial law . After some hesitation the King refused to sign it , citing doubts about the ability of the Army to contain the uprising . Fascist violence had been growing in intensity throughout the summer and autumn of 1922 , climaxing with the rumours of a possible coup . General Pietro Badoglio told the King that the military would be able to rout the rebels , who numbered no more than 10 , 000 men , without any difficulty . The troops were loyal to the King . Even Cesare Maria De Vecchi , commander of the Blackshirts , and one of the organisers of the March on Rome , told Mussolini that he would not act against the wishes of the monarch . It was at this point that the Fascist leader considered leaving Italy altogether . But then , in the minute before midnight , he received a telegram from the King inviting him to Rome . By midday on 30 October , he had been appointed Prime Minister , at the age of 39 , with no previous experience of office , and with only 35 Fascist deputies in the Chamber . The King failed to move against the Mussolini regime ' s abuses of power ( including , as early as 1924 , the assassination of Giacomo Matteotti and other opposition MPs ) and remained silent during the winter of 1925 – 26 when Mussolini dropped all pretense of democracy . Later that year , Mussolini passed a law declaring that he was responsible to the King , not Parliament . Although under the Statuto Albertino Italian governments " were " responsible only to the monarch , it had been a strong constitutional convention since at least the 1860s that they were actually responsible to Parliament . By 1928 , practically the only check on Mussolini ' s power was the King ' s right to dismiss him from office — though that right could only be exercised on the advice of the Fascist Grand Council , a body that could only be convened by Mussolini . Though the King claimed in his memoirs that it was the fear of a civil war that motivated his actions , it would seem that he received some ' alternative ' advice , possibly from the archconservative Salandra as well as General Armando Diaz , that it would be better to do a deal with Mussolini . Whatever the circumstances , Victor Emmanuel showed weakness in a position of strength , with dire future consequences for Italy and for the monarchy itself . Fascism offered opposition to left - wing radicalism . This appealed to many people in Italy at the time , and certainly to the King . In many ways , the events from 1922 to 1943 demonstrated that the monarchy and the moneyed class , for different reasons , felt Mussolini and his regime offered an option that , after years of political chaos , was more appealing than what they perceived as the alternative : socialism and anarchism . Both the spectre of the Russian Revolution and the tragedies of World War I played large roles in these political decisions . At the same time , though , the crown became so closely identified with Fascism that by the time Victor Emmanuel was able to shake himself loose from it , it was too late to save the monarchy . Lateran Treaty . In 1929 , Mussolini , on behalf of the king , signed the Lateran Treaty . The treaty was one of the three agreements made that year between the Kingdom of Italy and the Holy See . On 7 June 1929 , the Lateran Treaty was ratified and the " Roman Question " was settled . Loss of popular support . The Italian monarchy enjoyed popular support for decades . Foreigners noted how even as late as the 1940s newsreel images of King Victor Emmanuel and Queen Elena , born Princess Elena of Montenegro , evoked applause , sometimes cheering , when played in cinemas , in contrast to the hostile silence shown toward images of Fascist leaders . On 30 March 1938 , the Italian Parliament established the rank of First Marshal of the Empire for Victor Emmanuel and Mussolini . This new rank was the highest rank in the Italian military . As popular as Victor Emmanuel was , several of his decisions proved fatal to the monarchy . Among these decisions were his assumption of the crown of Ethiopia , his public silence when Mussolini ' s Fascist government issued its notorious racial purity laws , and his assumption of the crown of Albania . Emperor of Ethiopia . In 1936 , Victor Emmanuel assumed the crown of the Emperor of Ethiopia . His decision to do this was not universally accepted . Victor Emmanuel was only able to assume the crown after the Italian Royal Army invaded Ethiopia ( Abyssinia ) and had overthrown Emperor Haile Selassie during the Second Italo - Abyssinian War . The League of Nations decried Italy ' s participation in this war and the Italian claim on Ethiopia ' s conquest was disputed by some members of the international community ( namely the United States and the Soviet Union ) but accepted by Great Britain and France in 1938 . It was undone in 1941 by the Ethiopian restoration after five years of Italian Empire . The term of the last acting Italian Viceroy of East Africa , including Eritrea and Somalia , ended 27 November 1941 upon surrender to the allies . King Victor Emmanuel III renounced his claimed titles of Emperor of Ethiopia and King of Albania in November 1943 , recognizing the previous holders of those titles as legitimate . King of the Albanians . In 1939 , Victor Emmanuel assumed the crown of the King of the Albanians . Italian forces invaded the nearly defenseless monarchy across the Adriatic Sea and caused King Zog I to flee . The Italian invasion of Albania was generally seen as the act of a stronger nation taking unfair advantage of a weaker neighbour . In 1941 , while in Tirana , the monarch escaped an assassination attempt by the 19 - year - old Albanian patriot Vasil Laçi . Later , the author ' s act was considered by Communist Albania to be a sign of the overall discontent of the oppressed Albanian population . A second attempt by Dimitri Mikhaliov in Albania led the Italians to cast heavy doubts on the event by pointing to a possible Greek link following the monarch ' s green light to the Greco - Italian War . Final efforts to save crown . On 10 June 1940 , ignoring advice that the country was unprepared for war , Mussolini made the fatal decision to have Italy enter World War II on the side of Nazi Germany . Almost from the beginning , disaster followed disaster . In 1940 Italian armies in North Africa and in Greece suffered humiliating defeats . In late 1941 , Italian East Africa was lost . In 1942 , Italian Libya was lost . Early in 1943 , the ten divisions of the " Italian Army in Russia " ( " Armata Italiana in Russia " , or ARMIR ) were crushed as an aside to the Battle of Stalingrad . Before the end of 1943 , the last Italian forces in Tunisia had surrendered and Sicily had been taken by the Allies . Confronted by a lack of fuel as well as several serious defeats , the Royal Navy ( " Regia Marina " ) spent most of the war confined to port as a fleet in being . The Mediterranean Sea was hardly " Italy ' s Sea " ( " Mare Nostrum " ) . The Royal Air Force ( " Regia Aeronautica " ) , while generally doing better than the Army and the Navy , was chronically short of modern aircraft and even it was politely uninvited to participate in the Battle of Britain . As Italy ' s fortunes worsened , the popularity of the King suffered . One coffee - house ditty went as follows : On 19 July 1943 , Rome was bombed for the first time in the war , further cementing the Italian people ' s disillusionment with their once - popular King . Coup d ' état against Mussolini . On the night of 25 July 1943 , the Grand Council of Fascism voted ( 19 against 6 ) an " Ordine del Giorno " ( actually , a motion of no confidence in Mussolini ) proposed by Count Dino Grandi to ask Victor Emmanuel to resume his full constitutional powers — in effect according to the Article 5 of the Statuto albertino . The same afternoon , Mussolini asked the king to be received at Villa Savoia . When Mussolini tried to tell Victor Emmanuel about the Grand Council ' s vote , Victor Emmanuel abruptly cut him off and told him that he was dismissing him as Prime Minister in favour of Marshal Pietro Badoglio . He then ordered Mussolini arrested and renounced the usurped Ethiopian and Albanian crowns in favor of the legitimate monarchs of those states . Victor Emmanuel had been planning to get rid of the dictator himself for some time . Publicly , Victor Emmanuel and Badoglio claimed that Italy would continue the war as a member of the Axis . Privately , they both began negotiating with the Allies for an armistice . Court circles had already been putting out feelers to the Allies before Mussolini ' s ousting . Armistice with the Allies . On 8 September 1943 , Victor Emmanuel publicly announced an armistice with the Allies without first notifying the armed forces . Confusion reigned as Italian troops were left without orders , and the Germans , who had been expecting this move for some time , quickly disarmed and interned Italian forces and took control in the occupied Balkans , France and the Dodecanese , as well as in Italy itself . Many of those units that did not surrender joined forces with the Allies against the Germans . Fearing a German advance on Rome , Victor Emmanuel and his government fled south to Brindisi . This choice may have been necessary to protect his safety ; indeed , Hitler had planned to arrest him shortly after Mussolini ' s overthrow . Nonetheless , it still came as a surprise to many observers inside and outside Italy . They drew contrasts to King George VI and Queen Elizabeth , who refused to leave London during the Blitz , and of Pope Pius XII , who mixed with Rome ' s crowds and prayed with them after the working class Roman neighborhood of Quartiere San Lorenzo was bombed and destroyed . Ultimately , the Badoglio government in southern Italy raised the Italian Co - Belligerent Army ( " Esercito Cobelligerante del Sud " ) , the Italian Co - Belligerent Air Force ( " Aviazione Cobelligerante Italiana " ) , and the Italian Co - Belligerent Navy ( " Marina Cobelligerante del Sud " ) . All three forces were loyal to the King . On 12 September , the Germans launched Operation Eiche and rescued Mussolini from captivity . In a short time , he established a new Fascist state in northern Italy . Mussolini ' s Italian Social Republic ( " Repubblica Sociale Italiana " ) was never more than a German - dominated puppet state , but it did compete for the allegiance of the Italian people with Badoglio ' s government in the south . Realizing that he was too tainted by his earlier support of the Fascist regime , Victor Emmanuel transferred most of his powers to his son , Crown Prince Umberto , in April 1944 . By doing this , Victor Emmanuel relinquished most of his power while retaining the royal title . This status was formalized shortly after Rome was liberated on 4 June , when he turned over his remaining powers to Umberto and named him Lieutenant General of the Realm . 1946 plebiscite . Within a year , public opinion forced a plebiscite on whether to retain the monarchy or become a republic . On 9 May 1946 , in hopes of influencing the vote , Victor Emmanuel formally abdicated , succeeded by his son Umberto II . It did not work . In the referendum held a month later , 54 percent of the voters favoured a republic . The Kingdom of Italy was no more . Umberto had been widely praised for his performance as " de facto " head of state since 1944 . Some present - day historians have speculated that , had Victor Emmanuel abdicated in favour of Umberto shortly after the Allied invasion of Sicily in 1943 , Umberto ' s relative popularity might have saved the monarchy . All male members of the House of Savoy were required to leave the country , never to return . Taking refuge in Egypt , Victor Emmanuel died in Alexandria in 1947 and was buried there , behind the altar of St Catherine ' s Cathedral . In 1948 , " Time " magazine included an article about " The Little King " . Legacy . At worst , his abdication prior to the referendum reminded undecided voters of the role the monarchy and the King ' s own actions ( or inactions ) had played during the Fascist period , at precisely the moment when monarchists were hoping that voters would focus on the positive impression created by Umberto and his wife , Princess Maria José over the past two years . The ' May ' King and Queen , Umberto and Maria José , in their brief , month - long reign , were unable to shift the burden of recent history and opinion . VIctor Emmanuel was one of the most prolific coin collectors of all time , having amassed approximately 100 , 000 specimens dating from the fall of the Roman Empire up to the Italian Unification . His collection was donated to the Italian people on his abdication , except for the coins of the House of Savoy which he took with him to Egypt . On the death of Umberto II in 1983 , the Savoy coins joined the rest of the collection in the National Museum of Rome . Between 1910 and 1943 Victor Emmanuel wrote the 20 - volume " Corpus Nummorum Italicorum , " which catalogued each specimen in his collection . Titles of the Crown of Italy . From 1860 to 1946 , the following titles were used by the King of Italy : Victor Emmanuel III , by the Grace of God and the Will of the Nation , King of Italy , King of Sardinia , Cyprus , Jerusalem , Armenia , Duke of Savoy , count of Maurienne , Marquis ( of the Holy Roman Empire ) in Italy ; prince of Piedmont , Carignano , Oneglia , Poirino , Trino ; Prince and Perpetual vicar of the Holy Roman Empire ; prince of Carmagnola , Montmellian with Arbin and Francin , prince bailliff of the Duchy of Aosta , Prince of Chieri , Dronero , Crescentino , Riva di Chieri and Banna , Busca , Bene , Brà , Duke of Genoa , Monferrat , Aosta , Duke of Chablais , Genevois , Duke of Piacenza , Marquis of Saluzzo ( Saluces ) , Ivrea , Susa , of Maro , Oristano , Cesana , Savona , Tarantasia , Borgomanero and Cureggio , Caselle , Rivoli , Pianezza , Govone , Salussola , Racconigi with Tegerone , Migliabruna and Motturone , Cavallermaggiore , Marene , Modane and Lanslebourg , Livorno Ferraris , Santhià Agliè , Centallo and Demonte , Desana , Ghemme , Vigone , Count of Barge , Villafranca , Ginevra , Nizza , Tenda , Romont , Asti , Alessandria , del Goceano , Novara , Tortona , Bobbio , Soissons , Sant ' Antioco , Pollenzo , Roccabruna , Tricerro , Bairo , Ozegna , of Apertole , Baron of Vaud and of Faucigni , Lord of Vercelli , Pinerolo , of Lomellina , of Valle Sesia , of Ceva Marquisate , Overlord of Monaco , Roccabruna and 11 / 12th of Menton , Noble patrician of Venice , patrician of Ferrara . Family . In 1896 he married princess Elena of Montenegro ( 1873 – 1952 ) , daughter of Nicholas I , King of Montenegro . Their issue included :