Dearest Gentle Reader,
if the royal elegance and rumors of the ton are your cup of tea, you loved
The Law according to Lidia Poët and are longing season 3, reading about our very own Margaret of Savoy or Margherita di Savoia, the very first Queen of the United Kingdom of Italy, will definitely bring you much joy.
She was much more than the diamond of the season: she literally built the jewels of the Italian crown!
Born in the 1850s, Lidia and Margherita are the 2 faces of the same coin and symbols of the genie of Turin and Piedmont of that era, as well as of Italian modernity. Each one in her own very personal way molded different aspects of the Italian customs and history, like very few other women in the world.
Queen Margaret wasn't as ahead of her times as Lidia Poët yet she did understand what Italy needed and knew how to provide many small meaningful changes on different issues that eventually resulted into a general change of Italian society.
Queen Margaret was born in 1851 in
Palazzo Chiablese, a wing of the complex of the Royal Palace of Turin but spent most of her life in Rome; on the other hand, Lidia Poët was born in 1855 to a Walesian family, in a mountain valley, in West Piedmont and spent most of her life in Turin where, helped by male colleagues, she always worked as a disbarred lawyer till 1920, when she was finally readmitted to the bar. Her top victories were granting women their voting right and allowing women to gain a professional title and work independently from their husband, like she had done all her life.
Margherita is known for her love of fashion, the arts, hiking, technology and deep Roman Catholic faith, while Lidia was the very first lady lawyer of Europe admitted to the Turin Bar in 1884. Even though her real life was distant from the fictionalized version we enjoy on Netflix, together with Queen Margherita, she is a symbol of willpower, victories for women's rights and Italy, from 1870 to after WW2.
Needless to add that Margaret, as the queen always enjoyed her fame and her subjects' love, while Lidia and her many victories had to wait for the Netflix production to be discovered by the wider world public.
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| the newly wed Margherita and Umberto welcomed by a festive crowd in Naples |
Margherita's father was the brother of King Victor Emmanuel II, first king of united Italy, and her mother was Elizabeth of Saxony, a German princess. After the death of her father in 1855, her mom remarried to a man of lower standing and therefore the couple was relocated to other residences, notably the villa on Lake Maggiore where Margherita and her brother also spent some time.
Margaret was raised by an Austrian nanny who brought her up curious, witty and with a very strict Roman Catholic education.
At 16, she was promised to her cousin, Prince Umberto I and they got married in the Turin's Duomo where the
Holy Shroud of Turin is preserved, in 1868.
However, hoping for a royal alliance, King Victor Emmanuel II had previously arranged a wedding with the Archduchess Mathilda of Habsburg-Lorraine, an Austrian princess, who unfortunately died tragically when her gown caught fire as she was trying to secretly extinguish the cigarette she was forbidden to smoke.
On her part, Margherita was actually more interested in Umberto's brother but none of them had the luxury of their choices. Yet, this royal union turned into a successful partnership and made Margaret the very first Queen of Italy in 1878, when her father in law, King Victor Emmanuel II died and her husband inherited the crown. His mom had prematurely died at 33 in 1855, before the unification of the Kingdom of Italy in 1861.
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| Queen Margherita and Umberto I at the wedding of their son in 1896, Wikimedia Commons |
Aristocrats, politicians and commoners were all invited to her royal wedding and their honeymoon was an extended trip around Italy to promote both the
Savoy monarchy to the newly unified nation but also to introduce the future king and queen to the nation.
Back then, 70% of Italians were living in poverty, without education and in precarious hygienic conditions. In most areas of Italy, the Savoy kings were considered just one of the many foreigners at the power and didn't necessarily represent the interests of all social classes. Moreover, the regional diversity presented polarized situations, for instance, Rome was loyal to the Pope and in many cities there were anarchist groups opposed to the king.
The twelve-month-long royal honeymoon across Italy was to reinstate the sense of unity and belonging to the Italian nation; and popularizing Margherita's image was one the most important goals, this is why she sponsored and was a guest of honor to many public events and local fairs. And naturally her public life made her into a myth literally worshipped by the masses. And on her side, with the help of the court, she knew how to leave her mark.
Thanks to her many interests, she surrounded herself with intellectuals, artists, scholars, and good looking people; her growing collection of pearls and trendy Parisian dresses contributed to her goddess-like charm. Her curiosity for photography, painting, poetry, technology, science and the cultures of the world added an aura of sophistication to the Savoy monarchy and all around Italy, many piazzas, small towns and institutions still carry her name to honor her philanthropic and charity works, and are still a sign of how her subjects reciprocated her love.
She was so loved that the Italian engineers hired in a coal-mining town in Assam, India, named the town Margherita in her honor, in 1880-81.
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| Wikimedia Commons |
Following her education, she believed in the alliance of Church and State and that the king had to govern as 'a good despot': a paternalistic and absolutist king for the greater good of his own people, and in order to achieve a successful reign, both king and queen needed to be loved and trusted by their people, like parents are loved and trusted by their children. Margherita and Umberto I became extremely popular marketing their public image with frequent and copious appearances so that everyone, especially the lower classes could see them and feel them close to their reality.
Soon after their wedding, Margherita found out about her husband's long-time affair with his lover, and opted to keep the partnership for the prestige of the Crown. Publicly, they complemented each other well: Umberto incarnated the military and political power, goodness and prompt help by the government in case of natural disasters; while Margherita became famous for her beauty, elegance but also intelligence and down-to-earth attitude when needed. She was renowned for wearing the local costumes when delving in the people and even eating with her hands if she saw somebody at her table struggling with the silverware.
Her condensed image and the emulation of her subjects gave birth to a cult-like trend: il margheritismo -everything evoking the queen, from her daisies (margherite), her symbol flower to her fashion and her beloved pearls were the best humanity could have aspired to. The poorest people genuinely believed that even a dried daisy inside their praying book could protect them from bad luck!
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| 1872, Turin's Royal Palace, Wikimedia Commons |
She smoked, loved hiking, sleeping in Alpine huts and pick-nicking - no wonder she became a royal celebrity all around Europe and the female branch of the UK Alpine Club made her honorary president!
As a conservative and fervent Roman Catholic, she got to represent the reconciliation of the State and with the Church and she was considered as the renovator and protector of all arts and Italian culture.
She was always a proud member of the Savoy family and since 1878, when she was crowned queen consort, she fully committed to her role and actively engaged to renovate the image of the Italian monarchy becoming its official testimonial. She wanted to allure and inspire all levels of the Italian society through glamour and education; as part of her plans, at the
Quirinal Palace's - the official royal residence, she hosted a ball every Wednesday and the 'Queen's Thursday' where the most popular scholars and artists met and talked about some specific topics.
She never directly influenced Italian politics, however, her influence had an impact in many fields: healthcare, education and even the artisan crafts known today as Made in Italy. Thanks to her investments many hospitals, libraries - like the very first Italian library for blind people in Florence - and schools were built; her many charity initiatives lifted up many people out of poverty, helped people with disabilities and especially, gave women dignity.
Naturally, Maria Montessori was a good friend of hers and the Montessori method echoed the queen's social perspective because born in 1870, Maria Montessori basically grew up experiencing first hand the queen's work around Italy.
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| Pietro Piffetti's dressing table in Palazzo Chiablese |
Historical chronicles report that she loved spending her mornings arranging her
book collection in her private
library - 'her personal shelter within her golden cage'. This is why she had the library by the famous Turin ébéniste or royal cabinet maker
Pietro Piffetti in
Villa della Regina, moved from Turin's hill to Rome when the capital was moved there. She also added her monogram, a margherita / daisy to all her books that covered many topics like geography, foreign countries and cultures, but also physics, mechanics and aeronautics.
As she was fluent in English, German and French, her collection included many foreign editions and books with the autographed dedication by many authors.
Her strong curiosity for technology, science, innovation and traveling sparked her interest in the new travel technologies. She could drive and personally selected and nicknamed each piece of her car collection: the swan, the hawk, the eagle, etc. She was also into flying and even sponsored the first flying competition over the Alps with hot air balloons! It started in Milan and it would end anywhere in Europe, beyond the Alps.
To her Dante, Shakespeare and Beethoven were the highest masters but her wit and curiosity traveled far, and even though she never traveled to Asia, through her brother, Tommaso, she traveled vicariously to Japan many times.
She was also passionate for
music and took music classes all her life, playing the mandolin; she loved Opera theaters, concerts and more often than not, she selected specific concert pieces and concert programs. Believing in the importance of music for the newly born Italian nation, she supported musicians and sponsored musical institutions like the musical liceo (high school) of
Santa Cecilia in Rome.
Always into new things, in 1898, she was the first Italian to put up the Christmas tree in the Quirinal Palace thus starting a new tradition in Italy!
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| wearing the traditional costume of Gressoney St Jean, photo of the Gressoney council |
Following her husband Umberto to his mountain residence in Courmayeur, in Valle d'Aosta, she discovered
hiking, the thrill of reaching high peaks. This is also where in 1888, she met Baron Luigi Beck Peccoz, a
Walser aristocrat; with a daisy and edelweiss bouquet, he invited her to visit him in Gressoney St Jean hosting her in his own house, today's Villa Margherita aka Gressoney's city hall, till 1904, when her castle was completed.
She fell in love with this secluded romantic valley and its people right away, enjoying her freedom far from the étiquette and obligations of the court. The architecture of her Disney-like castle is eclectic with elements spanning from gothic to Art Nouveau. It took five years to be built and the work of 2000 local contractors; with its fairy tale flair and set in this magic atmosphere, it became her buen retiro for the summer and fall, till 1925.
Her pictures and paintings wearing the traditional Gressoney costume embroidered in gold and her friendship to Baron Beck Peccoz are worth a Shonda Rhimes rom-com.
Now property of the Valle D'Aosta region, you can still visit Castel Savoia or Savoy Castle and if you are lucky enough to find a bed, you can also spend the night on the top of the Alps, in the highest mountain hut in Europe built for Queen Margherita in:
Capanna Margherita in 1893.
By the way, Gressoney St Jean is also the where Gucci with Lady Gaga was filmed.
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| Savoy Castle in Gressoney St Jean, Wikimedia Commons |
Queen Margaret was a real fashionista, she loved to be trendy and wearing beautiful dresses; she was objective and aware of her 'strengths', like her wide shoulders which she exalted, and of her 'flaws' which she expertly concealed, like her legs. As we can see very few portraits of her son, Victor Emmanuel he inherited her short chubby legs and this is why she's almost always sitting down in all her portraits.
She loved wearing bright colors, like royal blue and the newest models by Mr Charles Fredrick Worth aka the fashion designer of the top Royal and Wealthy ladies in the 1800s. Based in Paris, he is responsible for the most iconic dresses of all the European queens and princesses; what he envisioned, he created and the rest of the world just followed him. Because he had been trained in a London textile shop, he was an expert of fabrics and 'special tailoring effects'. He was the first tailor turned designer in history and Queen Margherita didn't miss out on him.
Coming from austere Piedmont, where even to our days, most local designers only sell black and navy to the locals... She understood the importance of her soft-power; Margherita was the first Italian 'influencer' and set trends that helped modernize the female portion of united Italy. In fact, even the Margherita, il giornale delle signore italiane or the magazine for the Italian ladies was published to chronicle her life and deeds. This magazine included: the sewing patterns of her dresses Italian women could copy to imitate their queen, and a literature section to share the queen's reading passion and softly spark interest into literature and education.
Naturally, conservatives considered her style too flashy and of bad taste for the times. Yet, that was exactly what she loved as she adored Mr Worth's shimmering fabrics, iridescent silks, gold and silver embroideries, velvets, brocades, feathers and gems highlighting both the status of the wearer and the occasion his dresses were worn for.
He knew his dresses were to impress and make people dream, and Margherita needed a way to pierce the hearts of the Italians, especially the 70% who could only dream of wearing her dresses. Thus her fashion automatically made her into the mythological most popular and cherished queen of Italy ever!
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| The historical shop of the Musy family - the royal goldsmith - has been in Turin since 1707 |
Because of their Greek name: margarítes or pearls, Margherita thought they were her good luck charm. Since her wedding day in 1868, when she wore a pearl strand that had belonged to Umberto's late mother, Queen Mary Adelaide of Savoy, she never stopped wearing them!
Her second long strand was Umberto's gift to celebrate the birth of their son, the future King Victor Emmanuel III in 1869, in Naples. From then on her passion for pearls granted her the nickname of 'Queen of the pearls' as she loved them so much she is always portrayed wearing all her pearl necklaces and
drop pearl earrings with diamonds.
Following other European monarchies, Margherita started building up the jewels of the Italian crown, contributing in many cases with her own money. This is how she got to collect over 2000 pearls and a multistrand necklace that counted up to 684! Naturally she loved pearls in all her jewelry pieces: bracelets, rings, brooches and earrings, especially the pair with the large diamond and big drop pearl. Needless to add she loved pearls in all colors, not only the white ones; she had a four strand necklace with pearls of many hues and apparently in 1939, even Mussolini gifted a ring with a black pearl for the wedding the Duke of Aosta, cousin of King Victor Emmanuel III (Margherita's son).
According to the court rumors, Queen Margherita's pearl collection grew with King Umberto I's sense of guilt for each betrayal which he tried to soothe with a strand of pearls to his wife.
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wearing the 1883 Musy's gran diadema with the emerald necklace
photo: AbeBooks |
For their 15th wedding anniversary, Umberto I commissioned Mr Musy, the royal bijoutier in Turin since 1707 (still in its historical shop where Queen Margaret fell in love with their styles) a great crown - gran diadema of eleven loops with 541 diamonds for up to 300 carats, threaded through by a strand of 64 pearls and topped by 11 large pearl drops.
When in 1900, Umberto was killed, her son became the new king and Margherita as the queen mother, passed the crown jewels to the new queen: Elena. In 1904, Margherita gave her few remaining jewelry pieces to Mr Musy to make her a crown for her grandson's baptism.
Upon her request, Mr Musy created seven different tiaras of diamonds and pearls that could be assembled into a unique eighth crown, so that she could wear them on different occasions and people would think she always had a different diadem on! It was a real goldsmith masterpiece: inside the gold loops studded with diamonds there were large pearls that could be changed into tremblant (moving) large diamonds and / or scallop shells made of more diamonds!
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1905, wearing all her pearls and the assembled crown by Mr Musy
photo: Wikimedia Commons |
All Margherita's beautiful jewelry pieces made it to Queen Marie José, wife of her grandchild, up to 1946 when Italians voted to end the monarchy and become a Republic. Since then, the Italian crown jewels are preserved in the Bank of Italy vault and are property of the Italian government. It is thought that the great diadem is preserved inside a pearl studded coffret but very few people have seen it...
She died in Bordighera, on the Italian riviera in 1926 and you can pay her homage in Rome, inside the Pantheon where was buried. Chronicles report that the train carrying her body to Rome stopped at each single station and it was further slowed down by the huge crowds of subjects who, moved by their affection, wanted to bid her good-bye.
Italy still honors Queen Margaret with many institutions, piazzas and streets named after her all around the nation. But the 'average Mario' best celebrates her when savoring pizza Margherita - whose colores recall the Italian flag, and torta Margherita or the Margherita sponge cake - a traditional simple Italian dessert. Both dishes still echo Margherita and keep her popularity alive.
If you like Italian, Italian culture and are curious about some words related to our beloved Regina Margherita aka la più amata dagli italiani or the most loved queen in Italian history, please, enjoy the post of our friend Cristina here.
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| 1890, wearing her favorite earrings and necklace, Palazzo Chiablese |
Turin and her timeless magic won't disappoint you, whether you are into food and wine, history, fashion, architecture or the Shondaland production, Torino will pierce your hearts as Queen Margaret pierced the heart of the Italians!
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