The Kingdom of Italy existed from 17 March 1861 to 12 June 1946. In 1861, King Victor Emmanuel II of Sardinia was proclaimed King of Italy and the Kingdom ceased to exist following an institutional referendum which took place on 2 June 1946. The claim to the throne still exists, and we will be seeing today who would have been the Queen of Italy if the monarchy still existed. As Italy has never had a Queen in her own right, the Queens mentioned here are consorts, and any titles after the monarchy was abolished are titular.
King Victor Emmanuel’s eldest son became King Umberto I of Italy upon his father’s death in 1878. He had married Princess Margherita of Savoy in 1968, and they had one son together. On 29 July 1900, King Umberto was assassinated by anarchist Gaetano Bresci. He was succeeded by his only son, who became King Victor Emmanuel III at the age of 30.
Victor Emmanuel had married Princess Elena of Montenegro four years before becoming King, but all their children were born after his accession. They went on to have four daughters and a son together. After the Second World War, Victor Emmanuel abdicated the throne in favour of his son, who became King Umberto II of Italy in May 1946.
King Umberto had married Princess Marie-José of Belgium in 1930, and they had three daughters and a son together. King Umberto reigned for just one month, leading to the nickname the May King. The following month, a referendum concluded that 54% of voters wanted a republic. The public was formally proclaimed a few days later, which Umberto refused to accept. Nevertheless, he left the country on 13 June. He would spend the rest of his life in exile in Portugal. The relationship with Marie-José deteriorated, and she eventually moved to Switzerland without her husband. Marie-José was the last Queen of Italy.
When the former King died in 1983, his claim to the Italian throne went to his only son, Prince Vittorio Emanuele. He had married Marina Ricolfi-Doria in 1971, and they had one son together. She was thus the first titular Queen of Italy. Prince Vittorio Emanuele died on 3 February 2024, passing his claim to his only son, Emanuele Filiberto of Savoy, Prince of Venice.
He married Clotilde Courau in 2003, and they had two daughters together. They separated in 2021 but have not yet divorced, making her the second and current titular Queen of Italy. Clotilde was born on 3 April 1969 as the daughter of Jean-Claude Courau and Catherine Marie Antoinette du Pontavice des Renardières. She has three sisters. She has a successful acting career.
In 2019, his father declared that Emanuele Filiberto’s eldest daughter would be allowed to succeed to the headship of the House of Savoy.
In 2006, a rival claimant, Prince Amedeo, Duke of Aosta, declared himself head of the House of Savoy. He had apparently long been viewed as an alternative to Prince Vittorio Emanuele, should he fail to meet expectations. He was a third cousin of Prince Vittorio Emanuele and claimed that Vittorio Emanuele had forfeited his dynastic rights when he married Marina in 1971 without the permission of his father.
Amedeo had married Princess Claude of Orléans in 1964, and they had three children together. They divorced in 1982, which is one year before Amedeo claimed to have succeeded the former King to the headship of the House of Savoy. He remarried in 1987 to Silvia Paternò di Spedalotto.
When Amedeo died in 2021, he was succeeded in his rival claim by his only son, Prince Aimone. He married Princess Olga of Greece in 2009, and they went on to have two sons and a daughter. If you consider their claim valid, she would be the current titular Queen of Italy.
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