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In 1287 Amadeus besieged the castle of Ile in the Rhône near Geneva, and captured it after fourteen weeks. In 1295, Amadeus acquired the fortress at Chambéry from its previous owner Hugh of La Rochette. He brought Georges de Aquila, a student of Giotto from Florence, to his court. Georges decorated the castle with paintings, carved wood, and frescoes. He worked there for the Savoyards until he died in 1348.
Among his successes was the Treaty of Annemasse which the Count of Geneva and the Dauphin of Viennois accepted subservient roles to him as his vassals. The treaty was the result of military victories over the both of them. In 1301, Amadeus also settled his dispute over control of Valais with the Roman Catholic Diocese of Sion.
His reign, however, also saw friction between the County of Savoy and the Duchy of Austria. He pursued an alliance with the Kingdom of France and received Maulévrier in Normandy as a result of initial good relations.
The eventual recovery of Lyon by the Kings of France alerted Amadeus to their expansionistic tendencies towards the regions by the Alps. He sought a powerful ally against potential hostility in the German king Henry VII, who was married to Margaret of Brabant, the sister-in-law of Amadeus. Amadeus accompanied Henry in his Italian campaign of 1310 – 1313, which culminated in Henry's coronation as Holy Roman Emperor on 29 June 1312. As a reward for his service, AMadeus received the title of Imperial Count, imperial vicar of Lombardy, and the lordships of Asti and Ivrea. Henry also elevated Aosta and Chablais to duchies, though they remained a part of the realm of Savoy.
In 1315, Amadeus assisted the Knights Hospitaller in the defense of Rhodes against the Turks.
He first married Sybille de Baugé, daughter of Guy I Damas de Baugé, Baron of Couzan (c.1230-1269) and Dauphine de Lavieu, and had eight children by her:
In 1297, he married, secondly, Marie of Brabant, who was a daughter of John I, Duke of Brabant and Margaret of Flanders. Her maternal grandparents were Guy of Dampierre and his first wife, Matilda of Bethune. They had 4 children:
Christine of France (10 February 1606 – 27 December 1663) was the sister of Louis XIII and the Duchess of Savoy by marriage. At the death of her husband Victor Amadeus I in 1637, she acted as regent of Savoy between 1637 and 1648.
Christine was born in the Palais du Louvre in Paris, she was the third child and second daughter of King Henry IV of France and his second wife, the Italian Marie de' Medici. As a daughter of the king, she was a Daughter of France. She was a younger sister of Louis XIII of France and Elisabeth of France. She was also an older sister of Nicholas Henri, Duke of Orléans, Gaston, Duke of Orléans and Henrietta Maria of France. Christine was a sister-in-law of Philip IV of Spain through Élisabeth and of Charles I of England through Henrietta Maria. As a child, she was raised under the supervision of the royal governess Françoise de Montglat.
After the marriage of her older sister Elisabeth in 1615 to the future Philip IV of Spain, Christine took on the honorary title of "Madame Royale" indicating her status as the eldest and most senior unmarried daughter at the court of her father. After her marriage, the style went to her younger sister Henrietta Maria of France.
Christine married Victor Amadeus I, Duke of Savoy, on 10 February 1619 at the Louvre in the capital. From 1619 till her husband's accession, she was known as the Princess of Piedmont. He was a son of Charles Emmanuel I, Duke of Savoy, and Infanta Catherine Michelle of Spain. She was said to be volatile and frivolous. Educated at the French court, she introduced French culture to the court of Savoy; she later lived at the "Palazzo Madama" which she had rebuilt. She was also the driving force for the reconstruction of the Castello del Valentino as well as the additions to the Royal Palace of Turin. She would also later own "Vigna di Madama Reale", old residence of her brother in law Maurice of Savoy.
Victor Amadeus became Duke after the death of his father on 26 July 1630. When Christine's husband died in 1637, she was created regent in the name of her son Francis Hyacinth. At the death of Francis Hyacinth in 1638, her second son Charles Emmanuel II succeeded and Christine retained the regency. Both Prince Maurice and his younger brother Prince Thomas of Savoy disputed the power of their sister-in-law and her French entourage. When the first heir Francis Hyacinth died in 1638, both brothers started the Piedmontese Civil War, with Spanish support. The two parties were called ""principisti" (supporters of the Princes) and "madamisti"" (supporters of Madama Reale).
After four years of fighting, Christine was victorious, thanks to French military support. Not only did she keep the Duchy for her son, she also prevented France getting too much power in the Duchy. When peace was concluded in 1642, Maurice married his fourteen-year-old niece Louise Christine, abandoning the title of cardinal and asking dispensation from Pope Paul V. Maurice became governor of Nice. Christine of France stayed in firm control of the Duchy of Savoy, until her son could follow in her footsteps; her formal regency ended in 1648, but she remained in charge at his invitation until her death.
She lived an uninhibited private life and had relationships with the French Ambassador, Marini, her brother-in-law, Maurizio, and Count Filippo d'Aglié, a handsome learned and courageous man who remained faithful to her all her life. She encouraged her son Charles Emmanuel to marry her niece Françoise Madeleine d'Orléans, the youngest surviving daughter of Gaston, Duke of Orléans, her youngest brother. They married 3 Apr 1663.
Christine died at the Palazzo Madama, Turin on 27 Dec 1663 at the age of 57 and was buried at the Basilica of Sant'Andrea. She had outlived 4 of her seven children.
Françoise Madeleine died in January 1664 and her son later married another cousin, Marie Jeanne of Savoy. Marie Jeanne would give birth to Victor Amadeus II of Sardinia who would later marry another French Princess (and member of the House of Orléans) Anne Marie d'Orléans. 17 years after her death, in 1680, her granddaughter "Victoria of Bavaria" via her third daughter Princess Henriette Adelaide of Savoy, would marry her older brother's grandson Louis de France known as 'the Fat' and "Monseigneur". Christine thus became a direct ancestress of the Spanish branch of the House of Bourbon via Victoria's second son Philip V of Spain.
In 2010, it was revealed on NBC's "Who Do You Think You Are?" that one of her descendants is model/actress Brooke Shields. Princess Michael of Kent, born Baroness Marie Christine, is also a descendant by Christine's son, Charles Emmanuel.
Umberto II (; 15 September 190418 March 1983) was the last King of Italy. He reigned for 34 days, from 9 May 1946 to 12 June 1946, although he had been "de facto" head of state since 1944, and was nicknamed the May King ().
Umberto was the only son among the five children of King Victor Emmanuel III and Queen Elena. In an effort to repair the monarchy's image after the fall of Benito Mussolini's regime, Victor Emmanuel transferred his powers to Umberto in 1944 while retaining the title of king. As a referendum on the abolition of the monarchy was in preparation, Victor Emmanuel abdicated his throne in favour of Umberto in the hope that his exit might bolster the monarchy. However, the referendum passed, Italy was declared a republic, and Umberto lived out the rest of his life in exile in Cascais, on the Portuguese Riviera.
Umberto was brought up in an authoritarian and militaristic household and expected to "show an exaggerated deference to his father"; both in private and public Umberto always had to get down on his knees and kiss his father's hand before being allowed to speak, even as an adult, and he was expected to stand to attention and salute whenever his father entered a room. Like the other Savoyard princes before him, Umberto received a military education that was notably short on politics; Savoyard monarchs customarily excluded politics from their heirs' education with the expectation that they would learn about the art of politics when they inherited the throne.
Umberto was the first cousin of King Alexander I of Yugoslavia. He was accorded the title Prince of Piedmont, which was formalised by Royal Decree on 29 September. In a 1959 interview, Umberto told the Italian newspaper "La Settimana Incom Illustrata" that in 1922 his father had felt that appointing Benito Mussolini prime minister was a "justifiable risk".
As Prince of Piedmont, Umberto visited South America, between July and September 1924. With his preceptor, Bonaldi, he went to Brazil, Uruguay, Argentina and Chile. This trip was part of the political plan of Fascism to link the Italian people living outside of Italy with their mother country and the interests of the regime.
In Brazil, visits were scheduled to the national capital Rio de Janeiro and the state of São Paulo, where the largest Italian colony in the country lived. However, a major military rebellion that occurred on July 5, 1924, with Savoia had already departed from Europe, imposed a change in the tour. The prince had to stop in Salvador, capital of Bahia, to supply the ships, going directly to the other countries of South America. On his return, Savoi could only be received in Salvador again. Governor Góis Calmon (1924-1918), the Italian colony and other entities made a great reception to the illustrious heir to the Italian crown.
Umberto was educated for a military career and in time became the commander-in-chief of the Northern Armies, and then the Southern ones. This role was merely formal, the "de facto" command belonging to his father, King Victor Emmanuel III, who jealously guarded his power of supreme command from "Il Duce", Benito Mussolini. By mutual agreement, Umberto and Mussolini always kept a distance. In 1926, Mussolini passed a law allowing the Fascist Grand Council to decide the succession, though in practice he admitted the prince would succeed his father.
An attempted assassination took place in Brussels on 24 October 1929, the day of the announcement of his betrothal to Princess Marie José. Umberto was about to lay a wreath on the Tomb of the Belgian Unknown Soldier at the foot of the "Colonne du Congrès" when, with a cry of 'Down with Mussolini!', Fernando de Rosa fired a single shot that missed him.
De Rosa was arrested and, under interrogation, claimed to be a member of the Second International who had fled Italy to avoid arrest for his political views. His trial was a major political event, and although he was found guilty of attempted murder, he was given a light sentence of five years in prison. This sentence caused a political uproar in Italy and a brief rift in Belgian-Italian relations, but in March 1932 Umberto asked for a pardon for de Rosa, who was released after having served slightly less than half his sentence and eventually killed in the Spanish Civil War.
In 1928, after the colonial authorities in Italian Somaliland built the Mogadishu Cathedral ("Cattedrale di Mogadiscio"), Umberto made his first publicized visit to Mogadishu, the territory's capital. Umberto made his second publicized visit to Italian Somaliland in October 1934.
Umberto was married in Rome on 8 January 1930 to Princess Marie José of Belgium (1906–2001), daughter of King Albert I of the Belgians and his wife, Queen Elisabeth, ("née" Duchess Elisabeth in Bavaria).
In the Salò republic, Mussolini returned to his original republicanism and as part of his attack on the House of Savoy, Fascist newspapers in the area under the control of the Italian Social Republic "outed" Umberto, calling him "Stellassa" ("Ugly Starlet" in Piedmontese language). The Fascist newspapers reported in a lurid, sensationalist, and decidedly homophobic way Umberto's various relationships with men as a way of discrediting him. It was after Umberto was "outed" by the Fascist press in late 1943 that the issue of his homosexuality came to widespread public notice.
Mack Smith wrote that he called "some of the more extreme monarchists" expressed doubts about the legitimacy of the referendum, claiming that millions of voters, many of them pro-monarchist, were unable to vote because they had not yet been able to return to their own local areas to register. Nor had the issue of Italy's borders been settled definitively, so the voting rights of those in disputed areas had not been satisfactorily clarified. Other allegations were made about voter manipulation, and even the issue of how to interpret the votes became controversial, as it appeared that not just a majority of those validly voting but of those votes cast (including spoiled votes), was needed to reach an outcome in the event the monarchy lost by a tight margin.
Umberto II lived for 37 years in exile, in Cascais, on the Portuguese Riviera. He never set foot in his native land again; the 1948 constitution of the Italian Republic not only forbade amending the constitution to restore the monarchy, but until 2002 barred all male heirs to the defunct Italian throne from ever returning to Italian soil. Female members of the Savoy family were not barred, except queens consort. Relations between Umberto and Marie José grew more strained during their exile, and in effect their marriage broke up with Marie José moving to Switzerland while Umberto remained in Portugal though, as Catholics, the couple never filed for divorce.
He travelled extensively during his exile, and was often seen in Mexico visiting his daughter Maria Beatrice.
At the time when Umberto was dying, in 1983, President Sandro Pertini wanted the Italian Parliament to allow Umberto to return to his native country. Ultimately, however, Umberto died in Geneva and was interred in Hautecombe Abbey, for centuries the burial place of the members of the House of Savoy. No representative of the Italian government attended his funeral.
At birth, Umberto was granted the traditional title of Prince of Piedmont. This was formalised by Royal Decree on 29 September 1904.
Elisabeth Therese of Lorraine (15 October 1711 – 3 July 1741) was born a Princess of Lorraine and was the last queen consort of Charles Emmanuel III of Sardinia. The sister of Francis Stephan, Duke of Lorraine, she died as a result of giving birth to Benedetto of Savoy.
In the spring of 1725, the young King Louis XV was fifteen and unmarried. He was engaged to Mariana Victoria of Spain, but the young princess was sent back to Spain because she was too young to conceive. As a result, Élisabeth Charlotte began negotiations to marry her daughter to the king. However, this was met with opposition from the king's prime minister, the Duke of Bourbon, who arranged for the king marry an obscure Polish princess, Marie Leszczynska later that year.
The duke of Bourbon stated that marriages between the kings of France and princesses of Lorraine always resulted in strife, and that the House of Lorraine was too closely related to the House of Habsburg, which would cause discontent and conflict with the French nobility.
Her father died in 1729 amid negotiations regarding a marriage between the then seventeen-year-old Elisabeth Therese and her recently widowed cousin Louis d'Orléans, Duke of Orléans. He refused outright, much to the annoyance of her mother. The match having come to nothing, leading her mother to name her daughter the "coadjutrice" of Remiremont Abbey on 19 October 1734. The Abbey of Remiremont was closely associated with the House of Lorraine. Her younger sister Anne Charlotte was later the abbess of the prestigious institution.
In 1736 her brother the Duke of Lorraine married the Archduchess Maria Theresa of Austria, daughter and heiress apparent of Charles VI, Holy Roman Emperor. The union between the House of Lorraine and the House of Habsburg allowed a more prestigious marriage for the unwed princess. The already twice widowed Charles Emmanuel III of Sardinia asked for her hand in late 1736.
She married the King of Sardinia by proxy on 5 March 1737 at Lunéville with the Prince of Carignan, who was the prince's brother-in-law, acting as the king. The day after the proxy marriage, she left for Lyon where she arrived on 14 March. Her brother the Duke of Lorraine raised a dowry for her and the marriage contract was signed in Vienna by the Duke and Duchess of Lorraine and Emperor Charles VI.
The couple married in person on 1 April 1737. Charles Emmanuel III was her half-first cousin, his mother being Anne Marie d'Orléans, her mother Élisabeth Charlotte's half-sister. The marriage would produce three children, but only one would live to adulthood. She and her husband arrived in Turin on 21 April.
Elisabeth Therese died at the Palace of Venaria aged 29, having fallen ill with puerperal fever after childbirth. She was buried in the Cathedral of Saint Giovanni Battista in Turin. She was moved to the Royal Basilica of Superga in 1786 by her stepson Victor Amadeus III.
The Civil Order of Savoy was founded as an order of knighthood in 1831 by the King of Sardinia, Charles Albert, Duke of Savoy. The intention was to reward those virtues not belonging to the existing Military Order of Savoy, founded by Vittorio Emanuele I in 1815. The order has one degree, that of Knight ("Cavalieri dell'Ordine civile di Savoia"), and is limited to 70 members. Admission is in the personal gift of the head of the House of Savoy.
The insignia bears the inscription "Al Merito Civile—1831"; the letters on the reverse substituted for after the death of Charles Albert in 1849.
The civil order was continued on the unification of Italy in 1861, but has been suppressed by law since the foundation of the Republic in 1946. Umberto II did not abdicate his position as "fons honorum" however, and the now dynastic order remains under the Grand Mastership of the head of the former Royal house. While the continued use of those decorations awarded prior to 1951 is permitted in Italy, they no longer confer any right of precedence in official ceremonies. The military order on the other hand, was revived as the Military Order of Italy and remains a national order today.
Prince Louis Thomas of Savoy (; Italian: "Luigi Tommaso di Savoia"; 15 December 1657 – 14 August 1702) was a Count of Soissons and Prince of Savoy. He was killed as Feldzeugmeister of the Imperial Army at the Siege of Landau at the start of the War of the Spanish Succession. There was speculation that he was an illegitimate child of Louis XIV.
Louis Thomas was the eldest son of Eugene Maurice, Count of Soissons and Olympia Mancini, as well as the oldest brother of Prince Eugene of Savoy. He married Uranie , whom Saint-Simon had once described as "radiant as the glorious morn". His daughter Princess Maria Anna Victoria of Savoy eventually inherited Eugene's estate. His maternal cousins included the Duke of Vendôme as well as the Duke of Bouillon and Louis Henri de La Tour d'Auvergne. His paternal cousins included Victor Amadeus I, Prince of Carignano and Louis William, Margrave of Baden-Baden.
After the death of his father and the flight of his mother to Brussels due to her involvement in the notorious Poison affair, Louis Thomas and Urania were charged, along with his paternal grandmother, with the rearing of his younger brothers. Eugene was never to forget the couple's loving surrogate parentage.
Louis Thomas obtained a commission as an officer in the French Army, but Louis XIV had amorous designs on his wife. Urania, however, spurned the king's romantic advances. Angered, Louis dismissed Louis Thomas from the army, and, when Louis Thomas sought a position abroad, terminated his pension and dues. In 1699, all but bankrupt, Louis Thomas sought the aid of his younger brother, Eugene, in Vienna. With Eugene's help, he obtained a commission in the Austrian Imperial Army.
On 18 August Louis was killed by a French bomb at the Siege of Landau at the onset of the War of the Spanish Succession.
Adelaide of Maurienne, also called Alix or Adele (1092 – 18 November 1154) was a queen of France as the second wife of King Louis VI (1115-1137).
Adelaide was the daughter of Count Humbert II of Savoy and Gisela of Burgundy. Adelaide's older brother Amadeus III succeeded their father as count of Savoy in 1103. Adelaide had the same name as her paternal great-grandmother Adelaide of Susa, ruler of the March of Turin, and her second cousin, Adelaide del Vasto, queen of Jerusalem. Through her father, Adelaide was also related to Emperor Henry V. On her mother's side, Adelaide's relatives included her uncle Pope Callixtus II, who visited Adelaide at court in France, and her first cousin King Alfonso VII of León and Castile.
Adelaide became the second wife of King Louis VI of France, whom she married on 3 August 1115 in Paris, France. They had nine children, the second of whom became Louis VII of France.
Adelaide was one of the most politically active of all France's medieval queens. Her name appears on 45 royal charters from the reign of Louis VI. During her tenure as queen, royal charters were dated with both her regnal year and that of the king. Among many other religious benefactions, she and Louis founded the monastery of St Peter's (Ste Pierre) at Montmartre, in the northern suburbs of Paris.
After Louis VI's death, Adelaide did not immediately retire to conventual life, as did most widowed queens of the time. Instead, she married Matthieu I of Montmorency, with whom she had one child. She remained active in the French court and religious activities.
In 1153 she retired to Montmartre Abbey, which she had founded with Louis VII. She died there on 18 November 1154. She was buried in the cemetery of the Church of St. Pierre at Montmartre. The abbey was destroyed during the French Revolution, but Adelaide's tomb is still visible in the church of St Pierre.
Adelaide is one of two queens in a legend related in the seventeenth century by William Dugdale. As the story goes, Queen Adélaide of France became enamored of a young knight, William d'Albini, at a joust. However, he was already engaged to Adeliza of Louvain and refused to become her lover. The jealous Adélaide lured him into the clutches of a hungry lion, but William ripped out the beast's tongue with his bare hands and thus killed it. This story is almost without a doubt, apocryphal.
Louis and Adelaide had seven sons and two daughters:
With Matthieu I of Montmorency, Adelaide had one daughter:
The emblem of the Italian Republic () was formally adopted by the newly formed Italian Republic on 5 May 1948. Although often referred to as a coat of arms (or in Italian), it is technically an emblem as it was designed not to conform to traditional heraldic rules.
The emblem comprises a white five-pointed star, the "Stella d’Italia" (English: "Star of Italy"), with a thin red border, superimposed upon a five-spoked cogwheel, standing between an olive branch to the left side and an oak branch to the right side; the branches are in turn bound together by a red ribbon with the inscription "" ("Repubblica Italiana", Italian for "Italian Republic", with the U - absent from the classical Latin alphabet - spelt with a V, as is common in inscriptions and heraldry). The emblem is used extensively by the Italian government.
The armorial bearings of the House of Savoy, blazoned "gules a cross argent", were previously in use by the former Kingdom of Italy; the supporters, on either side "a lion rampant Or", were replaced with "fasci littori" (literally bundles of the lictors) during the fascist era.
The central element of the emblem is the five-pointed star white star, also called "Stella d'Italia" (English: "Star of Italy"), which is the oldest national symbol of Italy, since it dates back to ancient Greece. In this historical epoch Italy was associated with the Star of Venus because it was located west of the Hellenic peninsula. Venus, immediately after sunset, is sometimes visible on the horizon towards the west. It is the traditional symbolic representation of Italy since the Risorgimento and refers to the traditional iconography that Italy wants to portray as an attractive woman surrounded by a turreted crown - from which the allegory of Italia turrita - and dominated by a bright star, the Star of Italy.
The star marked the first award of Republican reconstruction, the Order of the Star of Italian Solidarity, and still indicates membership of the Armed Forces today.
In the republican emblem the Star of Italy is superimposed on a steel cogwheel, symbol of work, which is at the base of the Republic. Article 1 of the Italian Constitution reads:
However, this reference to work should not be understood as a legal rule, which would oblige the State to protect it in detail, but rather to refer to the principle connected to it, which is the foundation of Italian society. The second paragraph, instead, assigning sovereignty exclusively to the people, establishes the democratic character of the republic. The cogwheel is also present on the flag and the emblem of Angola and on the emblem of Mozambique, nations left by the process of decolonization of the Portuguese Empire as well as on the coats of arms of the Italian municipalities of Assago, Cafasse and Chiesina Uzzanese.
The set formed by the cogwheel and the star of Italy is enclosed by an oak branch, located on the right, which symbolizes the strength and dignity of the Italians (in Latin the term "robur" means both oak and moral strength and physics), and from an olive branch, located instead on the left, which represents Italy's will for peace, both internally and vis-à-vis other nations. Both oak and olive trees are characteristic of the Italian landscape. The green branches are in turn bound together by a red ribbon bearing the inscription in white capital letters. As regards Italy's desire for peace, Article 11 of the Constitution states:
The refusal of war as an instrument of offense does not follow that Italy cannot participate in a conflict, so much so that articles 78 and 87 of the Constitution prescribe which state organs decide the state of war. In particular, for Italy, it is the two chambers that decree the state of war, which is then formally declared by the President of the Republic; the chambers then give the Italian government the necessary powers to face the conflict. Another extraordinary provision in case of war is the duration of the legislature of the two chambers, which can be exceptionally extended, as stated in article 103 of the Constitution, beyond the five canonical years.
The emblem of the Italian Republic cannot be defined as a coat of arms as it has no shield; the latter being in fact, according to the heraldic definition, an essential part of the crests (as opposed to other decorations such as, for example, crowns, helmets or fronds, which are accessory parts). For this reason it is more correct to refer to it as "national emblem".
The Italian naval ensign, since 1947, comprises the national flag defaced with the arms of the Marina Militare; the "Marina Mercantile" (and private citizens at sea) use the civil ensign, differenced by the absence of the mural crown and the lion holding open the gospel, bearing the inscription , instead of a sword. The shield is quartered, symbolic of the four "repubbliche marinare", or great thalassocracies, of Italy: Venice (represented by the lion "passant", top left), Genoa (top right), Amalfi (bottom left), and Pisa (represented by their respective crosses).
To acknowledge the Navy's origins in ancient Rome, the "rostrata" crown, "... emblem of honor and of value that the Roman Senate conferred on "duci" of shipping companies, conquerors of lands and cities overseas," was proposed by Admiral Cavagnari in 1939. An inescutcheon, bearing the Savoy shield flanked by fasces, was removed before the arms were first employed.
The Esercito Italiano, Aeronautica Militare and Arma dei Carabinieri also have their own distinctive coats of arms as do each of the municipalities, provinces and regions of Italy.
The Kingdom of Italy was a French client state founded in Northern Italy by Napoleon I, Emperor of the French in 1805. It had a peculiar coat of arms, formed by the arms of the House of Bonaparte augmented by charges from various Italian regions. When Napoleon abdicated the thrones of France and Italy in 1814, the former monarchies were gradually re-established and following the Treaty of Paris in 1815, the rump was annexed by the Austrian Empire.
Between 1848 and 1861, a sequence of events led to the independence and unification of Italy (except for Venetia, Rome, Trento and Trieste, or "Italia irredenta", which were united with the rest of Italy in 1866, 1870 and 1918 respectively); this period of Italian history is known as the "Risorgimento", or resurgence. During this period, the green, white and red "tricolore" became the symbol which united all the efforts of the Italian people towards freedom and independence.
On 4 May 1870, nine years later, the Consulta Araldica issued a decree on the arms, as with the Sardinian arms, two "lions rampant" in gold supporting the shield, bearing instead only the Savoy cross (as on the flag) now representing all Italy, with a crowned helmet, around which, the collars of the Military Order of Savoy, the Civil Order of Savoy, the Order of the Crown of Italy (established 2 February 1868), the Order of Saints Maurice and Lazarus, and the Supreme Order of the Most Holy Annunciation (bearing the motto FERT) were suspended. The lions held lances flying the national flag. From the helmet fell a royal mantle, engulfed by a pavilion under the "Stellone d'Italia", purported to protect the nation.
After twenty years, on 1 January 1890, the arms' exterior were slightly modified more in keeping with those of Sardinia. The fur mantling and lances disappeared and the crown was taken from the helmet to the pavilion, now sewn with crosses and roses. The Iron Crown of Lombardy was placed on the helmet, under the traditional Savoyan crest (a winged lionhead), which, together with the banner of Savoy from the former Sardinian arms, replaced the star of Italy. These arms remained in official use for 56 years until the birth of the Italian Republic and continue today as the dynastic arms of the head of the House of Savoy.
On 11 April 1929, the Savoy lions were replaced by Mussolini with fasces from the National Fascist Party shield. After his dismissal and arrest on 25 July 1943 however, the earlier version was briefly restored until the emblem of the new "Repubblica Italiana" was adopted, after the institutional referendum on the form of the state, held on 2 June 1946. This is celebrated in Italy as Festa della Repubblica.
The arms of the short-lived Nazi state in northern Italy, the "Repubblica Sociale Italiana" (Italian Social Republic), or "Republic of Salò" as it was commonly known, was that of the governing Republican Fascist Party, a silver eagle clutching a banner of the "tricolore" inverted on a shield charged with fasces. Italian fascism derived its name from the fasces, which symbolises authority and/or "strength through unity". The fasces has been used to show the "imperium" (power) of the Roman Empire, and was thus considered an appropriate heraldic symbol. Additionally, Roman legions had carried the "aquila", or eagle, as "signa militaria".
This shield had previously been displayed alongside the Royal arms from 1927 to 1929, when the latter was modified to incorporate elements of both.
On 25 April 1945, commemorated as Festa della Liberazione, the government of Benito Mussolini fell. The separate Italian Social Republic had existed for slightly more than one and a half years.
The decision to provide the new Italian Republic with an emblem was taken by the government of Alcide De Gasperi in October 1946. The design was chosen by public competition, with the requirement that political party emblems were forbidden and the inclusion of the Stellone d'Italia (English: "Great Star of Italy"), "inspired by a sense of the earth and municipalities." The five winners were assigned further requirements for the design of the emblem, "a ring that has towered shaped crown," surrounded by a garland of Italian foliage and flora.
Below a representation of the sea, and above, the gold star, with the legend "Unità e Libertà" or Unity and Liberty in the Italian language. The winner was Paolo Paschetto, Professor of the Institute of Fine Arts in Rome from 1914 to 1948, and the design was presented in February 1947, together with the other finalists, in an exhibition in Via Margutta. This version, however, did not meet with public approval, so a new competition was held, again won by Paolo Paschetto. The new emblem was approved by the Constituent Assembly in February 1948, and officially adopted by the President of the Italian Republic, Enrico De Nicola in May 1948.
Princess Polyxena of Hesse-Rheinfels-Rotenburg (Polyxena Christina Johanna; 21 September 1706 – 13 January 1735) was the second wife of Charles Emmanuel, Prince of Piedmont whom she married in 1724. The mother of the future Victor Amadeus III, she was queen consort of Sardinia from 1730 until her death in 1735.
Polyxena was born as the eldest daughter of Ernst Leopold, Landgrave of Hesse-Rheinfels-Rotenburg and Princess Eleonore of Löwenstein-Wertheim-Rochefort, daughter of Maximilian Karl Albert, Prince of Löwenstein-Wertheim-Rochefort.
King Victor Amadeus II of Sardinia approached her family and proposed a union between Polyxena and Victor Amadeus II's son and heir, Charles Emmanuel, Prince of Piedmont. A previous match orchestrated by Agostino Steffani with a daughter of Rinaldo d'Este, Duke of Modena, had come to nothing. His first wife, Countess Palatine Anne Christine of Sulzbach, died on 12 March 1723, less than a year after her marriage and barely a week after giving birth to a son, Victor Amadeus, Duke of Aosta (7 March 1723 – 1 August 1725).
Although only two years younger, Polyxena was a niece of Charles Emanuel's first wife, and belonged to the only Roman Catholic branch (since 1652) of the reigning House of Hesse. She had been nominally a canoness of Thorn since 1720.
The engagement was announced on 2 July 1724, and she wed Charles Emmanuel by proxy on 23 July in Rotenburg. The marriage was celebrated in person at Thonon in Chablais on 20 August 1724.
Her stepson Victor Amadeus, heir after his father and grandfather to the Sardinian crown, died at the age of two, a year after Polyxena's marriage and before she had a child of her own. Nonetheless, she is said to have had a close relationship with her mother-in-law, Anne Marie d'Orléans, and the two frequented the "Villa della Regina" outside the capital, where the latter died in 1728.
When King Victor Amadeus announced his decision to return to the throne after having abdicated in 1730, Polyxena used her influence over her husband to have his father imprisoned at the Castle of Moncalieri, where he was joined for a while by his morganatic wife, Anna Canalis di Cumiana, Polyxena's former lady of the bedchamber.
In an 1869 history of the House of Savoy, Francesco Predari wrote that despite the fact Polyxena was praised for goodness of character and beautiful virtues, her father-in-law advised her to take care to maintain separate quarters from her husband for prudence's sake. In 1732 she founded a home for young mothers in Turin, redecorated the "Villa della Regina", Stupinigi's hunting lodge, and the Church of Saint Joseph in Turin. She carried out various improvements with Filippo Juvarra and popularised "chinoiserie". She was also a patron of Giovanni Battista Crosato, a baroque painter.
Having been ill since June 1734, she died at the Royal Palace of Turin, and has been buried in the Royal Basilica of Superga since 1786. Two years after her death, her widower married Princess Elisabeth Therese of Lorraine, sister of the future Francis I, Holy Roman Emperor.
The senior branch of the House of Savoy ended with her grandson Charles Felix of Sardinia. The "Villa Polissena" in Rome is named in her honour.
Isabella of Savoy (11 March 1591 – 28 August 1626) was a daughter of Charles Emmanuel I, Duke of Savoy, and Catherine Michelle of Spain. Her maternal grandparents were Philip II of Spain and Elisabeth of Valois, her paternal grandparents were Emmanuel Philibert, Duke of Savoy and Margaret of France, Duchess of Berry. She was the Hereditary Princess of Modena, dying before her husband succeeded to the Duchy of Modena in 1628.
Isabella was born in Turin to Charles Emmanuel I, Duke of Savoy and his wife Infanta Catherine Michelle of Spain, a daughter of Philip II of Spain and Elisabeth of France.
In Turin on 22 February 1608 she married Alfonso, Hereditary Prince of Modena (son of Cesare d'Este and Virginia de' Medici), this was a happy marriage, Alfonso was loving and loyal towards his wife. Within two years Isabella bore Alfonso a son, Francesco who would one day succeed his father as Duke of Modena and Reggio. When Isabella died on 28 August 1626 Alfonso was heartbroken, he never remarried and died in 1644. She died as a result of childbirth and before her husband became duke so she was never Duchess of Modena.
Isabella and Alfonso had fourteen children in all:
Maria Carolina of Savoy (Maria Carolina Antonietta Adelaide; 17 January 1764 – 28 December 1782) was a Princess of Savoy from her birth. She was the youngest daughter of the future Victor Amadeus III of Sardinia and married in 1781 to the Electoral Prince of Saxony. She died of Smallpox aged eighteen.
Born to the Duke and Duchess of Savoy at the Royal Palace of Turin, she was the couple's tenth child and sixth daughter.
Her sisters included the future granddaughters-in-law of Louis XV of France, Princess Maria Giuseppina, who married the future Louis XVIII of France in 1771 and Princess Maria Teresa, wife of the future Charles X of France, married in 1773. Her sisters' brother in law was the unfortunate Louis XVI of France.
Her brothers included the last three kings of Sardinia from the main line; the future Charles Emmanuel IV, Victor Emmanuel I and Charles Felix of Sardinia. Her father became king of Sardinia in 1773 at the death of her grandfather Charles Emmanuel III of Sardinia who had ruled Sardinia for 43 years.

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