Marie-José of Belgium . (Marie-José Charlotte Sophie Amélie Henriette Gabrielle; 4 August 1906 – 27 January 2001) was the last Queen of Italy. Her 34-day tenure as queen consort earned her the nickname "the May Queen" ( it, la regina di maggio, links=no).

Early life

Marie-José of Belgium aged 9 - Project Gutenberg etext 20521

Princess Marie-José was born in Ostend, the youngest child of King Albert I of the Belgians and his consort,

Duchess Elisabeth in Bavaria Duchess Elisabeth Amalie Eugenie in Bavaria (24 December 1837 – 10 September 1898) was Empress of Austria and Queen of Hungary from her marriage to Emperor Franz Joseph I on 24 April 1854 until her assassination in 1898. Elisabeth was ...

. Through her mother she was a grandniece of Empress Elisabeth of Austria and of Maria Sophie of Bavaria, last queen consort of the

Kingdom of the Two Sicilies The Kingdom of the Two Sicilies ( it, Regno delle Due Sicilie) was a kingdom in Southern Italy from 1816 to 1860. The kingdom was the largest sovereign state by population and size in Italy before Italian unification, comprising Sicily and a ...

. During the First World War, she was evacuated to England where she was a

boarding Boarding may refer to: *Boarding, used in the sense of "room and board", i.e. lodging and meals as in a: ** Boarding house **Boarding school *Boarding (horses) (also known as a livery yard, livery stable, or boarding stable), is a stable where ho ...

pupil at the Brentwood Ursuline Convent High School in Brentwood, Essex. She later attended the Santissima Annunziata Boarding School in Florence, Italy, where she first met her future husband. In 1924, Marie-José attended her first court ball. For the occasion she was given an antique pearl and diamond tiara that had originally been owned by Stéphanie de Beauharnais. During the First World War, the Princess resided mainly in Great Britain but was often escorted by the Belgian King's Messenger,

Archibald Alexander Gordon Major (United Kingdom), Major Archibald Alexander Gordon alias Major Gordon (3 September 1867 – 12 August 1949) Order of the British Empire, CBE, Royal Victorian Order, MVO, Order of Saint John (chartered 1888), KStJ, Justice of the peace, JP ...

to her parents in Belgium. In 1918, the Princess reprimanded Major Gordon when he called her rabbit Marshal Soult by the name Soult. The princess explained that if she called for "Gordon", no one would be able to understand who she meant. Still, if she addressed him as Major Gordon, everyone would understand her because everyone knew who Major Gordon was.

Marriage and children

On 8 January 1930, she married Crown Prince Umberto of Italy, from the

House of Savoy The House of Savoy ( it, Casa Savoia) was a royal dynasty that was established in 1003 in the historical Savoy region. Through gradual expansion, the family grew in power from ruling a small Alpine county north-west of Italy to absolute rule of ...

, at the Quirinal Palace in Rome, and so became Princess of Piedmont (Italian: ''Principessa di Piemonte''). Among the wedding gifts was a turquoise and diamond parure, worn by the bride at her pre-wedding reception, and a diamond bow worn as a sash decoration at state occasions. The couple had four children: * Princess Maria Pia of Savoy (24 September 1934), who married Prince Alexander of Yugoslavia on 12 February 1955 and was divorced in 1967. Four children were born during the marriage. She remarried to

Prince Michel of Bourbon-Parma Prince Michel of Bourbon-Parma (Michel Marie Xavier Waldemar Georg Robert Karl Eymar; 4 March 1926 – 7 July 2018) was a French businessman, soldier and racing car driver, who was a member of deposed sovereign ducal House of Bourbon-Parma. He was ...

in 2003. * Vittorio Emanuele, Prince of Naples (12 February 1937 — 3 February 2024), who married Marina Ricolfi Doria on 7 October 1971. They had one son. *

Princess Maria Gabriella of Savoy Princess Maria Gabriella of Savoy (Maria Gabriella Giuseppa Aldegonda Adelaide Ludovica Felicita Gennara; born 24 February 1940) is the middle daughter of Italy's last king, Umberto II of Italy, Umberto II, and Marie José of Belgium, the "May Q ...

(24 February 1940), who married Robert Zellinger de Balkany on 21 June 1969 and was divorced in November 1990. They have issue. * Princess Maria Beatrice of Savoy (2 February 1943), who married Luis Reyna-Corvallán y Dillon on 1 April 1970, and has issue.

Princess of Piedmont

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. 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 Leopold III (3 November 1901 – 25 September 1983) was King of the Belgians from 23 February 1934 until his abdication on 16 July 1951. At the outbreak of World War II, Leopold tried to maintain Belgian neutrality, but after the German invasi ...

(kept hostage by the German forces) and at the same time, as the wife of the heir to the throne, close to some of the ministers of

Benito Mussolini Benito Amilcare Andrea Mussolini (; 29 July 188328 April 1945) was an Italian politician and journalist who founded and led the National Fascist Party. He was Prime Minister of Italy from the March on Rome in 1922 until his deposition in 194 ...

'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. Mussolini's mistress, Claretta Petacci, claimed in her diary that in 1937 the then princess and wife of the heir to the throne tried and failed to seduce the dictator at a beach resort near Rome. However, Mussolini's son,

Romano Romano may refer to: Food * Pecorino Romano, a hard, salty Italian cheese * Romano cheese, an American English and Canadian English term for a class of cheeses Places Italy Municipalities in the Metropolitan City of Rome, Latium * Arcinazzo Ro ...

, claims that the princess and dictator entered into a sexual relationship. In 1943, the Crown Princess involved herself in vain attempts to arrange a separate peace treaty between Italy and the United States; her interlocutor from the Vatican was Monsignor Giovanni Battista Montini, a senior diplomat who later became Pope Paul VI. She also interceded with Adolf Hitler to ask for mercy towards the people of Belgium. Her attempts were not sponsored by the king and Umberto was not (directly, at least) involved in them. After her failure (she never met the American agents), she was sent with her children to Sarre, in the Aosta Valley, and isolated from the political life of the Royal House. She sympathised with the partisans, and while she was a refugee in Switzerland, smuggled weapons, money and food for them. She was nominated for appointment as chief of a partisan brigade, but declined.

Queen for a month

Following Italy's defection to the

Allied An alliance is a relationship among people, groups, or states that have joined together for mutual benefit or to achieve some common purpose, whether or not explicit agreement has been worked out among them. Members of an alliance are called ...

side in the war, her discredited father-in-law, King Victor Emmanuel III, withdrew from government. Her husband became regent under the title of Lieutenant General of the Realm. He and Marie-José toured war torn Italy, where they made a positive impression. However, King Victor Emmanuel III refused to abdicate until only weeks before the referendum. Upon the eventual abdication on 9 May 1946 of her father-in-law, Marie-José became Queen consort of Italy, and remained such until the monarchy was abolished by referendum on 2 June 1946, effective 12 June 1946. Umberto and Marie-José had been widely praised for their performance over the last two years, and it has been argued that had Victor Emmanuel abdicated sooner their relative popularity might have saved the monarchy. Following the monarchy's defeat (54–46%), she and her husband left the country for exile on 13 June 1946.

Exile

In exile, the family gathered for a brief time on the Portuguese Riviera, but she and Umberto separated. She and their four children soon left for

Switzerland ). Swiss law does not designate a ''capital'' as such, but the federal parliament and government are installed in Bern, while other federal institutions, such as the federal courts, are in other cities (Bellinzona, Lausanne, Luzern, Neuchâtel ...

, where she lived most of the time for the rest of her life, while Umberto remained in Portugal. However, the couple, both of whom were devout Catholics, never divorced. The republican constitution forbade the restoration of the monarchy and also barred all male members of the House of Savoy, as well as former queens consort, from returning to Italian soil.

Death

For some time, she lived in Mexico with her daughter, Princess Marie-Beatrice, and her grandchildren. Queen Marie-José returned to Italy after her husband's death in 1983. She died on 27 January 2001 in a Geneva clinic of lung cancer at the age of 94, surviving her two brothers and some of her nieces and nephews, including King Baudouin of the Belgians. The funeral was held at Hautecombe Abbey, in

Savoy Savoy (; frp, Savouè ; french: Savoie ) is a cultural-historical region in the Western Alps. Situated on the cultural boundary between Occitania and Piedmont, the area extends from Lake Geneva in the north to the Dauphiné in the south. Savo ...

in the south of France, and was attended by 2,000 mourners. Among them were King Albert II of the Belgians,

King Juan Carlos I of Spain Juan Carlos I (;, * ca, Joan Carles I, * gl, Xoán Carlos I, Juan Carlos Alfonso Víctor María de Borbón y Borbón-Dos Sicilias, born 5 January 1938) is a member of the Spanish royal family who reigned as King of Spain from 22 Novem ...

and Farah Pahlavi, the last Empress of Iran. She was buried in Hautecombe Abbey alongside her husband.

Musical foundation

Like her mother,

, Marie-José inspired a musical contest. In 1959 she established the Fondation du prix de composition Reine Marie-José. It awarded its biennial prizes for the first time the following year. The first prize at the 1960 Concours was awarded to

Giorgio Ferrari Giorgio Ferrari (1925 – 13 January 2010) was an Italian composer, administrator and teacher. He was born in Genoa, and graduated in violin and composition. After a spell as a violinist in the Orchestra della RAI of Turin, Ferrari started a care ...

for his ''Quatuor à cordes avec une voix chantée''. Subsequent prize winners have included William Albright (1968), Georg Katzer (1978), and Javier Torres Maldonado (2000). The 2017 prize was awarded to

Jaehyuck Choi Jaehyuck Choi (born October 31, 1994) is a South Korean composer and conductor of classical music, based in New York and Seoul. Education He studied composition with Samuel Adler and Matthias Pintscher at The Juilliard School. He also studie ...

Honours

National dynastic honours

: Knight Grand Cordon of the

Order of Saints Maurice and Lazarus The Order of Saints Maurice and Lazarus ( it, Ordine dei Santi Maurizio e Lazzaro) (abbreviated OSSML) is a Roman Catholic dynastic order of knighthood bestowed by the royal House of Savoy. It is the second-oldest order of knighthood in the wo ...

Foreign honours

* : Knight of the Order of the Golden Spur * : Knight Grand Cross of Justice of the Sovereign Military Order of Malta, Special Class * Austrian Imperial and Royal Family: Dame of the Imperial and Royal Order of the Starry Cross, 1st Class * Greek Royal Family: Dame Grand Cross of the Royal Order of Saints Olga and Sophia, 1st Class

Arms and monogram

File:Armoiries Princesse Marie José de Belgique Reine d'Italie.svg, Alliance Coat of Arms of King Umberto II and Queen Maria-José File:Royal Monogram of Queen Marie José of Italy.svg, Royal Monogram of Queen Maria-José of Italy

Portrayal of Marie in the arts

Music

* Dutch singer Petra Berger's song "Terra Promessa", the first song from her album ''

Eternal Woman Eternal(s) or The Eternal may refer to: * Eternity, an infinite amount of time, or a timeless state * Immortality or eternal life * God, the supreme being, creator deity, and principal object of faith in monotheism Comics, film and television * ...

'', is about Marie-José.

Ancestry

Notes

References

External links

"Queen Marie-José international musical composition prize"
reinemariejose.ch. Retrieved 5 June 2018.

Retrieved 5 June 2018. {{DEFAULTSORT:Marie-José Of Belgium 1906 births 2001 deaths 20th-century Belgian people 21st-century Belgian people 20th-century Belgian women 21st-century Belgian women Princesses of Belgium Deaths from lung cancer in Switzerland Princesses of Savoy House of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha (Belgium) House of Belgium Queens consort of Italy People from Ostend People educated at Brentwood Ursuline Convent High School Princesses of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha Knights Grand Cross of the Order of Saints Maurice and Lazarus Knights of Malta Burials at Hautecombe Abbey Italian exiles Exiled royalty Daughters of kings Umberto II of Italy