Vittorio Emanuele, Duke of Savoy, son of Italy’s last king, and his wife Marina Doria are on display at the Royal Palace in Turin, Italy, on October 29, 2010. Emanuele died on Saturday at the age of 86, his family announced. File photo: Alessandro di Marco/EPA
Feb. 3 (UPI) — Vittorio Emanuele, Duke of Savoy and son of Italy’s last king, died Saturday in Geneva, his family announced. He was 86 years old.
Emanuele, son of Italy’s King Umberto II, “passed away peacefully in Geneva surrounded by his family,” the Savoy family said in a statement.
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Emanuele, who would have celebrated her birthday on February 12th, has led a controversial life marked by numerous scandals. Her most notable case was her acquittal of criminal charges in the 1978 shooting death of 19-year-old German man Dirk Hammer. Hammer was shot and killed in August 1978 on Cavallo, a small Mediterranean island that is part of Corsica.
In 1991, a Paris court sentenced Emanuele to six months in prison for illegally possessing the firearm used to kill Hammer, and acquitted him of murder.
Emanuele lived in exile until Italy changed its stance on the monarchy in 2003.
The only son of Umberto II, he briefly ascended the throne in May and June 1946, after which Italy suspended its monarchy. Umberto lived in his exile in Geneva until his death in 1983 at the age of 78.
He had long wanted to return to Italy, but it wasn’t until 2003 that it became a reality for his son.
Emanuele had one son, Emanuele Filiberto, with his wife Marina Doria. The couple married in Iran in 1971, but publications at the time condemned the prince’s marriage to a “commoner.”
Doria, 88, is a former Swiss water skiing champion and still lives in Geneva.
“The location and date of the funeral will be announced as soon as possible,” the Savoy family said in a statement.