Queen Elena of Italy and her Humanitarian Works

A 1926 signed photograph of Queen Elena. Image from Wikimedia Commons

She was born Princess Jelena Petrović-Njegoš of Montenegro on January 8, 1873, in Cetinje, Kingdom of Montenegro. Elena was the sixth of the twelve children of King Nicholas I of Montenegro and his wife Milena Vukotić. Two of her sisters, Militza and Anatasia, married the Nickolaevitch brothers of the House of Romanov. They went down the history as the notorious “Black Peril” of the Russian court.  

At the age of 10, Elena attended Smolny Institute in St. Petersburg, Russia. Her interest in poetry were spurred at a young age. She pursued that passion and had a number of her works published in a Russian literary magazine. Receiving a well-rounded education, she became well-versed in politics, as well as, in several languages. She was also skilled in painting and architecture and went on to design the monument for Prince Danilo I.

In 1888, Princess Elena was invited by the Tsarevich Nicholas of Russia to a ball in St. Petersburg. This invitation triggered the spread of rumors that she might one day become the tsarina. Her popularity on the dance floor, however, ignited a fight between Prince Arsen of Serbia and Baron Carl Gustav von Mannerheim of Finland, who was left wounded. This left a bad impression on the Russian court.

Elena first met her future husband, then-Prince Vittorio Emanuele of Naples, in Venice while the latter was looking for a suitable bride. Their paths would cross for the second time during the coronation of Tsar Nicholas II. The two immediately fell in love. Emanuele’s mother, Queen Margherita, highly encouraged the match because she wanted diversity in the royal bloodline. There were already too many cousins marrying each other, the queen thought. In fact, Emanuele’s mother and father were first cousins, so Queen Margherita should know.

King Victor Emmanuel III, Queen Elena and Crown Prince Umberto. Image from Wikimedia Commons

Elena married Prince Vittorio Emanuele on October 24, 1896, first in a civil ceremony at the Quirinal Palace, followed by a religious ceremony held at the at the Basilica of St. Mary of the Angels and Martyrs. The union produced five children. The eldest child, Yolanda (1901–1986), married Giorgio Carlo, Count Calvi di Bergolo (1888–1978).  The second child,  Mafalda (1902–1944), married Prince Philipp of Hesse (1896–1980).  Then followed Prince Umberto, who succeeded as Umberto II, the last  King of Italy (1904–1983). Princess Giovanna, born in 1907 (d. 2000), married Boris III, King of Bulgaria. The youngest was  Maria Francesca (1914–2001), who married Prince Luigi of Bourbon-Parma (1899–1967). 

The marriage required Elena to convert from Orthodoxy to Catholicism. This decision offended her mother that she refused to attend the wedding. Because of this, Elena had to be baptized on a boat in the middle of the sea between the two countries.

Elena’s arrival in Italy attracted a bit of attention, thanks to her striking feature.  One was she was slightly taller than her husband; the other was her exotic background. Following the death of King Umberto I, on July 29, 1900, Elena’s husband ascended the Italian throne and became King Victor Emmanuel III, and she, Queen consort of Italy, a title she held until 1946.

Ever the compassionate consort, Queen Elena helped with the rescue operations following a disastrous earthquake in Messina on December 28, 1908. She was widely reported for coming to the rescue of a woman on the verge of committing suicide out of despair following the terrible disaster. For this noble act and other works following the earthquake, King Edward VII had decorated her with the insignia of the British Red Cross Society.

"She has always taken the greatest interest in the work of the hospitals of Rome, and, in fact, of all Italy, and it was her observations during the Messina earthquake which led to the training of hundreds of ladies throughout the country for Red Cross work," said a news agency.

The King and Queen arrives at the inauguration of the World Exposition in 1906. Image from Wikimedia Commons

It was also said that she "instituted schools and classes for the training of women in Red Cross work, and already hundreds of probationers, drawn from the best classes of Roman society, have passed through the Blue Sisters Hospital, where the principal surgeons of Rome hold instruction classes evert week.

During World War I, she worked as a nurse, and, with the help of Queen Margherita, turned the Villa Margherita and the Quirinal Palace into hospitals. To raise funds for the war casualties, Queen Elena invented the “signed photograph.” She also suggested to sell the crown treasures in order to pay the war debts that ballooned after World War I.

Queen Elena was the first Inspector of the Voluntary Nurses for the Italian Red Cross. A health advocate, she studied medicine and later obtained laurea honoris causa. She supported efforts concerning the training of doctors as well as research on poliomyelitis, Parkinson's disease and cancer. She also financed charitable institutions that catered to people suffering from tuberculosis and encephalitis, as well as to poor mothers and former soldiers.

On April 15, 1937, Pope Pius XII awarded her the Golden Rose of Christianity, the most important honor for a Catholic lady at the time. In the wake of her death, the pope defined her in a condolence telegram as a “Lady of charitable work”.

In 1939, three months after the German invasion of Poland and the declaration of war by the United Kingdom and France, Queen Elena penned a letter addressed to the six queens from the still neutral European countries—Queen Wilhelmina of the Netherlands, Queen Alexandrine of Denmark, Queen Ioanna of Bulgaria, Queen Elisabeth of Belgium, Queen Mother Maria of Yugoslavia, and Grand Duchess Charlotte of Luxembourg—in hopes of putting a halt to the Second World War.

The King and Queen of Italy take the automobile, about 1911. Image from Wikimedia Commons

In order to aid the war effort in Africa after the League of Nations put a trade embargo on Italy, Queen Elena gave up her gold wedding rings, saying, “These rings, symbols of our first joys, symbols of our extreme renunciation now, make the purest offering to our country.”

She veered away from politics for the most part of her reign, though she made a few significant interventions like when she urged the king to indict Benito Mussolini for creating an independent Kingdom of Montenegro, which had previously been absorbed by Yugoslavia following the First World War.

Queen Elena joined King Vittorio Emanuele into exile following the former’s abdication on May 9, 1946 and after a June 2, 1946 referendum resulted in the majority of the voters favoring an Italian republic over monarchy. They went to Egypt, where they were welcomed by King Faruk. After her husband died a year later, she stayed in the country for a short time before moving to Montpellier, France, where she was diagnosed with severe cancer.

On November 28, 1952, Elena died while undergoing a surgery to treat the cancer. She was 81 years old. She was initially buried in the Montpellier Municipal Cemetery. Sixty-five years later, in 2017, her remains were repatriated to the Santuario di Vicoforte in Piedmont, Italy.