Marie-José of Belgium

Infobox Italian Royalty|majesty|consort
name =Marie José of Belgium
title =Queen consort of Italy


caption =Princess Marie Jose of Belgium, at the age of nine
reign =May 9, 1946 - June 12, 1946
spouse =Umberto II
issue =Maria Pia, Vittorio Emanuele, Maria Gabriella, Maria Beatrice
royal house =House of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha
titles ="HM" Queen Marie-José
"HM" The Queen of Italy
"HRH" The Princess of Piedmont
"HRH" Princess Marie-José of Belgium
father =Albert I of Belgium
mother =Elisabeth of Bavaria
date of birth =birth date|1906|8|4|mf=y
place of birth =Ostend, Belgium
date of death =death date and age|2001|1|27|1906|8|4|mf=y
place of death =Geneva, Switzerland|

Princess Marie José of Belgium ("Marie José Charlotte Sophie Louisa Amélie Henriette Olga Gabrielle") (4 August 1906 – 27 January 2001), was the last Queen of Italy. Her thirty-five day reign as queen consort earned her the affectionate nickname "the May Queen".

Princess Marie José was born in Ostend, Belgium, the youngest child and only daughter of Albert I, King of the Belgians and his consort, Duchess Elisabeth in Bavaria. At birth, she held the title of Princess of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha until its use was discontinued at the end of the First World War. She was named for her maternal grandmother, Princess Maria Josepha of Braganza.

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.

Marriage to the Prince of Piedmont

On January 8, 1930, she married in Rome Prince Umberto, at that time the Crown Prince of Italy from the House of Savoy, and so became The Princess of Piedmont (in Italian: "Principessa di Piemonte"). They had four children:

# Princess Maria Pia Louise of Bourbon-Parma 1934-
# Vittorio Emanuele Josef, Prince of Naples 1937-
# Princess Maria Gabriella Elisabeth of Savoy 1940-
# Princess Maria Beatrice Caroline of Savoy 1943-

The marriage was not happy, as Marie-José would confess in an interview many years later: "On n'a jamais été heureux" ("We were never happy"), in large measure to Umberto's unfaithfulness and his bisexuality. At the time her parents had steered for the marriage with the crown prince of Italy, there was no other single descendant of a "reigning" Catholic dynasty, with a prospect to the throne available in Europe. The couple subsequently separated after the abolition of the Italian monarchy.

Contacts with the Allies during World War II

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 (kept hostage by the German forces), and at the same time close to some of the ministers of Mussolini'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. When Mussolini made everyone italianize their name she refused to change her name to Maria Giuseppa.

Queen for a month

Following Italy's defection to the Allied side in the War, her discredited father-in-law, King Victor Emmanuel III withdrew from government. Her husband became acting monarch under the title of Lieutenant-General of the Kingdom. He and Marie José toured wartorn Italy, where they made a positive impression. It has been speculated that had Victor Emmmanuel abdicated, allowing her husband to become king in 1943, the monarchical cause would have won the later referendum on the issue of republic or monarchy. However he refused to abdicate, doing so only weeks before the referendum, in a misjudgment that cost his son his throne. Following the eventual belated abdication Marie-José became Queen consort of Italy, reigning from May 9, 1946, until the monarchy was abolished by plebiscite, June 2, 1946. Following the monarchy's narrow defeat (far narrower than she had expected. She had feared that it might get as little as 10% support) she and her husband left the country for exile on June 13 1946.

Marie José and Umberto separate

In exile, the family gathered for a brief time in Portugal, but she and Umberto decided to separate. She and their four children soon left for Switzerland where she lived most of the time for the rest of her life, while Umberto remained in Portugal. However the couple never divorced, partly for political reasons; Umberto lived in hope (albeit declining over the years), of returning to the throne and a divorce was thought potentially damaging to a Catholic king. Both were also religiously devout (unusual for Italian royals where there was a strong history of anti-clericalism).

Death aged 94

Marie-José returned to Italy only after her husband had died in 1983. Marie-José died in a Geneva clinic of lung cancer at the age of 94, surviving her two brothers and some of her nieces and nephews. Marie José's death was instrumental in influencing the Italian government to amend its constitution and allow male members of the House of Savoy to visit Italy.

Like her mother, Queen Elizabeth, she inspired a musical contest: the "Queen Marie José international musical composition prize", a bi-annual contest held in Switzerland since 2000.

ee also

* Academia Belgica

External links

* [http://pages.prodigy.net/ptheroff/gotha/belgium.html Royal House of Belgium]
* [http://pages.prodigy.net/ptheroff/gotha/italy.html Royal House of Italy]
*Genealogy:
** [http://www.geocities.com/henrivanoene/genbelgium.html Genealogy of the Royal Family of Belgium (House Saxe-Coburg-Gotha)]
** [http://www.geocities.com/henrivanoene/genitaly1.html Genealogy of the Royal Family of Italy (House of Savoy)] - contains information about Marie-José's children and grandchildren.
* [http://www.eurohistory.com/marjose.html "The May Queen" from eurohistory.com]
* [http://www.reinemariejose.ch/en/index.html Website of the "Queen Marie José international musical composition prize"]
* [http://www.italystl.com/italianclub/rondine/ronfeb01.htm#r3 short biography in February 2001 issue of "La Rondine"]
* [http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/1141249.stm Italy's last queen dies BBC report]