Pietro Lanza di Scalea (1863–1938) was an Italian noble and politician. He served as the minister of war in 1922 and as the minister of the colonies between 1924 and 1926. He was a long-term member of the

Italian Parliament The Italian Parliament () is the national parliament of the Italy, Italian Republic. It is the representative body of Italian citizens and is the successor to the Parliament of the Kingdom of Sardinia (1848–1861), the Parliament of the Kingd ...

Early life

Lanza was born in

Palermo Palermo ( ; ; , locally also or ) is a city in southern Italy, the capital (political), capital of both the autonomous area, autonomous region of Sicily and the Metropolitan City of Palermo, the city's surrounding metropolitan province. The ...

on 20 October 1863. His parents were Prince of Scalea Francesco and Rosa Mastrogiovanni Tasca from the family of the counts of Almerita. He had five siblings. Lanza received a degree in law.

Career

In 1897 Lanza was elected to the Parliament where he served for seven terms until 1924. He was the state secretary at the

Ministry of Foreign Affairs In many countries, the ministry of foreign affairs (abbreviated as MFA or MOFA) is the highest government department exclusively or primarily responsible for the state's foreign policy and relations, diplomacy, bilateral, and multilateral r ...

between 11 February 1906 to March 1914 with some interruptions. In 1920 he founded the short-lived Agrarian Party. He was appointed

minister of war A ministry of defence or defense (see American and British English spelling differences#-ce.2C -se, spelling differences), also known as a department of defence or defense, is the part of a government responsible for matters of defence and Mi ...

to the cabinet led by

Prime Minister A prime minister or chief of cabinet is the head of the cabinet and the leader of the ministers in the executive branch of government, often in a parliamentary or semi-presidential system. A prime minister is not the head of state, but r ...

Luigi Facta Luigi Facta (; 16 November 1861 – 5 November 1930) was an Italian politician, lawyer and journalist and the last prime minister of Italy before the dictatorship of Benito Mussolini. Background and earlier career Facta was born in Pinerolo, P ...

on 26 February 1922 and was in office until 1 August 1922. Lanza was named as the minister of the colonies in the cabinet of

Benito Mussolini Benito Amilcare Andrea Mussolini (29 July 188328 April 1945) was an Italian politician and journalist who, upon assuming office as Prime Minister of Italy, Prime Minister, became the dictator of Fascist Italy from the March on Rome in 1922 un ...

on 1 July 1924, succeeding

Luigi Federzoni Luigi Federzoni (27 September 1878 – 24 January 1967) was an Italian nationalist and later Fascist politician. Biography Federzoni was born in Bologna. Educated at the university there, he took to journalism and literature, and for several ye ...

in the post. During the visit of Lanza to Libya rebels killed and wounded more than 100 Italians at Bir Tarsin. Lanza's term as minister of the colonies ended on 6 November 1926. In 1929 he was elected to the

Italian Senate The Senate of the Republic (), or simply the Senate ( ), is the upper house of the bicameral Italian Parliament, the lower house being the Chamber of Deputies. The two houses together form a perfect bicameral system, meaning they perform iden ...

. In addition to his political offices Lanza was a member of the Sicilian Society for Homeland History, a member of the Italian Geographic Society (1909), president of the Italian Geographic Society (1926–1928) and a member of the Roman Society of Homeland History (8 July 1936). He also headed the Italian Committee for Czechoslovak Independence.

Personal life and death

Lanza was married to Dorotea Fardella, baroness of Moxharta, and they had six children. He died in Rome on 29 May 1938.

Awards

Lanza was the recipient of the following: * Commander of the

Order of the Crown of Italy The Order of the Crown of Italy ( or OCI) was founded as a national order in 1868 by King Victor Emmanuel II of Italy, Vittorio Emanuele II, to commemorate Italian unification, the unification of Italy in 1861. It was awarded in five degrees for ...

(7December 1917) * Grand Officer of the Order of the Crown of Italy (26 November 1922) * Grand Cordon of the

Order of Saints Maurice and Lazarus The Order of Saints Maurice and Lazarus () (abbreviated OSSML) is a Roman Catholic dynastic order of knighthood bestowed by the royal House of Savoy. It is the second-oldest order of knighthood in the world, tracing its lineage to AD 1098, a ...

(11 June 1922) * Bailiff of the

Sovereign Military Order of Malta The Sovereign Military Order of Malta (SMOM), officially the Sovereign Military Hospitaller Order of Saint John of Jerusalem, of Rhodes and of Malta, and commonly known as the Order of Malta or the Knights of Malta, is a Catholic lay religious ...

References

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