Guido Poeti-Marentini e Valperga di Masino-Caluso Peyretti di Condove
Guido Poeti-Marentini e Valperga di Masino e Caluso Peyretti di Condove (7 July 1928, Castello di Borgomasino - 22 February 2002, Turin) was an Italian Duke, Marquess, Count and hereditary Baron of the First French Empire. He was the son of Carlo Poeti-Marentini e Valperga di Masino e Caluso Peyretti di Condove (16 October 1876, Saluzzo - 18 March 1946, Turin) and his wife Countess Maria Assunta Thaon di St. André (14 July 1907, Turin - 19 April 1993, Lake Maggiore). He came from one of the oldest and most prestigious families of the Piedmontese nobility, the Poeti-Marentini e Valperga di Masino, descendants from the Colonna family, the Della Rovere family of Bologna and Arduin of Ivrea (955 - 1015), first King of Italy. His titles were: Duke of Salce, Marquess of Masino, Marquess of Brosso, Count of Condove, Count of San Martino Canavese, Count and Viscount of Marentino,hereditary Count of Masino e Caluso and Baron of the First French Empire. Born at Castello di Borgomasino in the alpine surroundings of Northern Italy, his family’s main property, Guido was taken age two to Turin, where he was taught by private tutors until he was sent to Eton College, England, for completing his basic studies. While at Eton, he was active in the artistic activities and as regular collaborator for The Junior Chronicle, Eaton’s oldest journal. Between 1933 and 1938, he travelled with his parents and sister extensively through the United States, as Duke Carlo was one of the first to buy one of the 32 made Bellanca CH-400 de Luxe, as was the fashion of the decade in private planes. In 1939, at the outbreak of World War II, he was called back home, where he was to stay until its end. His father, Carlo, who had studied political science at the University of Cambridge, played an important role during the European conflict, as advisor to the Prince of Piedmont, the later King Umberto II, travelling between Libya and Albania reviewing the situation of the fronts. On April 24 1940, just a few days after Germany invaded Denmark and Norway, Duke Carlo was part of the royal delegation that visited Pius XII at the Vatican for a summit where it was discussed the threat of Nazism and the inevitable German invasion of the Netherlands and Belgium. As advisor to the Prince of Piedmont, Carlo foresaw the dangers of launching the invasion of Egypt that began on 25 August 1940 under the command of the Marquess of Neghelli, Rodolfo Graziani, by orders of Benito Mussolini. For the period 1940-1945 Guido was privately tutored at Villa Poeti-Marentini di Gatta in Saluzzo and his parent’s apartment in Turin. When Umberto II was appointed as Luogotenente Generale del Regno by his father King Vittorio Emanuele III in June 1944, and after the failure of the secret negotiations of Crown Princess Marie-José of Belgium to arrange a peace treaty between Italy and the United States, Carlo sent his son Guido with his mother and his sister, Lyda Benedetta (10 December 1929, Turin - 21 May 1998, Paris) to Château Châtelard-les-Bains in Lake Geneva, a family property that would eventually provide easy escape, if the war worsened, into neutral Switzerland. After the end of the war, the family returned to Castello di Borgomasino in Piedmont. The Duke Carlo died shortly afterwards (18 March), before the popular plebiscite that overthrew the monarchy on 12 June 1946, and which sent on the next day the Savoy family into exile. By 1946 Guido had finished his exams and flew to the United States, where he enrolled in Yale University, obtaining a degree in Anthropology and History. In the winter of 1949, he returned to Turin upon taking officially on his father’s duties and investments in South-East Asia and South America. It was during a Christmas ball organized at Palazzo di Sant’Andrea on Lake Maggiore that he met Alice Habsburg (25 December 1929, Salzburg - 5 January 1982, Villa Poeti-Marentini di Gatta, Piedmont, Italy), whom he married on 30 June 1950 at the private chapel of Castello di Masino, in the alpine municipality of Caravino. By marriage, his children assumed the name Poeti-Marentini Habsburg-Lothringen and established a junior branch of his ancient family. That same year, he moved with his wife to Castello di Borgomasino, in Piedmont, where he lived until 1989, when the property was sold (along with Masino Castle). Guido Poeti-Marentini e Valperga di Masino e Caluso Peyretti di Condove died on 22 February 2002 in his Turin apartment. He was buried at the mausoleum of his family in the historic Cemetery of Turin.. At the time of his death, his fortune was estimated around $500 million euros (around 800 million dollars). Children * Fiorella Poeti-Marentini (4 February 1951, Turin). Married French Baron Stéphane Marcassus de Puymarin (19 December 1948, Paris). * Flaminia Poeti-Marentini (18 October 1952, Saluzzo). Married Fabrizio Arrivabene (17 May 1950, Roma). They have 3 children. * Marietta Poeti-Marentini (5 January 1954, Saluzzo). Married South American Economist E. Vergara-Santo Domingo (17 May 1941, Colombia). They have one child, the writer Max Vergara Poeti-Marentini. * Isabella Poeti-Marentini (21 June 1957, Saluzzo). Married Lord Ralph Martin Reginald Herbert (11 April 1951, London). They have 3 children. * Carlotta Poeti-Marentini (10 October 1961, Castello di Borgomasino, Italy). Married Johann Friedrich zu Salm (6 July 1958, Hansen). * Luigi Poeti-Marentini (25 March 1963, Castello di Borgomasino, Italy). Current head of the family. Married Maria Elizabeth von Sternberg-Manderscheid (5 November 1970, Mainz). They have 2 children. * Gabriella Poeti-Marentini (22 November 1965, Castello di Borgomasino, Italy). Married Philipp Karl Anton von Schönburg-Waldenburg (27 May 1957, Potsdam). They have 4 children. * Maria Alessandra Poeti-Marentini (17 September 1970, Castello di Borgomasino, Italy). Married Ludwig Anton van Limburg-Stirum (9 October 1966, The Hague). They have 3 children.