Prince Amedeo, Duke of Aosta (b. 1943)

Prince Amedeo
Duke of Aosta;
Duke of Savoy (disputed)

Prince Amedeo on the day of his marriage
Head of the House of Savoy
(disputed)
Period 7 July 2006 – present
Heir apparent Prince Aimone, Duke of Apulia
Born (1943-09-27) 27 September 1943
Florence, Italy
Spouse Princess Claude of Orléans
(m. 1964; div. 1982)
Silvia Paternò di Spedalotto
(m. 1987)
Issue Princess Bianca
Prince Aimone, Duke of Apulia
Princess Mafalda
Pietro Incisa della Rochetta (illegitimate)
Ginevra van Ellinkhuizen (illegitimate)
Full name
Amedeo Umberto Costantino Giorgio Paolo Elena Maria Fiorenzo Zvonimir
House Savoy-Aosta
Father Prince Aimone, 4th Duke of Aosta
Mother Princess Irene of Greece and Denmark
Styles of
Prince Amedeo, Duke of Aosta
Reference style His Royal Highness
Spoken style Your Royal Highness
Alternative style Sir
Italian Royal Family

HRH The Duke of Aosta
HRH The Duchess of Aosta

HI&RH The Dowager Archduchess of Austria-Este
HRH Princess Maria Cristina

Extended family

Prince Amedeo, 5th Duke of Aosta (Amedeo Umberto Costantino Giorgio Paolo Elena Maria Fiorenzo Zvonimir di Savoia-Aosta; born 27 September 1943)[1][2] is a claimant to the headship of the House of Savoy, the family which ruled Italy from 1861 to 1946. Until 7 July 2006 Amedeo was styled Duke of Aosta; on that date he declared himself Duke of Savoy, a title that is disputed between him and his third cousin, Vittorio Emanuele, Prince of Naples. In fact, Prince Amedeo is still referred to as Duke of Aosta.

Birth and early life

Amedeo was born at Villa della Cisterna in Florence, the only child of Prince Aimone, Duke of Aosta, formerly designated king of Croatia as Tomislav II,[3] and of Princess Irene of Greece and Denmark.[4]

Only three weeks before Amedeo's birth, Italy had surrendered to the Allies. His father, then king-designate of Croatia, abdicated.[5][6][7][8][9] Italy's former ally, Germany, thereupon launched a military operation to occupy Italy. The infant Amedeo was arrested by the Nazis along with his mother, aunt, and two cousins, and sent to an internment camp in Austria.

When Amedeo was only four years old, his father died in exile in Buenos Aires, and he succeeded as Duke of Aosta, Prince della Cisterna e Belriguardo, Marchese di Voghera, and Count di Ponderano.[4]

Amedeo studied at the Collegio Navale Morosini in Venice and in England. He then attended the Naval Academy in Livorno from which he graduated as an officer in the Italian Navy.

He is an Honorary Companion of the Pennsylvania Commandery of the Military Order of the Loyal Legion of the United States (MOLLUS). He was assigned insignia number 21015. He is eligible for hereditary descent in MOLLUS by right of his descent from his great grandfather, Prince Philippe, Count of Paris.

Marriage and family

On 22 July 1964 Amedeo married Princess Claude of Orléans (born 11 December 1943) in Sintra, Portugal.[4][1] She was the ninth child and fifth daughter of Henri, comte de Paris, Orléanist claimant to the French throne, and of Princess Isabelle of Orléans-Braganza. Amedeo and Claude have three children:[4]

Amedeo and Claude officially separated from each other 20 July 1976. They received a civil divorce 26 April 1982, and an ecclesiastical annulment from the Roman Rota 8 January 1987.[4]

On 30 March 1987 Amedeo married Silvia Paternò di Spedalotto (b. 31 December 1953) in the chapel of Villa Spedalotto in Bagheria, Sicily.[4] She is the daughter of Vincenzo Paternò di Spedalotto, Marchese di Reggiovanni, and of Rosanna Bellardo Ferrari.[4][2] Amedeo and Silvia have no children.

Allegedly, Amadeo has an illegitimate son with Nerina Corsini, wife of Enrico Incisa della Rocchetta: Pietro Incisa della Rocchetta (born Lausanne, 30 November 1967), born just one month after his legitimate son Aimone. The parentage was never proved, and Pietro was recognized by her mother's husband as his own.[12][13] Currently, Pietro was the owner of Bodega Chacra, a vineyard who crafts exclusively Pinot Noir wines in the Río Negro Valley of northern Patagonia, Argentina.[14]

Amedeo has an illegitimate daughter by Kyara van Ellinkhuizen: Ginevra Maria Gabriella van Ellinkhuizen (born Milan, 19 March 2006), who was born with Down syndrome. Though before her birth Amedeo had stated that he would immediately recognize her as his child and provide for her welfare, he did not do so and instead firstly asked for DNA paternity testing to be performed in order to assure the filiation, which was done. On 4 August 2006, he legally recognized his daughter, but did not provide for her welfare until ordered to do so by a judge.[15] The attendant scandal diminished the stature of the House of Savoy and may have further eroded support for the claim of the Aosta branch among monarchists.[16]

Business activities

Amedeo and his wife Silvia live in the village of San Rocco near the town of Castiglion Fibocchi in Tuscany (about 15 km northwest of Arezzo). He is involved in various agricultural activities including the production of wine marketed under the name Vini Savoia Aosta.

Since 1997, Amedeo has been president of the International Foundation Pro Herbario Mediterraneo. From 2003 to 2006, he was president of the committee responsible for the nature reserve on the island of Vivara.

Dynastic activities

Always close to the head of the Savoy dynasty, ex-King Umberto II, Amedeo was long-viewed by Italian royalists as a likely claimant to the throne if Umberto's own son failed to live up to monarchist expectations.[16][17] On 7 July 2006 Amedeo declared himself to be the head of the House of Savoy and Duke of Savoy, claiming that his third cousin Vittorio Emanuele, Prince of Naples had lost his dynastic rights when he married, just following the time of his arrest, without previously obtaining the permission of his father, former King Umberto II in 1971, authorization which had been required under monarchical law. Vittorio Emanuele and his son, Emanuele Filiberto, Prince of Venice, sought judicial intervention to forbid Amedeo's use of the title "Duke of Savoy". An initial hearing was scheduled in the court of Arezzo, with a ruling expected by 6 June 2008.[18] The President of the Council of the Senators of the Kingdom, Aldo Alessandro Mola, published a declaration in favour of Amedeo's claim; in fact only nine members of the 62 member council voted in support of the declaration. Amedeo's claim has also received the support of Vittorio Emanuele's sister, Princess Maria Gabriella of Savoy.[16]

Although many monarchists transferred their allegiance to Prince Amedeo at some point after King Umberto's death,[16] Aosta has been criticized by other Italian royalists who continue to support Prince Vittorio Emanuele. Sergio Pellecchi, President of the Giunta of the Chivalric Orders of the House of Savoy, has stated that the Council of the Senators of the Kingdom was dissolved in 2002 and that it never had any authority in matters of the succession. Eugenio Armando Dondero, spokesman for the Coordinamento Monarchico Italiano, has asked why Amedeo did not claim to be head of the House of Savoy in 1983 when Umberto II died. But others, including constitutional jurist Guido Locatello, declared the marriage of Vittorio Emanuele to be in violation of Savoy dynastic law years before scandal evoked any clamor for Amedeo to replace him. The Unione Monarchica Italiana published in its newsletter, Monarchia Nuova, on 12 February 1987 that the Prince of Naples' marriage to Marina Doria violated the decree of Victor Amadeus III, issued 13 September 1780, regulating the marriages of princes of the blood royal, compelling the Unione to recognise Amedeo as rightful head of the royal house—although at that time Aosta had put forth no public dynastic claim.[4]

On 21 May 2004, at a soirée held at the Zarzuela Palace near Madrid during the wedding celebrations of the Spanish royal heir apparent, Felipe, Prince of Asturias, Amedeo approached Vittorio Emanuele who reportedly punched him twice in the face, causing him to stumble backward down the steps.[16] The swift intervention of another guest, former Queen Anne-Marie of Greece, who propped him up, prevented Amedeo from falling to the ground. She helped him move indoors and stanched his bleeding facial wound until first aid was administered.[16] Upon learning of the incident Spain's King Juan Carlos I, a cousin of both men, reportedly declared that "never again" would an opportunity to abuse his hospitality be afforded the rivals.[16]

Amedeo is a Knight of the Supreme Order of the Most Holy Annunciation named by Umberto II, a Grand Cross of the Order of Saints Maurice and Lazarus, and a Knight of Honor and Devotion of the Sovereign Military Order of St. John of Jerusalem. He is an honorary citizen of the towns of Marigliano, Pantelleria, and Abetone.

Ancestors

References

  1. 1 2 3 Montgomery-Massingberd, Hugh (editor). Burke's Guide to the Royal Family, Burke's Peerage, London, 1973, p. 279. ISBN 0-220-66222-3
  2. 1 2 Genealogisches Handbuch des Adels, Fürstliche Häuser XIV. "Haus Italien". C.A. Starke Verlag, 1997, pp. 33, 38–39. ISBN 3-7980-0814-0.
  3. ↑ Hrvatski Narod (newspaper)19 May 1941. no. 96. p.1., Public proclamation of the "Nova hrvatska dinastija" (new Croatian dynasty) 18 May 1941.
  4. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 Enache, Nicolas (1999). La Descendance de Marie-Therese de Habsburg, Reine de Hongrie et de Boheme. Paris: L'Intermediaire des Chercheurs et Curieux (ICC). pp. 204–206, 213–214. ISBN 2-908003-04-X.
  5. ↑ "Duke gives up puppet throne". [St. Petersburg Times]. 21 August 1943. p. 10.
  6. ↑ Lemkin, Raphael; Power, Samantha (2005). Axis Rule In Occupied Europe: Laws Of Occupation, Analysis Of Government, Proposals For Redress. Lawbook Exchange. p. 253. ISBN 1584775769.
  7. ↑ "Foreign News: Hotel Balkania". Time Magazine. 9 August 1943. Retrieved 4 December 2009.
  8. ↑ Hrvoje Matković, Designirani hrvatski kralj Tomislav II. vojvoda od Spoleta. Povijest hrvatskotalijanskih odnosa u prvoj polovici XX.st. (Designated Croatian king Tomislav II. Duke of Spoleto. History of Croatian-Italian relationships in first half of the 20th century), Zagreb 2007.
  9. ↑ State proclamation, On termination of Rome treaties, poglavnik Ante Pavelić, Zagreb 10. September 1943. (copy in book dr. Marijan Rogić, Pod Zvonimirovom krunom, sources page XXXIV. Munchen 2008.), Zagreb 2007.
  10. ↑ Unione Monarchica Italian – Nascita Reale. monarchia.it
  11. ↑ Lombardo di San Chirico. Thepeerage.com. Retrieved on 27 July 2015.
  12. ↑ In March 1989 an Italian newspaper, Novella 2000, revealed that the Duke of Aosta had an illegitimate son called Pietro Incisa della Rochetta. Although the Duke didn't made coments about it, his ex-wife Princess Claude recognized that she knew the existence of the child, born from the affair between Amedeo and Nerina Corsini, whose mother was a lady-in-waiting of Amedeo's mother, Princess Irene. Partial translation from: Anales De La Real Academia Matritense De Heráldica y Genealogía VI (2000–2001), Vol. VI, p. 230, footnote 116. [retrieved 26 December 2014].
  13. ↑ Aosta second illegitimate son in: Narkive News Groups Archive [retrieved 26 December 2014].
  14. ↑ Barda by Bodega Chacra: About the Brand in: kobrandwineandspirits.com [retrieved 26 December 2014].
  15. ↑ Amedeo padre di Ginevra. Lo dice il Dna. Corriere.it (18 February 2015). Retrieved on 2015-07-27.
  16. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 McIntosh, David (December 2005). "The Sad Demise of the House of Savoy". European Royal History Journal. Eurohistory. 8.6 (XLVIII): 3–6.
  17. ↑ de Montjouvent, Philippe. Le Comte de Paris et sa Descendance. Editions du Chaney, 1998, Charenton, France. pp. 343–346. French. ISBN 2-913211-00-3.
  18. ↑ Vincent Meylan (21 May 2008). "Duc d'Aoste ou Duc de Savoie?". Point de Vue: 79.
Wikimedia Commons has media related to Prince Amedeo, Duke of Aosta (b. 1943).
Prince Amedeo, Duke of Aosta (b. 1943)
Born: 27 September 1943
Italian nobility
Preceded by
Aimone		 Duke of Aosta
2nd creation
1948–present 		Incumbent
Heir:
Aimone
Titles in pretence
Preceded by
Vittorio Emanuele, Prince of Naples		 — TITULAR —
King of Italy (disputed)
1983–present
Reason for succession failure:
Kingdom abolished in 1946		 Incumbent
Heir:
Aimone
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