[December 28] Victor Emmanuel III, king of Italy

Local Name: Vittorio Emanuele
Parents: Umberto I, king of Italy, and Margherita of Savoy
Date of Birth: 11 November 1869
House: Savoy
Spouse(s): Elena, daughter of Nikola I, king of Montenegro, and Milena Vukotic
Predecessor: Umberto II
Reign: 1900 – 1946
Brief: Italy's fourth king since the peninsula's unification in the 1860s, Victor Emmanuel III was arguably one of the weakest rulers. Small in stature (barely 5 feet), he overcompensated by directly involving himself in the constitutional monarchy over which he ruled. Between 1900 and 1922, he intervened in ten separate parliamentary crises. Although at first against joining World War I, in 1915 he personally brought Italy into the Triple Entente with France, Britain, and Russia. The Italians remained staunchly against the war, but didn't hold a grudge against the king since he often visited the front lines in the north with his wife, endearing the people to the royal family. After the war, Benito Mussolini staged a march on Rome, quickly becoming prime minister and leader of the government. By 1926, Mussolini was in charge of all branches of government and pressing his fascist agenda, while Victor Emmanuel remained silent. He remained popular to the masses even though he sided with the fascists, but when he assumed the crowns of Ethiopia and Albania in the late 1930s, his popularity plummeted. In 1940, Mussolini dragged Italy into World War II, and as Italy quickly lost battles, so too did Victor Emmanuel lose supporters. Three years later, Mussolini was removed from office and Italy publicly joined the Allies. The Germans swarmed into Italian conquered territories and northern Italy, forcing the king to flee south. By 1944, Victor Emmanuel had passed much of his power to his son, Umberto. Finally, in 1946, the king abdicated in the hope that the Italian monarchy would survive if he were not leading the country. It failed. Umberto II ruled for less than a month and then the family was forced into exile to Egypt. Victor Emmanuel III died in 1947 in Alexandria and was buried there.

Date of Death: 28 December 1947

Successor: Umberto II

Other Monarchs Who Died Today:

• Theonas, patriarch of Alexandria (300)
• Yoshiakira, shogun of Japan (1367)
• Clement VIII, antipope of Rome (1446)
• Piero, patriarch of Florence (1503) -
• Mary II, queen of England & Scotland (1694)
• Mustafa II, sultan of the Ottoman Empire (1703)

[October 16] Victor Amadeus III, king of Sardinia

Parents: Charles Emmanuel III, king of Sardinia, and Polyxena of Hesse-Rotenburg
Born: 26 June 1726
House: Savoy
Spouse(s): Maria Antonietta, daughter of Felipe V, king of Spain, and Elisabeth Farnese
Predecessor: Charles Emmanuel III

Reign: 1773 – 1796
Brief: Victor Amadeus was raised in the manner of a military general, though he surrounded himself with intellectuals. He was not overly public and he was highly religious, but his people loved him since he was kind and generous. As king of Sardinia, he maintained a conservative government that focused on strengthening the bureaucracy and reorganizing the military. When the French Revolution broke out, his two son-in-laws, the count of Artois and the count of Provence, to settle in Sardinia as a means to protect them. At the Battle of Montenotte, and then the battles of Millesimo and Mondovi—all in 1796—Sardinia lost most of its continental possessions, which were declared the Republic of Alba. Victor Amadeus was forced to become a French vassal, abandoning the First Coalition, and had to cede Nice and Savoy to France via the Treaty of Paris. He died a few months later with the knowledge that his ancestral lands in Savoy were under French occupation and his country was in economic ruin.

Date of Death: 16 October 1796
Successor: Charles Emmanuel IV

Other Monarchs Who Died Today:

• Nicholas V, antipope of Rome (1333)
• Louis, king of Sicily (1355)
• Gregory XIV, pope of Rome (1591)

[August 30] Emmanuel Philibert, duke of Savoy

Surnamed: "Ironhead" (Testa di ferro)
Date of Birth: 8 July 1528
Parents: Charles III, duke of Savoy, and Beatrice of Portugal
House: Savoy

Spouse(s): Margaret, daughter of François I, king of France, and Claude, duchess of Brittany

Predecessor: Charles III

Reign: 1553 – 1580

Summary: The fate of the Savoy dynasty often fell into the hands of only childs. Such was the case of Emmanuel Philibert, the only child of Charles III to reach adulthood. Because of his family ties with the House of Habsburg through his mother, Emmanuel joined the army of Holy Roman Emperor Charles V when still young against the armies of François I of France. At the age of 25, he captured the city of Hesdin for the emperor. His father died a month later and Emmanuel Philibert rose to the dukedom. Unfortunately, Savoy had few hereditary lands remaining as France had been occupying Piedmont since 1536. Emmanuel remained in imperial service in the hope that the emperor would help him regain his captured lands.

From 1555 to 1559, Emmanuel Philibert lived in the Netherlands, serving as regent for King Philip II following Charles V's death. He marched on France ahead of an army of Spanish soldiers in 1557 and won a victory at Saint-Quentin. During this time, he attempted to marry Elizabeth Tudor, the future queen, but was rebuffed since he possessed little land and money. When peace finally occurred between France and Spain in 1559 at Caateau Cambrésis, Emmanuel Philibert regained his lost lands and married a daughter of the king of France, Margaret. Upon the death of King Henrique I in Portugal in 1580, Emmanuel Philibert returned to the spotlight, this time as a royal claimant to the Portuguese throne. However, the claim of Philip II of Spain was stronger and the military forces he was able to muster made Emmanuel's attempt feeble at best. Over the last twenty years of his reign, Emmanuel worked to regain and reassert his authority in his lost lands, eventually taking Turin back as his capital. He died in 1580 and was buried in the Chapel of the Holy Shroud within Turin Cathedral. His only child, Charles Emmanuel, succeeded him.

Date of Death: 30 August 1580
Successor: Charles Emmanuel I

Other Monarchs Who Died Today:

• Theodoric I, king of the Ostrogoths (526)
• Sancho III, king of Castile (1158)
• Khutughtu Khan, emperor of China (1329)
• Shoko, emperor of Japan (1428)
• Louis XI, king of France (1483)
• Shimazu Yoshihiro, daimyo in Japan (1619)

[June 12] Charles Emmanuel II, duke of Savoy

Parents: Victor Amadeus I, duke of Savoy, and Christine of France

Date of Birth: 20 June 1634

House: Savoy

Spouse: (1) François Medeleine, daughter of Gaston, duke of Orléans and Marquerite of Lorraine, then (2) Marie Jeanne, daughter of Charles Amadeus, duke of Savoy, and Élisabeth of Bourbon

Predecessor: Francis Hyacinth

Reign: 1638 – 1675

Summary: Born in Turin to the prominent northern Italian Savoy dynasty,  Charles Emmanuel was as much French as Italian. His mother and his paternal grandmother were both French, as was his second wife, Marie Jeanne. Charles Emmanuel became duke at the very young age of four, so his mother governed the state for him until he reached maturity and continued as his chief advisor.

Charles Emmanuel has little credit to his name but he was the inspiration for English poetry...angry poetry directed at his persecution and massacre of the Vaudois (Waldensians), a Protestant group which had taken hold in Savoy. John Milton wrote his On the Late Massacre in Piedmont concerning Charles Emmanuel's massacre, while Lord Protector Oliver Cromwell threatened naval action against Savoy if the duke did not stop. The Puritans of England secretly funded the Protestants in Savoy throughout this era.  When his mother died in 1663, Charles Emmanuel finally left his pleasure rooms and became the duke he always should have been. He tried to gain sea access through Genoa in 1672 resulting in a short war which he lost. In France, despite his connections, the Sun King's court was not overly amused at his problems in Italy. He did eventually gain a seaport with help from France at Nice, and he also built a road through the Swiss Alps to France. He centralized the army, dispersing former mercenary bands and replacing them with a standing army, and he enlarged the state's cavalry strength. The Palazzo Reale in Turin was constructed by him during a short beautification campaign. Charles Emmanuel died in 1675 after which time his wife ruled as regent for five years for their young son, Victor Amadeus II, who would become the first Savoyard king of Sardinia.

Date of Death: 12 June 1675

Successor: Victor Amadeus II

Other Monarch Deaths:

Leo III, pope of Rome (816)
Æthelflæd, queen of the Mercians (918)
Egwale Seyon, emperor of Ethiopia (1818)