His Royal Highness The Prince of Naples (Vittorio Emanuele Alberto Carlo Teodoro Umberto Bonifacio Amedeo Damiano Bernardino Gennaro Maria), born February 12, 1937) is the head of the House of Savoy, and Pretender to the Italian Throne. He is known to Italian monarchists as Vittorio Emanuele IV. He was born in Naples to Umberto II, the last king of Italy and Princess Marie José of Belgium.
After an 11-year engagement, Victor Emmanuel, then a banker and helicopter salesman, married Swiss biscuit heiress Marina Doria (born Geneva, February 12, 1935) in Teheran on October 7, 1971. A gold-medal-winning trick-ski champion, Doria -- a daughter of René Ricolfi Doria and Iris Benvenuti -- had also been a star attraction at the Florida amusement park Cypress Gardens in the 1950s, highlights that did not endear the groom's father to the marriage; the former king refused to attend. The Prince and Princess of Naples have one son, Emanuele Filiberto Umberto Reza Rene Maria, Prince of Venice, born in Geneva, June 22, 1972. He was married to French actress, Clotilde Courau, on September 25, 2003.
On the night of August 17 or the subsequent morning of August 18, 1978, on the island of Cavallo, which lies off the south coast of Corsica, Victor Emmanuel discovered his yacht's rubber dinghy had been taken and attached to another nearby yacht. Arming himself with a rifle, he attempted to board the yacht. He shot at and missed a passenger he had awakened, but hit Dirk Hamer, a passenger sleeping on the deck of another adjacent yacht. The Prince admitted civil liability for the death in a letter dated August 28, 1978. Mr. Hamer died of his wounds on December 7, 1978, and Victor Emmanuel was arrested. On October 11, 1989, he was indicted on charges of fatal wounding and offensive weapons possession, but on November 18, 1991 the Paris Assize Court acquitted him of the fatal wounding and unintentional homicide charges, finding him guilty only of unauthorised possession of a US30MI rifle.
His name was found in the list of Licio Gelli's "Propaganda Due" Freemasonic lodge.
On October 23, 2002, a provision in the Italian constitution that barred the male descendants of the House of Savoy from setting foot in the Italian Republic was abolished, permitting Victor Emmanuel to re-enter the country after November 10. On his first trip home in over half a century, he and the Princess of Naples paid a courtesy call on Pope John Paul II at the Vatican.
On May 21, 2004, following a dinner held by King Juan Carlos I of Spain on the eve of the wedding of his son Felipe, Prince of Asturias, Victor Emmanuel punched his cousin and arch-rival Amadeo the Duke of Aosta twice in the face.