WI Victor Emmanuel Stood Up To Mussolini?

Would resulting history have changed at all if the King of Italy during WWII, Victor Emmanuel III, had stood up to Mussolini more? Some important actions by the king included not challenging the Fascists' racial purity laws and assuming the crowns of Ethiopia and Albania.

What would have happened if Italy had had a more strong-willed king during this time period that stood up against Mussolini for his people? Would Italy still be a monarchy today or would Mussolini or Hitler make a move to silence him?
 
I've always been led to believe that the 'March on Rome' would have been a complete disaster if the king had stood firm.

Who was in charge of the Rome garrison?
Would he have followed orders to fire on the Blackshirts?
 
There would be a civill war, a brief one, before the fashists get rid of the monarchy
then ider things would go as they did in OTL or possibly this would give time for the left to organise and arm and there could hipotetically be a scenario similar to the spanish civil war

but most probbably mussolini would get rid of the monarchy quickly without too much effort, the king may have had some loyal troops but the fashists were too numerous, well armed and, after sarzana, well organised

before sarzana however the various and numerous fashist bands and squadrist paramilitary acted unified olnly in the sence of a general common political outlook they shared, and the comon animosity thowards all things socialist
howewer the sarzana incident shows the left was not unable to defend itself, and that a larger civil-war didnt hapen olnly for lack of organisation and unity in the italian socialist and comunist parties

such incidents, numerous during the 20is, were most probbably the main reason for the monarchy to, in a way, accept fashism as a lesser evil
the church as well blatantly suported fachism, from the start of the squadrist movements to the end of WWI (hell they still do today), as a godsend protection against the people, especially since in spain chapels were used as latrines and priests hanged from belltowers

for these reasons it would be most unlikely Victor Emmanuell would do anithing much more serious than write an official protest
 
Mussolini had something like 9% of the vote in his best return, or something. And the March turned into a victory parade because the King let it happen.

Frankly, I see Mussolini only able to rally a few hundred followers and the Army supporting the king. After what really is little more than a small mob getting taken down by the Army, Mussolini is probably sent to the courts and then to prison, while the King is forced to act against Fascist mobs throughout the country.

I think Italy, at least at this point, could have resisted Mussolini, just the King choose not to.
 
Something alot seem to be ignoring is that the King wanted Mussolini to take power, at the time much of the world saw Mussolini as an important person in holding up Democracy in the face of communism, Churchill praised the man, as did Harding, and Coolidge. The trappings of a true Fascist state did not happen with the march on Rome, in fact the supreme powers he had did not come into effect until 1925 when Mussolini become the head of state.

So the King would need to speak up in 1925 I think. Yet by then the military was supporting Mussolini. Also you'd need to get rid of the King's mother, various former Prime Ministers, ministers, and all manner of the italian elite who supported the Fascist state Mussolini wanted. The army could have mopped the floor with the 10,000 black shirt force in 1922, but the King did not do that. In writtings after 1945 the King only supported Mussolini to stop a civil war, prior to it he admits to admiring, and supporting the anti-communist, pro-catholic ideals of the man.
 
the whole point is it did not matter how much vote he could rally or not, fashism was riding on a nationwide wawe of scared midle class macho men armed to the teeth and backed by anione who could lose something in case of a leftist revolution, inluding industrialists, mayor land owners, noblemen, and especially the church
how then, thoes mussolini end up in jail?
and why, for the mensus of saint magdalen, would the king opose him? what can he lose with fashism?
 
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