Contemporary genealogic functions in Italy
THE ITALIAN REPUBLIC was established by popular vote in a/referendum held in 1946, democratically removing the Sovereign from theThrone. During the months to follow, heraldic offices were abolishedand the use of titles brought under strict control.
The laws of the new republic were to be very explicit indeed. The deposed monarch, King Humbert II, was exiled, his heirs forbidden from setting foot on Italian soil. While the social use of the old titles of nobility was not banned, peers could no longer expect any legal precedence or other privileges. Their titles remained lawful only in sofar as these could be incorporated into the surname. The Consulta Araldica (College of Arms) was formally abolished, its operations assumed by private bodies such as Collegia Araldico, formerly a heraldry society. Although the Republic would not grant titles or armorial bearings, it would bestow knightly honours upon outstand ingcitizens—titles which would confer little more than national recognition.
As we examine the heraldic policies of the Italians, let us remember that heraldry, as the term is used here, denotes not only armory per se but heraldic functions in general.
The Monarchies
Victor Emmanuel II, first king of a united Italy, was said to have ruled "by the grace of God and the will of the nation," an assertion that shocked Queen Victoria and others.
While the Savoys may have ruled the annexed Papal States and Two Sicilies illegaUy in view of international law, reigning as kings of all Italy for less than a century, the House of Savoy had exercised sovereign rule over its Piedmontese dominions for nearly a millennium, being the oldest ruling house of Europe at the time of its post-war exile. Indeed, the Savoys' Supreme Order of the Annunciation, founded in 1362, is the oldest dynastic order of chivalry after England's Most Noble Order of the Garter.
A descendant of "the gentleman king" lives in exile in Switzerland as the Pretender to the Italian Throne. This is his namesake and great-great grandson H.R.H. Prince Victor Emmanuel, Duke of Savoy. His wife, the Duchess of Savoy, is the former Marina Ricolfi
Doria. Their son, the Heir Apparent, is Prince Emmanuel Philibert. Monarchist advocates seek to re-install the Savoyard Royal Family in a cultural, non-political role, perhaps as the fount of honours confer- red by the Republic. It is doubtful if the Throne could exercise absolute motu proprio in a democracy, yet the Duke of Savoy has expressed a willingness to serve his people in whatever manner they should determine appropriate in future. Even today Italy is a nation divided—North and South, Milanese and Roman, Alpine and Mediterranean, industrial and rural—finding herself with two very legitimate royal families, albeit each one legitimate in different parts of the country. The "other" Royal Family is the Royal House of Bourbon of the Two Sicilies, known also as the
Royal House of Naples.
The Bourbon Pretender to the Neapolitan Throne is H.R.H. Prince Ferdinand, Duke of Castro. Regarded under international law as the demure sovereign of Sicily and southern Italy fthe "Mezzogiorno"), he is the Grand Master of two orders of chivalry, one of which
is the only Italian dynastic order officially endorsed by the Italian Republic. He resides in France with his wife, the Duchess of Castro, the former Countess Chantal Frances de Chevron- Villette. The youngest of their three children, Prince Carl, Duke of Calabria, is the Heir Apparent.
In contrast to the antipathy that marked the-nineteenth century unification movement—known to Italians as the Risorgimento—relations between the two royal families are quite amicable today, when neither is regnant. The Duke of Castro has received the Order of the Annunciation of the House of Savoy, and the Duke of Savoy has received the Constantinian Order of Saint George of the House of Bourbon of Naples, as did his late father. King Humbert II. It is altogether likely that a future referendum presented to the people of Italy would feature a choice betweeen the two monarchies, or perhaps even the alternative of a dual monarchy, to serve the
citizens of the Republic.
The Nobility
As we have seen in France, the noblesse can exist sans a fons honorum in the person of a sovereign. In Italy, where the most ancient noble families trace their aristocratic roots to the patrician class of ancient Rome, alliance with a royal family seems superfluous save for Machiavellian purposes. Coupled with the fragmentation of the nation over the course of history, this explains the perseverance of the nobility through the centuries as an entity unto itself. The peerage consists of barons, viscounts, counts, marquesses, dukes and noble princes. Several ranks of lesser nobility, loosely comparable to the landed gentry of Great Britain, are the patricians, untitled nobles, hereditary knights bachelor and seigneurial lords. None of these titles confers any form of precedence whatsoever.
Widely used socially, aristocratic titles are lawful only to the extent that occupational, military, chivalric and clerical honorifics are legal. The official format of legal documents requires that nobiliary titles be incorporated into one's surname or dominion, a practice analogous to making "Lord", "Sir", or "Esquire" part of a surname. Having nourished for so long, it is hardly surprising that the Italian nobility has endured republican democracy in spite of history's vicissitudes.
The Heralds
Most medieval Italian heralds were independent; one would never think to associate them with particular houses. Later, when Italy's rulers established courts of chivalry to regulate the use of arms, the courts—and the rulers—were too often foreign ones. Italy had far too
many small duchies to allow for widespread heraldic control, and there were no Visitations. Thus, we find in Italy today no fewer than half a dozen unrelated families bearing the famous arms "azure a bend or". Doubtless the Lombard and Sicilian families sharing these arms never envisioned the day when both would be subjects of the
same monarch, much less citizens of the same republic. Because the lawful possession of an ancient coat of arms by a family of distinta civiltd (distinguished gentility) constitutes lesser nobility in Italy, many nobili (landed, untitled nobles) and patrizi (patricians) lay claim to their rank in this manner. This is significant because the group that Italians consider the "gentry" is little more than a largely nonarmigerous bourgeosie nou^ieavih&t emerged during the nineteenth century and today provides the vast majority of the political and commercial elite. The bearing of arms takes on even greater importance because Italian lacks onomastic prefixes (such as the French de and German von) designating noble origins. With the abolition of the Consults Araldica (College of Arms) by the Republic, a non-official body (Collegia Araldico) patronized by the House of Savoy assumed certain heraldic functions—primarily the recording of various families' titles and arms. In practice, the role served by Collegia Araldico is aptly compared to that of Burke's and Debrett's in England. The Libra d'Oro delta Nobilta. Italiana (Golden Book of the Italian Nobility) issued every few years by Collegia Araldico lists blazons and concise pedigrees of titled families who remit a fee to defray high publication costs—this in addition to the price of the volume itself. Hence, numerous names are absent from its pages, having become casualties of the economy or mere oversight. Prominent heraldic scholars, notably Count Guelfi Camaiani and Count Coccia Urbani, both Florentines, assist Italians with armorial claims. Grants of arms are only rarely devised by the two royal houses, and the Italian government exercises no authority in armorial
