Umberto I in History
Umberto Ranieri Carlo Emanuele Giovanni Maria Ferdinando Eugenio di Savoia was born on March 14th 1844. He ascended to the Italian throne at the death of his father, King Victor Emmanuel II of Italy on January 9th 1878, with the name of Umberto I.
He had been the target of a first assassination attempt on November 17th 1878: in Naples, by anarchist Giovanni Passannante. Umberto warded off the blow with his sabre and the author of the attempted assassination was condemned to a life sentence (death penalty would have been the sentence if Umberto would have been killed) in a 1.4-meters high cell, with no sanitation and chains weighting 18 kg.; not a surprise that he died in a psychiatric institution….
King Umberto I was also the target of a second assassination attempt: near Rome on April 22nd 1897 by anarchist Pietro Acciarito. The police was warned by Pietro’s father, who was worried for his son’s behaviour. King Umberto I was attending to horse races just outside Rome, for the 29th anniversary of his wedding with Queen Margherita. Nevertheless, Pietro Acciarito managed to get close to the royal car, armed with a knife. Umberto noticed the weapon and was able to avoid the strike. Pietro would be immediately arrested. The subsequent investigations – with large amounts of torture – were the excuse for jailing political opponents, such as republicans, socialists and anarchists, including Romeo Frezzi (who would be guilty of having a photo with Pietro Acciarito).