Italy is a country that has remained fragmented for centuries, over a millennium. It was, for about seven centuries, the center of Roman power and, briefly, Byzantine, before ending up fragmented due to the invasion of the Lombards.....a fragmentation that worsened over the years and culminated in the partitions by foreign powers that, for centuries, oppressed the Italian people.
Only in the 19th century, with the uprisings of 1848 and the wars of independence, did Italy free itself from foreign strings and become a united kingdom on March 17, 1861. There are those who would think, hearing this for the first time, in the birth of a very powerful state. But the story was very different: a country was born that barely had the capacity to defend itself.
And she was the crown princess of that country: Letizia Vittoria di Savoia or, simply, Letizia. Born on April 28, 1867, daughter of the current king, Umberto I, and his wife Margherita di Savoia-Genova. But there was more: she was a reincarnation. Her real name was Gu Ning, a 21st century Chinese woman, as well as a teacher of ancient and modern history in Japan: a true history enthusiast. She had died because of a car accident but, to everyone's surprise, she found herself reborn in the past.
As she was, she quickly accepted her role as princess, but the situation she found herself in was certainly not the best. Of all the countries in Europe, Italy was certainly not the best. The unification of the peninsula from the Habsburg Empire would have been impossible, for starters, without the help of Napoleon III's France in 1859; in 1866 there was a similar situation where, thanks to the alliance with Otto von Bismark's Prussia, she had taken over the Veneto; finally, in 1870, with the Franco-Prussian War, she also managed to conquer Lazio and Rome. In short, Italy had been formed with a long series of fortunate circumstances.
Letizia knew full well that she would face very tough challenges once she became queen, but she was full of determination inside herself With the knowledge of her past life she was convinced that she could also lead a country like Italy to greatness. Her problems, however, were mainly family-related.
This starting from her very existence: it had to be taken into account that Umberto I had never had a female daughter in the original story. This was followed by a serious scandal: if we were to rely on real history, her parents had married in 1868, which meant that she had been born out of wedlock, which caused her to be spoken badly of among the nobility. These were not, of course, purely offensive and repetitive rumors, since she was the heir to the throne, but she was quite sure that if they had had another option for the inheritance they would not hesitate to do away with her. And in a kingdom, not having the support of the nobility, for an heir was not at all nice.
On the other hand, one could ask: why was she the heir to the throne? Where was Victor Emmanuel, the future Victor Emmanuel III? His mother, in fact, had become pregnant around 1869, as in real history and the people, after the scandal that "I" had caused, applauded the future heir. In the sixth month of pregnancy, however, she had a miscarriage. The royal doctors hypothesized that the previous pregnancy had left its mark on her and that she was no longer able to have children.
Here comes the second scandal: after all, the queen consort of the kingdom had been declared sterile and incapable of producing a male heir. After this, her mother, already destroyed by grief for the loss of her son, after hearing the explanations of the doctors, resented her, accusing her of having killed her little brother. In short, not even her mother recognized her as heir. The Italian parliament proposed to her father Umberto, to nominate a member of the Savoy-Aosta branch as heir.
However, her father categorically rejected the advice, refusing to cede the right of succession to an external branch of the family. Although he too was depressed by that loss, he did not let himself be discouraged and put his efforts into raising Letizia as a worthy heir to the kingdom, finding himself extremely satisfied with the results. She was very grateful to her father for this; after all, only as queen could she realize her ambitions.
After all, she had clear ideas on how to prevent Italy's historical failures and establish it as a great power. Of course, she knew that it would not be too easy and that her butterfly effect would change many things. Furthermore, to more easily realize her ambitions, she needed to make a name for herself and earn the respect of those around her. So, at the age of eight, she asked and obtained from her father the right to participate in parliament meetings.
Today was May 25, 1880 and Gu Ning, now Letizia of Savoy, vowed to achieve the glory that her historical predecessors had not achieved.