Activities and affiliations

Government and administration Italy state institutions 1869–1947 → Died

A monarch caught between constitutional authority and responsibility for Fascism

On 25 July 1943, he dismissed Mussolini, had him arrested, and appointed Badoglio to head a new government.

As king of Italy, he presided over the decline of liberal constitutionalism, the consolidation of the Fascist state, and two world wars. He approved Mussolini's seizure of power, colonial wars, the racial laws, and entry into the Second World War, making the monarchy a participant in Fascist rule. In July 1943 he dismissed Mussolini and appointed Pietro Badoglio, using the crown's constitutional powers to open a legal route for governmental change, but his flight from Rome after the armistice left the armed forces and state in disarray. He abdicated in 1946 after the monarchy failed to recover its legitimacy.

Government and administration Italy state institutions 1873–1951 ○ Natural causes

A reformist politician who organized compromises between fascism's fall and the monarchy

In June 1943, he secretly urged the king to dismiss Mussolini, appoint Badoglio, and break Italy's alliance with Germany.

Ivanoe Bonomi was a politician who moved from reformist socialism into the center of Italian liberal parliamentary politics. His record during fascism's rise included insufficient resistance and support for Mussolini's government, a compromise that later shaped criticism of his leadership. From 1942 he reconnected anti-Fascist forces, secretly urging King Victor Emmanuel III in 1943 to dismiss Mussolini and appoint Pietro Badoglio, then chairing the six-party Committee of National Liberation. He subsequently managed the difficult transition among the monarchy, the resistance, and the Allies, helping carry Italy toward postwar parliamentary institutions.