Vittorio Emanuele, Prince of Naples

Early life and family

Vittorio Emanuele was born 12 February 1937 in Naples to Umberto, Prince of Piedmont, who would later become the last King of Italy as Umberto II, and Princess Marie-José of Belgium. When Umberto II left Italy after the monarchy was abolished by the Italian constitutional referendum, 1946, the remaining members of the House of Savoy lived in exile, mostly in Switzerland and Portugal, though the former king Victor Emmanuel III, grandfather to Vittorio Emanuele, lived in Egypt until his death in 1947. Following the separation of the exiled ex-King and ex-Queen, Prince Vittorio Emanuele lived with his mother in an estate in Merlinge, Switzerland. Vittorio Emanuele and his family currently reside in Geneva.

After an 11-year relationship, Vittorio Emanuele married Swiss biscuit heiress and world-ranked water skier Marina Ricolfi-Doria in Tehran on 7 October 1971, at the occasion of the 2,500 year celebration of Iran's monarchy.

Vittorio Emanuele has worked as a banker and an aircraft salesman, and then an arms dealer.

Vittorio Emanuele has one son, Emanuele Filiberto, Prince of Venice, born on 22 June 1972, who has two daughters.

Grand Masterships

When King Umberto II, left Italy, he purported to take the hereditary Grand Masterships of the dynastic orders of his royal house with him. These orders were the Ordine supremo della Santissima Annunziata (Supreme Order of the Most Holy Annunciation) and the Ordine dei Santi Maurizio e Lazzaro (Order of Saints Maurice and Lazarus). Umberto II claimed to hold these until his death in 1983.

Duke of Savoy

On 7 July 2006 Vittorio Emanuele's kinsman and dynastic rival, Amedeo, 5th Duke of Aosta declared himself to be the head of the House of Savoy and Duke of Savoy, claiming that Vittorio Emanuele had lost his dynastic rights when he married without the permission of Umberto II in 1971. Amedeo has received the support of the President of the Council of the Senators of the Kingdom Aldo Alessandro Mol.

Vittorio Emanuele and his son have applied for judicial intervention to forbid Amedeo from using the title "Duke of Savoy". In February 2010, the court of Arezzo ruled that the Duke of Aosta and his son must pay damages totalling 50,000 € to their cousins and cease using the surname Savoy instead of Savoy-Aosta.

Reasons for exile

In line with certain other countries that were formerly monarchies, Italian law restricted the male line of the House of Savoy from entering Italy. This was enacted via a special constitutional "temporary disposition", in force from 1948.

Requests for return

Vittorio Emanuele lobbied the Parliament of Italy over the years in which the law prohibiting his return was in force, to be allowed to return to his homeland after 56 years in exile. In 1999, he filed a case at the European Court of Human Rights, in which the prince charged that his lengthy exile violated his human rights. In September 2001, the court decided to hold a hearing on the case at a date later to be fixed.

In order to achieve a return to his homeland, he renounced any claim to the defunct throne and to Italy's crown jewels. He publicly assured the Italian government that the nation and the crown properties, confiscated by the State in 1946, "are no longer ours", referring to the House of Savoy. "For that matter we have no claim on the Crown jewels", he said. "We have nothing in Italy and we are not asking for anything". Vittorio Emanuele also dropped his case at the European Court of Human Rights. In February 2002, Vittorio Emanuele and his son Emanuele Filiberto wrote a signed letter, published through a law firm, in which they formally expressed their loyalty to the Constitution of Italy.

Return to Italy

On 23 October 2002, the provision in the Constitution of Italy that barred male members of the former royal house from returning to Italy was repealed. As part of a deal with the government, Vittorio Emanuel signed an agreement recognizing the Republic as the valid government of the state and renouncing all claims to the defunct throne. Vittorio Emanuele was permitted to re-enter the country from 10 November 2002. On 23 December 2002, he made his first trip home in over half a century. On the one-day visit he, his wife and his son had a 20-minute audience with Pope John Paul II at the Vatican.

Upon their first visit in 2003 to Naples, where Vittorio Emanuele was born, and from where his family sailed into exile in 1946, the reception of the Savoys was mixed; most people were indifferent to them, some hostile, a few supportive. The media reported that many in Naples were not happy to see the return of the family, when hundreds of noisy demonstrators chanted negative slogans as they progressed through the city. Demonstrations were staged by two traditionally opposing factions: anti-monarchists on one hand, and supporters of the Bourbon Kings of the Two Sicilies, whose family was deposed when Italy was united in 1861 under the House of Savoy.

Unilateral declaration of Kingship (1969)

Vittorio Emanuele unilaterally declared himself King of Italy on 15 December 1969. He argued that by agreeing to submit to a referendum on his place as head of state, his father (Umberto II) had thereby abdicated. Vittorio Emanuele took this action after his father allegedly called for Amedeo, 5th Duke of Aosta to visit him in Portugal to name him his heir. Under his self-assumed powers as King of Italy, Vittorio Emanuele conferred the title of Duchess of Sant'Anna di Valdieri on his then fiancée, Marina Doria.

Dirk Hamer's death (1978–2015)

On the night of 17 August or the morning of 18 August 1978, on the island of Cavallo (which lies off the south coast of Corsica), Vittorio Emanuele discovered his yacht's rubber dinghy had been taken and attached to another nearby yacht. Arming himself with a rifle, he attempted to board the vessel. He shot at a passenger he had awakened; the shot missed the passenger but mortally wounded Dirk Hamer (the nineteen-year-old son of Ryke Geerd Hamer), a passenger sleeping on the deck of another adjacent yacht. The prince admitted civil liability for the death in a letter dated 28 August 1978. Dirk Hamer died of his wounds on 7 December 1978, and Vittorio Emanuele was arrested.

On 11 October 1989, Vittorio Emanuele was indicted on charges of inflicting lethal injury and possession of a dangerous weapon. But on 18 November 1991, after thirteen years of legal proceedings, the Paris Assize Court acquitted him of the fatal wounding and unintentional homicide charges, finding him guilty only of unauthorised possession of an M1 Garand rifle. He received a six-month suspended prison sentence.

When incarcerated in June 2006, on unconnected charges of corruption (see below, "Arrest and imprisonment"), Vittorio Emanuele was recorded admitting that "I was in the wrong, [...] but I must say I fooled them [the French judges]", leading to a call from Dirk Hamer's sister Birgit for Vittorio Emanuele to be retried in Italy for killing her brother.

Birgit Hamer undertook a long legal fight to the obtain the full video. She stated: "What for us is a confession is a boast for him: he laughs about the fact that he killed a boy." The story of the video was broken by aristocratic journalist Beatrice Borromeo, who also wrote the preface for a book on the murder Delitto senza castigo by Birgit Hamer. Vittorio Emanuele sued the newspaper for defamation, claiming the video had been manipulated. In 2015 a court judgement ruled in favor of the newspaper. On Twitter Borromeo posted: "Vincere una causa e' sempre piacevole, ma contro Vittorio Emanuele di Savoia la goduria e' doppia!" ("Winning a case is always nice, but against Victor Emmanuel of Savoy the pleasure is double"), which resulted in a spat on Twitter with his son Emanuele Filiberto.

Allegations of anti-semitism (2003)

Vittorio Emanuele also said in recent years that the anti-Semitic laws passed under Mussolini's regime were "not that terrible". Other senior members of the House of Savoy have also in the past downplayed the significance of the anti-Jewish laws signed by Vittorio Emmanuele's grandfather. "I'm not saying it was he who signed the racial laws in 1938. But, as a Savoy heir, Victor Emmanuel has never distanced himself from them," the president of the Union of Italian Jewish Communities, Amos Luzzatto, said in an interview with Il Corriere della Sera newspaper.

On 27 January 2005, in a letter published by Il Corriere della Sera, Vittorio Emanuele issued an apology to Italy's Jewish leadership asking forgiveness from the Italian Jewish community, and declaring that it was an error for the Italian Royal Family to have signed the racial laws of 1938.

Fight with Amedeo (2004)

On 21 May 2004, following a dinner held by King Juan Carlos I of Spain held at the Zarzuela Palace on the eve of the wedding of his son Felipe, Prince of Asturias, Vittorio Emanuele punched his third cousin and arch-rival Amedeo, Duke of Aosta, twice in the face, causing him to fall down the steps. Former Queen Anne-Marie of Greece caught Amedeo to prevent him further injuring himself and helped him indoors, stanching his bleeding face until first aid could be administered. Upon learning of the incident, Juan Carlos, a cousin of both men, reportedly declared that "never again" would an opportunity to abuse his hospitality be afforded to the competing pretenders.

Arrest and imprisonment (2006)

On 16 June 2006 he was arrested in Varenna and imprisoned in Potenza on charges of corruption and recruitment of prostitutes for clients of the Casinò di Campione of Campione d'Italia.

The enquiry was conducted by Italian magistrate John Woodcock, of British ancestry, famous for other VIPs' arrests.

After several days, Vittorio Emanuele was released and placed under house-arrest instead. He was released from house-arrest on 20 July 2006, but he had to stay within the borders of Italy. He was now free to leave Italy but he was still under investigation. Vittorio Emanuele di Savoia was acquitted of all charges in the years 2007 and 2010.

La Repubblica reported in 2006 that Emanuele Filiberto had distanced himself from his father.

Seeking compensation from Italy (2007)

In 2007, Vittorio Emanuele and his son Emanuele Filiberto requested formally that the state pay financial damages of 260 million euros and initiate full restitution of all properties and belongings that had been confiscated from the royal house after the abolition of the monarchy. The financial damages claim is based on having suffered moral injustice during the exile. The Italian government has rejected the request and, in response, indicated that it may seek damages for historic grievances.

National dynastic honours

National honours

Foreign honours