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Principessa Giovanna Elisabetta of Italy
(1907–2000)


Other names: Giovanna Elisabetta Antonia Romana Maria

Biographical

Dame of the Order of Saints Maurice and Lazarus [Italy]
Dame of the Order of the Starry Cross [Austria]
Dame of the Order of Theresa [Bavaria]
Grand Cross of the Order of St Alexander [Bulgaria]

As with the other royal Italian princesses, Giovanna had a traditional, but happy upbringing. She had a solid education and, as with her sibling, represented her family through public appearances at the opening of hospitals and schools. At the age of eighteen, she met Tsar Boris III of Bulgaria, and they married in the presence of Mussolini two years later after Boris proposed. Giovanna had converted to Eastern Orthodoxy to which the Vatican voiced its opposition. Giovanna was well-received by the Bulgarian people, and the marriage was happy, with the couple travelling abroad regularly. By 1933, Germany was becoming increasingly influential in Bulgaria. It had become dependent on the Germans with trade, and pro-German right-wing groups in Bulgaria had become increasingly powerful. In 1941, the Tsar officially joined the Axis powers by signing the Tripartite Pact, and its declaration of war on the Allies that year, and subsequent involvement in the conflict, was a disaster for the country. After the Tsar had very reluctantly approved anti-Semitic laws due to pressure from Germany, Giovanna engaged in efforts to assist Jews escape Bulgaria, via Italy, to Argentina. The Tsar and Tasarina's stance towards anti-Semitism became known to the Nazis, who were disturbed. Further suspicions were aroused when the Tsar stalled on allowing deportation of Jews from Bulgaria, and he was now viewed as unreliable. In March 1943 the Tsar was invited by Hitler for a visit. Despite their meeting, the Tsar continued to resist implementing the deportations, and after he refused to declare war on Russia and send troops, he was summoned by Hitler to his Rastenburg headquarters. The Tsar asserted his stance, and refused to involve Bulgaria in the war any further than it had. Two weeks after the Tsar's return from the meeting, he was dead. There were rumours that the Tsar had been poisoned, and, according to Goebbels, Hitler believed he had been, blaming the Italians, and that Giovanna's sister, Mafalda, was capable of administering the poison. The Tsar's official cause of death was recorded as coronary thrombosis, but Giovanna believed that he had been murdered, although there was no evidence of this. After Giovanna's son, Simeon, succeeded to the throne, the royal family lived at their residence at Vrana, and the new regime allowed the monarchy to remain for another two years. A plebiscite was then held in 1946, and the monarchy abolished. The royal family left for Egypt, and then to Spain. Giovanna later resided in Portugal. She visited Bulgaria only once after her exile to attend the anniversary of her husband's death in 1993, and she was received with much affection by the Bulgarian people.

Place of birth: Rome
Place of marriage: Assisi
Place of death: Estoril, Portugal
Place of burial: Assisi

Daughter of King Vittorio Emanuele III of Italy, and Princess Elena of Montenegro (Petrovic-Njegos). She married King Boris III of Bulgaria (Saxe-Coburg) in 1930, and had issue.







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