July 29, 1900: King Umberto I of Italy Is Assassinated

July 29, 1900: King Umberto I of Italy is assassinated in Monza. He was 56 years old.

Umberto Ranieri Carlo Emanuele Giovanni Maria Ferdinando Eugenio di Savoia was born on March 14, 1844, in Turin, in what was then the Kingdom of Piedmont-Sardinia. The island of Sardinia is at the geographic opposite end of Italy but "Piedmont" was a name for a part of Italy under control of the royal House of Savoy.

His father was King Victor Emmanuel II, who became King of Italy in 1861. Upon his death on January 9, 1878, the son became King Umberto I, his name translated into English as "Humbert." Because the struggle for the unification of Italy led to a split between the Savoys and Pope Pius IX, it was difficult to find a Catholic bride for the Crown Prince, and, in 1868, he married his first cousin, Margherita Teresa Giovanna. They had 1 son, and, despite Umberto's harsh upbringing and his distaste for his father, he named his son Vittorio Emanuele.

Within 10 months of his accession, he faced his 1st assassination attempt, by a man with a dagger. Umberto saw him in time and, wearing his dress uniform, knocked him away with his sword. The would-be assassin, Giovanni Passannante, was an anarchist, a sign of things to come. He would outlive the King, but spent the rest of his life in a psychiatric institution.

Abroad, the King tried to follow the other European powers in "the Scramble for Africa," by taking Somalia and Eritrea. He also worked with Kaiser Wilhelm I of Germany and Emperor Franz Josef I of Austria to form the Triple Alliance, pledged to go to war with France or Russia if Germany did so against either.

At home, he found it difficult to deal with the rise of organized crime, the Mafia in Sicily and the Camorra in Naples, both desperately poor regions. But even the relatively rich North suffered. There was a bad wheat harvest in 1897, leading to food riots in Milan starting on May 6, 1898. Some of the demonstrators had acquired rifles from the workshops of arms manufacturers.

General Fiorenzo Bava Beccaris ordered his troops to fire on demonstrators, and used the artillery as well. The streets were cleared, and on May 9, the troops used their artillery to breach the walls of a monastery outside Porta Monforte. But instead of protestors, they found a group of beggars who were there to receive alms from the friars.

According to the Italian government, a total of 80 demonstrators and other civilians were killed, as well as two soldiers, while 450 persons were wounded. The opposition in Italy claimed 400 civilian deaths and more than 2,000 wounded. It became known as the Bava Beccaris Massacre, or the Fatti di Maggio (Events of May).

And how did King Umberto punish Bava Beccaris? By appointing him to the Italian Senate, and decorating him with a medal, the Great Official of Savoy Military Order. The anger at this combination of events led to the fall of Prime Minister Antonio Di Rudini nd his government in July, and created a constitutional crisis, strengthening the opposition. The events of May marked a height of popular discontent with government, the military and the monarchy.

On July 29, 1900, King Umberto attended a gymnastics competition at the Royal Villa of Monza. Gaetano Bresci, an anarchist who wanted to avenge the victims of Milan, positioned himself along the road exiting the stadium, to give himself a chance at escape. The excited crowd swept him within 3 meters of the King's car, and blocked his way out. He drew his revolver, and shot Umberto 3 times. The 1st bullet went into the heart, killing the King instantly.

Bresci accepted arrest without resistance, declaring, "I did not kill Umberto. I have killed the King. I killed a principle." His lawyer argued that the idolization of kings had weakened Italy, and that the criminalization of the anarchist movement had directly led to Umberto's assassination. Still, he was tried and convicted in a single day, August 30.

Italy had abolished the death penalty, so he was sentenced to life in prison. He hanged himself in his cell on May 22, 1901. He was 31. The new King, Victor Emmanuel III, called it "perhaps the best thing that could have happened to the unhappy man."

Victor Emmanuel III pretty much let Prime Minister Giovanni Giolitti do as he pleased, which led to some reforms, leading to the industrialization of the backward nation, and universal male suffrage. The King split from the Triple Alliance, and sided with the Triple Entente during World War I.

But the war weakened the country, and there was little that the King could do to stop the rise of Benito Mussolini and his Fascist party. He did not send the Army to stop the March On Rome in 1922. In 1946, after World War II, he abdicated in favor of his son. King Umberto II, "The May King," only reigned for 34 days, as the 1st postwar Italian Parliament abolished the monarchy on June 12, 1946.

Victor Emmanuel III died the next year. Umberto II lived in exile in Portugal until his death in 1983. His son, Vittorio Emanuele, Prince of Naples, is now the head of the House of Savoy, and would be King Victor Emmanuel IV in the incredibly unlikely event that the monarchy were ever to be restored.

Fiorenzo Bava Beccaris lived on until 1924, still a member of the Senate when he died, long enough to be one of the people who talked Victor Emmanuel III into handing power over to Mussolini.

UPDATE: Victor Emmanuel IV died on February 3, 2024. His son, Emanuele Filiberto, born in 1972, is the current would-be King of Italy.

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July 29, 1900 was a Sunday. As a result, there were no games played in the only professional sports league in North America at the time, baseball's National League.