Francesco Crispi - Bigamy Scandal

Bigamy Scandal

The statesmanlike qualities displayed on this occasion were insufficient to avert the storm of indignation of Crispi’s opponents in connection with a charge of bigamy. When he remarried, a woman he had married in 1853 was still living. But a court ruled that Crispi’s 1853 marriage on Malta was invalid because it was contracted while another woman he had married yet earlier was also still alive. By the time of his third marriage, his first wife had died and his marriage to his second wife was legally invalid. Therefore his marriage to his third wife was ruled valid and not bigamous. He was nevertheless compelled to resign office after only three months in March 1878, bringing down the whole government with him.

For nine years Crispi remained politically under a cloud, leading the 'progressive' opposition. In 1887 he returned to office as Minister of the Interior in the Depretis cabinet. Following Depretis’s death on July 29, 1887 Crispi he became Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs of his country.