It is curious to see that the Savoy house rules allowed marrying outside the Royal circle but that Marina's noble ancestry was not considered enough for some. Nobody ever suggested that the two Duchesses of Aosta of noble but not royal birth were not good enough.
In 1962 Vittorio Emanuele, Prince of Piedmont, began a relationship with Marina Ricolfi Doria which would eventually lead to their canonical marriage in 1971. Vittorio Emanuele's father King Umberto II had previously written to his son about the House of Savoy's tradition of only contracting marriages with members of "famiglie di Sovrani". Umberto had also written that he did not feel authorized to depart from this tradition.
In 1867 King Vittorio Emanuele II authorised the marriage of his younger son Amedeo, Duke of Aosta, to Maria Vittoria del Pozzo.
Both Marina Ricolfi Doria and Maria Vittoria del Pozzo had noble ancestry (but not from a sovereign family) and significant wealth.
In one case the King (reigning) recognised the marriage as legal and dynastic. In the other case the King (in exile) recognised the marriage as legal but not as dynastic.
Were there Italian monarchists in the late 1960s who questioned this difference in treatment?
(Maria Vittoria del Pozzo was a princess. But such Italian principalities as della Cisterna are a dime a dozen and in no way comparable to sovereign houses.)
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