Rachele Guidi (; 11 April 1890 – 30 October 1979), also known (particularly in Italy) as donna Rachele ('Lady Rachel') and incorrectly as Rachele Mussolini in the English-speaking world, was the second wife of dictator and

fascist Fascism ( ) is a far-right, authoritarian, and ultranationalist political ideology and movement. It is characterized by a dictatorial leader, centralized autocracy, militarism, forcible suppression of opposition, belief in a natural soci ...

leader

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 ...

Early life

Rachele Guidi was born in

Predappio Predappio ( , ; or ) is a (municipality) in the province of Forlì-Cesena, in the Italian region of Emilia-Romagna, with a population of 6,135 as of 1 January 2021. The town is best known for being the birthplace of Benito Mussolini, founder of ...

Romagna Romagna () is an Italian historical region that approximately corresponds to the south-eastern portion of present-day Emilia-Romagna, in northern Italy. Etymology The name ''Romagna'' originates from the Latin name ''Romania'', which originally ...

, Kingdom of Italy. She was born into a peasant family and was the daughter of Agostino Guidi and wife Anna Lombardi. After the death of Rachele's father, her mother became the lover of the widowed Alessandro Mussolini.

Relationship, marriage and children

In 1905 Benito's father, Alessandro Mussolini, had become a widower and opened a tavern in Forlì, on Giove Tonante Street, together with Rachele's mother (also a widow), entertaining an affair with her. Benito, meanwhile, having returned from

Switzerland Switzerland, officially the Swiss Confederation, is a landlocked country located in west-central Europe. It is bordered by Italy to the south, France to the west, Germany to the north, and Austria and Liechtenstein to the east. Switzerland ...

, moved after a couple of years to Forlì, to his father's place, and there he met Rachele again, thereupon commencing a romantic relationship with her. However, the families disagreed about their relationship, and so in 1909 Benito summoned his father and Rachele's mother and, wielding a

revolver A revolver is a repeating handgun with at least one barrel and a revolving cylinder containing multiple chambers (each holding a single cartridge) for firing. Because most revolver models hold six cartridges before needing to be reloaded, ...

, told them that if they did not consent to their marriage, he would kill her and himself. In 1910, Rachele Guidi moved in with Alessandro's son,

, and gave birth to their daughter Edda in September that year. In 1914, Mussolini married his first wife, Ida Dalser. Although the records of that marriage were destroyed by Mussolini's government, an edict from the city of Milan ordering Mussolini to make maintenance payments to "his wife Ida Dalser" and their child was overlooked. Shortly before his son, Benito Albino Mussolini, was born to Ida Dalser, Rachele Guidi and Benito Mussolini were married in a civil ceremony in

Treviglio Treviglio (; ) is a town and (i.e. municipality) in the province of Bergamo, in Lombardy, Northern Italy. It lies south of the province capital, in the lower territory called . It is also part of the geographic area named , included among the r ...

, Lombardy, on 17 December 1915. In 1925, they renewed their vows in a religious service (after his rise to power). Many sources agree that Rachel had a stern and authoritarian temperament, sometimes even more so than her husband: she was, for example, opposed to any act of clemency towards her son-in-law

Galeazzo Ciano Gian Galeazzo Ciano, 2nd Count of Cortellazzo and Buccari ( , ; 18 March 1903 – 11 January 1944), was an Italian diplomat and politician who served as Italian Minister of Foreign Affairs, Foreign Minister in the government of his father-in-law ...

during the

Verona trial The Verona Trial () was a show trial held in January 1944 in the Italian Social Republic (RSI) to punish the 19 members of the Grand Council of Fascism who had voted for Benito Mussolini's removal from power in the Kingdom of Italy. Six of the ...

and worsened, because of this, her relations with her daughter Edda, who called her "the real dictator of the house". Moreover, in the last months of 1943 she would go every night for two hours to talk with Guido Buffarini Guidi, minister of the interior of the

Italian Social Republic The Italian Social Republic (, ; RSI; , ), known prior to December 1943 as the National Republican State of Italy (; SNRI), but more popularly known as the Republic of Salò (, ), was a List of World War II puppet states#Germany, German puppe ...

, asking him for more severity in order to restore internal order.

Children

Rachele Guidi bore five children by Benito Mussolini. Rachele and Benito Mussolini had two daughters and three sons. #

Edda "Edda" (; Old Norse ''Edda'', plural ''Eddur'') is an Old Norse term that has been applied by modern scholars to the collective of two Medieval Icelandic literary works: what is now known as the ''Prose Edda'' and an older collection of poems ( ...

(1910–1995) # Vittorio (1916–1997) #

Bruno Bruno may refer to: People and fictional characters * Bruno (name), including lists of people and fictional characters with either the given name or surname * Bruno, Duke of Saxony (died 880) * Bruno the Great (925–965), Archbishop of Cologn ...

(1918–1941) # Romano (1927–2006) # Anna Maria (1929–1968)

Author

With Albert Zarca, she wrote a biography of her husband that was translated into English as ''Mussolini: An Intimate Biography''.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Mussolini, Rachele 1890 births 1979 deaths People from Predappio Italian people of World War II Mistresses of Benito Mussolini Rachele Italian restaurateurs Italian prisoners of war in World War II World War II prisoners of war held by the United States