ROME – Prince Victor Emanuel of Savoy, the scandal-tainted son of the last king of Italy Umberto II, died Saturday in Geneva at age 86, the Royal House of Savoy said. The buccaneering prince who supplemented his royal inheritance by working as an international arms dealer, died “serenely” surrounded by his family.

 Victor Emanuel’s life was marked by scandals, notably his investigation and subsequent acquittal by a French court for shooting and killing a young German man, Dirk Hamer, while the prince was aboard his yacht moored off Corsica.

 Victor Emanuel was born Feb. 12, 1937 in Naples, son of Umberto II who was known as the May King as he ruled only from May 9 to June 18, 1946, before abdicating and going into exile in Portugal after Italy voted to abolish the monarchy in a national referendum that is widely believed to have been rigged by the Italian Communist Party.

 The Savoys were discredited by the complicity with fascism of Umberto’s father, Victor Emanuel III, and by the king abandoning Rome and fleeing from the Nazis to southern Italy after Mussolini was ousted. Prince Victor Emanuel lived in exile until 2003 when a clause of the Republican constitution banning the Savoys and their make heirs from returning to Italy was abrogated. He returned to Italy at age 57 on condition that neither he nor his son Emanuele Filiberto take part in Italian politics. Victor Emanuel married Marina Doria in 1970, Emanuele Filiberto was born in 1972.

 jp