Giovanna of Savoy | |||||
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Giovanna, 1937
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Tsaritsa consort of Bulgaria | |||||
Tenure | 25 October 1930 – 28 August 1943 | ||||
Born |
Rome, Italy |
13 November 1907||||
Died | 26 February 2000 Estoril, Portugal |
(aged 92)||||
Burial | Communal Cemetery of Assisi | ||||
Spouse | Boris III of Bulgaria | ||||
Issue |
Marie Louise, Princess of Koháry Simeon II of Bulgaria |
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House | Savoy | ||||
Father | Victor Emmanuel III of Italy | ||||
Mother | Elena of Montenegro | ||||
Religion | Roman Catholicism |
Full name | |
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Italian: Giovanna Elisabetta Antonia Romana Maria |
Styles of Tsaritsa (Queen) Giovanna of the Bulgarians |
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Reference style | Her Majesty |
Spoken style | Your Majesty |
Alternative style | Ma'am |
Giovanna of Italy (Bulgarian: Йоанна Савойска, Italian: Giovanna Elisabetta Antonia Romana Maria) (13 November 1907 – 26 February 2000) was the Tsaritsa of Bulgaria.
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.
Giovanna married Tsar Boris III of Bulgaria in the Basilica of St Francis of Assisi, 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.