CITAZIONE
In a formal 2019 decree, the “Duke of Savoy, Prince of Naples and by the grace of God direct heir to Head of the Royal House of Savoy,” amended a medieval law that for centuries had restricted succession in his royal line to male heirs.
He bumped “our beloved granddaughter” Vittoria Cristina Chiara Adelaide Maria up the royal food chain, making her the first woman in 1,000 years to be invested with the authority to eventually lead the family and stake a claim to the defunct monarchy.
“It was the best gift he could give me,” Vittoria, now 17 and a burgeoning Instagram influencer, said from her Paris home.
While Vittoria’s father in Monte Carlo and mother in Paris were as delighted as her grandparents in Gstaad about her ascension to the top of Italy’s would-be royal family, a rival branch of Savoias were not pleased. Not at all.
“Totally illegitimate,” said Prince Aimone di Savoia Aosta, a cousin and rival claimant, who works as an executive for the Pirelli tire company in Moscow.
And so began the latest chapter in an ongoing dynastic dispute between the pretenders to Italy’s pretend throne. There are bitter feelings, thrown punches, warring noble committees, dukedom politics and as of last month, Vittoria’s ascending social media status.
What there is not is an actual crown to fight over.
Italy is a republic, having abolished the monarchy 75 years ago for its disastrous support of Mussolini, and Italians have approximately zero interest in a royal restoration.
“Never say never,” said Vittoria’s father, Emanuele Filiberto, an Italian television personality who claims the title Prince of Venice, which is also the name of his Los Angeles restaurant and former food truck. (“We do a lot of film premieres. We did Jumanji,” he said.) Obviously, he said, the monarchy wasn’t returning “tomorrow,” but he had no sons and the family needed a head of the royal household to run its historic orders. Plus, “we also have a lot of people who are seeing the family with a potential comeback.”
Few Italians want that, even in Carignano, an ancestral home of Vittorio Emanuele’s branch of the family, which Vittoria became princess of on her 16th birthday.
“Never heard of her,” said teenagers, middle-aged shoppers, and old men with canes as they walked near the Piazza Savoia, once home to a castle, now a parking lot.
It seemed that only Paolo Castagno, the local historian, knew anything about Vittoria or the family feud over her ascension. As he showed the tomb of one of Vittoria’s extremely distant ancestors in a church adorned with white stucco angels, he posited a source for the current spat.
“Money,” said Mr. Castagno, 59. Only heirs to the throne, he said, control the orders that distribute noble titles in exchange for lucrative payments to the family. By changing the inheritance law, Vittorio Emanuele ensured his branch a future revenue stream and prestige.
“They are the ones getting invited to royal weddings.”
The Savoias, like newly enlightened non-despots, insist that money has nothing to do with it and that they have only high-minded motivations for changing the order of succession, like embracing European Union values and boosting women’s rights. Emanuele Filiberto is currently creating a Crown-like series about his grandmother, Queen Marie-José.
“Totally antifascist,” he said.
“A great antifascist,” echoed Vittoria, who called her a role model.
Emanuele Filiberto notes that many of Europe’s remaining monarchs are women, starting with Queen Elizabeth in Britain. Their royal houses have a much better track record of female empowerment than Italy’s Parliament, where women are notoriously underrepresented, he said.
“Monarchies,” he said, “at least we give the power to the women.”
Emanuele Filiberto’s wife, the French actress Clotilde Courau, whom he met as they fenced at an event organized by his friend Prince Albert of Monaco, also cast her daughter as a gender equality trailblazer.
“It’s a huge thing in history,” said Ms. Courau, who lives with Vittoria and her younger sister in Paris. She added that while she wished Vittoria had more time to prepare, “she now, is, how do you say, the future régnante,” or ruler.
Vittoria, when asked whether she thought Italy was ready to have her as a queen, or head of the family, said she had heard “Italy is not really progressive.”
“But” she added, “they will learn.”
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