Virginia Bourbon del Monte
{{short description|Italian noble (1899–1945)}}
{{use dmy dates|date=February 2023}}
{{use Oxford spelling|date=February 2023}}
{{Infobox nobility
| name = Virginia Bourbon del Monte
| title =
| image = Young Gianni Agnelli with his mother Virginia and his brothers.jpg
| caption =
| birth_name = Virginia Bourbon del Monte dei principi di San Faustino
| birth_date = {{birth date|1899|5|24|df=y}}
| birth_place = Rome, Italy
| death_date = {{death date and age|1945|11|30|1899|5|24|df=y}}
| death_place = Pisa, Italy
| noble family = Bourbon del Monte
| father = Carlo Bourbon del Monte, Prince di San Faustino
| mother = Jane Allen Campbell
| siblings =
| spouse = Edoardo Agnelli
| issue = Princess Clara von Fürstenberg (1920–2016)
Gianni Agnelli (1921–2003)
Susanna, Contessa Rattazzi (1922–2009)
Maria Sole (1925)
Cristiana, Contessa Brandolini d'Adda (1927)
Giorgio Agnelli (1929–1965)
Umberto Agnelli (1934–2004)
}}
Donna Virginia Bourbon del Monte dei principi di San Faustino (24 May 1899 – 30 November 1945) was the wife of Edoardo Agnelli and the mother of Gianni Agnelli.
Biography
Born in Rome, she was the daughter of Carlo Bourbon del Monte, Prince di San Faustino (1867–1917), a descendant of an ancient Tuscan-Umbrian family,{{cite web|last=Bencivenga|first=Adamo|date=2018|url=https://www.liberaeva.com/2018/interviste/virginiaagnelli.htm|title=Virginia Agnelli. Fragile come farfalla, forte come leonessa|website=LiberaEva|language=it|access-date=15 February 2023}} with a noble title awarded by Pope Pius IX in 1861.{{cite news|last=Mascheroni|first=Luigi|date=26 June 2010|url=https://www.ilgiornale.it/news/lady-fuoriserie-sua-vita.html|title=Una lady fuoriserie, come la sua vita|work=Il Giornale|language=it|access-date=15 February 2023}} Her brother Ranieri Bourbon del Monte Santa Maria, Prince of San Faustino, was the first husband of painter Kay Sage. Her mother was the American heiress Jane Allen Campbell (1865–1938); originally from New Jersey, she was the daughter of a wealthy American linseed oil trader, the son of Ludlow D. Campbell, George W. Campbell, and his second wife, Virginia Watson. After Campbell's death, which took place in the first half of the 1890s, the widow moved with her daughter to Rome, where the young Campbell met and married Carlo Bourbon del Monte in 1897. On 5 June 1919, she married Edoardo Agnelli, the son of senator and Fiat co-founder Giovanni Agnelli.{{cite web|url=https://www.rivistazoom.it/index.php/2020/09/07/la-famiglia-agnelli-una-stirpe-di-imprenditori/|title=La famiglia Agnelli: una stirpe di imprenditori|website=Rivista Zoom|language=it|date=7 September 2020|access-date=15 February 2023}}{{cite magazine|url=https://www.elle.com/it/showbiz/celebrities/a36285747/famiglia-agnelli-storia-patrimonio-attuale/|title=La famiglia Agnelli: una delle più grandi dinastie italiane|magazine=Elle Italia|language=it|date=11 May 2021|access-date=15 February 2023}} She became a widow on 14 July 1935, as her husband died in a plane crash in the seadrome of Genoa.{{cite web|last=Kovick|first=Margaret|date=9 March 2021|url=https://www.wantedinrome.com/news/the-personal-history-of-giovanni-gianni-agnelli.html|title=The personal history of Giovanni 'Gianni' Agnelli|website=Wanted in Rome|access-date=15 February 2023}}{{cite news|last=Castellani|first=Massimo|date=23 December 2022|url=https://www.avvenire.it/agora/pagine/juventus-100-anni-sotto-la-real-casa-agnelli|title=Calcio. Juventus, 100 anni sotto la real casa Agnelli|work=Avvenire|language=it|access-date=15 February 2023}}
A few months after the death of her husband, she engaged in an intimate relationship with the journalist and writer Curzio Malaparte. Their wedding ceremony, which was originally scheduled for October 1936,{{cite book|last1=Mecucci|first1=Gabriella|last2=Ripa di Meana|first2=Marina|date=2010|title=Virginia Agnelli. Madre e farfalla|language=it|location=Argelato|publisher=Minerva Edizioni|page=143|isbn=978-88-7381-307-1}} did not take place due to the opposition of her father-in-law. Moreover, Curzio had become unpopular among the highest authorities of Benito Mussolini's Italian fascist regime. As a consequence, Curzio had been expelled from the National Fascist Party (PNF) and forced into exile on the island of Lipari for a certain period of time in 1933. Meanwhile, she had to face a tough confrontation with her father-in-law, who tried to claim parental authority over her seven children by all means after finding out that the two lovers were about to get married. In deliberating on this issue, the Court of Turin pronounced a verdict against the mother. The dispute went on with several legal actions until she decided to move to Rome. Since there were better chances for her of being favoured by the judicial authorities of Rome, her father-in-law finally gave his consent to negotiate a compromise agreement by the end of 1937. Its most important aspect was the granting of child custody to Virginia; this settlement was the one supported by her children themselves.{{cite book|last1=Mecucci|first1=Gabriella|last2=Ripa di Meana|first2=Marina|date=2010|title=Virginia Agnelli. Madre e farfalla|language=it|location=Argelato|publisher=Minerva Edizioni|pages=160–171|isbn=978-88-7381-307-1}}
She was arrested in Rome on 8 September 1943, since she was the daughter of a U.S. citizen, a country at that time at war against Nazi Germany, and confined in a villa on the Caelian Hill,{{cite journal|last=Pacelli|first=Mario|date=2016|title=La principessa e il lupo|journal=Nuova Antologia|language=it|location=Milan|publisher=Mondadori Education|volume=617|issue=2280, 4|pages=236–243|doi=10.1400/252921|issn=2239-7418}} from which she was then able to escape. After coming back to Rome as a free person, in collaboration with Colonel Eugen Dollmann, she arranged a meeting in Vatican City between Pope Pius XII and General Karl Wolff. The latter was the Military Governor and the Supreme Commander of the SS and of the police in Northern Italy. The meeting was intended to avoid bloodshed during the imminent German retreat from Rome. It was successful, and led to the release from prison of Giuliano Vassalli, a jurist and member of the Italian Resistance, who had been held in detention by the SS in their headquarters in the German Embassy on 145 via Tasso.{{cite book|last1=Mecucci|first1=Gabriella|last2=Ripa di Meana|first2=Marina|date=2010|title=Virginia Agnelli. Madre e farfalla|language=it|location=Argelato|publisher=Minerva Edizioni|pages=201–206|isbn=978-88-7381-307-1}}
She died in a car accident near Pisa in the late afternoon of 30 November 1945, fifteen days before the death of her father-in-law,{{cite web|last=Francesconi|first=Giovanna|date=28 November 2022|url=https://www.vanillamagazine.it/virginia-bourbon-del-monte-una-agnelli-dimenticata/|title=Virginia Bourbon Del Monte: una Agnelli Dimenticata|website=Vanilla Magazine|access-date=15 February 2023}} after the car in which she was traveling on its way from Rome to Forte dei Marmi was hit head-on by a U.S. Army truck. She died instantly. The fatal crash occurred on the via Aurelia in proximity to the pine forest of San Rossore.{{cite book|last1=Mecucci|first1=Gabriella|last2=Ripa di Meana|first2=Marina|date=2010|title=Virginia Agnelli. Madre e farfalla|language=it|location=Argelato|publisher=Minerva Edizioni|page=236|isbn=978-88-7381-307-1}}
References
{{reflist}}
Further reading
- {{cite book|last=Clark|first=Jennifer|date=2024|title=L'ultima dinastia. La saga della famiglia Agnelli da Giovanni a John|language=it|location=Milan|publisher=Solferino|isbn=978-88-282-1455-7}}
- {{cite book|last=Ferrante|first=Marco|date=2007|title=Casa Agnelli. Storie e personaggi dell'ultima dinastia italiana|language=it|location=Milan|publisher=Mondadori|isbn=978-88-04-56673-1}}
- {{cite book|last=Friedman|first=Alan|date=1988|title=Agnelli and the Network of Italian Power|location=London|publisher=Mandarin Paperback (Octopus Publishing Group)|isbn=0-7493-0093-0}}
- {{cite book|last=Galli|first=Giancarlo|date=2003|title=Gli Agnelli. Il tramonto di una dinastia|language=it|location=Milan|publisher=Mondadori|isbn=88-04-51768-9}}
- {{cite journal|last=Geddes da Filicaia|first=Costanza|date=2010|title=Signora del mito|journal=Caffè Michelangiolo|location=Florenze|publisher=Polistampa|issue=January–April|pages=1–4|doi=10.1400/166119}}
- {{cite book|last=Mola di Nomaglio|first=Gustavo|date=1998|title=Gli Agnelli. Storia e genealogia di una grande famiglia piemontese dal XVI secolo al 1866|language=it|location=Turin|publisher=Centro Studi Piemontesi|isbn=88-8262-099-9}}
- {{cite book|last=Moncalvo|first=Gigi|date=2012|title=Agnelli segreti: peccati, passioni e verità nascoste dell'ultima "famiglia reale" italiana|language=it|location=Florence|publisher=Vallecchi|isbn=978-88-8427-236-2}}
- {{cite book|last=Moncalvo|first=Gigi|date=2022|title=Agnelli Coltelli|language=it|location=Florence|publisher=Vallecchi|isbn=978-88-25-20348-6}}
- {{cite book|last=Ori|first=Angiolo Silvio|date=1996|title=Storia di una dinastia: gli Agnelli e la Fiat|language=it|location=Rome|publisher=Editori Riuniti|isbn=88-35-94059-1}}
External links
- [https://www.galileumautografi.com/autore.php?id=352&nome=bourbon-del-monte-virginia Bourbon del Monte Virginia] at Galileum Autografi
- [http://www.genmarenostrum.com/pagine-lettere/letterab/bourbon/BOURBON-san%20faustino.htm Bourbon del Monte Santa Maria: linee di Ancona (poi detta di San Faustino) e di Pesaro] at Golden Book of the Mediterranean Nobility
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Category:Bourbon del Monte family