Italian Vittorio Emanuele
born Nov. 11, 1869, Naples, Italy
died Dec. 28, 1947, Alexandria, Egypt
King of Italy (190046).
Son of Umberto I , he came suddenly to the throne on his father's assassination (1900). He accepted a Liberal cabinet and readily agreed to Italy's war against Turkey (191112) and entry into World War I. After the war, he failed to prevent the rise of Benito Mussolini and the fascist seizure of power, which turned him into a figurehead sovereign. In 1943, after disastrous Italian military losses and the Allied invasion of Sicily, he had Mussolini arrested and replaced by Pietro Badoglio as premier. In 1944 he relinquished power to his son Umberto and, in an unsuccessful attempt to preserve the monarchy, abdicated in Umberto's favour in 1946 (see Umberto II ). When the Italian republic was declared in 1946, father and son went into exile.