Kingdom of Sardinia Regnum Sardiniae (Latin) Rennu de Sardigna (Sardinian) Regno di Sardegna (Italian) Regn ëd Sardëgna (Piedmontese) | |||||||||||||||||||
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| 1720–1861 | |||||||||||||||||||
.svg) Flag (1816–1848) .svg) Coat of arms (1833–1848) | |||||||||||||||||||
| Motto: FERT (Motto for theHouse of Savoy) | |||||||||||||||||||
| Anthem: S'hymnu sardu nationale "The Sardinian National Anthem" | |||||||||||||||||||
 Kingdom of Sardinia in 1859 including conquest of Lombardy;client states in light green | |||||||||||||||||||
| Status | Sovereign state underSavoy (1720–1861)
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| Capital | |||||||||||||||||||
| Common languages | Italian (official, 1760),French (official, pre-1760),Piedmontese,Ligurian,Occitan,Arpitan,Sardinian,Corsican,Catalan, andSpanish | ||||||||||||||||||
| Religion | Roman Catholicism (official, 1848) | ||||||||||||||||||
| Demonym | Sardinian | ||||||||||||||||||
| Government |
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| King | |||||||||||||||||||
• 1720 (first) | Victor Amadeus II | ||||||||||||||||||
• 1849–1861 (last) | Victor Emmanuel II | ||||||||||||||||||
| Prime Minister | |||||||||||||||||||
• 1848 (first) | Cesare Balbo | ||||||||||||||||||
• 1860–1861 (last) | Camillo Benso | ||||||||||||||||||
| Legislature | Parliament | ||||||||||||||||||
| Subalpine Senate | |||||||||||||||||||
| Chamber of Deputies | |||||||||||||||||||
| Historical era | Late modern | ||||||||||||||||||
• Established | 1720 | ||||||||||||||||||
| 1720 | |||||||||||||||||||
| 1847 | |||||||||||||||||||
| 1860 | |||||||||||||||||||
| 1861 | |||||||||||||||||||
| Population | |||||||||||||||||||
• 1821 | 3,974,500 | ||||||||||||||||||
| Currency |
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| Today part of | |||||||||||||||||||
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| History of Sardinia |
The termKingdom of Sardinia denotes theSavoyard state from 1720 to 1861.[1][2][nb 1] From 1720 to 1847, only the island ofSardinia proper was part of the Kingdom of Sardinia, while the other mainland possessions (principally theDuchy of Savoy,Principality of Piedmont,County of Nice,Duchy of Genoa, and others) were held by theHouse of Savoy in their own right, hence forming acomposite monarchy and apersonal union,[5][6][7] which was formally referred to as the "States of His Majesty the King of Sardinia".[8] This situation was changed by thePerfect Fusion act of 1847, which created a unitary kingdom. Due to the fact thatPiedmont was the seat of power and prominent part of the entity, the state is alsoreferred to asSardinia–Piedmont orPiedmont–Sardinia, and sometimes erroneously as theKingdom of Piedmont.[9][10][11]
Before becoming a possession of the House of Savoy, the medievalKingdom of Sardinia had been part of theCrown of Aragon and then of the burgeoningSpanish Empire. With theTreaty of The Hague (1720), the island of Sardinia and its title of kingdom were ceded by theHabsburg andBourbon claimants to the Spanish throne to theDuke of Savoy,Victor Amadeus II. The Savoyards united it with their historical possessions on the Italian peninsula, and the kingdom came to be progressively identified with the peninsular states, which included, besides Savoy andAosta, dynastic possessions like the Principality of Piedmont and the County of Nice, over both of which the Savoyards had been exercising their control since the 13th century and 1388, respectively.
Under Savoyard rule, the kingdom's government, ruling class, cultural models, and centre of population were entirely situated in the peninsula.[12] The island of Sardinia had always been of secondary importance to the monarchy. While the capital of the island of Sardinia and the seat of its viceroys had always beenCagliari by law (de jure), it was the Piedmontese city ofTurin, the capital of Savoy since the mid 16th century, which was thede facto seat of power. This situation would be conferred official status with thePerfect Fusion of 1847, when all the kingdom's governmental institutions would be centralized in Turin.
When the peninsular domains of the House of Savoy were occupied and eventually annexed byNapoleonic France, theking of Sardinia temporarily resided on the island for the first time in Sardinia's history under Savoyard rule. TheCongress of Vienna (1814–1815), which restructured Europe after Napoleon's defeat, returned to Savoy its peninsular possessions and augmented them with Liguria, taken from theRepublic of Genoa. FollowingGeneva's accession toSwitzerland, theTreaty of Turin (1816) transferredCarouge and adjacent areas to the newly-created SwissCanton of Geneva. In 1847–1848, through an act of Union analogous to theone between Great Britain and Ireland, the various Savoyard states were unified under one legal system with their capital in Turin, and granted a constitution, theStatuto Albertino.
By the time of theCrimean War in 1853, the Savoyards had built the kingdom into a strong power. There followed the annexation ofLombardy (1859), thecentral Italian states and theKingdom of the Two Sicilies (1860),Venetia (1866), and thePapal States (1870). On 17 March 1861, to more accurately reflect its new geographic, cultural and political extent, the Kingdom of Sardiniachanged its name to the Kingdom of Italy,[13][14][15] and its capital was eventually moved first toFlorence and then toRome. The Savoy-led Kingdom of Sardinia was thus the legalpredecessor state of the Kingdom of Italy, which in turn is the predecessor of the present-dayItalian Republic.[1][2]
The Kingdom of Sardinia was the title with the highest rank among the territories possessed by theHouse of Savoy, and hence this title was and still is used often to indicate the whole of their possessions.[16] In reality, the Savoys ruled not a unitary state, but a complex array of different entities and titles with different institutional, cultural, and legal backgrounds.[6] These included for example theDuchy of Savoy,Duchy of Aosta,Principality of Piedmont, andCounty of Nice, which were distinct and not juridically part of theKingdom of Sardinia, which included only the island ofSardinia itself.[6][17][18] The situation changed with thePerfect Fusion of 1847, an act of KingCharles Albert of Sardinia that abolished the administrative differences between the mainland states and the island of Sardinia, creating a unitary kingdom. The Savoys themselves referred to their possessions as a whole as "the States of the King of Sardinia" (Italian:gli Stati del Re di Sardegna).[16] Modern-day historians use the termSavoyard state to indicate this entity, which is an example ofcomposite monarchy where many different and distinct territories are united in apersonal union by having the same ruler.[6][17][18]
During the 3rd century BC, theAllobroges settled down in the region between theRhône and theAlps. This region, named Allobrigia and later "Sapaudia" in Latin, was integrated to theRoman Empire. In the 5th century, the region of Savoy was ceded by theWestern Roman Empire to theBurgundians and became part of theKingdom of Burgundy.
Piedmont was inhabited in early historic times by Celto-Ligurian tribes such as theTaurini and theSalassi. They later submitted to theRomans (c. 220 BC), who founded several colonies there includingAugusta Taurinorum(Turin) andEporedia (Ivrea). After the fall of the Western Roman Empire, the region was repeatedly invaded by the Burgundians, theGoths (5th century),Byzantines,Lombards (6th century), and theFranks (773). At the time, what is known today as Piedmont, as part of theKingdom of Italy within theHoly Roman Empire, was subdivided into severalmarks and counties.
In 1046,Oddo of Savoy added Piedmont to their main segment ofSavoy, with a capital atChambéry (now in France). Other areas remained independent, such as the powerfulcommunes ofAsti andAlessandria, and themarquisates ofSaluzzo andMontferrat. TheCounty of Savoy was elevated to aduchy in 1416, and DukeEmmanuel Philibert moved the seat toTurin in 1563.
The Spanish domination of Sardinia ended at the beginning of the 18th century, as a result of theWar of the Spanish Succession. By theTreaty of Utrecht (1713), Spain's European empire was divided: Savoy receivedSicily and parts of theDuchy of Milan, whileCharles VI (theHoly Roman Emperor andArchduke of Austria), received theSpanish Netherlands, theKingdom of Naples, Sardinia, and the bulk of the Duchy of Milan.
During theWar of the Quadruple Alliance,Victor Amadeus II, Duke of Savoy, Prince of Piedmont, and by now also King of Sicily, had to agree to yield Sicily to the Austrian Habsburgs and receive Sardinia in exchange. The exchange was formally ratified in theTreaty of The Hague of 17 February 1720. Because the Kingdom of Sardinia had existed since the 14th century, the exchange allowed Victor Amadeus to retain the title of king in spite of the loss of Sicily. From 1720 to 1798, whenNapoleon invaded Italy, thede facto government resided in Turin; Cagliari, which had been the capital of the Kingdom of Sardinia since 1324, returned to be thede facto government during the Savoy exile from 1798 to 1814. When Napoleon was first resided, thede facto government returned to Turin but did not officially become the capital of the Kingdom of Sardinia until 1847.
Victor Amadeus initially resisted the exchange of Sardinia for Sicilia in 1720. Until 1723, he continued to style himself King of Sicily rather than King of Sardinia. The state took the official title of Kingdom of Sardinia, Cyprus, and Jerusalem,[19] as the House of Savoy still claimed the thrones ofCyprus andJerusalem, although both had long been underOttoman rule. In 1767–1769,Charles Emmanuel III annexed theMaddalena archipelago in theStrait of Bonifacio from theRepublic of Genoa and claimed it as part of Sardinia, which became a part of the Sardinian region since then.
Since the Iberian period in Sardinia, common languages includedSardinian,Corsican,Catalan, andSpanish.[20] Other languages includedFrench,Piedmontese,Ligurian,Occitan, andArpitan. During the Savoyard period as a composite state,Italian, which alongside French had already been made official in the peninsula since the 16th century via the Rivoli Edict,[21][22][23] was introduced to Sardinia in 1760.[24] With the Regio Biglietto of 25 July 1760, Italian was made a priority over French in Piedmont. The Kingdom of Sardinia's attempt of promotion of a unitary language was incisive,[25] and also the replacement of Spanish with Italian has been described as a "revolution of ideas".[26] Since French was still in use in some provinces, theStatuto Albertino (1848) authorised the use of French.[27]
In 1792, the Kingdom of Sardinia and the other states of the Savoy crown joined theWar of the First Coalition against theFrench First Republic, but was beaten in 1796 byNapoleon and forced to conclude the disadvantageousTreaty of Paris (1796), giving the French army free passage through Piedmont. On 6 December 1798 GeneralJoubert occupied Turin and forcedCharles Emmanuel IV to abdicate and leave for the island of Sardinia. The provisionary government voted to unite Piedmont with France. In 1799, the Austro-Russians briefly occupied the city, but with theBattle of Marengo (1800), the French regained control. The island of Sardinia, having defeated the armies of theFrench expedition to Sardinia without the royal army's help, stayed out of the reach of the French for the rest of the war.
The refusal by the Savoyards of recognizing the Sardinian's rights and representation in government[28][29][30] caused the Sardinian Vespers (also known as the "Three years of revolution") started bysa dii de s'aciappa[31] ("the day of the pursuit and capture"), commemorated today asSa die de sa Sardigna, when people in Cagliari started chasing any Piedmontese functionaries they could find and expelled them from the island. Thus, Sardinia became the first European country to have engaged in a revolution of its own, the episode not being the result of a foreign military importation like in most of Europe.[32]
In 1814, the Crown of Savoy enlarged its territories with the addition of the formerRepublic of Genoa, now a duchy, and it served as abuffer state against France. This was confirmed by theCongress of Vienna, which returned the region of Savoy to its borders after it had been annexed by France in 1792.[33] By theTreaty of Stupinigi (1817), the Kingdom of Sardinia extended its protectorate over thePrincipality of Monaco. In 1821, the Kingdom of Sardinia's reported population amounted to 3,974,500.[34]
In the reaction after Napoleon, the country was ruled by the conservative monarchsVictor Emmanuel I (1802–1821),Charles Felix (1821–1831), andCharles Albert (1831–1849), who fought at the head of a contingent of his own troops at theBattle of Trocadero, which restored the reactionaryFerdinand VII to the Spanish throne. Victor Emanuel I disbanded the entireNapoleonic Code and returned the lands and power to the nobility and the Church. This reactionary policy went as far as discouraging the use of roads built by the French. These changes typified Sardinia.
The Kingdom of Sardinia industrialized from 1830 onward. A constitution, theStatuto Albertino, was enacted during theRevolutions of 1848 under liberal pressure. In addition to make Turin its official capital, theStatuto Albertino madeRoman Catholicism "the only State religion".[35] Earlier in 1847, the island of Sardinia, a Piedmontese dependency for more than a century, lost its own residual autonomy to the peninsula through thePerfect Fusion issued by Charles Albert. As a result, the kingdom's fundamental institutions were deeply transformed, assuming the shape of a constitutional and centralized monarchy on the French model; under the same pressure, Charles Albertdeclared war onAustria. After initial success, the war took a turn for the worse and Charles Albert was defeated byMarshal Radetzky at theBattle of Custozza (1848).
Like all the variousduchies andcity-states on theApennine peninsula and associated islands, the Kingdom of Sardinia was troubled with political instability under alternating governments. After a short and disastrous renewal of the war with Austria in 1849, Charles Albert abdicated on 23 March 1849 in favour of his sonVictor Emmanuel II. In 1852, a liberal ministry underCount Camillo Benso di Cavour was installed and the Kingdom of Sardinia became the engine drivingItalian unification. The Kingdom of Sardinia took part in theCrimean War, allied with theOttoman Empire,Britain, andFrance, and fighting againstRussia.
In 1859, France sided with the Kingdom of Sardinia in a war againstAustria, theAustro-Sardinian War.Napoleon III did not keep his promises to Cavour to fight until all of theKingdom of Lombardy–Venetia had been conquered. Following the bloody battles ofMagenta andSolferino, both French victories, Napoleon thought the war too costly to continue and made a separate peace behind Cavour's back in which onlyLombardy would be ceded. Due to the Austrian government's refusal to cede any lands to the Kingdom of Sardinia, they agreed to cede Lombardy to Napoleon, who in turn then ceded the territory to the Kingdom of Sardinia to avoid "embarrassing" the defeated Austrians. Cavour angrily resigned from office when it became clear that Victor Emmanuel would accept this arrangement.
On 5 March 1860,Parma, Piacenza,Tuscany,Modena, andRomagna voted in referendums to join the Kingdom of Sardinia. This alarmed Napoleon, who feared a strong Savoyard state on his south-eastern border and he insisted that if the Kingdom of Sardinia were to keep the new acquisitions they would have to cede Savoy and Nice to France. This was done through theTreaty of Turin, which also called for referendums to confirm the annexation. Subsequently,somewhat controversial referendums showed over 99.5% majorities in both areas in favour of joining France.[36]
In 1860,Giuseppe Garibaldi started his campaign to conquer southern Italy in the name of the Kingdom of Sardinia.The Thousand quickly toppled theKingdom of the Two Sicilies, which was the largest of the states in the region, stretching fromAbruzzo andNaples on the peninsula toMessina andPalermo on Sicily. He then marched toGaeta in the central peninsula. Cavour was satisfied with the unification while Garibaldi, who was too revolutionary for the king and his prime minister, also wanted to conquer Rome.
Garibaldi was disappointed in this development, as well as in the loss of his home province, Nice, to France. He also failed to fulfill the promises that had gained him popular and military support by the Sicilians: that the new nation would be a republic, not a kingdom, and that the Sicilians would see great economic gains after unification. The former did not come to pass until 1946.
On 17 March 1861, law no. 4671 of theParliament of the Kingdom of Sardiniaproclaimed the Kingdom of Italy, so ratifying theannexations of all other Apennine states, plus Sicily, to the Kingdom of Sardinia.[37] The institutions and laws of the kingdom were quickly extended to all of Italy, abolishing the administrations of the other regions. Piedmont became the most dominant and wealthiest region in Italy and the capital of Piedmont, Turin, remained the Italian capital until 1865, when the capital was moved toFlorence. As part of theBrigandage in the Two Sicilies, many revolts exploded throughout the peninsula, especially in southern Italy and on the island of Sicily, because of the perceived unfair treatment of the south by the Piedmontese ruling class. TheHouse of Savoy ruled the Kingdom of Italy until 1946, when Italy was declared arepublic byreferendum. The result of the1946 Italian institutional referendum was 54.3% in favor of a republic.
Major progress in the economy was achieved during the government ofCamillo Benso, Count of Cavour. Cavour believed that economic progress had to precede political change, and stressed the advantages of railroad construction in the peninsula.[38] He was a strong supporter of transportation bysteam engine, sponsoring the building of many railroads and canals. Between 1838 and 1842 Cavour began several initiatives in attempts to solve economic problems in his area. He experimented with different agricultural techniques on his estate, such as growingsugar beets, and was one of the first Italian landowners to use chemical fertilizers.[39] He also founded the Piedmontese Agricultural Society.
The currency in use in Savoy was thePiedmontese scudo. During theNapoleonic Wars, it was replaced in general circulation by theFrench franc. In 1816, after regaining their peninsular domains, the scudo was replaced by theSardinian lira, which in 1821 also replaced theSardinian scudo, the coins that had been in use on the island throughout the period.
Before 1847, only the island of Sardinia proper was part of theKingdom of Sardinia. The other mainland possessions, which primarily included theDuchy of Savoy,Principality of Piedmont,County of Nice, andDuchy of Genoa, among others, were held by the Savoys in their own right. This resulted in the formation acomposite monarchy and apersonal union. This personal union was formally referred to as the "States of His Majesty the King of Sardinia", such as in the documents of the Congress of Vienna.[8] ThePerfect Fusion (Italian:Fusione perfetta) was the 1847 act of the Savoyard KingCharles Albert of Sardinia which abolished the administrative differences between the mainland states and the island of Sardinia, in a fashion similar to theNueva Planta decrees between theCrown of Castile and the realms of theCrown of Aragon between 1707 and 1716 and theActs of Union betweenGreat Britain andIreland in 1800.
In 1848, King Charles Albert granted theStatuto Albertino, which functioned as the constitution of the state. The Statute was proclaimed only because of concern at the revolutionary insurrection agitating Italy in 1848. At the time, Charles Albert was only following the example of other Italian rulers, but his Statute was the only constitution to survive the repression that followed theFirst War of Independence (1848–49). The Statute remained the basis of the legal system afterItalian unification was achieved in 1860 and the Kingdom of Sardinia became the Kingdom of Italy. Even though it suffered deep modifications, especially during thefascist government ofBenito Mussolini (who ruled with the tacit approval of KingVictor Emmanuel III), the Statute lasted mostly unaltered in the structure until the implementation of therepublican constitution in 1948, which superseded several primary features of the document, with specific regard to those of monarchical nature. The head of state was theKing of Sardinia, while the head of the government was thePrime minister of the Kingdom of Sardinia.
TheRoyal Sardinian Army and theRoyal Sardinian Navy functioned as the military of Kingdom of Sardinia until they became theRoyal Italian Army on 4 May 1861 and theRegia Marina on 17 March 1861.
When the Duchy of Savoy acquired theKingdom of Sicily in 1713 and the Kingdom of Sardinia in 1723, theflag of Savoy became the flag of a naval power. This posed the problem that the same flag was already in use by theKnights of Malta. Because of this, the Savoyards modified their flag for use as anaval ensign in various ways, adding the lettersFERT in the four cantons, or adding a blue border, or using a blue flag with the Savoy cross in one canton. Eventually, KingCharles Albert of Savoy adopted from Revolutionary France theItalian tricolor, surmounted by the Savoyard shield, as his flag. This flag would later become the flag of theKingdom of Italy, and the tricolor without the Savoyard escutcheon remains theflag of Italy.
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[At p. 94] Dall'indagine sulla legislazione del quadriennio 1861-64, innanzi svolta, trova conferma quanto affermato all'inizio e, cioè, che quello italiano non fu uno Stato nuovo, ma prevalse la continuità con le istituzioni e l'apparato amministrativo sabaudo. Si navigò a vista, senza elaborare un piano di riforme volto a costruire in modo organico e duraturo, preferendo operare per adattamenti e giustapposizioni. È emerso piuttosto chiaramente che si intese assicurare in tempi brevi la costruzione di uno Stato centrale (e periferico) forte, comprimendo gradualmente, soprattutto a seguito dell'emersione della questione meridionale, l'autonomia degli enti locali e i progetti riformatori tendenti al decentramento.[From the investigation into the legislation of the four-year period 1861–64 carried out above, what was stated at the beginning is confirmed, that is, that the Italian state was not a new one, but continuity with the institutions and the administrative apparatus of Savoy prevailed. They navigated by sight, without developing a plan of reforms aimed at building in an organic and lasting way, preferring to operate by adaptations and juxtapositions. It emerged rather clearly that the intention was to ensure in a short time the construction of a strong central (and peripheral) state, gradually compressing, especially following the emergence of the Southern Question, the autonomy of local authorities, and reform projects tending towards decentralization.]
... 1479, Regno di 'Sardegna e Corsica' malgrado non rappresentasse tutta la Sardegna e malgrado la Corsica non fosse interessata ma considerata solo ambita (non sarà mai conquistata). Poi, dal 1479, si chiamo solo Regno di Sardegna ... poi solo Regno di Sardegna (fino al 1861), poi Regno d'Italia (fino al 1946), e, finalmente, Repubblica Italiana. E, tutto questo, senza alcuna soluzione di continuità.[... 1479, Kingdom of 'Sardinia and Corsica' even though it did not represent all of Sardinia and even though Corsica was not interested but only considered coveted (it will never be conquered). Then, from 1479, it was called only the Kingdom of Sardinia ... then only the Kingdom of Sardinia (until 1861), then the Kingdom of Italy (until 1946), and, finally, the Italian Republic. And, all this, without any solution of continuity.]
{{cite encyclopedia}}: CS1 maint: postscript (link){{cite web}}: CS1 maint: postscript (link)Il regno, che dal 1475 si chiamò semplicemente Regno di Sardegna rimase giudidicamente aggregato in Corona (Corona d'Aragona, poi Corona di Spagna) fino alla fine della corona d'Aragona ... La sua storia procede fino al Risorgimento, quando, il 17 marzo 1861, ha cambiato nome in Regno d'Italia.[The kingdom, which from 1475 was simply called the Kingdom of Sardinia, remained legally aggregated in the Crown (Crown of Aragon, then Crown of Spain) until the end of the Crown of Aragon ... Its history continues until the Risorgimento, when, on 17 March 1861, it changed its name to the Kingdom of Italy.]
{{cite book}}:ISBN / Date incompatibility (help)In 1848, the Statute or constitution issued by King Carlo Alberto for the kingdom of Sardinia (better known as Piedmont, from its capital in Turin) proclaimed 'the only State religion' the Roman Catholic one.
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