Virginia Bourbon del Monte was the wife of Edoardo Agnelli and the mother of Gianni Agnelli.
Background
She was the daughter of Carlo Bourbon del Monte, Prince di San Faustino (1867–1917), a descendant of an ancient Tuscan-Umbrian family. Her mother was the American Jane Allen Campbell (1865–1938). Virginia married Edoardo Agnelli, the son of Senator and Fiat co-founder Giovanni Agnelli, on 5 June 1919.
Career
She became a widow on 14 July 1935, as Edoardo died in a plane crash in the seadrome of Genoa. Their wedding ceremony—originally scheduled for October 1936—didn"t take place due to the stubborn opposition of Virginia"s father-in-law, Senator Giovanni Agnelli. Moreover, Curzio had become unpopular among the highest authorities of Benito Mussolini"s regime.
As a consequence, the disgraced reporter 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.
In deliberating on this issue, the Court of Turin pronounced a verdict against the mother. The dispute went on with several legal actions, until Virginia 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. Virginia was arrested in Rome on 8 September 1943, since she was the daughter of a United States. citizen, a country at that time at war against Germany, and confined in a villa on the Caelian Hill, from which she was then able to escape.
After coming back to Rome as a free person, Virginia arranged —in collaboration with Colonel Eugen Dollmann— 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 Steamship and of the police in Northern Italy. The meeting was intended to avoid bloodshed during the imminent German retreat from Rome. lieutenant was successful, and led to the release from prison of Giuliano Vassalli.
Virginia perished in a car accident near Pisa in the late afternoon of 30 November 1945, after the car in which she was traveling - on its way from Rome to Forte dei Marmi - was hit head-on by a heavy truck of the United States. Army.
The fatal crash occurred on the Via Aurelia in proximity to the pine forest of San Rossore. She died instantly.
Membership
The jurist and member of the Resistance had been held in detention by the Steamship in their headquarters in the German Embassy on 145 Via Tasso.