Princess Maria Gabriella of Savoy

Princess Maria Gabriella of Savoy (Maria Gabriella Giuseppa Aldegonda Adelaide Ludovica Felicita Gennara; born 24 February 1940) is the middle daughter of Italy's last king, Umberto II, and Marie José of Belgium, the "May Queen". She is a historical writer. Life Maria Gabriella di Savoia was the third child of the Prince and Princess of Piedmont, born in Naples, Italy in 1940. Her older siblings were Princess Maria Pia and Prince Vittorio Emanuele, while the younger was Princess Maria Beatrice. Her parents, married since 1930, were unhappy together, as her mother confessed in an interview many years later (On n'a jamais été heureux, "We were never happy"), and separated after the Italian monarchy was abolished following the 1946 referendum. To avoid capture by Nazi troops her mother had fled Italy to neutral Switzerland with Maria Gabriella and her siblings, where they took refuge from September 1943 until their return to Italy in 1945, by which time their father had become lieutenant-general of the kingdom for his father, King Victor Emmanuel III. Exiled after the fall of the monarchy, the family gathered briefly in Portugal, whence she, her sisters and brother soon returned with their mother to Switzerland, while their father remained in the Portuguese Riviera. Educated in Switzerland, Maria Gabriella also took courses at a school associated with the Louvre in Paris. After her father's death, and with her brother's approval, she launched the King Umberto II Foundation in Lausanne, dedicated to preserving the history and legacy of the House of Savoy. She participated in numerous cultural presentations and organised an exhibit in Albertville during the 1992 Olympics. At the beginning of the 21st century she co-authored a number of books, mostly with Stefano Papi. Suggested marriage to the Shah of Iran In the 1950s, Mohammad Reza Pahlavi, Shah of Iran, then divorced from his second wife, indicated his interest in marrying Princess Maria Gabriella. Pope John XXIII reportedly vetoed the suggestion. In an editorial about the rumors surrounding the marriage of "a Muslim sovereign and a Catholic princess", the Vatican newspaper, L'Osservatore Romano, wrote that the match constituted "a grave danger."