The
House of Savoy is one of the oldest royal families in the world, being founded in year 1003 in the historical
Savoy region. Through gradual expansion, it grew from ruling a small
county in that region to the attainment of kingly dignity (
Sicily in 1713. Through its junior branch, the
House of Savoy-Carignano, it led the
unification of Italy in 1861 and ruled the
Kingdom of Italy from 1861 until the end of
World War II and, briefly, the
Kingdom of Spain in the 19th century. The Savoyard kings of Italy were
Victor Emmanuel II,
Umberto I,
Victor Emmanuel III, and
Umberto II. The last monarch ruled for a few weeks before being deposed following the
Constitutional Referendum of 1946, after which
Republic was proclaimed.