Giovanna of Savoy

Not to be confused with Joan of Savoy.

Giovanna of Savoy (Bulgarian: Йоанна Савойска, Ioanna Savoiska, Italian: Giovanna Elisabetta Antonia Romana Maria) (13 November 1907 – 26 February 2000) was an Italian princess of the House of Savoy who later became the Tsaritsa of Bulgaria by marriage to Boris III of Bulgaria.

Giovanna of Savoy
Giovanna in 1937
Tsaritsa consort of Bulgaria
Tenure	25 October 1930 – 28 August 1943
Born	(1907-11-13)13 November 1907 Rome, Kingdom of Italy
Died	26 February 2000(2000-02-26) (aged 92) Estoril, Portugal
Burial	Communal Cemetery of Assisi
Spouse	Boris III of Bulgaria ​ ​ (m. 1930; died 1943)​
Issue	Marie Louise, Princess of Koháry Simeon II of Bulgaria
Names Italian: Giovanna Elisabetta Antonia Romana Maria
House	Savoy
Father	Victor Emmanuel III of Italy
Mother	Elena of Montenegro

Early life

Princess Giovanna of Savoy as a child

Giovanna was born in Rome, the third daughter and the fourth of five children 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 (and last) Italian king Umberto II of Italy.

Tsaritsa of Bulgaria

Giovanna married Tsar Boris III of Bulgaria in the Basilica of St Francis of Assisi, Assisi on 25 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 formerly 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.

In the years prior to World War II, Tsaritsa Ioanna became heavily involved in charities, including the financing of a children's hospital. During the war she counterbalanced her husband consigning Bulgaria to the Axis by obtaining transit visas to enable a number of Jews to escape to Argentina. Tsar Boris also proved less malleable than Hitler had hoped, and following a meeting in Berlin in August 1943, the Tsar became seriously ill and died, aged 49. Stress and a heart condition were the official reasons for his death.

Ioanna's son, Simeon, became the new tsar and a regency was established, led by his uncle Prince Kyril, who was considered more pliable by the Germans.

In the dying days of the Second World War, Bulgaria was occupied by the Soviet Union. Prince Kyril was tried by a People's Court and subsequently executed. Giovanna and her son Simeon remained under house arrest at Vrana Palace, near Sofia, until 15 September 1946, when the new Communist government gave them 48 hours to leave the country because the state was declared republic after a referendum, although the queen wanted to leave Bulgaria after the execution of Prince Kiril on 1 February 1945.

Late years

Royal Monogram of Queen Joanna of Bulgaria

Styles of Tsaritsa (Queen) Giovanna of the Bulgarians
Reference style	Her Majesty
Spoken style	Your Majesty

After initially fleeing to Alexandria in the Kingdom of Egypt, to join her father, King Victor Emmanuel III, Giovanna and her son Simeon II moved on to Madrid. In 1962 Simeon II married and Queen Giovanna moved to Estoril, on the Portuguese Riviera, where she lived for the rest of her life, apart from a brief return to Bulgaria in 1993, when she visited the site of Boris's grave and was present at the reburial of his heart.

She is buried in the Communal Cemetery of Assisi, Italy, where she had married King Boris III in 1930.

Honours

National

• House of Savoy: Knight Grand Cordon of the Order of Saints Maurice and Lazarus
  • Sovereign Military Order of Malta: Knight Grand Cross Honour and Devotion of the Sovereign Military Order of Malta, 3rd First Class
  • Royal Family of Two Sicilies: Knight Grand Cross of the Royal Order of Francis I
• House of Saxe-Coburg-Gotha-Koháry: Knight Grand Cross of the Royal Order of Saint Alexander, in Diamonds, 1933

Foreign

• Austrian Imperial and Royal Family: Dame of the Imperial and Royal Order of the Starry Cross
• Bavarian Royal Family: Dame Grand Cross of the Royal Order of Theresa
• Russian Imperial Family: Dame Grand Cordon of the Imperial Order of Saint Catherine
• Yugoslavian Royal Family: Dame Grand Cross of the Royal Order of Saint Sava

Arms

Coat of Arms of Queen Giovanna of Bulgaria

Patronage

• Bulgaria: Patron of the 10th Cavalry regiment of Queen Ioanna

Ancestry

Ancestors of Giovanna of Savoy

8. Victor Emmanuel II of Italy 4. Umberto I of Italy 9. Archduchess Adelaide of Austria 2. Victor Emmanuel III of Italy 10. Prince Ferdinand, Duke of Genoa 5. Princess Margherita of Savoy 11. Princess Elizabeth of Saxony 1. Giovanna of Savoy 12. Mirko Petrović-Njegoš, Grand Voivode of Grahovo 6. Nicholas I of Montenegro 13. Anastasija Martinović 3. Princess Elena of Montenegro 14. Voivode Petar Vukotić 7. Milena Vukotić 15. Jelena Voivodić

Sources

• Boris III of Bulgaria 1894–1943, by Pashanko Dimitroff, London, 1986, ISBN 0-86332-140-2
• Crown of Thorns by Stephane Groueff, Lanham MD., and London, 1987, ISBN 0-8191-5778-3
• The Daily Telegraph, Obituary for "HM Queen Ioanna of the Bulgarians", London, 28 February 2000.