Giovanna of Italy

Not to be confused with Joan of Savoy.

Giovanna of Italy (Bulgarian: Йоанна Савойска, Italian: Giovanna Elisabetta Antonia Romana Mariacode: it is deprecated ) (13 November 1907 – 26 February 2000) was the Tsaritsa of Bulgaria.

Childhood

File:Princess Giovanna of Savoy.jpg

Princess Giovanna of Savoy as a child.

Giovanna was born in Rome, the third daughter and fourth child of King Victor Emmanuel III of Italy and Queen Elena, former Princess of Montenegro. Upon her Roman Catholic christening, she was given the names Giovanna Elisabetta Antonia Romana Maria. Her older brother was the future Italian king Umberto II of Italy.

Marriage and children

Giovanna married Tsar Boris III of Bulgaria in Assisi in October 1930, in a Roman Catholic ceremony, attended by Italian dictator Benito Mussolini. Bulgarians deemed her a good match, partly because her mother, Elena of Montenegro, was of Slavic ethnicity. At a second ceremony in Sofia, Giovanna (who herself was daughter of a Roman Catholic father and a born Orthodox mother) was married in an Eastern Orthodox Church ceremony, bringing her into conflict with the Roman Catholic Church. Giovanna adopted the Bulgarian version of her name, Ioanna. Giovanna knew the Pope's Apostolic Visitor to Bulgaria, Archbishop Angelo Roncalli, the future Pope John XXIII who was able to help her. She and Boris had two children: Marie Louise of Bulgaria, born in January 1933, and then the future Simeon II of Bulgaria in 1937.

In the years prior to World War II, Tsaritsa Ioanna became heavily involved in charities, including the financing of a children's hospital. During the war she counterbalanced her husband consigning Bulgaria to the Axis by obtaining transit visas to enable a number of Jews to escape to Argentina. Tsar Boris also proved less malleable than Hitler had hoped, and following a meeting in Berlin in August 1943, the Tsar became seriously ill and died, aged 49. Stress and a heart condition were the official reasons for his death. Ioanna's son, Simeon, became the new tsar and a regency was established, led by his uncle Prince Kyril, who was considered more pliable by the Germans.

Late Years

In the dying days of World War II, Bulgaria was invaded by the Soviet Union. Prince Kyril was tried by a People's Court and subsequently executed. Giovanna and Simeon remained under home arrest at Vrana Palace, near Sofia until 1946, when the new Communist government gave them 48 hours to leave the country. After initially fleeing to Alexandria, Egypt, to be with her father, Victor Emmanuel III, they moved to Madrid. After the marriage of Simeon II to the Spanish noblewoman Margarita Gómez-Acebo y Cejuela (a distant relative of Juan Carlos I of Spain's late brother-in-law) in 1962, Tsaritsa Ioanna moved to Estoril, Portugal, where she lived for the rest of her life, excepting a brief return to Bulgaria in 1993 when she visited Boris's grave. During this last visit to Bulgaria she received a most cordial welcome and thousands of people went on the streets to greet her.

She is buried in the Communal Cemetery of Assisi, Italy, where she married King Boris III in 1930.

Titles, honours and patronage

Titles

• 13 November 1907 – 25 October 1930: Her Royal Highness Princess Giovanna of Savoy
• 25 October 1930 – 28 August 1943: Her Majesty Queen Ioanna of Bulgaria
• 28 August 1943 – 26 February 2000: Her Majesty Queen Mother Ioanna of Bulgaria

Honours

National honours

• Italian Royal Family: Knight Grand Cross of the Order of Saints Maurice and Lazarus
• Bulgarian Royal Family: Knight Grand Cross of the Order of Saint Alexander

Foreign honours

• Sovereign Military Order of Malta: Dame Grand Cross of Honour and Devotion
• Yugoslavian Royal Family: Dame Grand Cross of the Order of St. Sava

Patronage

• Bulgaria: Patron of the 10th Cavalry regiment of Queen Ioanna

Ancestry

Family of Giovanna of Italy

16. Charles Albert of Sardinia               8. Victor Emmanuel II of Italy                       17. Maria Theresa of Austria and Tuscany               4. Umberto I of Italy                             18. Archduke Rainer of Austria               9. Maria Adelaide of Austria                       19. Princess Elisabeth of Savoy-Carignan               2. Victor Emmanuel III of Italy                                   20. Charles Albert of Sardinia (= 16)               10. Ferdinand, 1st Duke of Genoa                       21. Maria Theresa of Austria and Tuscany (= 17)               5. Margherita of Savoy                             22. John of Saxony               11. Elizabeth of Saxony                       23. Amalie Auguste of Bavaria               1. Ioanna of Savoy, Queen of Bulgaria                                         24. Sava Petrović-Njegoš               12. Mirko Petrović-Njegoš                       25. Angelika Radamović               6. Nicholas I of Montenegro                             26. Drago Martinović               13. Anastasija Martinović                       27. Stana Martinović               3. Elena of Montenegro                                   28. Petar Perkov Vukotić               14. Petar Vukotić                       29. Stania Milić               7. Milena Vukotić                             30. Tadija Voivodić               15. Jelena Voivodić                       31. Milica Pavićević

References

• Boris III of Bulgaria 1894–1943, by Pashanko Dimitroff, London, 1986, ISBN 0-86332-140-2
• Crown of Thorns by Stephane Groueff, Lanham MD., and London, 1987, ISBN 0-8191-5778-3
• The Daily Telegraph, Obituary for "HM Queen Ioanna of the Bulgarians", London, 28 February 2000.

Giovanna of Italy House of Savoy Born: 13 November 1907 Died: 26 February 2000
Royal titles
Vacant Title last held by Eleonore Reuss of Köstritz	Tsaritsa of Bulgaria 25 October 1930 – 28 August 1943	Vacant Monarchy abolished