Giovanna of Italy

Infobox Italian Royalty|prince
name =Giovanna of Italy
title =Queen consort of Bulgaria


imgw = 200px
caption =
reign =October, 1930 - August 18, 1943
spouse =Boris III
issue =Marie-Louise
Simeon II
royal house =House of Savoy
House of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha
titles ="HM" Tsaritsa Ioanna of Bulgaria (1943-2000)
"HM The Tsaritsa of Bulgaria (1930-1943)
"HRH" Princess Giovanna of Savoy (1907-1930)
father =Victor Emmanuel III of Italy
mother =Elena of Montenegro
date of birth =birth date|1907|11|13|mf=y
place of birth = Rome, Italy
date of death =death date and age|2000|2|26|1907|11|13|mf=y
place of death = Estoril, Portugal
place of burial =Basilica of San Francesco d'Assisi|

Tsaritsa Ioanna of Bulgaria (Italian: "Giovanna Elisabetta Antonia Romana Maria" and English: "Jovanna Elizabeth Antonia Romana Mary") (13 November 1907 - 26 February 2000) was born Princess Giovanna of Savoy and was the last Tsaritsa of Bulgaria.

Childhood

Giovanna was born in Rome, the third daughter and fourth child of King Victor Emmanuel III of Italy and Queen Elena, former Princess of Montenegro. She was raised in the Villa Savoia and from a young age was aware her aim in life: to further the House of Savoy's dynastic aspirations through marriage. Upon her christening into the Catholic faith, she was given the names Giovanna Elisabetta Antonia Romana Maria. Her older brother was the future Italian king Umberto II of Italy.

Marriage and children

Although it would eventually prove to be of no assistance to Italy, Giovanna duly married Tsar Boris III of Bulgaria in Assisi in October 1930, at a wedding by Roman Catholic rite, attended by Italian dictator Benito Mussolini. Bulgarians deemed her a good match, partly because of her mother's native Slavic ethnicity. At a second ceremony in Sofia, Bulgaria, Giovanna (who herself was daughter of a Roman-Catholic father and a born Orthodox mother) was married in an Eastern Orthodox Church ceremony, bringing her into conflict with the Catholic church. Giovanna adopted the Bulgarian version of her name, Ioanna. Giovanna knew the papal nuncio Archbishop Angelo Roncalli, the future Pope John XXIII who was able to help her. She and Boris had two children: Marie-Louise of Bulgaria, born in January 1933 and then the future Simeon II of Bulgaria in 1937.

In the years prior to World War II, Giovanna became heavily involved in charities, including the financing of a children's hospital. During the war she counterbalanced her husband consigning Bulgaria to the Axis by obtaining transit visas to enable a number of Jews to escape to Argentina. Tsar Boris also proved less malleable than Hitler had hoped, and following a meeting in Berlin in August 1943, the Tsar became seriously ill and died, aged 49. While stress and a heart condition were the official reasons for his death, rumours that he had been poisoned by Hitler were voiced at the time and have since grown. Giovanna's son Simeon became the new Tsar and a regency was established led by his uncle Prince Kyril, who was considered more pliable by the Germans.

Death

In the dying days of World War II, Bulgaria was invaded by the Soviet Union. Prince Kyril was tried by a People's Court and subsequently executed. Giovanna and Simeon remained under home arrest at Vrana Palace, near Sofia until 1946, when the new Communist government gave them 48 hours to leave the country. After initially fleeing to Alexandria, Egypt, to be with her father, Vittorio Emmanuele III, they moved to Madrid. After the marriage of Simeon II to the Spanish noblewoman Margarita Gómez-Acebo y Cejuela (a distant relative of the present Spanish king's late brother-in-law) in 1962, Queen Giovanna moved to Estoril, Portugal, where she lived for the rest of her life, excepting a brief return to Bulgaria in 1993 when she visited Boris's grave.

She is buried in Assisi, Italy where she married king Boris III in 1930.

ee also

*Royal Consorts of Bulgaria

References

* "Boris III of Bulgaria 1894-1943", by Pashanko Dimitroff, London, 1986, ISBN 0-86332-140-2
* "Crown of Thorns" by Stephane Groueff, Lanham MD., and London, 1987, ISBN 0-8191-5778-3
* "The Daily Telegraph", Obituary for "HM Queen Ioanna of the Bulgarians", London, 28 February 2000.

infobox hrhstyles


royal name=Queen Ioanna of The Bulgarians
dipstyle=Her Majesty
offstyle=Your Majesty
altstyle=Ma'am|