Prince Amedeo, 3rd Duke of Aosta was the third Duke of Aosta and a first cousin, once removed of the King of Italy, Victor Emmanuel III. During World War II, he was the Italian Viceroy of Italian East Africa (Africa Orientale Italiana, or AOI).
Background
Amedeo was born in Turin, Piedmont, to Prince Emanuele Filiberto, 2nd Duke of Aosta (son of Amadeo I of Spain and Princess Maria Vittoria) and Princess Hélène (daughter of Prince Philippe of Orléans and the Princess Marie Isabelle of Orléans). His great-grandfather was King Victor Emmanuel II of Italy, making him a member of the House of Savoy. He was known from birth by the courtesy title of Duke of Apulia.
Education
Amedeo was educated at St David's College, Reigate, Surrey, in England. He cultivated British mannerisms, spoke Oxford English, and even enjoyed the pastimes of fox hunting and polo. Amedeo entered the Nunziatella, the military academy in Naples, joined the Italian Royal Army (Regio Esercito).
Career
He fought with distinction in the artillery during World War I. He left the army in 1921 and traveled widely in Africa.
Aosta became governor general of Italian East Africa and Viceroy of Ethiopia in 1937. Two years later he became military commander in these territories. In 1940 he was ordered to take British Somaliland (scaling the Red Sea) and invade the Anglo- Egyptian Sudan while Graziani attacked from Tripoli into Egypt. The viceroy entered British Somaliland with about 25.000 troops on 4 Aug 1940, and by the 17th had driven out the small garrison led by Godwin-Austin. But the Italian Northern Army from Eritrea under Gen Frusci moved only a few miles into the Sudan to Kassala and Gallabat. Both places were evacuated on 17 Jan 1941. and William Platt conquered Eritrea in a hard campaign before turning south to cooperate with the expedition from Kenya under Alan Cunningham. Aosta surrendered on 16 May 1941. Italian resistance in Abyssinia ended on 27 Nov 1941, and Aosta died a few months later as a POW in Nairobi, Kenya.
Connections
Amedeo was married 5 November 1927, in Naples, to his first cousin HRH Princess Anne of Orléans (1906–1986), daughter of Prince Jean of Orléans, styled Duc de Guise, and his wife Princess Isabelle of Orléans (herself daughter of Prince Philippe of Orléans and the Infanta Maria Isabel of Spain). By birth, the Duke and Duchess of Aosta were thus in distant remainder to the Spanish Throne.