Marie José of Belgium Claretta Petacci, claimed in her diary that in 1937 the then princess and wife of the heir to the throne tried and failed to seduce the dictator at a beach resort near Rome. However, Mussolini's son, Romano, claims that the princess and dictator entered into a sexual relationship. In 1943, the Crown Princess involved herself in vain attempts to arrange a separate peace treaty between Italy and the United States; her interlocutor from the Vatican was Monsignor Giovanni Battista Montini, a senior diplomat who later became Pope Paul VI. Her attempts were not sponsored by the king and Umberto was
Clara Louise Burnham Clara Louise Burnham Clara Louise Burnham (May 25, 1854 – June 20, 1927) was an American novelist. After the success of "No Gentlemen" (1881), other books followed, including "A Sane Lunatic" (1882), "Dearly Bought" (1884), "Next Door" (1886), "Young Maids and Old" (1888), "The Mistress of Beech Knoll" (1890), and "Miss Bagg's Secretary" (1892). The daughter of George Frederick Root, she wrote the text for several his most successful cantatas. The 1923 film, "A Chapter in Her Life" is based on Burnham's 1903 novel "Jewel: A Chapter in Her Life". Born in Massachusetts, she died at the family home in