Victor Emmanuel of Savoy, son of the last king of Italy, died on Saturday February 3 in Switzerland, at the age of 86. A disappearance after half a century of life in exile, punctuated by scandals and legal cases.
1 min
With our correspondent in Rome, Blandine Hugonnet
A page in Italian monarchical history is turning. He was destined to become king after his father Umberto II, but from the throne of Rome, Victor Emmanuel of Savoy will not see the color. At the age of 9, the little prince was banished like the rest of the men in his royal family, punished by the Italian Republic after World War II for having collaborated with Mussolini. It was with the dictator that his grandfather signed the racial laws of the fascist regime.
In all, the sole heir of the last Italian monarch spent more than 55 years in exile, notably in Switzerland and Corsica, before his release in 2002.
It was on the French island that his troubles with the law began, accused of having killed a young boater by accidental shooting. The drama pursued him for more than ten years. He was ultimately only convicted of carrying weapons.
Other cases also tarnished Victor Emmanuel’s reputation: arms sales in the Middle East or pimping in an Italian gambling establishment for which he was acquitted. An exiled life, marked by these scandals, his legacy, linked to fascism and a fallen dynasty, which earned the Italian prince, a member of the Freemasons, the subject of a recent documentary, broadcast on Netflix, and in which the 86-year-old head of the House of Savoy attempts to clear his name one last time.