Marquis A marquess (; french: marquis ), es, marqués, pt, marquês. is a nobleman of high hereditary rank in various European peerages and in those of some of their former colonies. The German language equivalent is Markgraf (margrave). A woman wi ...

Falcone Lucifero (

Crotone Crotone (, ; nap, label= Crotonese, Cutrone or ) is a city and ''comune'' in Calabria, Italy. Founded as the Achaean colony of Kroton ( grc, Κρότων or ; la, Crotona) in Magna Graecia, it was known as Cotrone from the Middle Ages until ...

, 3 January 1898 –

Rome , established_title = Founded , established_date = 753 BC , founder = King Romulus (legendary) , image_map = Map of comune of Rome (metropolitan city of Capital Rome, region Lazio, Italy).svg , map_caption ...

, 2 May 1997) was an Italian politician, who served as Minister of Agriculture and Forests of the

Kingdom of Italy The Kingdom of Italy ( it, Regno d'Italia) was a state that existed from 1861, when Victor Emmanuel II of Kingdom of Sardinia, Sardinia was proclamation of the Kingdom of Italy, proclaimed King of Italy, until 1946, when civil discontent led to ...

in the

Badoglio I Cabinet The Badoglio I government of Italy held office from 25 July 1943 until 24 April 1944, a total of 273 days, or 9 months and 3 days. Government parties The government was composed by the following parties: Composition References {{Governmen ...

, and Minister of the Royal House from 1944 to 1946. After the abolition of the monarchy in Italy he remained in the country as

Umberto II en, Albert Nicholas Thomas John Maria of Savoy , house = Savoy , father = Victor Emmanuel III of Italy , mother = Princess Elena of Montenegro , birth_date = , birth_place = Racconigi, Piedmont, Kingdom of Italy , dea ...

’s official representative.

Biography

The son of Armando Lucifero and cousin of

Roberto Lucifero d'Aprigliano Roberto Lucifero d'Aprigliano (16 December 1903 - 11 January 1993) was a lawyer who became an anti fascist partisan. As the war ended he turned to politics and journalism. In 1947/48 he briefly (and divisively) served as national secretary of ...

, he was born into a noble family. At the end of the

First World War World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...

, in which he participated as an officer, he graduated in law in

Turin Turin ( , Piedmontese language, Piedmontese: ; it, Torino ) is a city and an important business and cultural centre in Northern Italy. It is the capital city of Piedmont and of the Metropolitan City of Turin, and was the first Italian capital ...

. In 1920 he was elected to the municipal council of

, his hometown; in the same year he joined the Unitary Socialist Party, which however he left after two years to join the

National Fascist Party The National Fascist Party ( it, Partito Nazionale Fascista, PNF) was a political party in Italy, created by Benito Mussolini as the political expression of Italian Fascism and as a reorganization of the previous Italian Fasces of Combat. The ...

. However, after the establishment of the

Fascist regime Fascism is a far-right, authoritarian, ultra-nationalist political ideology and movement,: "extreme militaristic nationalism, contempt for electoral democracy and political and cultural liberalism, a belief in natural social hierarchy an ...

he retired from political life, practicing the profession of

lawyer A lawyer is a person who practices law. The role of a lawyer varies greatly across different legal jurisdictions. A lawyer can be classified as an advocate, attorney, barrister, canon lawyer, civil law notary, counsel, counselor, solic ...

. Following the fall of the regime, on 25 July 1943, the first Badoglio government appointed him

prefect Prefect (from the Latin ''praefectus'', substantive adjectival form of ''praeficere'': "put in front", meaning in charge) is a magisterial title of varying definition, but essentially refers to the leader of an administrative area. A prefect's ...

of Catanzaro and then of

Bari Bari ( , ; nap, label= Barese, Bare ; lat, Barium) is the capital city of the Metropolitan City of Bari and of the Apulia region, on the Adriatic Sea, southern Italy. It is the second most important economic centre of mainland Southern Italy a ...

, and from 11 February to 22 April 1944 he served as Minister of Agriculture in the same government, replacing Alessandro Brizi. On 4 June 1944 Umberto of Savoy, Lieutenant-General of the Realm, appointed him as Minister of the Royal House, replacing Pietro d'Acquarone. During the following two years Lucifero was thus the main liaison between the royal family and the government; after the end of the war, he organized the campaign in favor of the monarchy in the run-up to the institutional referendum of 2 June 1946. After the defeat of the monarchy in the referendum, from 2 to 13 June 1946 he managed the delicate transitional phase, and on 13 June, following the attribution by the Council of Ministers of the powers of provisional

head of state A head of state (or chief of state) is the public persona who officially embodies a state Foakes, pp. 110–11 " he head of statebeing an embodiment of the State itself or representatitve of its international persona." in its unity and l ...

to the head of government Alcide De Gasperi, he drafted the text of the last proclamation of King Umberto II. After the King's departure for

exile Exile is primarily penal expulsion from one's native country, and secondarily expatriation or prolonged absence from one's homeland under either the compulsion of circumstance or the rigors of some high purpose. Usually persons and peoples suf ...

Portugal Portugal, officially the Portuguese Republic ( pt, República Portuguesa, links=yes ), is a country whose mainland is located on the Iberian Peninsula of Southwestern Europe, and whose territory also includes the Atlantic archipelagos of ...

, he remained his only official representative in Italy. In this capacity he represented the former king on the occasion of the funerals of the victims of the

Vajont disaster The Vajont Dam (or Vaiont Dam) is a disused dam in northern Italy. It is one of the tallest dams in the world, with a height of . It is in the valley of the Vajont River under Monte Toc, in the municipality of Erto e Casso, north of Venice. ...

and of those of the Years of Lead, as well as at those of Popes

Pius XII Pius ( , ) Latin for "pious", is a masculine given name. Its feminine form is Pia. It may refer to: People Popes * Pope Pius (disambiguation) * Antipope Pius XIII (1918-2009), who led the breakaway True Catholic Church sect Given name * Pius B ...

John XXIII Pope John XXIII ( la, Ioannes XXIII; it, Giovanni XXIII; born Angelo Giuseppe Roncalli, ; 25 November 18813 June 1963) was head of the Catholic Church and sovereign of the Vatican City State from 28 October 1958 until his death in June 19 ...

Paul VI Pope Paul VI ( la, Paulus VI; it, Paolo VI; born Giovanni Battista Enrico Antonio Maria Montini, ; 26 September 18976 August 1978) was head of the Catholic Church and sovereign of the Vatican City, Vatican City State from 21 June 1963 to his ...

and

John Paul I Pope John Paul I ( la, Ioannes Paulus I}; it, Giovanni Paolo I; born Albino Luciani ; 17 October 1912 – 28 September 1978) was head of the Catholic Church and sovereign of the Vatican City from 26 August 1978 to his death 33 days later. Hi ...

and at the enthronement ceremonies of their successors. He also dealt with the charitable activity of Umberto II and his contacts with the political world. In 1948 he was offered the post of

senator for life A senator for life is a member of the senate or equivalent upper chamber of a legislature who has life tenure. , six Italian senators out of 206, two out of the 41 Burundian senators, one Congolese senator out of 109, and all members of the Bri ...

by President Luigi Einaudi, but declined the offer. On 4 September 1969, on the occasion of his sixty-fifth birthday, Umberto II appointed him a Knight of the Supreme Order of the Most Holy Annunciation; the only case in nearly forty years, along with that of Vittorio Cini, of granting the highest honor of the House of Savoy to a personality who was neither a head of state nor a member of a royal dynasty. On 18 March 1983, after the death of Umberto, he was ousted from his role by the son of the former king, Vittorio Emanuele of Savoy. During his final years he published essays, biographies, literary and theatrical works, collaborated with newspapers and periodicals, and remained a staunch monarchist to the end, always claiming that the 1946 referendum was invalid, in interviews given as late as 1996. He died in Rome in 1997, and as dictated in his last will, he was buried in the monumental cemetery of Crotone, to whose municipal library, named after his father Armando Lucifero, he had donated his voluminous private correspondence in 1996. His diaries from 1944 to 1946 were published in 2002 with the title ''L'ultimo re'' (''The Last King'').

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Lucifero, Falcone 1898 births 1997 deaths National Fascist Party politicians Italian monarchists Government ministers of Italy Italian military personnel of World War I it:Falcone Lucifero fr:Falcone Lucifero