Victor Emmanuel III was the king of Italy for nearly half a century, a reign that spanned both world wars and the rise and fall of Fascism, and whose accommodation of Benito Mussolini fatally compromised the monarchy. He became king in 1900 upon the assassination of his father, ruling as a constitutional monarch over a young and fragile Italian state.
A small, austere, and reserved man, Victor Emmanuel presided over Italy's entry into the First World War on the Allied side, and he gained some popularity for remaining near the front during the conflict. But the postwar years brought economic crisis, political turmoil, and the growth of revolutionary and reactionary movements.
His most fateful decision came in 1922, when, faced with the Fascist "March on Rome," he declined to oppose Mussolini and instead invited him to form a government — a choice that opened the way to two decades of Fascist dictatorship. For most of those years the king remained a passive, diminished figure, retaining his throne while real power lay with the Duce, and he assented to the regime's wars and its shameful anti-Jewish laws.
Only as the Second World War turned to disaster did Victor Emmanuel act, dismissing and arresting Mussolini in 1943 and taking Italy out of its alliance with Germany. But his long association with Fascism had ruined his standing. He abdicated in 1946 in a vain attempt to save the monarchy; a referendum abolished it, and he died in exile in 1947.