Maria Jose of Savoy, the last Queen of Italy, might well have been little more than a minor historical footnote while alive. But her death last weekend at the age of 94 has suddenly and dramatically focused attention on the destiny of Italy's Savoy dynasty.
Known as the "May Queen", Maria Jose reigned alongside her husband, King Umberto II, for just 27 days in May and June of 1946. Umberto had stepped onto the throne following the abdication of his father, Vittorio Emanuele III, on the eve of a June constitutional referendum on the monarchy.
Vittorio Emanuele had stepped down for the good reason that he knew all too well that the pro-monarchy vote stood no chance if he continued to sit on the throne. For many Italians in 1946, Vittorio Emanuele was little more than a weak and cowardly figure who, for 20 years, had colluded with the fascist regime of Benito Mussolini.
Furthermore he was the king who, in September 1943, left Italy to its fate following the downfall of the Mussolini regime.
Along with his prime minister, Gen Badoglio, he made a celebrated escape from Rome south to Brindisi in Puglia at a time when Allied forces, arriving from the south, were on a collision course with Nazi German forces, arriving from the north.
If Vittorio Emanuele had hoped to save the monarchy by abdicating in favour of Umberto, generally perceived as a more "popular" figure, his calculations went all wrong as Italians voted in favour of becoming a republic by 12.7 million to 10.7 million votes.
Thus it was that Umberto and his queen, Maria Jose Charlotte Henrietta Gabriella of SaxonyCoburg, daughter of King Albert and Queen Elizabeth of Belgium, fled into exile.
Subsequently the new republic's constitution decreed a ban on King Umberto and his male descendants ever putting foot on Italian soil. That ban is still in effect today and hence the political relevance of the death last weekend of Maria Jose.
Although only an older generation of Italians recall the "May Queen", she was none the less familiar to later generations both as the famous exile and as the supremely elegant woman seen inspecting bomb damaged sites alongside her husband Umberto in July 1943 - on a grainy old movie-reel that has been much aired in the last few days.
History, or historical myth, has been kind to her. Perhaps partly because of her Belgian origins, she is generally believed to have taken a much more critical attitude to the Mussolini regime than the rest of the royal family.
She may not have been actively anti-fascist - her role and position made that impossible - but she is believed to have at least tried to distance her husband from Mussolini and his ill-fated regime. With characteristic humour, veteran journalist Indro Montanelli this week called her "the only real man" in the Savoy household.
Perhaps more significant was the message of condolence sent by State President Carlo Azeglio Ciampi, who wrote: "The Italian people remember with the utmost respect her great love for Italy, her exemplary dignity, her admirable reserve and her sincere liberal inclinations."
That presidential message was enough in itself to suggest that the time is soon coming for the lifting of the ban on the current Savoy heirs, Maria Jose's son Vittorio Emanuele and her grandson Emanuele Filiberto. They still live in exile - and in limited regal splendour - in Geneva.
Moves have already been made. In 1997, a constitutional amendment to allow the Savoys back into Italy was proposed by Mr Romano Prodi's government. Approved in the lower house, the amendment was subsequently blocked in the centre left-dominated senate.
Frustrated by the Italian parliamentary stalemate, the current Vittorio Emanuele took his case to the European Parliament in Strasbourg. Last March it narrowly rejected a resolution calling on Italy to change its constitution within six months.
On Monday Vittorio Emanuele made no attempt to hide that his sadness at the death of his mother might be "mitigated" were the ban on his family to be lifted.
Even though no one believes that a return by the Savoys would pose a threat of destabilisation or of a return of the monarchy, the question remains politically sensitive since it prompts an understandable "left-right" divide. Many figures on the right are enthusiastic about a return and many (but not all) on the left are opposed.
Nor has Vittorio Emanuele helped his cause in recent times by occasional inappropriate statements such as one dismissing the significance of Mussolini's anti-semitic 1938 racial laws signed by his grandfather.
As for the "May Queen", she will be buried on Friday alongside her husband in a Savoy family crypt in the Haute Comb, in France's Savoy region.