Pietro d'Acquarone, I Duke d'Acquarone (born Pietro Acquarone; (Genoa, 9 April 1890 – Sanremo, 13 February 1948) was an Italian aristocrat, Brigade General, entrepreneur and politician. He was nominated to the Senate of the Kingdom of Italy in 1934. Close to the royal family, in 1939 he was appointed Minister to the Royal Household. He was a trusted advisor to the King during the difficult later years of the Mussolini régime, and played a central role in the final meeting of the Grand Council that took place overnight on 24/25 July 1943, and in the frantic consultations that ensued. He accompanied Victor Emmanuel III to Pescara and Brindisi on 9/10 September 1943 and then stayed with the King until the latter's abdication 32 months later.
Biography
Pietro Acquarone was born in Villa Madre Cabrini, then Villa Acquarone, in Genoa, the son of Luigi Filippo, III Count d'Acquarone, and his wife, Countess Maria, nee Pignatelli Montecalvo. He was elevated to the rank of Duke by letter patents of King Victor Emmanuel III on 22 September 1942, thereby changing his surname from 'Acquarone' to 'd'Acquarone'.
Military career
The nobleman joined a cavalry regiment at a young age, serving in Libya in 1913 during the Italian-Turkish War. In May 1915 the Italian government was persuaded by the British to enter the war against the Austrians: d'Acquarone was deployed in the Northeastern Italy front and was awarded the Bronze Medal of Valor at Falzarego on 21 August 1915 and the Silver Medal of Valor at Monfalcone on 15 May 1916. After the Great War, he served as military instructor to the crown prince. This meant relocating to Rome and starting of a long professional association - increasingly complemented by close friendship - with the Italian royal family.
Businessman and activist
On 9 November 1919 Pietro d'Acquarone married Maddalena Trezza di Musella (1893-1981), the daughter of Cesare Trezza di Musella and his (originally English) wife, born Elena Knowles. Maddalena was heiress to a large fortune: she unhesitatingly signed over to her husband her own legal rights and responsibilities in respect of her father's business. The family fortune had originally been accumulated by Maddallena's grandfather, who had acquired large amounts of land on the edge of Verona and bequeathed it all to his favourite son, Cesare. Industrialisation and urbanisation during the later decades of the nineteenth century had greatly enhanced the value of the land. Cesare also had a flair for business, and had been appointed to the presidency of one of Verona's leading banks when he was just 22. The family business was not involved in the highly profitable munitions production business that massively enriched several manufacturing businesses in Verona during the war. More than three years of war accompanied by a financial crisis affecting the company (of which the details never became clear) forced the sale of many assets to pay off creditors during 1915/16.
After the war, d'Acquarone was one of many young aristocrats impatient for a return to pre-war national self-respect, economic stability and growth. He participated in both the "Fiume action" in 1919/20 and the March on Rome in 1922. He later became a leader in the Verona local militia. He would never be a Fascist Party insider, but nor is there any record of his ever expressly repudiating Italian Fascism, even after his direct involvement in masterminding the 1943 arrest of Mussolini. Despite its wartime financial crisis and the ensuing years of austerity, after Cesare Trezza's death on 18 December, the business that Maddalena Trezza – and thereby her husband – inherited was still valued at approximately three million lire.
Pietro d'Acquarone retired from active military service in 1924, attaining the rank of Brigade General, in order to devote himself to managing the family business, which by this time it is described in sources as a "finance company" ("Società anonima finanziaria").. He moved with his wife to the riverside family estate of his deceased father-in-law at San Martino Buon Albergo, on the edge of the city. Under his watch the business prospered.
In November 1929, he took a position as a financial consultant to the Società editrice de "L’Arena", publisher Verona's influential regional daily newspaper. He also held the vice-presidency of the city Chamber of Commerce – later rebranded and relaunched as the "Regional Council of the Corporate Economy" ("Consiglio provinciale dell'economia corporativa").