Editing Junio Valerio Borghese

{{Short description|Italian Navy commander (1906–1974)}}
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{{Infobox officeholder
|birth_name= Junio Valerio Scipione Ghezzo Marcantonio Maria Borghese
|image              = Borghese.jpg
|caption            = 
|order              = Honorary President of the<br>[[Italian Social Movement]]
|term_start         = 1951
|term_end           = 1953
|predecessor        = ''none''
|successor          = [[Rodolfo Graziani]]
|birth_date         = {{Birth date|1906|6|6|df=y}}
|birth_place        = [[Rome]], [[Lazio]], [[Kingdom of Italy|Italy]]
|death_date         = {{Death date and age|1974|8|26|1906|6|6|df=y}}
|death_place        = [[Cádiz]], [[Andalusia]], [[Francoist Spain|Spain]]
|restingplace       = [[Basilica di Santa Maria Maggiore]]
|nationality        = [[Italian nationality law|Italian]]
|party              = [[National Fascist Party]]{{efn|Borghese was not affiliated to the [[Republican Fascist Party]] due to his noble origins, which were at odds with the principles of the party.}}<br>(1926–1943)<br>[[Italian Social Movement]]<br> (1946–1967)<br>[[National Front (Italy 1967)|National Front]]<ref name="Panorama">{{Cite book|title=Panorama|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=m3g7AQAAIAAJ|year=1975|publisher=Mondadori|page=384}}</ref><br>(1968–1970)
|spouse             = {{Marriage|Darya Vasilyevna Olsufeeva|1931|1963|end=her death}}
|children           = 4
|height             = {{convert|1.75|m|ftin|abbr=on}}
|alma_mater         = [[Italian Naval Academy]]
|profession         = [[Military officer]]
<!--Military service-->
|nickname           = The Black Prince
|allegiance         = {{flag|Kingdom of Italy}}<br>{{flag|Italian Social Republic}}
|branch             = ''{{navy|Kingdom of Italy}}''<br>{{navy|Italian Social Republic}}
|serviceyears       = 1928–1945
|rank               = [[Frigate captain]]
|unit               = ''[[Decima Flottiglia MAS]]''
|commands           = ''[[Decima Flottiglia MAS]]''
|battles            = [[Second Italo-Ethiopian War]]<br>[[Spanish Civil War]]<br>[[World War II]]
* [[Mediterranean and Middle East theatre of World War II|Mediterranean campaign]]
** [[Raid on Alexandria (1941)|Raid on Alexandria]]
*[[Italian campaign (World War II)|Italian campaign]]
|awards             = [[Gold Medal of Military Valour]]
}}

'''Junio Valerio Scipione Ghezzo Marcantonio Maria Borghese''' (6 June 1906 – 26 August 1974), nicknamed '''The Black Prince''', was an [[Italian Navy]] commander during the regime of [[Benito Mussolini]]'s [[National Fascist Party]] and a prominent hardline [[neo-fascist]] politician in post-war Italy. In 1970, he took part in the planning of a neo-fascist coup, dubbed the [[Golpe Borghese]], that was called off after the press discovered it; he subsequently fled to Spain and spent the last years of his life there.

==Early life and early career==
{{Unsourced section|date=March 2024}}
Junio Valerio Borghese was born in [[Artena]], [[Province of Rome]], [[Kingdom of Italy]]. He was born into a prominent [[nobility|noble]] family of Sienese origin, the [[House of Borghese]], of which Pope [[Paul V]] was a notable member. His father, Livio Borghese, was the 11th [[Prince of Sulmona]] and younger brother to the more famous [[Scipione Borghese, 10th Prince of Sulmona|Scipione Borghese]]. Borghese was the second son of the prince and, as such, had the title of Patrician of Rome, Naples and Venice and the style of ''[[Don (honorific)|Don]] Junio Valerio Borghese''. However, the press and the English-language historiography routinely used the courtesy style ''Prince Junio Valerio Borghese''. Borghese was first educated in [[London]], [[England]], and, from 1923, he attended the [[Accademia Navale di Livorno|Royal Italian Navy Academy (''Accademia Navale'')]] in [[Livorno]].

In 1929, the naval career of Borghese began. By 1933, he was a submarine commander. Borghese took part in the [[Second Italo-Abyssinian War]]. During the Italian intervention in the [[Spanish Civil War]], he was in command of the [[Italian submarine Iride|submarine ''Iride'']], where he allegedly lost two seamen after his unit was depth-charged by the British destroyer [[HMS Havock (H43)|HMS ''Havock'']].

==World War II==
{{Quote|The elite World War II Italian naval unit Decima Flottiglia MAS is considered by many to be the first modern naval commando squad. Assembled by Prince Junio Valerio Borghese at the beginning of the war, these "frogmen" were trained to fight undercover and underwater with small submarines and assault boats armed with a variety of torpedoes—pioneering tactics that remain a standard for Special Forces around the world today.<ref>{{Cite web |url=http://www.usni.org/store/item.asp?department_id=135&item_id=1752 |title=US Naval Institute |access-date=2010-02-11 |archive-date=2014-12-22 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20141222001414/http://www.usni.org/store/books/history/sea-devils-0 |url-status=dead }}</ref>}}

At the start of the [[Second World War]], Borghese took command of [[submarine]] [[Italian submarine Vettor Pisani|''Vettor Pisani'']], and in August 1940 was in command of submarine [[Italian submarine Sciré (1938)|''Sciré'']], which was modified to carry the new secret Italian weapon, the [[human torpedo]]. Known as "slow speed torpedoes" (''siluri a lenta corsa'', or SLC), and nicknamed "pigs" (''maiali'') for their poor maneuverability, these were small underwater assault vehicles with a crew of two.

These were part of the ''1ª Flottiglia Mezzi d'Assalto'' (MAS), the "First Assault Vehicle Flotilla" (later called ''[[Decima Flottiglia MAS]]''), an elite naval sabotage unit of the Royal Italian Navy (''[[Regia Marina]] Italiana'').

As commander of ''Sciré'' Borghese took part in several raids using SLC. The first of these, in September and October 1940, [[Military history of Gibraltar during World War II#Xª MAS: 1940–1943|were directed at Gibraltar]]. The September raid was abandoned when the harbour was found to be empty. In the October raid, Borghese took ''[[Italian submarine Scirè (1938)|Sciré]]'' deep into [[Bay of Gibraltar|Gibraltar Bay]], making a difficult submerged passage in order to release the SLC as close to the target as possible.{{sfn|Kemp|1997|p=36}} For this he received the [[Medaglia d'Oro al Valor Militare]] (MOVM), despite the mission's overall lack of success.

In May 1941 a further attempt ended in failure, but on 20 September 1941, a successful mission damaged three merchant ships in the harbour. After this last attack, he was promoted to ''Capitano di Fregata'', and named commander of the ''Decima MAS''' sub-surface unit.{{sfn|Kemp|1997|p=51}}

On 18 December 1941, he reached [[Alexandria]] in ''Sciré'' and launched [[Raid on Alexandria (1941)|the daring raid by three SLCs]] that heavily damaged the two [[Royal Navy]] [[battleship]]s {{HMS|Valiant|1914|6}} and {{HMS|Queen Elizabeth|1913|6}} and two other ships in the harbour. The six Italian Navy crew that attacked [[Alexandria]] harbour all received the ''Medaglia d'Oro al Valor Militare'', and Borghese was named ''[[Cavaliere dell'Ordine Militare di Savoia]]''.

In May 1943, Borghese took command of the ''[[Decima Flottiglia MAS]]''{{sfn|Kemp|1997|p=57}} ("10th Assault Vehicle Flotilla"), or ''Xª MAS'' with [[Roman numerals]], which continued active service in the Mediterranean and pioneered new techniques of [[commando]] assault warfare. The Roman numeral was in memory of Caesar's famous Decima Legio.

===8 September 1943: the Armistice===
[[Image:Borghese, Junio Valerio.jpg|thumb|left|200px|Borghese in 1944]]
After [[Armistice of Cassibile|Italy's surrender to the Allies on 8 September 1943]], the ''Xª MAS'' was disbanded. While some of its sailors joined the Allies, Borghese chose to continue fighting with the [[Italian Social Republic]] (RSI) alongside the German Armed Forces (''[[Wehrmacht]]'').

On 12 September 1943, he signed a treaty of alliance with Nazi Germany's ''[[Kriegsmarine]]''. Many of his colleagues volunteered to serve with him, and the Decima Flottiglia was revived, headquartered in ''Caserma del Muggiano'', [[La Spezia]]. By the end of the war, it had over 18,000 members, and Borghese conceived it as a purely military unit. The X Flottiglia gained a reputation for never firing a shot at any Italian military units fighting with the Allied forces.

In April 1945 when the [[United States|US]] command discovered that the British had granted permission to Marshal [[Josip Broz Tito]] of [[Yugoslavia]], and his Communist troops, to occupy northeastern Italy from Venice to the east, Borghese moved the bulk of the X Flottiglia from the Ligurian and Piedmontese area to the Veneto. The X Flottiglia built a line of defence on the Tagliamento river where they resisted until the arrival of the Allied troops.

In this action, the X Flottiglia lost over eighty per cent of the fighting sailors dispatched to the front against Tito's troops, and the Italian Communist Partisans allied with Tito.

At the end of the war, Borghese was rescued by [[Office of Strategic Services]] officer [[James Jesus Angleton|James Angleton]], who dressed him in an American uniform and drove him from [[Milan]] to [[Rome]] for interrogation by the Allies. Borghese was then tried and convicted of collaboration with the Nazi invaders, but not of [[war crime]]s, by the Italian Court. He was "sentenced to 12 years imprisonment, discounted to 3 years, due to his glorious expeditions during the war, his defence of northeast borders against Tito's ''[[9th Corps (Partisans)|IX Corps]]'' and his defence of [[Genoa]] harbour".<ref>Sergio Nesi, Italian Supreme Court report in ''Il processo'', in ''Junio Valerio Borghese. Un principe, un comandante, un italiano''. Bologna, Lo Scarabeo, 2004, pp. 555-556.</ref><ref>{{Cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=UAMZMoMuCEcC&pg=PR4 |title=The United States and the European Right, 1945-1955 |last=Kisatsky |first=Deborah |date=2005 |publisher=Ohio State University Press |isbn=9780814209981 |language=en}}</ref> He was released from jail after four years' imprisonment by the [[Court of Cassation (Italy)|Supreme Court of Cassation]] in 1949.

==Political activism after the war==
[[Image:Junio Valerio Borghese.jpg|thumb|200px|Borghese in 1970]]

With his record as a war hero and his support of Fascism, he became a figurehead for pro-fascist, anti-communist groups in the immediate post-war period, acquiring the nickname ''Black Prince''.

Borghese wrote a supportive introduction, affirming his political ideology of an idealistic [[neo-fascist]] new aristocracy meritocratically based purely on character, to [[far right]] revolutionary-conservative theorist [[Julius Evola]]'s book ''[[Men Among the Ruins]]'' [https://archive.today/20130125154535/http://forum.hyeclub.com/showthread.php?t=9193].<ref>[[Julius Evola|Evola, Julius]] (1953). ''Gli Uomini e le Rovine''. Roma: Edizioni dell'Ascia.</ref> He later wrote a memoir of his wartime exploits, published as ''Sea Devils'' in 1954. He was associated with the [[Movimento Sociale Italiano]] (MSI), the neo-fascist party formed in the post-World War II period by former supporters of the dictator [[Benito Mussolini]].

Later, advocating a harder line which the MSI was not able or willing to uphold, he broke from the MSI to form an even stauncher neofascist formation, known as the [[National Front (Italy 1967)|Fronte Nazionale]].

===Attempted coup===
Following a last minute aborted ''[[coup d'état]]'' plot which fizzled out on the night of 8 December 1970 (the [[Feast of the Immaculate Conception]]), referred to as the [[Golpe Borghese]], he was forced to cross the border to avoid arrest and interrogation. In 1984, ten years after Borghese's death, the [[Court of Cassation (Italy)|Supreme Court of Cassation]] ruled that no ''coup d'état'' attempt had happened, in the sense that it was just a "meeting of four or five sixty-year-olds".<ref name=storia>{{in lang|it}} [http://www.lastoriasiamonoi.rai.it/puntate/il-golpe-borghese/8/default.aspx Il golpe Borghese. Storia di un'inchiesta] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160821085054/http://www.lastoriasiamonoi.rai.it/puntate/il-golpe-borghese/8/default.aspx |date=21 August 2016 }}, La storia siamo noi, Rai Educational (accessed 24 February 2011)</ref><ref>{{Cite web |date=2016-08-21 |title=Il golpe Borghese - Storia di un'inchiesta - La Storia siamo noi |url=http://www.lastoriasiamonoi.rai.it/puntate/il-golpe-borghese/8/default.aspx |access-date=2024-12-26 |archive-date=2016-08-21 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160821085054/http://www.lastoriasiamonoi.rai.it/puntate/il-golpe-borghese/8/default.aspx |url-status=dead }}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |date=2005-12-05 |title=E la Cia disse: sì al golpe Borghese ma soltanto con Andreotti premier - la Repubblica.it |url=https://ricerca.repubblica.it/repubblica/archivio/repubblica/2005/12/05/la-cia-disse-si-al-golpe.html |access-date=2024-12-26 |website=Archivio - la Repubblica.it |language=it}}</ref>

Nevertheless, the attempt is well known in Italy and film director [[Mario Monicelli]] made a biting satire of it called ''[[Vogliamo i colonnelli]]'' (1972) (''We want the Colonels'', as the [[Regime of the Colonels|Fascist Greek colonels]] were pulling the strings behind the scenes). The main character (played by [[Ugo Tognazzi]]) is a bombastic neo-fascist politician called Tritoni ([[Triton (mythology)|Triton]]), a clear allusion to Borghese, who was sometimes called the ''frog prince'' in Italy, after his time in the Frogmen assault Unit ''Dècima MAS''.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Day |first=The Editor: Italy On This |title=The Borghese Coup |url=https://www.italyonthisday.com/2022/12/the-borghese-coup.html |access-date=2024-11-15}}</ref>

===Final years and death===

Latterly regarded as a political outcast and shunned by his ancestrally [[Nobility|blue blood]] social connections for his "heretical" political extremism and disregard for the external norms of modern aristocratic etiquette and behaviour, Borghese died under mysterious circumstances in [[Cádiz]], Spain, on 26 August 1974, aged 68.<ref>{{cite book|last1=Greene|first1=Jack|title=The Black Prince and the Sea Devils: the story of Valerio Borghese and the elite commandos of the Decima MAS|date=2004|publisher=Da Capo Press|location=Cambridge, Mass.|isbn=978-0306813115|pages=234–235|edition=1.}}</ref> The death certificate records the cause of death as "[[acute pancreatitis|acute hemorrhagic pancreatitis]]"; however, since Borghese was visited by a physician who found him in good shape just a few days before, it has been suggested that the circumstances of his death, characterized by a sudden onset of abdominal pain immediately after supper, could be compatible with [[arsenic poisoning]].<ref>{{cite web|last1=Incerti|first1=Corrado|title=Borghese: indigestione o veleno?|url=http://www.misteriditalia.it/golpeborghese/Borgheseindigestioneoveleno%28LEuropeo%29.pdf|access-date=8 December 2014}}</ref>

He is buried in the Borghese family chapel in the [[Basilica di Santa Maria Maggiore]], Rome.

== Family ==
He was born as Junio Valerio Scipione Ghezzo Marcantonio Maria of the Borghese princes in Rome, in one of the most important families of the Roman nobility, of ancient Sienese origins, with 4 cardinals, a pope and [[Napoleon|Napoleon Bonaparte]]'s sister, [[Pauline Bonaparte|Paolina]], among his ancestors. He was the second son of Prince Livio Borghese of Sulmona (1874–1939), Prince of Rossano, Prince of Vivaro Romano, Prince of Monte Compatri, Duke of Palombara, Duke of Poggio Nativo and Castelchiodato; his mother was Princess Valeria Maria Alessandra Keun (Smyrna, 1880 – Catania, 1956), daughter of Alfred August Keun and Virgina Amirà. His parents separated in Rome on 31 May 1911. As a consequence of the fact that his father was a diplomat (with the rank of plenipotentiary minister), Junio Valerio spent the first years of his life travelling between Italy and the main foreign capitals, staying in China, Egypt, Spain, France and Great Britain. In Italy, he mostly spent his time in and around Rome. He married in Florence, on 30 September 1931, the Russian countess Darya Vasilyevna Olsufeeva (Moscow, 1909 – Rome, 1963), sister of Alexandra "Assia" Vasilyevna Olsufeeva, wife of [[Busiri Vici|Andrea Busiri Vici]].<ref>{{Cite web|title=Russi in Italia: dizionario - Russi in Italia|url=http://www.russinitalia.it/dettaglio.php?id=740|access-date=2021-01-23|website=www.russinitalia.it}}</ref> They had four children:

* Elena Maria Nives (born in Rome in 1932);
* Paolo Valerio Livio Vasilj Michele Scipione Romano Maria (Rome, 1933 – Rome, 1999), who married [[Niké Arrighi]], with whom he had his daughter Flavia;
* Livio Giuseppe Maria della Neve (Rome, 1940 – Sperlonga, 1989), who married Piera Loreta Rita Vallone (1941), with whom he had: Daria (1968), who married Carmelo Tibor Salleo of the Barons of San Filippo, Livia, Marcantonio (Rome, 1970), who married Francesca d'Amore and Niccolò;
* Andrea Scirè Maria della Neve [78] (Rome, 1942 - Wollongong, 2024),<ref>{{Cite web|title=e deceduto andrea scire borghese: dizionario - Andrea Scire Borghese passes away|url=https://www.lanuovatribuna.org/artena/e-deceduto-andrea-scire-borghese-il-funerale-si-terra-a-roma/?amp|access-date=2024-05-31|website=www.lanuovatribuna.org|date=19 January 2024 }}</ref> who married Marisa Canti, with whom he had: Luca, Alessio (twins), Karen and Valerio.

==Notes==
{{notelist}}

==References==
===Citations===
{{Reflist}}

===Works cited===
* {{Cite book|last=Kemp|first=Paul|year=1997|title=Underwater Warriors|publisher=Arms and Armour |isbn=1854094556}}

==Further reading==
* {{DBI|url=https://www.treccani.it/enciclopedia/junio-valerio-borghese_(Dizionario-Biografico)|volume=34|title=BORGHESE, Junio Valerio|first=Sandro|last=Setta}}
* {{cite book | author = Junio Valerio Borghese | title = Sea Devils | year = 1954 | publisher = [[Henry Regnery Company]] | location = Chicago}}
* {{cite book | author = Junio Valerio Borghese | title = Decima Flottiglia MAS | year = 1950 | publisher = [[Garzanti]] | location = Milano}}
* {{cite book | author = Mario Bordogna | title = Junio Valerio Borghese e la X Flottiglia MAS | year = 2003 | publisher = Mursia}}
* {{cite book | author = Sergio Nesi | title = Junio Valerio Borghese. Un principe, un comandante, un italiano| year = 2005 | publisher = Lo Scarabeo | location = Bologna}}

{{Italian Social Movement}}
{{Portal bar|Biography|Italy}}
{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Borghese, Junio Valerio}}
[[Category:1906 births]]
[[Category:1974 deaths]]
[[Category:People from the Metropolitan City of Rome Capital]]
[[Category:Italian neo-fascists]]
[[Category:Italian military personnel of the Second Italo-Ethiopian War]]
[[Category:Regia Marina personnel of World War II]]
[[Category:People of the Italian Social Republic]]
[[Category:Submarine commanders]]
[[Category:House of Borghese|Junio Valerio]]
[[Category:20th-century Italian nobility]]
[[Category:Italian anti-communists]]
[[Category:Italian Social Movement politicians]]
[[Category:Burials at Santa Maria Maggiore]]
[[Category:People convicted of treason against Italy]]