Giorgio Carbone

Giorgio Carbone, (June 14, 1936 – November 25, 2009) was an Italian who claimed to be head of state of the Principality of Seborga, a micronation whose extent is the Italian town of that name, but whose independent status is not yet recognised outside of Seborga. He had assumed the title of Giorgio I, Prince of Seborga.

In the early 1960s Carbone, the head of the local flower-growers co-operative, began promoting the idea that Seborga retained its historic independence as a principality. By 1963 the people of Seborga were convinced of these arguments and elected Carbone as their Head of State, although without any legal power. Henceforth he was to be known under the self-styled title Giorgio I, Prince of Seborga. Carbone is known locally as Sua Tremendità or “Your Tremendousness”.

He made a rare TV appearance in the 2005 BBC programme How to Start Your Own Country.

In January 2006, Carbone announced that he would abdicate on reaching the age of 70, apparently as a result of a row over rebuilding the village centre, but he didn't and continued to hold the office until his death. Even so, this decision was the subject of a feature on the BBC World Service radio programme World Today on 25 January 2006.

In June 2006 a power struggle arose when a woman calling herself "Princess Yasmine von Hohenstaufen Anjou Plantagenet", who claims to be the rightful heir to the throne of Seborga, wrote to Italy's president offering to return the principality to the state.

Carbone died from complications due to Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis at the age of 73.