Aimone, 4th Duke of Aosta and Duke of Spoleto

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Aimone of Savoy-Aosta

Prince Aimone, 4th Duke of Aosta and Duke of Spoleto ( full names : Principe Aimone Roberto Margherita Maria Giuseppe Torino di Savoia-Aosta, Duca di Spoleto (from 1904), Quarto Duca d'Aosta (from 1942) ; * March  9th 1900 in Turin , Italy ; †  January 29, 1948 in Buenos Aires , Argentina ) was a member of the Italian ruling house of Savoy and a cousin of Viktor Emanuel III.

From 1941 to 1943 he was Tomislav II. Designated Titular King of the Independent State of Croatia , but did not take up this position.

Life

Origin and early years

Prince Aimone of Savoy-Aosta was born on March 9, 1900 as the second son of Prince Emanuel Philibert, 2nd Duke of Aosta and his wife Hélène of Orléans . He was a member of the ruling dynasty of Savoy , which had provided the Italian kings since 1861 (Aimone was a great-grandson of Victor Emanuel II ). His paternal grandfather briefly ruled the Kingdom of Spain as Amadeus I and later assumed the title of Duke of Aosta , thus establishing the Savoy-Aosta branch.

On September 22, 1904 he was awarded the lifelong title "Duke of Spoleto" ( Duca di Spoleto) .

Aimone received his school education at English boarding schools and during this time he lived with his uncle Louis Philippe von Orléans , the French pretender to the throne who was living in exile in England . When Italy entered the First World War on the Entente side in 1915, the prince returned to his homeland and was sent to the Accademia Navale . He left them in 1917 with the rank of lieutenant and joined the Navy . As a result, Aimone was used in a squadron of seaplanes and received several awards.

After reaching the age of 21, Aimone was given a seat in the Italian Senate, which according to the constitution belonged to members of the Savoyard of age (eligible to vote only from 25 years of age) and was solemnly introduced on April 1, 1921. However, the parliaments almost completely lost their legislative importance in the following years, as the fascist leader and Prime Minister Benito Mussolini Italy with the approval of King Victor Emanuel III. turned into a dictatorship . In addition to his officer career, Aimone was an avid athlete and mountaineer. In 1929 he took part in an Italian Himalayan expedition led by Ardito Desio , which tried in vain to climb K2 .

In 1933 he was promoted to corvette captain and took over the management of the Brioni naval base . During the colonial war in Abyssinia in 1935/36 , Aimone was in command of the Italian torpedo boats and small cruisers in the Red Sea with the rank of admiral . On December 24, 1935, he led a landing operation in Massaua .

After the outbreak of World War II , Aimone was in charge of the fleet base in La Spezia .

King of Croatia

King Victor Emmanuel III and Aimone received Ante Pavelić and Slavko Kvaternik on May 18, 1941 , who offered Aimone the royal dignity. Mussolini is on the left in the picture .

During the Second World War , Fascist Italy pursued hegemonic efforts in the Balkans and, together with the German Wehrmacht , Italian troops occupied Yugoslavia in April 1941 ( Balkan campaign ). The country was smashed and Ustasha leader Ante Pavelić founded the Independent State of Croatia , which, however, was nothing more than a puppet state of the Axis powers . On May 18, 1941, Victor Emanuel III received a delegation under Pavelić, who expressed his wish to bestow Croatian royal dignity to a prince of the House of Savoy . In addition to Mussolini, the king also approved the proposal and appointed Prince Aimone, his cousin. Aimone accepted the proposal and was eventually proclaimed King of Croatia. Based on the founder of the medieval Croatian kingdom, he chose the title of ruler Tomislav II.

But Aimone did not take office immediately, but stayed in Italy. He wanted to get into the complicated Balkan problems first and gain an in-depth look before he began his royal life. For this purpose he set up an information office in Florence. Croatia was de jure a kingdom, but in fact Ante Pavelić rose to be the undisputed dictator of the country and was less and less interested in a monarch of foreign rule diminishing his position of power. Talks were held between the Ustasha and the Italian government about the modalities of the enthronement of the designated king, but these were not concluded due to Mussolini's south-east European policy. The Duce had annexed parts of Dalmatia and thereby incurred great rejection from large parts of the population of Croatia, who were no longer interested in a Savoy king. In addition, Aimone rejected the policies of the Ustasha, which had transformed the country into a leadership state , brutally persecuted political opponents ( Serbs , Communists , Jews ) and even set up a concentration camp in Jasenovac . He therefore refrained from pushing for office and only entered Croatian soil in Zadar incognito once for a short visit . Aimone had realized that Croatia was a puppet state that was militarily, politically and economically completely dependent on the Axis powers. As a result of the growing resistance movement, the Ustaša regime increasingly lost support.

Because of the increasingly negative war for Germany and Italy, Aimone advocated breaking the alliance with Hitler and the conclusion of a separate Italian peace from 1942 onwards . The prince made contact with Great Britain through his confidante Alessandro Marieni (Vice-Consul in Geneva ) . On December 18, 1942, the British Foreign Secretary Anthony Eden informed the USA and the Soviet Union that Prince Aimone was ready to support the overthrow of Mussolini after certain guarantees had been promised:

  • British air support
  • Allied ground troops will land soon
  • No handover of the Italian fleet
  • Preservation of the Italian monarchy.

But the secret negotiations were unsuccessful because the British government did not want to make any binding guarantees. After the Allied invasion of Sicily , the fascist regime lost its support and Mussolini was overthrown on July 25, 1943 . The king had the dictator arrested and Italy left the union of the Axis powers ( Armistice of Cassibile , September 8, 1943). On the orders of Viktor Emanuel, Aimone abdicated as Croatian king on July 31 and went to the south occupied by the Allies. He rejoined the Navy and commanded the Taranto base with the rank of admiral. On October 12th he gave up his title of king.

After the death of his older brother Amadeus in British captivity on March 3, 1942, Aimone inherited the title Duke of Aosta .

End of life

In a plebiscite carried out after the end of the Second World War on the future form of government, the majority of Italians voted on 2/3. June 1946 for the introduction of the republic and abolition of the monarchy. Aimone then left the country and went into exile in South America .

On January 29, 1948, Prince Aimone died of a heart attack in a hotel in Buenos Aires . The body was first buried in Arezzo and later transferred to the royal crypt of the basilica of Superga above Turin .

Marriage and offspring

On July 1, 1939, Prince Aimone married Princess Irene of Greece , a daughter of King Constantine I, in the Cathedral of Florence . This relationship resulted in a son:

title

Coat of arms of the Dukes of Savoy-Aosta
  • March 9, 1900 - September 22, 1904: His Highness Prince Aimone of Savoy-Aosta
  • September 22, 1904 - March 3, 1942: HRH Prince Aimone, Duke of Spoleto, Margrave of Camerino
  • May 18, 1941 - July 30, 1943: His Majesty Zvonimir Tomislav II, King of Croatia, Prince of Bosnia and Herzegovina, Voivod of Dalmatia, Tuzla and Zemun
  • July 30, 1943 - January 29, 1948: HRH Prince Aimone, Duke of Spoleto, 4th Duke of Aosta, Prince of Cisterna and Belriguardo, Margrave of Voghera and Count of Ponderano

literature

  • Hrvoje Matković: Designirani hrvatski kralj Tomislav II. (=  Biblioteka hrvatske povijesti ). Pavičić, 2007 (Croatian).
  • Marlene A. Eilers (Author): Queen Victoria's Descendants , Rosvall Royal Books, ISBN 91-630-5964-9

Web links

Commons : Aimone Herzog von Spoleto  - Album with pictures, videos and audio files
predecessor Office successor
Amadeus 3rd Duke Duke of Aosta
1942 - 1948
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