Italian Monarch. Born Vittorio Emanuele Ferdinando Maria Gennaro as the firstborn son of Umberto I, he was the penultimate king of Italy (1900-1946). He received a very rigorous education, peculiar to the House of Savoy, which contributed greatly to the formation of his permissive character and a physical inferiority complex due to his low height. His youth studies were mainly oriented to military life at the Nunziatella School of Naples as per the dynastic tradition; however, he later extended his cultural interests to History, Geography and Numismatics, becoming an authentic authority in these disciplines, and to the fluent learning of various foreign languages. After this period of training, for paternal assignment, he assumed the command of the 1st Infantry Regiment "King" which he maintained until 1895. His multiple interests and desire to emerge made him rather unwilling to marry; however, after various intrigues and betrothal attempts organized by the various European courts, Vittorio Emanuele happily married Elena, princess of Montenegro (1896) thanks to the auspices of common knowledge and ties of kinship with the Russian emperor Nicholas II. In fact, Elena and her sister Milicza studied in St. Petersburg at the Smolny Aristocratic Women's Institute and were accredited by the Romanovs. In 1900, following the death by assassination of his father, he ascended the throne of Italy and immediately assumed a firm management of state affairs and foreign policy. Even being a constitutional sovereign, he did not hesitate for the national interest to firmly urge the government to take a more careful legislative care. During those years (1900-1922) his foreign policy took a direction closer to Russia, France and England despite strong national opposition closer to the Austro-Germanic powers. This approach became evident at the outbreak of the First World War with the exit from the Triple Entente (1915). After the end of the conflict Italy embarked on a path of opening to the left favored by himself; however, after a series of economic and government crises fueled by uprisings, he resigned himself to appointing Benito Mussolini as Prime Minister (1922, October). In the years following 1925, Italy's expansionist policy earned him the title of Emperor with the wars in Ethiopia (1936) and the occupation of Albania (1939). The catastrophic events following Italy's accession to the Steel Pact with Nazi Germany and Japan and participation in the Second World War left a permanent shadow on his political credibility. In July 1943 he expelled Mussolini from his post and in the following September he charged the General Staff to sign the armistice with the allied powers, leaving Rome, with his escapet into free territory, at the mercy of the Germans. After the end of the conflict, Vittorio Emanuele III, pressured by public opinion and by the general discontent resulting from his succubus attitude towards fascism, after a temporary legacy of lieutenancy to his son Umberto (1944), abdicated in favor of this (1946) and he retired into exile with his wife in Alexandria in Egypt where he died of pulmonary congestion. His remains rest since 2017 in the Vicoforte Sanctuary.

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