Marie-José of Belgium

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Marie José of Belgium
Queen consort of Italy
Princess Marie Jose of Belgium, at the age of nine
Tenure	9 May 1946 – 12 June 1946
Spouse	Umberto II
Issue
Maria Pia, Vittorio Emanuele, Maria Gabriella, Maria Beatrice
House	House of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha House of Savoy
Father	Albert I of Belgium
Mother	Elisabeth of Bavaria
Born	4 August 1906(1906-08-04) Ostend, Belgium
Died	27 January 2001 (aged 94) Thonex, Switzerland

Princess Marie José of Belgium (Marie José Charlotte Sophie Louisa Amélie Henriette Olga Gabrielle) (4 August 1906 – 27 January 2001), was the last Queen of Italy. Her thirty-five day reign as queen consort earned her the affectionate nickname the May Queen.

Princess Marie José was born in Ostend, Belgium, the youngest child and only daughter of Albert I, King of the Belgians and his consort, Duchess Elisabeth in Bavaria. At birth, she held the title of Princess of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha until its use was discontinued at the end of the First World War. She was named for her maternal grandmother, Infanta Maria José of Portugal.

In October 1939, Princess Marie-José was made President of the Red Cross in Italy. The Princess and Duchess of Aosta attended the ceremony where Marie-José was installed as President of the Italian Red Cross.

[edit] Marriage to the Prince of Piedmont

On 8 January 1930, she married in Rome Prince Umberto, at that time the Crown Prince of Italy from the House of Savoy, and so became The Princess of Piedmont (in Italian: Principessa di Piemonte). They had four children:

1. Princess Maria Pia Louise of Bourbon-Parma 1934-
2. Vittorio Emanuele Josef, Prince of Naples 1937-
3. Princess Maria Gabriella Elisabeth of Savoy 1940-
4. Princess Maria Beatrice Caroline of Savoy 1943-

The marriage was not happy, as Marie-José would confess in an interview many years later: "On n'a jamais été heureux" (We were never happy). At the time her parents had steered for the marriage with the crown prince of Italy, there was no other single descendant of a reigning Catholic dynasty, with a prospect to the throne available in Europe. The couple subsequently separated after the abolition of the Italian monarchy.

[edit] Contacts with the Allies during World War II

During the Second World War she was one of the very few diplomatic channels between the German/Italian camp and the other European countries involved in the war, as she was the sister of Leopold III of Belgium (kept hostage by the German forces), and at the same time close to some of the ministers of Benito Mussolini's cabinet. A British diplomat in Rome recorded that the Princess of Piedmont was the only member of the Italian Royal Family with good political judgment.

She sympathized with the partisans, and while she was a refugee in Switzerland, smuggled weapons, money and food for them. She was even proposed to be appointed as chief of a partisan brigade, but declined.

[edit] Queen for a month

Following Italy's defection to the Allied side in the War, her discredited father-in-law, King Victor Emmanuel III withdrew from government. Her husband became acting monarch under the title of Lieutenant General of the Realm. He and Marie José toured wartorn Italy, where they made a positive impression. It has been speculated that had Victor Emmmanuel abdicated, allowing her husband to become king in 1943, the monarchical cause would have won the later referendum on the issue of republic or monarchy. However he refused to abdicate, doing so only weeks before the referendum, in a misjudgment that cost his son his throne.

Following the eventual belated abdication Marie-José became Queen consort of Italy, reigning from 9 May 1946, until the monarchy was abolished by plebiscite, 2 June 1946. Following the monarchy's narrow defeat (54%-46%, far narrower than she had expected. She had feared that it might get as little as 10% support) she and her husband left the country for exile on 13 June 1946.

[edit] Marie José and Umberto separate

Monza, September 1930. Princess Maria José of Belgium steps down from Borzacchini's Alfa Romeo car with the help of Prospero Gianferrari.

In exile, the family gathered for a brief time in Portugal, but she and Umberto decided to separate. She and their four children soon left for Switzerland where she lived most of the time for the rest of her life, while Umberto remained in Portugal. However the couple never divorced, partly for political reasons; Umberto lived in hope (albeit declining over the years), of returning to the throne and a divorce was thought potentially damaging to a Catholic king. Both were also religiously devout (unusual for Italian royals where there was a strong history of anti-clericalism).

[edit] Death aged 94

For some time, she lived in Mexico with her daughter, Princess Marie-Beatrice, and her grandchildren.^[1] Marie-José returned to Italy only after her husband had died in 1983. Marie-José died in a Geneva clinic of lung cancer at the age of 94, surviving her two brothers and some of her nieces and nephews. Marie José's death was instrumental in influencing the Italian government to amend its constitution and allow male members of the House of Savoy to visit Italy.^{[citation needed]}

Like her mother, Queen Elisabeth, she inspired a musical contest: the Queen Marie José international musical composition prize, a bi-annual contest held in Switzerland since 2000.

[edit] Ancestry

[edit] See also

• Academia Belgica

[edit] References

[edit] External links

• Royal House of Belgium
• Royal House of Italy
• Genealogy:
  • Genealogy of the Royal Family of Belgium (House Saxe-Coburg-Gotha)
  • Genealogy of the Royal Family of Italy (House of Savoy) - contains information about Marie-José's children and grandchildren.
• "The May Queen" from eurohistory.com
• Website of the "Queen Marie José international musical composition prize"
• short biography in February 2001 issue of "La Rondine"
• Italy's last queen dies BBC report