King's lieutenant In the
Kingdom of Italy,
unified under the
House of Savoy, the institution of the lieutenancy general of the king () was not codified in law, but became over time a true constitutional custom, finding application in the unification of Italy () between 1859 and 1870 and during
World War I, in which
Italy participated from May 1915 to November 1918.
Lieutenancies in the unification of Italy As he had in 1848–1849 in the
Kingdom of Sardinia,
Eugene Emmanuel of Savoy-Carignano held the title of "lieutenant general of the kingdom" in 1859 when King Victor Emmanuel II took part in the
Second Italian War of Independence. Immediately after the new Kingdom of Italy issued decrees annexing pre-unification
Italian states, it delegated the function of governing the territories of the former states in the name of the king to a decentralized constitutional body that served as the provisional government in each state. A "lieutenant of the king" served as the leader of each provisional government and oversaw the administration of the territory of each former state while awaiting its administrative unification with the kingdom. The title of "lieutenant of the king" fell to various figures in the annexed territories, such as that of the dictator or the royal commissioner that preceded the annexation. A lieutenancy was established on the territory of the former
Grand Duchy of Tuscany, where Eugene Emmanuel of Savoy-Carignano was appointed "king's lieutenant" when the Kingdom of Italy annexed the grand duchy in 22 March 1860. He held the position until February 1861. In the former territories of the
Kingdom of the Two Sicilies in Sicily, King Victor Emmanuel II appointed
Senator Massimo Cordero di Montezemolo as "Lieutenant General of the King in the Sicilian Provinces" in December 1860 at the end of
Giuseppe Garibaldi's
dictatorship in Sicily. Montezemolo led a Council of Lieutenancy in Sicily which held the powers of the central government of the Kingdom of Italy except for those of
Foreign Affairs,
War, and
the Navy. Montezemolo was followed by
Alessandro Della Rovere and then
Ignazio De Genova di Pettinengo before the lieutenancy ceased in January 1862. In the Neapolitan provinces of the Kingdom of the Two Sicilies, which included most of
Southern Italy (), Victor Emmanuel II appointed
Luigi Carlo Farini as lieutenant general of the king on 6 November 1860. Eugene Emmanuel of Savoy-Carignano succeeded him on 3 January 1861 and remained in
Naples until the end of May 1861. Thereafter, General
Enrico Cialdini served as lieutenant general in Naples from 15 July to 15 October 1861. Eugene Emmanuel of Savoy-Carignano held the title of "lieutenant general of the kingdom" in 1866 when Victor Emmanuel II took part in the
Third Italian War of Independence. After the Kingdom of Italy
captured Rome from the
Papal States in September 1870, it established the "General Lieutenancy of the King for Rome and the Roman Provinces" with Royal Decree Number 5906 of 9 October 1870. It was headed by
Alfonso La Marmora. It was abolished on 1 February 1871.
World War I When Italy entered
World War I on the side of the
Allies in May 1915, King
Victor Emmanuel III () decided to leave for
the front and entrusted some of his governmental functions to his uncle,
Prince Tommaso, Duke of Genoa, by a special decree of 25 May 1915. As lieutenant general, Prince Tommasso carried out only formal and protocol functions in
Rome without any role in substantive governance. However, during the war years royal decrees were called "lieutenant decrees" and bore the signature of Prince Tommasso rather than that of Victor Emmanuel III. The war ended on 11 November 1918, but Prince Tommasso's lieutenancy extended well beyond that: It was not until 7 July 1919 that Prince Tommasso returned to private life and the King to the full extent of his functions in accordance with Decree Number 1082 of 6 July 1919.
Italian protectorate of Albania Italy
conquered the
Albanian Kingdom in April 1939, establishing the
Italian protectorate of Albania with Victor Emmanuel III as its king. In 1940, the Kingdom of Italy considered appointing
Prince Adalberto, Duke of Bergamo, to act as king's lieutenant general in Albania, but no such appointment took place.
Lieutenant General of the Kingdom in May 1944, a month before his appointment as "Lieutenant General of the Kingdom." During
World War II, Italy
surrendered to the
Allies on 8 September 1943 and
switched to the Allied side. The Kingdom of Italy's support for
Italian fascism before the surrender and its choices thereafter had made the
House of Savoy unpopular in Italy by the spring of 1944, leading to growing sentiment for King Victor Emmanuel III's
abdication and even for the replacement of the monarchy with a republic; in fact, the leaders of anti-
fascist Italian political parties desired the abdication of Victor Emmanuel, the renunciation of the throne by his son
Crown prince Umberto, former
Prince of Piedmont, and the immediate appointment of a civil
regent. In the spring of 1944, Victor Emmanuel reached a compromise agreement – supported by former president of the
Chamber of Deputies and future
president of the
Italian Republic Enrico De Nicola — with the
National Liberation Committee (), to "freeze" the institutional question about the future government of Italy until the end of World War II and the concurrent
Italian Civil War between the Kingdom of Italy and the
Italian Social Republic. Under this agreement, Victor Emmanuel III retired to private life on 5 June 1944, remaining king but appointing his son Umberto to serve as regent, exercising the prerogatives of the sovereign without holding the title of king. Although Victor Emmanuel's signed appointment decree contained the traditional wording "Appointment of HRH [His Royal Highness] Umberto of Savoy, Prince of Piedmont, as Lieutenant General of the King," Umberto assumed the title of "Lieutenant General of the Kingdom" () instead of "King's Lieutenant," as always used in the past. This choice was made to underline both Umberto's greater powers as lieutenant – unlike previous lieutenants, he was not subordinate to the king – and that the maintenance of the monarchy or the transition to a republican regime would be implemented freely, without the need to consult with or remove the king. The title of "Lieutenant General of the Kingdom," rather than of the king, also rooted Umberto's role more with the Italian state than with the monarchy. After his appointment, Umberto split his role between lieutenant and crown prince: As lieutenant general he ruled Italy like a provisional
head of state, while as crown prince he served as pretender to a throne now removed from automatic dynastic succession, pending resolution of the question of the institutional form of the future Italian state. In 1944 he signed Lieutenant Decree-Law Number 151/1944, which established that "after the liberation of the national territory" of Italy from the
Axis powers and the Italian Social Republic "the institutional forms" of government would be "chosen by the Italian people, who for this purpose" would elect "by universal, direct, and secret suffrage, a
Constituent Assembly to decide on the new
Constitution of the State," extending the vote to women for the first time. As lieutenant, Umberto soon earned the trust of the Allies thanks to his choice of orienting the policies of the Italian monarchy toward pro-Western positions. Umberto's lieutenancy lasted until 9 May 1946, when the buildup to Italy's first post-World War II elections led Victor Emmanuel III's advisors to induce him to abdicate in advance of the
referendum on the future governance of the Italian state scheduled for 2 and 3 June 1946. The advisors hoped that his abdication would further distance the House of Savoy from Victor Emmanuel, who had favored the advent of the fascist
Mussolini government, and increase the chance that the referendum would result in the preservation of the monarchy. When Victor Emmanuel abdicated, Umberto took the throne as King Umberto II, but the results of the June 1946 referendum favored the abolition of the monarchy and establishment of the Italian Republic, and Umberto II reigned only until 18 June 1946 before going into exile. ==Sovereign Military Order of Malta==