Queen ELENA of Italy (1873-1952),nee Montenegro

[gleb]

I think the Queen Elena is worth of a personal thread.

This topic is so intended to be a sort of Album of Her life.

[gleb]

Formal portraits:

[gleb]

[Marc]

She was 1,74cm tall and her husband was 1,56cm or 1,58cm tall.

[Marc]

Yes,because Montenegro was an Orthodox country,and she was Lutheran and yet a Crown Princess of a very religious people,so she had to change her religion!If you were reading any book about Queen Elena you might have noticed that there were quite a few problems with her family because she also changed her religion and became a Catholic!Her mother Queen Milena did not even participate the wedding because of that,and it was aranged for her to change her religion on a boat between Montenegro and Italia,and not in Italia!

[crazy_wing]

Elena's children

1. Yolanda Margherita 1901-1986
   m. Count Giorgio Calvi di Bergolo 1887-1977

2. Mafalda  1902-1944
   m. Landgrave Philip of Hesse-Cassel 1896-1980

3. King Umberto II of Italy 1904-1983
   m. Princess Marie Jose of Belgium 1906-2001

4. Giovanna 1907-2000
   m. King Boris III of Bulgaria 1894-1943

5. Maria 1914-2001
   m. Prince Louis of Bourbon-Parma 1899-1967

[Prince_Christopher]

When did Elena die? I notice all of her children except for unfortunate Mafalda had long lives.

[Robert_Hall]

Why cannot she be buried in Italy [the Pantheon ?], the living Savoys have been allowed to return ? Does this mean that Umberto II and his father VEIII are still buried outside of Italy ?

[gleb]

Why cannot she be buried in Italy [the Pantheon ?], the living Savoys have been allowed to return ? Does this mean that Umberto II and his father VEIII are still buried outside of Italy ?

this is true: Umberto II and Maria Josè are in the chapel of Hautecombe (Savoy), where are buried many medieval Savoia.

VE III is in the church of  Santa Caterina, Alexandria of Egypt, Queen Elena is in France....

They all should be buried in the Pantheon with the other Kings of Italy (VE II, Umberto I and Margherita).

Or at least in Turin, in the royal Chapel of Superga, where are all the other Savoia (Dukes, Kings of Sardinia, Carlo Alberto, Maria Pia of Portugal...). Also the recent ones, such as Irene of Greece...

[gleb]

was Queen Elena popular in her adopted country??

She was one of the most loved Queens. Even if her husband is still very criticized nobody ever spoke about her unrespectfully.

She spent the whole life helping the poors!

[Marc]

[amedeo]

Queen Elena not only was popular, she was beloved, italians soon understood they could completely trust this marvellious woman who used to spend all her civil list to help poor people.

About this, there is a funny anedocte, one day Vittorio Emanuele III was walking in the gardens of Villa Savoia, with his gardener.
At a certain point the King tells the gardener something like "You know everybody says I am stingy (mean), but I must be so, if I weren't, with all the money that the Queen spends for her poors, We would go to rack and ruin".

For all these reasons Queen Elena was given the Golden Rose of Christianity.

[Marc]

[Marc]

Regina Elena as a child...

[Marc]