80 years ago the engagement was announced between HRH Prince Umberto of Savoy, Prince of Piedmont, and HRH Princess Maria José of Belgium.

The union between the 25-years-old son and heir of King Vittorio Emanuele III and Queen Elena of Italy and the 23-years-old daughter of King Albert I and Queen Elisabeth of the Belgians was planned since the two Princes were only children – probably during the First World War the two Courts began to think about their marriage; according to what Maria José remembered years later, she grew up thinking to marry Umberto and imagining him as the fairytale prince; on the other side, Umberto knew that if he would have married, he surely would have married Maria José, as their families had planned.

Umberto and Maria José on their engagement day - from reumberto.it

The two Princes met for the first time in 1918 for a visit to Venice, together with their families; at that time, Umberto was 14 and Maria José 12; she was studying in Italy, in the Istituto Statale della Ss. Annunziata, a very exclusive girls’ boarding school in Florence.

In the following years they met several times, at the wedding of Prince Amedeo, Duke of Apulia and Princess Anne d’Orleans in 1927 and on vacation in Tuscany in the summer 1928. In the winter of the same year, Umberto visited Bruxelles, and he was expected to ask Maria Josè to marry him, but nothing happened, as well as nothing had happened between them when they met before; the main reason is that both Umberto and Maria José felt forced to marry, and in that period they didn’t want to do; in particular Umberto didn’t want to marry a woman that he didn’t love and he knews only a bit. Read more…

MAfan Belgian Royals, Historical Royals, Italian Royals Anniversary, Engagement, Queen Maria José, Savoy, Umberto II

One year ago, on 27 September 2008, the wedding of His Royal Highness Prince Aimone of Savoy, Duke of Apulia, and Princess Olga of Greece took place in Patmos, the wonderful Greek island in the Aegean sea.

The Prince and Princess got engaged in 2005, and married in a civil ceremony in the Italian Embassy in Moscow on 16 September 2008, after having asked and obtained the allowance for the marriage to Prince Amedeo, Aimone’s father and Head of the Family, following the rules of the Royal House.

Click to see at the website of Prince Amedeo

They married in a Greek Orthodox ceremony, but recognised by the Catholic Church which Aimone belongs to; the ceremony took place in the Church of the Evangelismos of the Virgin Mary at Pano Kambos, celebrated by the Patriarchal Exarch of Patmos, Archimandrite Andipas Nikitaras, on the 65^th birthday of Prince Amedeo, “a tender thought of Olga and Aimone, a wonderful present” has explained the Prince.

Although a private and quite simple organized event, attended only by 40 guests, the wedding was attended by several european Royals, all related to Olga and Aimone (who are second cousins); among them were the grooms’s father and stepmother Prince Amedeo and Princess Silvia of Savoy, the bride’s parents Prince Michael and Princess Marina of Greece, Aimone’s mother Princess Claude of Orleans; the two sisters of the groom, Princess Bianca, Countess Arrivabene-Valenti-Gonzaga, and Princess Mafalda, Mrs. Lombardo di San Chirico, with their husbands and children; the sister of Olga, Princess Alexandra, Mrs. Mirzayantz, and family; King Constantine and Queen Anna Maria of Greece, Queen Sofia of Spain and Princess Irene of Greece, who are cousins of both Prince Amedeo and Prince Michael; Princess Maria Gabriella of Savoy and Prince and Princess Casimir of Bourbon-Two Sicilies. Read more…

MAfan Italian Royals Prince Aimone, Princess Olga, Savoy, Wedding Anniversary

 Vittorio Emanuele of Savoy, the 72 year old son of the late King Umberto II of Italy and his wife Queen Maria José, will be put on trial, accused of having took part in criminal association with the purpose of corruption of officials. The trial will begin on 21 December 2009, at 9.30am in Potenza, Italy.

Click to see at the website of Vittorio Emanuele

He has told to the press to trust in the verification of the facts, and to be very sad due to these charges; his lawyer has declared to be “disappointed as a lawyer and scared as a citizen because the air has been used as a proof” of these accusations.

He was arrested after a casually-begun investigation on 16 June 2006 together with other 12 people, accused of corruption, exploitation of prostitution, extortion, having lied in official documents, threats, abetment. He was released a week later, and placed under house arrest until 20 July 2006, when he was definitely released.

His arrest and the charges he is accused of had induced his cousin Prince Amedeo of Savoy to publicly state his claims to the Headship of House Savoy, being “in presence of facts that can injure the Royal House”. According to Prince Amedeo, Vittorio Emanuele lost his rights to the Italian Throne because he married Marina Ricolfi Doria without the (never requested) permission of the then Head of the Family King Umberto II; the never authorized marriage has implied for Vittorio Emanuele the loss of all his rights to the Italian Throne and of all his titles for himself and his descendants, according to the rules of Savoy Family.

This is the second trial for Vittorio Emanuele, after the one following the murder of Dirk Hamer in 1978; Vittorio Emanuele was charged of having killed him and offensive weapon possession, but the Assize Court of Paris acquitted him from the first accusation in 1991 with a very controversial decision. Later in 2006, he has been recorded during a phone call, talking about this trial and the french judges admitting that he “was in the wrong” but that he “fooled them”.

More about Vittorio Emanuele can be found in this thread.

MAfan Italian Royals Legal Matters, Prince Vittorio Emanuele, Savoy

Click to see the picture on the website of the Royal Family of Savoy

HRH Prince Umberto of Savoy, Prince of Piedmont, has been baptized on saturday, 18 July 2009. The cerimony took place in Giuggianello, near Lecce, in Apulia, the italian region Umberto’s father is Duke of.

The godparents of the little Prince are HRH Princess Maria Gabriella of Savoy, for whom Princess Bianca, Countess Arrivabene-Valenti-Gonzaga stood proxy, and Count Carlo Radicati di Primeglio; Prince Umberto has been christened by his distant cousin, Prince Alessandro of Bourbon-Two Sicilies, who is a Catholic priest.

The cerimony was attended by TRH Prince Amedeo and Princess Silvia of Savoy, Duke and Duchess of Savoy, Prince and Princess Michael of Greece, HRH Princess Bianca of Savoy with her husband Count Giberto Arrivabene-Valenti-Gonzaga and children, HRH Princess Mafalda of Savoy with her husband Francesco Lombardo di San Chirico and children, TRH Prince Casimiro and Princess Maria Cristina of Bourbon-Two Sicilies, Don Alvaro and Dona Antonella d’Orleans-Borbon.

Prince Umberto is the son and heir of HRH Prince Aimone, Duke of Apulia, and his wife Olga, née Princess of Greece; he was born in Paris on 7 March 2009.

More infos can be found in the website of the Royal House of Savoy, and in this thread.

MAfan Italian Royals Christening, Prince Aimone, Prince Umberto, Princess Olga, Savoy

Click on image to see photo at Getty

     The Duchess of Württemberg yesterday attended  a gala dinner for the launch of the charity fund ‘Uzbekistan 2020′ dedicated to developing cultural, intellectual and human exchanges between Western Europe and Uzbekistan,  at the Museum of Modern Art in Paris. Other royal guests were princess Léa of Belgium, prince Emanuele Filiberto of Savoy, prince of Venice and Piedmont and Princess Helene of Yugoslavia.

Other guests were Bernadette Chirac, wife of the former French president Jacques Chirac, actor Alain Delon, former football player Christian Karembeu, actress Claudia Cardinale, Nancy Chopard and actress Monica Belluci . The gala was organised by Uzbekistan’s representative to UNESCO Lola Karimova-Tillyaeva.

Click here to see a picture of princess Léa of Belgium and click here to see a picture of prince Emanuele Filiberto of Savoy with princess Helene of Yugoslavia.

Marengo Belgian Royals, German Royals, Italian Royals, Serbian Royals Duchess of Württemberg, Prince Emanuele Filiberto, Princess Helene, Princess Léa, Savoy, Württemberg