Italy became a republic when Prince Viktor Emanuel was 9 years old. At that time, the royal family moved into exile in Switzerland.
Italian the last crown prince Victor Emanuel IV has died at the age of 86, reports the news agencies AFP and Reuters. According to a statement from the Royal House of Savoy, the prince died on Saturday surrounded by his family in Geneva, Switzerland.
Born in Naples, Viktor Emanuel left his home country at the age of 9 and lived most of his life in Switzerland. The reason for this was the referendum held in Italy in 1946, where the monarchy was abolished and Italy became a republic. Victor Emanuel's father, King Umberto II was ousted from power and he and his family went into exile in Switzerland.
The royal family's connections with the dictator were behind the unpopularity of the royal house and the monarchy to Benito Mussolini. Viktor Emanuel's grandfather, the king Victor Emanuel III had, when he was king, appointed Mussolini as the Prime Minister of Italy and later looked through his fingers at the abuse of this power and accepted the laws drawn up by him, which limited the basic rights of the citizens.
King Viktor Emanuel III tried to preserve the monarchy by transferring the crown to his son Umberto just a month before the referendum, but to no avail.
Prince Viktor Emanuel's reputation was tarnished again in the 1970s, when he was accused of shooting a 19-year-old German boy to death in Corsica. In 1991, a French court acquitted him of murder charges, but he received a suspended sentence for illegal possession of a weapon.
In 2006, the prince was put on trial again, this time in southern Italy, when he was accused of involvement in prostitution. After a trial, he was acquitted.
In 1971, Viktor Emanuel married an international water skier, a Swiss Marina Dorian with. They have one child.
#Royal #Italy39s #crown #prince #died
