Prince Luigi Amedeo, Duke of the Abruzzi

He was born in Madrid, Spain as the third oldest son of Prince Amadeo of Savoy, Duke of Aosta and his first wife Donna Maria Vittoria dal Pozzo della Cisterna. Prince Luigi Amedeo was a grandson of King Vittorio Emanuele II of Italy. He was born during his father's brief reign as King Amadeo of Spain. His siblings are Prince Emanuele Filiberto, Prince Vittorio Emanuele, and Prince Umberto. Shortly after his birth, his father, who had reigned in Spain since 1870, abdicated and returned to Italy in 1873. Prince Luigi Amedeo was a member of the House of Savoy, well known in Europe since the 12th century. His uncle became King Umberto I of Italy in 1878, and his cousin became King Vittorio Emanuele III in 1900.

The title Duke of the Abruzzi (Italian: Duca degli Abruzzi) was created by King Umberto I in 1890 for Luigi Amedeo, who was a son of the abdicating King of Spain Amadeus and initially was given the title of Infante of Spain. His ducal title referred to the central Italian region of Abruzzo.

From 1893 to 1896, Luigi Amedeo traveled around the world, including Eritrea, then an Italian possession, and Vancouver. In September 1893, he traveled to Italian Somaliland to quell the unrest and stayed for a month to guard the port of Mogadishu, giving him his first contact with a land to which he would later devote the last years of his life and in which he would choose to die.[3] He had begun to train as a mountaineer in 1892 on Mont Blanc and Monte Rosa (Italian Alps): in 1897 he made the first ascent of Mount Saint Elias (Canada/U.S., 5,489 m). There the expedition searched for a mirage, known as the Silent City of Alaska, that natives and prospectors claimed to see over a glacier. C. W. Thornton, a member of the expedition, wrote: "It required no effort of the imagination to liken it to a city, but was so distinct that it required, instead, faith to believe that it was not in reality a city."

In 1898, Prince Luigi Amedeo organized an expedition towards the North Pole and consulted the famous polar explorer Fridtjof Nansen that had sailed the furthest north with the Colin Archer-built polar ship Fram (ship) in 1893–1896. In 1899 Amedeo acquired Jason, a steam whaler of 570 tons. He renamed her Stella Polare and took her to Colin Archer's shipyard in Larvik, Norway. The interior was stripped out and beams, diagonals and knees heavily strengthened the ship.

In the spring of 1899 he arrived in the Norwegian capital Christiania (the present day Oslo) with ten companions and Stella Polare ("Pole Star") took the expedition through the frozen sea. On 12 June they headed for Archangel (Arkhangelsk).

Stella Polare was trapped and threatened to sink. The crew were obliged to land with the utmost haste and to secure materials for building a dwelling.

On 30 June Stella Polare dropped anchor in the docks of Arkhangelsk and the duke was solemnly received by Governor Engelhardt. The same day, Prince Luigi Amedeo was invited to meet the local authorities and the present foreign diplomats.

On 7 July, a local newspaper wrote:

The city theatre arranged an extraordinary spectacle in the presence of the Duke of the Abruzzi. The drama The princess of Baghdad, consisting of three acts, was performed. Before the curtain was raised the orchestra had played the Italian royal anthem...

Later the duke himself wrote about his stay in Arkhangelsk: "Our departure was set for July 12. Early in the morning the church was open to us and we, although being Catholic, were allowed to join the mass. In the afternoon all the dogs were brought back on board to their kennels. In the evening the Stella Polare put out and was escorted by two steamers down the Dvina. I still remained on shore, as well as Doctor Cavalli, in order to spend the evening together with our Italian friends. Next evening we left Arkhangel’sk. During the whole journey we saw flags being hoisted to welcome us..."

Twenty men took part in the expedition, among them Captain Umberto Cagni, Lieutenant F. Querini and Doctor A. Cavalli Molinelli. They planned to go to Franz Joseph Land, in the Arctic wilderness, to establish a camp in which to stay during winter time and, afterwards, to reach the North Pole by dogsled across the frozen sea.

Prince Luigi Amedeo established the winter camp on Rudolf Island. The expedition was to start at the end of the Arctic night. The duke lost two fingers during winter because of the cold, which made it impossible for him to join the trip by sledge. He left the command over the pole expedition to Captain Cagni. On 11 March 1900, Cagni left the camp and reached latitude 86° 34’ on 25 April, setting a new record by beating Nansen's result of 1895 by 35 to 40 kilometres (22 to 25 mi). Cagni barely managed to return to the camp on 23 June. On 16 August Stella Polare left Rudolf Island heading south and the expedition returned to Norway. During the expedition, the northern coast of Rudolf Island and two other islands were explored and measured.

In 1906, inspired by Henry Morton Stanley's last wishes, the Duke led an expedition to the Ruwenzori Range (5,125 m), in Uganda. He scaled sixteen summits in the range, including the six principal peaks. One of them, Mount Luigi di Savoia, bears his name. The highest peak was reached on 18 June 1906.

The Duke and his guides climbing an icefall on Chogolisa in 1909.

His next great expedition, in 1909, aimed to climb K2 in Karakoram. A team led by Prince Luigi Amedeo reached a height of 6,250 m on the ridge. The standard route up the mountain (formerly known as K2's East Ridge) climbs today on the Abruzzi Spur.[4][5]

In an attempt on Chogolisa he and his companions again failed to reach the summit, but set a world altitude record, a height of approximately 7,500 m (24,600 ft) before turning around just 150 m below the summit due to bad weather.

Past headlines and a photo from the St. Louis Post-Dispatch of October 18, 1908, concerning the Amedeo-Elkins romance, with three drawings by journalist Marguerite Martyn

In the early years of the twentieth century, the Abruzzi was in a relationship with Katherine Hallie "Kitty" Elkins, daughter of the wealthy American senator Stephen Benton Elkins, but the Abruzzi's cousin King Victor Emmanuel III of Italy refused to grant him permission to marry a commoner. His brother, Emanuele Filiberto, to whom Luigi was very close, persuaded him to give up the relationship.[12] His brother later approved of young Antoinette "Amber" Brizzi, the daughter of Quinto Brizzi, one of the largest vineyard owners in Northern Italy. Despite this, Abruzzi was never officially married; however, in the later years of his life, Abruzzi had a relationship and deep romantic partnership with Faduma Ali, a young Somali woman who stayed by his side even while he was on his deathbed.[13]

• La Stella Polare nel Mare Artico 1899-1900 (1902)
  • On the "Pole Star" in the Arctic Sea (1903) by H.R.H. Luigi Amadeo of Savoy, (Duke of the Abruzzi), translated by William Le Queux, 2 vols.[14]
• Osservazioni scientifiche, eseguite durante la spedizione polare di S.A.R. Luigi Amedeo di Savoia (1903, with Umberto Cagni and Cavalli-Molinelli)

A species of African lizard, Leptosiaphos aloysiisabaudiae, is named in honor of Prince Luigi Amedeo.[15]

Styles of Prince Luigi Amedeo, Duke of the Abruzzi
Reference style	His Royal Highness
Spoken style	Your Royal Highness

•  Kingdom of Italy:
  • Knight of the Supreme Order of the Most Holy Annunciation, 2 May 1893[16]
  • Knight Grand Cross of the Order of Saints Maurice and Lazarus, 2 May 1893[16]
  • Knight Grand Cross of the Order of the Crown of Italy, 2 May 1893[16]
  • Commander of the Military Order of Savoy, 16 March 1913; Grand Officer, 29 December 1916; Grand Cross, 7 February 1924[17]
  • Knight of the Civil Order of Savoy[18]
•  Sovereign Military Order of Malta: Knight of Honour and Devotion of the Military Order of Malta
•  Empire of Japan: Grand Cordon of the Order of the Chrysanthemum, 19 June 1895[19]
•  United Kingdom:
  • Honorary Knight Grand Cross of the Royal Victorian Order, 21 November 1899[20]
  • Founder's Medal, 1901
•  Sweden: Knight of the Royal Order of the Seraphim, 11 September 1900[21]
• United States: Cullum Geographical Medal, 1903[22]
• Siam: Knight of the Most Illustrious Order of the Royal House of Chakri, 2 January 1904[23]
•  Albania: Grand Cordon of the Order of the Black Eagle, 1914
•  Spain: Grand Cross of the Royal and Distinguished Order of Charles III, with Collar, 1928[24]

• Picco Luigi Amedeo, a mountain in the Mont Blanc massif in the Val d'Aosta, Italy
• Savoia Peak, a peak at the northeast end of Sierra DuFief
• Luigi Island, an island in Franz Joseph Land
• Al Abraq, Libya, called by the Italians as Luigi di Savoia
• Duke of Abruzzi's Free-tailed Bat, a species of bat
• Abruzzi Secondary School, Shigar, Gilgit Baltistan
• Italian cruiser Luigi di Savoia Duca degli Abruzzi, an Italian cruiser

• Bridges, Peter, "A Prince of Climbers", Virginia Quarterly Review, Winter 2000

• De Filippi, La spedizione di S.A.R. il principe Luigi Amedeo di Savoia, Duca degli Abruzzi, al Monte Sant’Elia (Alaska) 1897 (1900)
• Louis Amédée de Savoie (Duc des Abruzzes), Expédition de l’Étoile Polaire dans la Mer Arctique 1899–1900, Paris, coll. Polaires, Économica, 2004 (Préface de Giulia Bogliolo Bruna)

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Luigi Amedeo, Duke of the Abruzzi.

• "Fascist New Year". Time Magazine. November 5, 1928. Archived from the original on November 21, 2010. Retrieved January 19, 2010.
• "Royal Resignation". Time Magazine. October 24, 1932. Archived from the original on October 27, 2010. Retrieved January 19, 2010.
• "Milestones". Time Magazine. March 27, 1933. Archived from the original on June 4, 2011. Retrieved January 19, 2010.
• "Smooth Show". Time Magazine. January 21, 1935. Archived from the original on November 4, 2012. Retrieved January 1, 2010.
• "THE DUKE OF ABRUZZI". Rwenzori Abruzzi. Retrieved November 11, 2013.
• "Abruzzi, Duke of" . The New Student's Reference Work . 1914.
• "Abruzzi, Prince Luigi Amadeo of Savoy-Aosta, Duke of" . Collier's New Encyclopedia. 1921.
• Works by Prince Luigi Amedeo, Duke of the Abruzzi at Project Gutenberg
• Works by or about Prince Luigi Amedeo, Duke of the Abruzzi at Internet Archive