Umberto II of Italy to serve the new republic. The monarchy of the House of Savoy formally ended on 12 June 1946, and Umberto left the country. Prime Minister Alcide de Gasperi assumed office as Italy's interim Head of State. Umberto and Marie José separated in exile; it had been an arranged marriage of state, following a long tradition of royal families. However, they never divorced, partly for political reasons. Some academics have explored Umberto's possible homosexuality. As early as the 1920s, Mussolini had collected a dossier on his private life for purposes of blackmail. Certainly during the war, newspapers asserted that Umberto was
The Children of the King The Children of the King The Children of the King is a 2012 children's novel by Sonya Hartnett. It is about the adventures of a mother and her two children who have been evacuated from London to the country side during World War II. "The Guardian", in its review of "The Children of the King" wrote "This delicious novel is rich in irony, both linguistically and structurally." and concluded "She [Hartnett] takes her readers into the lush jungle of language and leaves them there, entranced by its sounds." "The Horn Book Magazine" wrote "As always, Hartnett's gift for language deftly