Italian Royalty and Disputed Claimant to the Italian Throne. Prince Amadeo di Savoa-Aosta, 5th Duca d'Aosta (English: Duke of Aosta), was the only child of Aimone, Duca d'Aosta, who as Tomislav II briefly reigned as king of the Italian and German World War II era puppet state of Croatia (May 18, 1941 – July 31, 1943). His mother, the former Princess Irene of Greece and Denmark, was a daughter of Constantine I, King of the Hellenes, and his wife, the former Princess Sophie of Prussia, a sister of Kaiser Wilhelm II and daughter of German Emperor Frederick III by his wife, Victoria, Princess Royal, eldest daughter of Queen Victoria of the United Kingdom. His branch of the Italian royal family descended from a younger son of King Vittorio Emanuele II of Italy and he possessed a distinguished pedigree that included not only the most prestigious of Europe's reigning Catholic royal dynasties, but also its most prestigious reigning Protestant dynasties. Born shortly before the surrender of Italy to the Allies during World War II, he succeeded his father as Duke of Aosta when he was only four years old. He was educated at the Collegio Navale Morosini in Venice and the Accademia Navale in Livorno, from which he graduated as an officer in the Marina Militare (Italian Navy). He was married at the Igreja Paroquial de São Pedro in Sintra, Portugal on July 22, 1964 to his cousin, Princess Claude d'Orléans, a daughter of Henri, Comte de Paris, the Orléanist claimant to the throne of France, and his wife, Princess Isabelle of Orléans-Braganza. They had three children before separating in 1976 and eventually received an annulment from the Apostolic Tribunal of the Roman Rota on January 8, 1987. Following the annulment of his first marriage, he was married at the chapel of Villa Spedalotto in Bagheria, Sicily on March 30, 1987 to Silvia Paternò di Spedalotto, daughter of Vincenzo Paternò di Spedalotto, 6th Marchese di Regionvanni, and his wife, the former Rosanna Bellardo e Ferraris, of Palermo, Sicily. He served as president of the Fondazione Internazionale pro Herbario Mediterraneo, founded in 1992 to support the research and study of Mediterranean flora. Aosta and his second wife primarily engaged in agricultural pursuits, including the production of their own wine, Vini Savoia Aosta. The Duke of Aosta maintained a close relationship with his cousin, former King Umberto II of Italy, and was viewed by many as a possible heir to the former king, although in the end Umberto recognized his own son, Vittorio Emanuele, Prince of Naples, as the head of the House of Savoy and consequently the claimant to the Italian throne. The Prince of Naples was controversial and had married non-dynastically, without the permission of his father. Subsequently, the Prince of Naples was involved in a number of high profile scandals, including the shooting death of Dirk Hamer in 1978 and an arrest and imprisonment in 2006 on charges of corruption and the recruitment of prostitutes. It was following the Prince of Naples' arrest that the Duke of Aosta declared himself the head of the House of Savoy on July 7, 2006, on the basis of the Prince of Naples' marriage without the permission and authorization of the king, asserting this act terminated the Prince of Naples' dynastic rights. The Duke of Aosta's claim was supported by Princess Maria Gabriella of Savoy, a younger sister of the Prince of Naples. Tension between the two parties had preceded the Duke of Aosta's declaration and on May 21, 2004 reportedly resulted in a physical altercation at the Zarzuela Palace in Madrid during a celebration of the upcoming marriage of King Felipe VI of Spain, who at the time was still the Prince of Asturias. At this event, the Prince of Naples is alleged to have struck the Duke of Aosta, drawing blood and raising the ire of King Juan Carlos. Litigation ensued following the Duke of Aosta's 2006 declaration with the Prince of Naples and his only son, Emanuele Filiberto, Prince of Venice, suing the Duke of Aosta for using the surname di Savoia, rather than di Savoia-Aosta. Although the Prince of Naples and Prince of Venice were initially successful in court, the verdict was overturned on appeal and permitted Aosta and his son to use the shortened form of their surname, di Savoia. He died of complications following surgery and was succeeded in his title and his claim to the headship of the House of Savoy by his only son, Aimone.