Biography
Umberto was born in 1904 at Racconigi Castle, the only son of King Victor Emmanuel III, and was heir to the throne from birth as Prince of Piedmont. He received a strictly military education, married Princess Marie Jose of Belgium in 1930, and survived an assassination attempt in Brussels in 1929.
He was given high army commands, including the army group that attacked France in June 1940, but had little real authority under Mussolini and his father; he was made a Marshal of Italy in 1942. Italian defeats in 1942 turned him against the war, and he tacitly supported Mussolini's removal in 1943.
After the liberation of Rome in June 1944 his discredited father handed him his powers, and Umberto governed as Lieutenant General of the Realm. Victor Emmanuel abdicated in his favour on 9 May 1946, shortly before the institutional referendum. When voters chose a republic in June, Umberto left Italy after a reign of about a month, earning the nickname 'May King'.
Barred from returning, he lived in exile at Cascais in Portugal for the rest of his life and died in Geneva in 1983.
Offices held
Family
Umberto II of Italy
