event. With the possibility of reigning without popular support, Amadeo issued an order against the artillery corps and then immediately abdicated from the Spanish throne on 11 February 1873. At ten o'clock the same night, Spain was proclaimed a republic, and Amadeo made an appearance before the Cortes and proclaimed the Spanish people to be ungovernable. Later life Completely disgusted, the ex-monarch left Spain and returned to Italy, where he resumed the title of Duke of Aosta. The First Spanish Republic lasted less than two years, and in November 1874 Alfonso XII, the son of Isabella II, was proclaimed king, with Antonio Cánovas del Castillo, Spanish intermittent prime minister from 1873 until his assassination in 1897, briefly serving as regent. Amadeo's first wife died in 1876. In 1888 he married his French niece, Princess Maria Letizia Bonaparte, Duchess of Aosta (20 November 186625 October 1926), daughter of his sister Maria Clotilde and of Prince Napoléon Bonaparte, a nephew of Napoleon I. They had one child, Umberto (1889–1918), who died of the flu during the First World War. Amadeo remained in Turin, Italy until his death on 18 January 1890. His friend Puccini composed the famous elegy for string quartet Crisantemi in his memory. Legacy The municipality of Amadeo, in the province of Cavite, in the Philippines, which was a colony of Spain, was named after Amadeo I when it was established on 15 July 1872, during his reign.A large salt lake, Lake Amadeus, and the subsequently-named Amadeus Basin, where it lies in central Australia, is also named after Amadeo I by the explorer Ernest Giles, who was the first European to find the lake, in 1872. Honours and arms National : Knight of the Supreme Order of the Most Holy Annunciation, 27 September 1862 Grand Cross of the Order of Saints Maurice and Lazarus, 27 September 1862 Grand Cross of the Order of the Crown of Italy, 27 September 1862 Gold Medal of Military Valour, 5 December 1866 : Grand Cross of the Order of Charles III, with Collar, 28 November 1866 Foreign Austria-Hungary: Grand Cross of the Royal Hungarian Order of Saint Stephen, 1875 : Grand Cordon of the Order of Leopold (civil), 5 September 1863 : Knight of the Order of the Elephant, 19 August 1863 : Grand Cordon of the Supreme Order of the Chrysanthemum, 11 September 1882 : Grand Cross of the Order of Saint-Charles, 27