From 18 May 1941 to 31 July 1943, Aimone was designated king of the Independent State of Croatia (Croatian: Nezavisna Država Hrvatska, NDH) though he never ruled there.[2] He formally accepted the position and took the name Tomislav II, after the first Croatian king.[3][4] Later, however, he refused to assume the kingship in protest of the Italian annexation of the Dalmatia region,[5] and is therefore referred to in some sources as king designate.[6][7][8][9] Regardless, many sources refer to him as King Tomislav II and the nominal head of the NDH during its first two years (1941–1943).[10][11][12][13][14]
After the dismissal of Mussolini on 25 July 1943, Aimone abdicated on 31 July as king on the orders of Victor Emmanuel III.
With his brother Amedeo, he was educated at St David's College, Reigate, Surrey, England, and Aimone later went to study at the naval academy in Livorno.[15] On 1 April 1921, Prince Aimone became a member of the Italian Senate. Princes of the House of Savoy became members of the Senate at age 21, obtaining the right to vote at age 25.[16]
On 18 May 1941, in a ceremony at the Quirinal Palace, to which Ante Pavelić, the leader of the nazist Ustaše movement that had assumed power in Croatia in April 1941 after the invasion of Yugoslavia, led a delegation of Croats requesting that Italy's King Victor Emmanuel III name a member of the House of Savoy as king of Croatia. The Independent State of Croatia was a fascist puppet state that was partly under Italian and German control, covering most of present-day states of Croatia and Bosnia and Herzegovina, but its leaders tried to assert their legitimacy by instating a monarchy that would resemble the medieval Croatian state.
Aimone was then officially named king by his cousin Victor Emmanuel III.[22] On assuming the Crown of Zvonimir he took the regnal name Tomislav II. Originally on learning that he had been named king of Croatia, he told close colleagues that he thought his nomination was a bad joke by his cousin King Victor Emmanuel III, though he accepted the crown out of a sense of duty.[23] The Italian Foreign Minister and Benito Mussolini's son in law, and Count Ciano's informants said of Aimone "The Duke doesn't give a damn about Croatia and wants only money, money and more money."[24] Ciano's diary noted a conversation between Aimone and himself, where Aimone was "proud of having been chosen King of Croatia, but has no exact idea of what he is supposed to do and is vaguely uneasy about it".[25]
He was due to be crowned in Duvno (Tomislavgrad), in modern-day Bosnia and Herzegovina, but he refused to go to there due to the "Dalmatian question" which arose due to Italy taking some of Dalmatia's coastal territory. Aimone felt that Dalmatia "was a land that could never be Italianized" and was an obstacle to Italo-Croatian reconciliation.[26] Other reasons why he never went to Croatia were because of an ongoing insurgency, and that his safety could not be guaranteed.[24] Because of this he exercised what little power he had from Italy and Hungary,[27] however he never held any real authority throughout his reign as the Ustaše government had deprived the monarchy of most powers and reduced the status of the king to that of a figurehead.[23] Count Gyula Cseszneky was the counsellor to the king for Croatian affairs. Prince Aimone also established a Croatian office in Rome where he received confidential reports, official documents, and military, political and economic information from Croatia.[28]
In the autumn of 1942, Aimone contacted Allied forces via his courier, the consul general Alessandro Marieni, about the possibility of a peace settlement between Italy and Allied forces.[32] Secret talks would continue into 1943, motivated in part by the aim of preserving the royal dynasty of Savoy.[32]
Aftermath
In the latter months of World War II, he became the commander of the Italian Naval Base of Taranto but he was dismissed from his post for his criticism of the judges that had found General Mario Roatta guilty of war crimes.[33] During his naval career he reached the rank of Squadron Admiral.
Death
In 1947 following the birth of the Italian Republic the previous year, Prince Aimone left Italy for South America.[34] Just a year after his arrival, he suddenly died on 29 January 1948 in his temporary residence, a private suite at the Alvear Palace Hotel in the French Borough of Recoleta in Buenos Aires, while his entourage was arranging his permanent residency documents and the purchase of his new home in Argentina.[35] The claim to the Aosta ducal title passed to his son Prince Amedeo.
^Lemkin, Raphael (2008). Independent State of Croatia. The Lawbook Exchange, Ltd. pp. 252–56.
^dr. Marijan Rogić, Pod Zvonimirovom krunom (Under the crown of Zvonimir) Munchen 2008.
^Hrvoje Matković, Designirani hrvatski kralj Tomislav II. vojvoda od Spoleta. Povijest hrvatskotalijanskih odnosa u prvoj polovici XX.st. (Designated Croatian king Tomislav II, Duke of Spoleto. History of Croatian-Italian relationships in first half of the 20th century), Zagreb 2007.
^Rodogno, Davide; Fascism's European empire: Italian occupation during the Second World War; p.95; Cambridge University Press, 2006 ISBN0-521-84515-7 "Devoid of political experience and ignorant of the Italian government's exact intentions, he [the Duke Aimone] refused to leave for Croatia, saying so in letters to Victor Emmanuel and Benito Mussolini, in which he told them that the question of Dalmatia, 'a land that could never be Italianized', was an obstacle against any reconciliation with the Croats. Never, he declared, would he agree to be a king of a nation amputated from Italy." [1].
^Pavlowitch, Stevan K.; Hitler's new disorder: the Second World War in Yugoslavia; p.289; Columbia University Press, 2008 0-231-70050-4 [2]
^Massock, Richard G.; Italy from Within; p.306; READ BOOKS, 2007 ISBN1-4067-2097-6[3]
^Burgwyn, H. James; Empire on the Adriatic: Mussolini's conquest of Yugoslavia 1941-1943; p.39; Enigma, 2005 ISBN1-929631-35-9
^Royal Institute of International Affairs; Enemy Countries, Axis-Controlled Europe; Kraus International Publications, 1945 ISBN3-601-00016-4[4]
^Friedman, Francine (22 January 2004). Bosnia and Herzegovina: a polity on the brink. Routledge. p. 130. ISBN0415274354. ...nominally Croatia was ruled by the Italian Duke of Spoleto styled as King Tomislav II...
^Dedijer, Vladimir (1979). History of Yugoslavia. p. 573. ...The new king was given the title of Tomislav II...
^Romano, Sergio (1 March 1999). An outline of European history from 1789 to 1989. Berghahn Books. p. 130. ISBN1571810765. ...the Duke of Spoleto, became king, with the name of Tomislav II...
^Salmaggi, Cesare; Pallavisini, Alfredo (1 May 1984). 2194 days of war. E Mayflower Books. p. 149. ISBN0831789417. ...Croatia is constituted an independent nation under Tomislav II...
^Hanson, The Wandering Princess, 161, 187. The English school is usually misidentified as St Andrew's College.
^"Prince is Italian Senator". New York Times. 2 April 1921. p. 10.
^Packard, Reynolds (2005). Balcony Empire: Fascist Italy at War. Kessinger Publishing. p. 190. ISBN1417985283.
^ abPetacco, Arrigo (2005). A Tragedy Revealed: The Story of the Italian Population of Istria, Dalmatia, and Venezia Giulia. University of Toronto Press. pp. 26, 27. ISBN0802039219.
^ abTomasevich, Jozo (2001). War and Revolution in Yugoslavia, 1941-1945: Occupation and Collaboration. Stanford University Press. p. 138. ISBN0804736154.
^Ciano, Galeazzo (1947). Ciano's diary, 1939-1943. p. 343.
^Rodogno, Davide (2006). Fascism's European Empire: Italian Occupation During the Second World War. Cambridge University Press. p. 95. ISBN0521845157.
^Avramov, Smilja (1995). Genocide in Yugoslavia. p. 238.
^Lemkin, Raphael; Power, Samantha (2005). Axis Rule In Occupied Europe: Laws Of Occupation, Analysis Of Government, Proposals For Redress. Lawbook Exchange. p. 253. ISBN1584775769.