Kingdom of Lombardy-Venetia Regno Lombardo-Veneto (Italian) Königreich Lombardo-Venetien (German) Regno Lonbardo–Veneto[citation needed] (Venetian) Regn de Lombardia–Venezia[citation needed] (Lombard) Österreichisches Italien[1] | |||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1815–1866 | |||||||||||||
| Motto: A.E.I.O.U. (Motto for theHouse of Habsburg) "All the world is subject to Austria"[2][3] | |||||||||||||
| Anthem: Inno Patriottico "The Patriotic Song" | |||||||||||||
 The Kingdom of Lombardy-Venetia (green) and the Austrian Empire (light green) in 1815 | |||||||||||||
| Status | Crown land of theAustrian Empire | ||||||||||||
| Capital | |||||||||||||
| Common languages | Lombard,Venetian,Friulian,Italian, andGerman | ||||||||||||
| Religion | Roman Catholic | ||||||||||||
| Government | Absolute monarchy | ||||||||||||
| King | |||||||||||||
• 1815–1835 | Francis I | ||||||||||||
• 1835–1848 | Ferdinand I | ||||||||||||
• 1848–1866 | Francis Joseph I | ||||||||||||
| Viceroy / Governor-General | |||||||||||||
• 1815 | Heinrich XV of Reuss-Plauen | ||||||||||||
• 1815–1816 | Heinrich von Bellegarde | ||||||||||||
• 1816–1818 | Anton Victor of Austria | ||||||||||||
• 1818–1848 | Rainer Joseph of Austria | ||||||||||||
• 1848–1857 | Joseph Radetzky von Radetz | ||||||||||||
• 1857–1859 | Ferdinand Maximilian of Austria | ||||||||||||
| History | |||||||||||||
| 9 June 1815 | |||||||||||||
| 22 March 1848 | |||||||||||||
| 10 November 1859 | |||||||||||||
| 14 June 1866 | |||||||||||||
| 23 August 1866 | |||||||||||||
| 12 October 1866 | |||||||||||||
| Area | |||||||||||||
| 1852[4] | 46,782 km2 (18,063 sq mi) | ||||||||||||
| Population | |||||||||||||
• 1852[4] | 4,671,000 | ||||||||||||
| Currency | |||||||||||||
| |||||||||||||
| Today part of | Italy | ||||||||||||
TheKingdom of Lombardy–Venetia,[5] commonly called the "Lombardo-Venetian Kingdom",[6] was a constituent land (crown land) of theAustrian Empire from 1815 to 1866. It was created in 1815 by resolution of theCongress of Vienna in recognition of the AustrianHouse of Habsburg-Lorraine's rights to the formerDuchy of Milan and the formerRepublic of Venice after theNapoleonic Kingdom of Italy, proclaimed in 1805, had collapsed.[7]
The kingdom survived for only fifty years—the region ofLombardy was ceded toFrance in 1859 after theSecond Italian War of Independence, which then immediately ceded it to theKingdom of Sardinia. Lombardy-Venetia was finally dissolved in 1866 when its remaining territory was incorporated into the recently proclaimedKingdom of Italy following the kingdom's victory against Austria in theThird Italian War of Independence.
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In theTreaty of Paris in 1814, the Austrians had confirmed their claims to the territories of the former LombardDuchy of Milan, which had been ruled by theHabsburg monarchy since 1714 and together with the adjacentDuchy of Mantua by theAustrianbranch of the dynasty from 1708 to 1796, and of the formerRepublic of Venice, which had been under Austrian rule intermittently upon the 1797Treaty of Campo Formio.
The Congress of Vienna combined these lands into a single kingdom, ruled inpersonal union by the HabsburgEmperor of Austria; as distinct from the neighbouringGrand Duchy of Tuscany, theDuchy of Modena and Reggio as well as theDuchy of Parma, which remained independent entities under Habsburg rule. The Austrian emperor was represented day-to-day byviceroys appointed by the Imperial Court inVienna and resident inMilan andVenice.[4][8][9][10]
The Kingdom of Lombardy–Venetia was first ruled by EmperorFrancis I from 1815 until his death in 1835. His sonFerdinand I ruled from 1835 to 1848. In Milan on 6 September 1838, he became the last king to be crowned with theIron Crown of Lombardy. The crown was subsequently brought to Vienna after the loss of Lombardy in 1859 but was restored to Italy after the loss of Venetia in 1866.
Though the local administration was Italian in language and staff, the Austrian authorities had to cope with theItalian unification (Risorgimento) movement. After a popular revolution on 22 March 1848, known as the "Five Days of Milan", the Austrians fled fromMilan, which became the capital city of aGoverno Provvisorio della Lombardia (Lombardy Provisional Government). The next day,Venice also rose against the Austrian rule, forming theGoverno Provvisorio di Venezia (Venice Provisional Government). The Austrian forces under Field MarshalJoseph Radetzky, after defeating theSardinian troops at theBattle of Custoza (24–25 July 1848), entered Milan (6 August) and Venice (24 August 1849), and once again restored Austrian rule.
EmperorFranz Joseph I of Austria ruled over the kingdom for the rest of its existence. The office of viceroy was abolished and replaced by agovernor-general. The office was initially assumed by Field Marshal Radetzky - upon his retirement in 1857, it passed to Franz Joseph's younger brotherMaximilian (who later becameemperor of Mexico), who served as governor-general in Milan from 1857 to 1859.
After theSecond Italian War of Independence and the defeat in theBattle of Solferino in 1859, Austria by theTreaty of Zurich had to cede Lombardy up to theMincio River, except for the fortresses ofMantua andPeschiera, to the French EmperorNapoleon III, who immediately passed it to theKingdom of Sardinia and the embryonicItalian state. Maximilian retired toMiramare Castle nearTrieste, while the capital was relocated toVenice. However, remaining Venetia and Mantua likewise fell to the Kingdom of Italy in the aftermath of theThird Italian War of Independence, by the 1866Peace of Prague.[11] The territory of Venetia and Mantua was formally transferred from Austria to France, and then handed over to Italy on 19 October 1866, for diplomatic reasons; aplebiscite marked the Italian annexation on 21–22 October 1866.[12]
Administratively the Kingdom of Lombardy–Venetia comprised two independent governments (Gubernien) in its two parts, which officially were declared separate crown lands in 1851. Each part was further subdivided into several provinces, roughly corresponding with thedépartements of the Napoleonic Kingdom of Italy.
Lombardy included the provinces of Milan, Como, Bergamo, Brescia, Pavia, Cremona, Mantua, Lodi-Crema, and Sondrio. Venetia included the provinces of Venice, Verona, Padua, Vicenza, Treviso, Rovigo, Belluno, and Udine.[11]
According to the Ethnographic map of Karl von Czoernig-Czernhausen, issued by theImperial and Royal Administration of Statistics in 1855, the Kingdom of Lombardy–Venetia then had a population of 5,024,117 people, consisting of the following ethnic groups: 4,625,746 Italians (Lombard-Venetians); 351,805Friulians; 12,084 Germans (Cimbrians in Venetia); 26,676Slovenians; and 7,806Jews.
For the first time since 1428, Lombardy reappeared as an entity, the first time in history that the term "Lombardy" was officially used to call specifically that entity and not for the whole ofNorthern Italy.
The administration used Italian as its language in its internal and external communications and documents, and the language's dominant position in politics, finance or jurisdiction was not questioned by the Austrian officials. The Italian-languageGazzetta di Milano was theofficial newspaper of the kingdom. Civil servants employed in the administration were predominantly Italian, with only about 10% of them being recruited from other regions of the Austrian Empire. Some bilingual Italian-German-speaking civil servants came from the neighbouringCounty of Tyrol. The German language, however, was the command language of the military, and top police officials were native German-speakers from other parts of the empire.[13] The highest governorships were also reserved for Austrian aristocrats.
Austrian GeneralKarl von Schönhals wrote in his memoirs[14][15] that the Austrian administration enjoyed the support of the rural population and the middle class educated at the universities ofPavia andPadua, who were able to pursue careers in the administration.
Von Schönhals further noted that the Austrians mistrusted and refused the local aristocrats from high government offices, as they traditionally had rejected university education and had been able to gain leadership positions because of their family background. Consequently, the aristocrats saw themselves deprived of the possibility of establishing themselves in the management of society and supported the wars of independence against the Austrians.
![Ethnographic map of the Austrian Empire (1855) by Karl von Czoernig-Czernhausen [de]](/mt/?noimg=&dark=on&url=http%3a%2f%2fen.wikipedia.org%2fwiki%2fFile%3aEthnographic_map_of_austrian_monarchy_czoernig_1855.jpg)
| Before theCongress of Vienna → | SeeDukes of Milan,Doges of Venice | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| King | Reign | Marriage(s) Issue | Succession right(s) | Viceroy(s) | |
| Francis I (Francesco I) 1768–1835 (aged 67) |  | 9 June 1815 – 2 March 1835 | List
|
| 1815–1816:Heinrich von Bellegarde |
| 1816–1818:Anton Victor of Austria | |||||
| 1818–1848:Rainer Joseph of Austria | |||||
| Ferdinand I (Ferdinando I) 1793–1875 (aged 82) |  | 2 March 1835 – 2 December 1848 (Abdicated due to 1848 revolutions) | Maria Anna of Savoy (m. 1831;w. 1878) Childless |
| |
| Franz Joseph I (Francesco Giuseppe I) 1830–1916 (aged 86) |  | 2 December 1848 – 12 October 1866 (Forced to cede Lombardy and Venetia) | Elisabeth of Bavaria (m. 1854;d. 1898) 4 children (3 survived to adulthood) |
| 1848–1857:Joseph Radetzky |
| 1857–1859:Maximilian of Austria | |||||
| 1859:Ferenc Gyulay | |||||
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