 The De Gasperi cabinet accepted Umberto as king, but refused to accept the normal appellation for Italian kings "by the grace of God and the will of the people".In northern Italy, which had been the scenes of the guerrilla struggle against the Italian Social Republic and the Germans, much of the population had been radicalized by the struggle, and feelings were very much against the monarchy.Kogan wrote Victor Emmanuel's flight from Rome was "bitterly remembered" in the "Nord" as an act of cowardice and betrayal by the king who abandoned his people to the German occupation without a fight.