 Following the March on Rome, he appointed Benito Mussolini as Prime Minister and later deposed him in 1943 during the Allied invasion of Italy of the Second World War.Victor Emmanuel abdicated his throne in 1946 in favour of his son Umberto II, hoping to strengthen support for the monarchy against an ultimately successful referendum to abolish it.He then went into exile to Alexandria, Egypt, where he died and was buried the following year in Saint Catherines's Cathedral of Alexandria.