Umberto I
Umberto I of Savoy (Turin, 14 March 1844 – Monza, 29 July 1900) was the second king of Italy, reigning from 1878 until his assassination at the hands of the anarchist Gaetano Bresci. Son of Vittorio Emanuele II and Maria Adelaide of Austria, grandson of Carlo Alberto[1], and a prince of the House of Savoy, he was born and raised in Turin when the city was still the capital of the Sardinian kingdom. His reign coincided with the Triple Alliance, colonial expansion, and the authoritarian turn of the century's end[2].
A prince raised for arms
He grew up with largely absent parents; he was five when his grandfather abdicated, on 24 March 1849, and in 1855 he lost his mother, grandmother and uncle the Duke of Genoa within a few months[1]. His education was chiefly military, entrusted to General Giuseppe Rossi, with tutors such as Carlo Boncompagni and Pasquale Stanislao Mancini[2]. The Dizionario Biografico degli Italiani describes him as little inclined to study and reluctant to write, recognizable for his large moustache and very short hair, cut in the so-called «umberta» style; he spoke very little, and his low, hoarse voice made him seem perpetually angry[1].
In 1866, during the Third Italian War of Independence, he commanded the 16th Division and was awarded the gold medal for his conduct at Custoza[2]. He remained attached to that world for the rest of his life: according to an anecdote reported by Il Post, he once told his son that to be king «all you need is to know how to sign your name, read the newspaper, and ride a horse»[3].
The wedding at Palazzo Reale
In April 1868 he married his cousin Margherita, born in Turin on 20 November 1851, the eldest daughter of Ferdinando, Duke of Genoa. The marriage contract was signed on 21 April in the ballroom of the Palazzo Reale in Turin; the civil and religious ceremonies followed the next day[4]. The couple soon left the city, however: they settled in Naples, where the heir Vittorio Emanuele was born on 11 November 1869, and from January 1871 in Rome[4][1]. The marriage quickly became little more than a public alliance: according to Margherita's biography, after just two years the princess had withdrawn from her role as wife[4].
King of Italy, not «Umberto IV»
On his father's death in January 1878, he ascended the throne and on 17 January swore his oath before the assembled Houses of Parliament[1]. He chose to be called Umberto I rather than Umberto IV, as Savoy numbering would have dictated, to emphasize the now national character of the dynasty[2]. It was he who decided that Vittorio Emanuele II should be buried in Rome rather than Turin[1]: the two kings of Italy and Queen Margherita rest in the Pantheon, while some twenty members of the dynasty are buried in the Basilica di Superga[5].
In governing the country he held a more authoritarian view of royal prerogatives than his father had; he backed the Triple Alliance with Austria and Germany, signed on 20 May 1882, and the colonial policy, up to the defeat at Adwa on 1 March 1896[1][2]. He tried to make the monarchy popular by traveling through the regions and rushing to areas struck by epidemics and disasters[2]. During the 1884 cholera outbreak in Naples he left military exercises in Friuli to reach the stricken city, with words that became famous:
«In Pordenone there is celebration, in Naples people are dying. Let us go to Naples»
The quote is recorded in the Dizionario Biografico degli Italiani[1].
The 1884 Exposition at the Valentino
That same year Turin hosted the Esposizione Generale Italiana, organized by the Società promotrice dell'industria nazionale under the king's patronage. Open from 26 April to 16 November 1884 at Parco del Valentino, it covered about 440,000 square meters, with 14,237 exhibitors and around three million visitors[6]. On 27 April Umberto and Margherita inaugurated the Borgo Medievale, built for the exhibition, purchased by the City at its close and absorbed into the Musei Civici in 1942[7].
Attacks and the turn of the century
His reign was marked by three assassination attempts. On 17 November 1878 in Naples, Giovanni Passannante tried to strike him with a dagger; on 22 April 1897 it was Pietro Acciarito's turn, who was later sentenced to life imprisonment[1]. After the severe economic crisis of 1888-1893, the monarchy supported the authoritarian turn that followed[2]. In May 1898 the Milan riots against the high price of bread were suppressed by General Fiorenzo Bava Beccaris, leaving about a hundred dead[3], and the king awarded the general the cross of grand officer of the Military Order of Savoy[1]. Opening the 21st legislature in June 1900, he reaffirmed that it was his duty to defend the institutions «from any danger that might threaten them»[1].
Monza, 29 July 1900
On the evening of 29 July 1900, as he was leaving a gymnastics competition of the «Forti e liberi» society in Monza, Bresci, who had returned from the United States, fired several revolver shots at him from close range while he sat in his open carriage[8][1]. At his trial he stated that he had formed his resolve after the events in Milan, seeing «the perpetrators of the May massacres rewarded instead of hanged»[8]. The Stefani news agency's statement reported that the assassin had acted «in hatred of the institution the King represents»[3]. Sentenced to life imprisonment by the Milan assize court on 29 August, Bresci was found dead in the prison of Santo Stefano on 22 May 1901, officially by suicide[8][1]. Since 1910 the Cappella espiatoria has stood in Monza on the site of the attack[3].
Legacy
Judgments of the king remained divided: alongside the image of the sovereign who rushed to the cholera victims of Naples, the historian Gaetano Salvemini wrote in 1947 that Umberto «played the tyrant in the classical sense of the word»[3]. He was succeeded by his son Vittorio Emanuele III[3], father of Umberto II, the last king of Italy.
Pages linking here
- Abbey of Novalesa
- Emilio Salgari
- House of Savoy
- International Exposition of Industry and Labor (1911)
- Monte Rosa
- Orbassano
- Order of the Saints Maurice and Lazarus
- Parco del Valentino
- Royal Library of Turin
- Shroud of Turin
- Stadio Filadelfia
- The Po in Turin
- Umberto II
- Victor Emmanuel II
Related articles: Basilica di Superga, Carlo Alberto, Monte Rosa, Parco del Valentino, Umberto II, Vittorio Amedeo II