Margherita of Savoy, Queen Consort of King Umberto I of Italy (1851-1926) was the daughter of the Duke of Genoa and Princess Elisabeth of Saxony. At seveteen she married her first cousin, Umberto, Prince of Piedmont. Their only child Victor Emmanuel, Prince of Naples (later King Victor Emmanuel III of Italy) was born in 1869. Thereafter Margherita and Umberto lived separate personal lives yet aimiably worked together to assist the popularity of the the royal house throughout the peninsula. In January 1871, after the final unification of Italy and the proclamation of Rome as the capital of Italy, they settled in Rome. There, Margherita successfully established the royal court at the center of Roman high society in her effort to subdue the opposition toward unification within the Roman aristocracy. She eventually succeeded in making her salon one of the most exclusive and famous in contemporary Europe. In 1900 Umberto was assassinated by an anarchist. and Margherita as Queen Dowager took a step back and allow her daughter-in-law to take precedence, yet remained a dominant public figure