The reason for my asking is that I recently finished watching Lucchino Visconti's movie LUDWIG, about the reign of King Ludwig II of Bavaria. Although it was filmed in German, the DVD was dubbed in Italian, with English subtitles (so I was able to understand what was going on; I can't understand either German or Italian, anyway, so the original language was irrelevant).
Anyhow, in the credits, Queen Marie (mother of the famous "mad" king) was referred to as LA REGINA MADRE. Well, that would certainly have been the Italian translation of QUEEN MOTHER (and indeed she met the conditions to qualify as one, since she was the widow of a king as well as the mother of another). But once again, this leaves open the question of whether the usage of this term expressed any custom in the native land of the language -- meaning, Italy.
Margherita's daughter-in-law, Elena, could perhaps also have qualified as one since she, too, became the widow of a king as well as the mother of another. It's just that her husband abdicated the throne; and by the time of his death, the Italian monarchy was abolished (her son, King Umberto II, reigned for only one month before being deposed).
955
Message Thread
« Back to index