Duchess of Aosta very ill

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May 8, 1909

The Duchess of Aosta's health is in "a serious state," according to the New York Times. She is no longer able to "bear the fatigue of an automobile trip from Naples to Baia, perhaps a three-quarter-hour drive."

At the recent luncheon for the British king and queen, the duchess fainted, "and it was some time before she was able to move." She is now at Castellare, where she is being cared for by her sister, the Duchess of Guise.

The Duchess of Aosta has been the primary opposition to her brother-in-law, the Duke of the Abruzzi's romance, with the American woman, Katherine Elkins. The Duchess is an "aristocrat to her finger tips and doesn't believe in any intermarriage of the 'classes.'" She believes that the marriage "would not work for the happiness of either party."

"American freedom would not have work among us," the Duchess of Aosta is reported to have said.