The Little King

Who was Victor Emmanuel III of Savoy? An analysis of the life of the future king of Italy, from his unhappy childhood to his marriage to Elena of Montenegro, to the early years of the 20th century.

Victor Emmanuel III ascended the throne in 1900, marking a different way of reigning from his father Umberto I: a reign as peaceful as it was unwanted. A king with a strong solitary vocation, he nevertheless unilaterally led the country into the First World War on the side of the Entente.

Victory in the Great War did not strengthen the reign of Victor Emmanuel III, and a growing opposition formed on the right. Mussolini took advantage of this with his March on Rome, initially opposed and then at the last moment authorised by the king. Fascism and monarchy nevertheless seemed to get along fine throughout the 1920s.

An insight into Marie-José of Belgium, last queen of Italy, and her difficult relations with the House of Savoy. She was a point of reference for many anti-fascists during the regime and during the war.

Throughout the 1930s, Victor Emmanuel III and the monarchy became more and more marginalised in relation to Mussolini's power until the outbreak of the Second World War. Then the military defeats, the armistice and the flight to the South. Finally, the abdication in 1946.