HUMBERT I, RANIERI CARLO EMANUELE GIOVANNI MARIA FERDINANDO EUGENIO, king of Italy: b. Turin, 14 March 1844: d. Monza. near Milan, 29 July 1900. He was eldest son of Vic tor Emmanuel II and Queen Marie Adelaide, daughter of the Archduke Regnier of Austria. He received a most careful education, entered the army, took part as a youth in the war of independence, and in 1866 was in command of a division at Custozza. On 22 April 1868 he married his cousin, Princess Margherita of Savoy, daughter of the Duke of Genoa. On the death of his father he succeeded to the throne of Italy, 9 Jan. 1878, as Humbert I. During his reign he carefully regarded constitutional limi tations, and directing his choice of prime ministers according parliamentary conditions selected but one, Rudini, from the Conservatives. In 1891 was concluded the °Triple Alliance" with Germany and Austria, a compact which necessitated the maintenance of a large army. and navy, and the oppressive taxation of an already burdened country. Humbert believed in colonial expansion, which he ihaugurated by the occupation of Massowah, on the Red Sea.
The Italian troops suffered reverses in 1887 and 1888, when they were defeated by the Mandi, and 1 March 1896 when they lost the battle of Adowa to the Abyssinians. Humbert's attitude toward the Vatican was one of firm ness, respecting all guarantees to the Pope, but insisting on the permanence of the Italian possession of Rome. His private munificence— it is said that he expended not less than $500,000 yearly in benefactions — and his personal inter est and courage in the rescue work after the earthquake at Ischia (28 July 1883), and in visits to Busca and Naples during the cholera epidemic (1884), made him greatly respected by the Italians, to whom he was known as °Hum bert the Good." He was thoroughly a soldier and eager in the interests of the army. Two unsuccessful attempts were made upon his life, one at Naples, 17 Nov. 1878, by Passanante, a fanatic, and another near Rome, 22 April 1897, by Acciarito, an anarchist. On 29 July 1900 he was shot and killed at Monza, near Milan, by the anarchist Bresci. See ITALY - HISTORY.