How many times was benito mussolini married

After becoming prime minister, Mussolini reduced the influence of the judiciary, muzzled a free press, arrested political opponents, continued condoning fascist squad violence and otherwise consolidated his hold on power. However, he continued working within the parliamentary system at least somewhat until January , when he declared himself dictator of Italy.

Following a series of assassination attempts in and , Mussolini tightened his grip even further, banning opposition parties, kicking out over members of parliament, reinstating the death penalty for political crimes, ramping up secret police activities and abolishing local elections. Mussolini was anti-Church before becoming pro-Church. As a socialist youth, Mussolini declared himself an atheist and railed against the Catholic Church, going so far as to say that only idiots believed Bible stories and that Jesus Christ and Mary Magdalene were lovers.

He even authored an anti-clerical pulp novel. But after taking power, Il Duce began working to patch up that relationship. Despite having many mistresses himself, he also put in place harsh punishments for adultery. In Mussolini signed an agreement with the Vatican under which the Church received authority over marriage and was compensated for property that had been seized decades earlier.

Mussolini sought to establish an Italian empire. Mussolini launched his first military action in when he bombarded and briefly occupied the Greek island of Corfu. Several years later, he authorized the use of concentration camps and poison gas to help put down a rebellion in Libya, which at that time was an Italian colony.

Poison gas was again used illegally during the conquest of Ethiopia in and , after which Il Duce declared that Italy finally had its empire. Three years later, Italy invaded and annexed Albania. In addition to those wars of expansion, conflict-loving Mussolini also propped up right-wing dissidents. It soon became apparent that Italy lacked adequate military equipment and that its pace of production was pitiful.

In fact, the United States could manufacture more planes in a week than Italy could in a year. All party members were considered squad members. Soon after, several Italian cities were seized by Fascist squads, who also burned down Communist and Socialist offices. In October , Mussolini threatened to march on Rome to take control of the government through violent force if it was not handed over.

The government was slow to act, eventually dispatching troops, though Fascists had already seized control of some local governments. He dissolved the government and asked Mussolini to form a new one. Mussolini did not become a dictator overnight, but a speech he gave to the Italian parliament on January 3, asserting his right to supreme power is generally seen as the effective date that Mussolini declared himself dictator of Italy.

Soon after, the Italian parliament made suspicion of being anti-Fascist punishable by imprisonment without trial. The next year police rounded-up Socialists, and the government restricted their publishing activities. A Socialist deputy plotted to assassinate Mussolini, but the betrayal of a friend led to his arrest just before the attempt. Several other assassination attempts followed. In , Fascists created a youth group called the Opera Nazionale Balilla, pressuring children to join.

The Catholic Boy Scouts were dissolved and the formation of other youth groups became illegal. The same year, all Communist members of Parliament were arrested, and all Socialist members expelled. Anyone who could not be prosecuted for a crime was detained for up to five years and placed in island internment camps. Cinemas were required to screen government propaganda in the form of newsreels. Fascists owned 66 percent of the newspapers and controlled reporting, issuing daily editorial guidelines and threatening editors with arrest.

The Order of Journalists was created and membership was mandatory. Newspapers were allowed to criticize the government as long as they generally expressed support.

Mussolini wrote an article in that aligned Italians with the German concept of the Aryan race. When anti-Jewish laws began to appear in Italy, Germany felt they were weak, but Mussolini was prepared to increase their severity as needed. Soon after, Mussolini called for the expulsion of foreign Jews from Italy. Soon Holland and Belgium also fell to Hitler. Japan would join in September of with the signing of the Tripartite Pact.

Italy declared war on France and Great Britain on June 10, By , after years of fighting in World War II , Italy was viewed by its own citizens as losing the war. On July 25, , Mussolini was voted out of power by his own Grand Council, arrested after a visit with the king and sent to the island of La Maddalena. When Italy accepted the terms of secret peace talks with the Allies, Hitler ordered German forces into Italy, which resulted in two Italian nations, one occupied by Germans.

A film is to be made about a woman whom Italy's fascist dictator, Benito Mussolini , tried to airbrush out of history. Ida Dalser and her son by Mussolini both died in mental institutions after she tried unsuccessfully to force the dictator to recognise their marriage and his son, also named Benito.

The story has considerable current relevance because of efforts by the Italian right to rehabilitate the dictator and portray him as a good family man and an essentially harmless, if occasionally misguided, authoritarian. His political heirs are to be found in the "post-fascist" National Alliance, the second biggest party in the coalition led by Silvio Berlusconi that governed Italy until last year.

Although it was known Mussolini had had a relationship with Ida Dalser before the first world war, the evidence for a marriage and the existence of their son was only brought to light in by a local historian in northern Italy.