The House of Savoy (Italian: Casa Savoia) is an Italian royal house (formally a dynasty) that was established in 1003 in the historical Savoy region. Through gradual expansions the family grew in power, first ruling a small Alpinecounty northwest of Italy and later gaining absolute rule of the Kingdom of Sicily. During the years 1713 to 1720, they were handed the island of Sardinia and would exercise direct rule from then onward.
The name derives from the historical region of Savoy in the Alpine region between what is now France and Italy. Over time, the House of Savoy expanded its territory and influence through judicious marriages and international diplomacy.[2] From rule of a region on the French–Italian border, by the time of its deposition the dynasty's realm grew to include nearly all of the Italian Peninsula.
Early history
The house descended from Humbert I, Count of Sabaudia (Umberto I "Biancamano"), (1003–1047 or 1048). The ancestry of Humbert is uncertain, as contemporary documents make no mention of his father. His family was traditionally believed to have come from Saxony,[3] but more recent investigations have pointed to the County of Vienne, where both Humbert and his relatives held extensive possessions, as a more plausible origin.[4][5] Though Sabaudia was originally a poor county, later counts were diplomatically skilled, and gained control over strategic mountain passes in the Alps. Two of Humbert's sons were commendatory abbots at the Abbey of St. Maurice, Agaunum, on the River Rhone east of Lake Geneva, and Saint Maurice is still the patron of the House of Savoy.
Humbert's son, Otto of Savoy succeeded to the title in 1051 after the death of his elder brother Amadeus I of Savoy. Otto married the Marchioness Adelaide of Turin, bringing the Marquessate of Susa, with the towns of Turin and Pinerolo, into the House of Savoy's possession.[6]
By the time Amadeus VIII came to power in the late 14th century, the House of Savoy had gone through a series of gradual territorial expansions and he was elevated by the Holy Roman EmperorSigismund to the Duke of Savoy in 1416.[7]
When Emmanuel Philibert came to power in 1553 most of his family's territories were in French hands, so he offered to serve France's leading enemy the House of Habsburg, in the hope of recovering his lands. He served Philip II as Governor of the Netherlands from 1555 to 1559.[11] In this capacity, he led the Spanish invasion of northern France and won a victory at St. Quentin in 1557.[12] He took advantage of various squabbles in Europe to slowly regain territory from both the French and the Spanish, including the city of Turin. He moved the capital of the duchy from Chambéry to Turin.
The 17th century brought about economic development to the Turin area and the House of Savoy took part in and benefitted from that. Charles Emmanuel II developed the port of Nice and built a road through the Alps towards France. And through skillful political manoeuvres territorial expansion continued. In the early 18th century in the War of the Spanish SuccessionVictor Amadeus switched sides to assist the Habsburgs and, via the Treaty of Utrecht, they rewarded him with large pieces of land in northeastern Italy and a Crown in Sicily. Savoy rule over Sicily lasted only seven years (1713–20).
The Kingdom of Italy
A map of Italy in 1796
The crown of Sicily, the prestige of being kings at last, and the wealth of Palermo helped strengthen the House of Savoy further. In 1720, they were forced to exchange Sicily for Sardinia as a result of the War of the Quadruple Alliance. On the mainland, the dynasty continued its expansionist policies as well. Through advantageous alliances during the War of the Polish Succession and War of the Austrian Succession, Charles Emmanuel III gained new lands at the expense of the Austrian-controlled Duchy of Milan.
In 1792, Piedmont-Sardinia joined the First Coalition against the French First Republic. It was beaten in 1796 by Napoleon and forced to conclude the disadvantageous Treaty of Paris (1796), giving the French army free passage through Piedmont. In 1798, Joubert occupied Turin and forced Charles Emmanuel IV to abdicate and leave for the island of Sardinia. Eventually, in 1814 the kingdom was restored and enlarged with the addition of the former Republic of Genoa by the Congress of Vienna.
In the meantime, nationalist figures such as Giuseppe Mazzini were influencing popular opinion. Mazzini believed that Italian unification could only be achieved through a popular uprising, but after the failure of the 1848 revolutions, the Italian nationalists began to look to the Kingdom of Sardinia and its prime minister Count Cavour as leaders of the unification movement. In 1848, Charles Albert conceded a constitution known as the Statuto Albertino to Piedmont-Sardinia, which remained the basis of the Kingdom's legal system even after Italian unification was achieved and the Kingdom of Sardinia became the Kingdom of Italy in 1861.
In April 1655, based on (perhaps false) reports of resistance by the Waldensians, a Protestant religious minority, to a plan to resettle them in remote mountain valleys, Charles Emmanuel II ordered their general massacre. The massacre was so brutal it aroused indignation throughout Europe. Oliver Cromwell, then ruler in England, began petitioning on behalf of the Waldensians, writing letters, raising contributions, calling a general fast in England, and threatening to send military forces to the rescue. The massacre prompted John Milton's famous sonnet, "On the Late Massacre in Piedmont".
In 1898, the Bava Beccaris massacre in Milan involved the use of cannons against unarmed protesters (including women and the elderly) during riots over the rising price of bread. King Umberto I of the House of Savoy congratulated General Fiorenzo Bava Beccaris for the massacre and decorated him with the medal of Great Official of Savoy Military Order, greatly outraging a large part of the public opinion. As a result, Umberto I was assassinated in July 1900 in Monza by Gaetano Bresci, the brother of one of the women massacred in the crowd, who had traveled back to Italy from the United States for the assassination. The king had previously been the target of failed assassination attempts by anarchists Giovanni Passannante and Pietro Acciarito.
General Pietro Badoglio advised King Victor Emmanuel III that he could easily sweep Mussolini and his rag-tag Blackshirt army to one side, but Victor Emmanuel decided to tolerate Mussolini and appointed him as prime minister on 28 October 1922. The king remained silent as Mussolini engaged in one abuse of power after another from 1924 onward, and did not intervene in 1925-26 when Mussolini dropped all pretense of democracy. By the end of 1928, the king's right to remove Mussolini from office was, at least theoretically, the only check on his power. Later, the King's failure, in the face of mounting evidence, to move against the Mussolini regime's abuses of power led to much criticism and had dire future consequences for Italy and for the monarchy itself.
Italy conquered Ethiopia in 1936 and Victor Emmanuel was crowned as Emperor of Ethiopia. He added the Albanian crown as well in 1939, but lost Ethiopia two years later, in 1941. However, as Mussolini and the Axis powers failed in the Second World War in 1943, several members of the Italian court began putting out feelers to the Allies, who in turn let it be known that Mussolini had to go. After Mussolini received a vote of no confidence from the Fascist Grand Council on 24 July, Victor Emmanuel dismissed him from office, relinquished the Ethiopian and Albanian crowns, and appointed Pietro Badoglio as prime minister. On 8 September the new government announced it had signed an armistice with the Allies five days earlier. However, Victor Emmanuel made another blunder when he and his government fled south to Brindisi, leaving his army without orders.
As the Allies and the Resistance gradually chased the Nazis and Fascists off the peninsula, it became apparent that Victor Emmanuel was too tainted by his earlier support of Mussolini to have any postwar role. Accordingly, Victor Emmanuel transferred most of his powers to his son, Crown Prince Umberto, in April 1944. Rome was liberated two months later, and Victor Emmanuel transferred his remaining powers to Umberto and named him Lieutenant General of the Realm. Within a year, public opinion pushed for a referendum to decide between retaining the monarchy or becoming a republic. On 9 May 1946, in a last-ditch attempt to save the monarchy, Victor Emmanuel formally abdicated in favour of his son, who became Umberto II. It did not work; the Italian constitutional referendum, 1946 was won by republicans with 54% of the vote. Victor Emmanuel went into exile in Egypt, dying there a year later.
On 12 June 1946, the Kingdom of Italy formally came to an end as Umberto transferred his powers to Prime Minister Alcide de Gasperi and called for the Italian people to support the new republic. He then went into exile in Portugal, never to return; he died in 1983.
Under the Constitution of the Italian Republic, the republican form of government cannot be changed by constitutional amendment, thus forbidding any attempt to restore the monarchy short of adoption of an entirely new constitution. The constitution also forbade male descendants of the House of Savoy from entering Italy.[13] This provision was removed in 2002[14] but as part of the deal to be allowed back into Italy, Vittorio Emanuele, the last claimant to the House of Savoy, renounced all claims to the throne.[15] He died in 2024.[16]
House of Savoy today
The Residences of the Royal House of Savoy in Turin and the neighbourhood are protected as a World Heritage Site. Although the titles and distinctions of the Italian royal family are not legally recognised by the Italian Republic, the remaining members of the House of Savoy, like dynasties of other abolished monarchies, still use some of the various titles they acquired over the millennium of their reign prior to the republic's establishment, including Duke of Savoy; "Prince of Naples", previously conferred by Joseph Bonaparte to be hereditary on his children and grandchildren; Prince of Piedmont; and Duke of Aosta.
Before, the leadership of the House of Savoy was contested by two cousins: Vittorio Emanuele, Prince of Naples, who used to claim the title of King of Italy, and Prince Amedeo, Duke of Aosta, who claimed the title of Duke of Savoy. Their rivalry has not always been peaceful— on 21 May 2004, following a dinner held by King Juan Carlos I of Spain on the eve of the wedding of his son Felipe, Prince of Asturias, Vittorio Emanuele punched Amedeo twice in the face.[17]
On 16 June 2006, Vittorio Emanuele was arrested in Varenna and imprisoned in Potenza on charges of corruption and recruitment of prostitutes for clients of the Casinò di Campione of Campione d'Italia.[20][21][22] After several days, Vittorio Emanuele was released and placed under house arrest instead.[23] He was released from house arrest on 20 July but was required to remain within the territory of the Republic.
When incarcerated in June 2006, Vittorio Emanuele was recorded admitting with regard to the killing of Dirk Hamer that "I was in the wrong, [...] but I must say I fooled them [the French judges]",[24] leading to a call from Hamer's sister Birgit for Vittorio Emanuele to be retried in Italy for the killing.[25] After a long legal fight, Birgit Hamer obtained the full video.[26] The story was broken in the press by aristocratic journalist Beatrice Borromeo,[27] who also wrote the preface for a book on the murder Delitto senza castigo by Birgit Hamer. Vittorio Emanuele sued the newspaper for defamation, claiming the video had been manipulated. In 2015, a court judgement ruled in favor of the newspaper.[28]
In 2007, lawyers representing Vittorio Emanuele and his son Emanuele Filiberto of Savoy wrote to Italian President Giorgio Napolitano seeking damages for their years in exile.[29] During a television interview, Emanuele Filiberto also requested that Roman landmarks such as the Quirinale palace and Villa Ada should be returned to the Savoy family.[citation needed] The Italian prime minister’s office has released a statement stating that the Savoys are not owed any damages and suggesting that Italy may demand damages from the Savoys for their collusion with Benito Mussolini.[30] The Italian constitution contains a clause stripping the Savoys of their wealth on exile. Emanuele Filiberto acknowledged that his fiancée, whose pregnancy was revealed at the time of the couple's engagement, belonged to a more leftist milieu than his own, a fact which initially displeased his father.[31]
Judicially separated since 1976, civilly divorced in 1982, and their marriage religiously annulled in 1987, Amedeo of Aosta's first wife, Princess Claude d'Orléans, revealed that she was aware that her husband fathered a child by another woman during their marriage.[32] Aosta acknowledged paternity of another child, born out-of-wedlock in 2006 during his second marriage, but agreed to contribute financially to the child's care only after being directed to do so by court order.[33]
The patrilineal lineage of the House of Savoy was reduced to four males between 1996 and 2009. In 2008, Aimone of Savoy-Aosta married Princess Olga of Greece, his second cousin, and they became the parents of sons Umberto and Amedeo born, respectively, in 2009 and 2011.
In 2019, Vittorio Emanuele issued a formal decree that modified the medieval law restricting succession to male heirs to place his granddaughter, Vittoria Cristina Chiara Adelaide Marie, in the line of succession. Prince Aimone declared the change illegitimate, meaning the title will remain in male succession and will transfer to the Savoy-Aosta branch led by Aimone.[34][35]
As of 2022, the House of Savoy has been in the process of trying to reclaim family jewels which have been owned by the Italian government since the abolition of the monarchy.[36]
The House of Savoy has held two dynastic orders since 1362[38] which were brought into the Kingdom of Italy as national orders. Although the Kingdom ceased to exist in 1946, King Umberto II did not abdicate his role as fons honorum over the two dynastic orders over which the family has long held sovereignty and grand mastership. Today, following the dispute, both Prince Emanuele Filiberto and Prince Aimone claim to be hereditary Sovereign and Grand Master of the following orders of the House of Savoy:
In 1396, the title and privileges of the final king of the Armenian Kingdom of Cilicia, Levon V, were transferred to James I, his cousin and king of Cyprus. The title of King of Armenia was thus united with the titles of King of Cyprus and King of Jerusalem.[47] The title was held to the modern day by the House of Savoy.[citation needed]
Family tree
Family tree
Male-line, legitimate, non-morganatic members of the house who either lived to adulthood, or who held a title as a child, are included. Heads of the house are in bold.
VITTORIO AMEDEO III, per la grazia di Dio Re di Sardegna, Cipro, Gerusalemme e Armenia; Duca di Savoia, Monferrato, Chablais, Aosta e Genevese; Principe di Piemonte ed Oneglia; Marchese in Italia, di Saluzzo, Susa, Ivrea, Ceva, Maro, Oristano, Sezana; Conte di Moriana, Nizza, Tenda, Asti, Alessandria, Goceano; Barone di Vaud e di Faucigny; Signore di Vercelli, Pinerolo, Tarantasia, Lumellino, Val di Sesia; Principe e Vicario perpetuo del Sacro Romano Impero in Italia.
Charles Emmanuel I, known as the Great, was the Duke of Savoy and ruler of the Savoyard states from 30 August 1580 until his death almost 50 years later in 1630, he was the longest-reigning Savoyard monarch at the time, only for his record to be surpassed by his great-grandson Victor Amadeus II. He was nicknamed Testa d'feu for his rashness and military aggression.
Victor Amadeus II was the head of the House of Savoy and ruler of the Savoyard states from 12 June 1675 until his abdication in 1730. He was the first of his house to acquire a royal crown, ruling first as King of Sicily (1713–1720) and then as King of Sardinia (1720–1730). Among his other titles were Duke of Savoy, Duke of Montferrat, Prince of Piedmont, Marquis of Saluzzo and Count of Aosta, Maurienne and Nice.
Charles Emmanuel III was Duke of Savoy, King of Sardinia and ruler of the Savoyard states from his father's adbication on 3 September 1730 until his death in 1773. He was the paternal grandfather of the last three mainline kings of Sardinia.
The House of Savoy-Carignano originated as a cadet branch of the House of Savoy. It was founded by Thomas Francis, Prince of Carignano (1596–1656), an Italian military commander who was the fifth son of Charles Emmanuel I, Duke of Savoy. His descendants were accepted as princes étrangers at the court of France, where some held prominent positions. Upon the extinction of the main Savoy line they eventually came to reign as kings of Sardinia from 1831 to 1861, and as kings of Italy from 1861 until the dynasty's deposition in 1946. The Savoy-Carignano family also, briefly, supplied a king each to Spain and Croatia, as well as queens consort to Bulgaria and Portugal.
Victor Emmanuel II was King of Sardinia from 23 March 1849 until 17 March 1861, when he assumed the title of King of Italy and became the first king of an independent, united Italy since the 6th century, a title he held until his death in 1878. Borrowing from the old Latin title Pater Patriae of the Roman emperors, the Italians gave him the epithet of Father of the Fatherland.
Umberto II was the last King of Italy. Umberto's reign lasted for 34 days, from 9 May 1946 until his formal deposition on 12 June 1946, although he had been the de facto head of state since 1944. Due to his short reign, he was nicknamed the May King.
Prince Vittorio Emanuele of Savoy, Prince of Naples, was the only son of Umberto II, the last King of Italy, and Marie-José of Belgium. Vittorio Emanuele also used the title Duke of Savoy and claimed the headship of the House of Savoy. These claims were disputed by supporters of his third cousin, Prince Amedeo, Duke of Aosta, and later by Amedeo's son, Aimone.
Amadeo I, also known as Amadeus, was an Italian prince who reigned as King of Spain from 1870 to 1873. The only king of Spain to come from the House of Savoy, he was the second son of Victor Emmanuel II of Italy and was known for most of his life as the Duke of Aosta, the usual title for a second son in the Savoyard dynasty.
The Duchy of Savoy was a territorial entity of the Savoyard state that existed from 1416 until 1847 and was a possession of the House of Savoy.
Emmanuel Philibert of Savoy, a name shared by several members of the House of Savoy, may refer to:
The Italian word luogotenente is an etymological parallel to lieutenant, deriving from the Latin locum tenens "holding a place", i.e. someone who fills a position instead of another, as a substitute or deputy.
Prince Amedeo of Savoy-Aosta, 5th Duke of Aosta was a claimant to the headship of the House of Savoy, the family which ruled Italy from 1861 to 1946. Until 7 July 2006, Amedeo was styled Duke of Aosta; on that date he declared himself Duke of Savoy, a title that was disputed between him and his third cousin, Vittorio Emanuele, Prince of Naples, only son of King Umberto II of Italy.
The Order of Saints Maurice and Lazarus is a Roman Catholic dynastic order of knighthood bestowed by the royal House of Savoy. It is the second-oldest order of knighthood in the world, tracing its lineage to AD 1098, and it is one of the rare orders of knighthood recognized by papal bull, in this case by Pope Gregory XIII. In that bull, Pope Gregory XIII bestowed upon Emmanuel Philibert, Duke of Savoy and his Savoy successors, the right to confer this knighthood in perpetuity. The Grand Master is Prince Emanuele Filiberto of Savoy, Prince of Venice, also known as the Duke of Savoy, the grandson of the last King of Italy, Umberto II. However, Emanuele Filiberto's cousin twice removed Prince Aimone, Duke of Aosta claims to be grand master as his father claimed to be head of the house of Savoy.
Vittoria Cristina Adelaide Chiara Maria di Savoia is the daughter and heir apparent to Emanuele Filiberto of Savoy, Prince of Venice, who is a claimant to the headship of the House of Savoy.
Princess Polyxena of Hesse-Rheinfels-Rotenburg was the second wife of Charles Emmanuel, Prince of Piedmont whom she married in 1724. The mother of the future Victor Amadeus III, she was Queen of Sardinia from 1730 until her death in 1735.
The Civil Order of Savoy was founded as an order of knighthood in 1831 by the King of Sardinia, Charles Albert, Duke of Savoy. It is now replaced by the Order of Merit of Savoy.The intention was to reward those virtues not belonging to the existing Military Order of Savoy, founded by Vittorio Emanuele I in 1815. The order has one degree, that of Knight, and is limited to 70 members. Admission is in the personal gift of the head of the House of Savoy.
Louis Victor of Savoy, 4th Prince of Carignano headed a cadet branch of the Italian dynasty which reigned over the Kingdom of Sardinia, being known as the Prince of Carignano from 1741 till his death. Upon extinction of the senior line of the family, his great-grandson succeeded to the royal throne as King Charles Albert of Sardinia, while his great-great-grandson, Victor Emmanuel II, became King of Italy.
Emmanuel Philibert of Savoy, 2nd Prince of Carignano, was the son and heir of Thomas Francis, Prince of Carignano. He constructed the Palazzo Carignano in Turin.
The titles of the Count of Savoy, and then Duke of Savoy, are titles of nobility attached to the historical territory of Savoy. Since its creation, in the 11th century, the House of Savoy held the county. Several of these rulers ruled as kings at one point in history or another.
Emanuele Filiberto, Duke of Aosta was a prince of Savoy. He was born in the reign of his father Charles Emmanuel III, King of Sardinia.
↑ Cox, Eugene (1999). McKitterick, Rosamond; Abulafia, David (eds.). The kingdom of Burgundy, the land of the house of Savoy and adjacent territories. The New Cambridge Medieval History. Vol.5, C.1198–C.1300. Cambridge University Press. pp.365–366.
↑ Administrative charters of Humbert's family are studied in the thesis Laurent Ripart, «Les fondements idéologiques du pouvoir des comtes de la maison de Savoie (de la fin du Xe au début du XIIIe siècle)», Université de Nice, 1999, 3 volumes, Tome II, p. 496-695.
↑ Introduction:The Sabaudian Lands and Sabaudian Studies, Matthew Vester, Sabaudian Studies: Political Culture, Dynasty, and Territory (1400–1700), ed. Matthew Vester, (Truman State University Press, 2013), 1.
↑ Sabaudian Studies, Matthew Vester, Sabaudian Studies: Political Culture, Dynasty, and Territory (1400–1700), (Truman State University Press, 2013), 6.
↑ Michael Mallett and Christine Shaw, The Italian Wars, 1494-1559, (Pearson Educational Limited, 2012), 154.
1 2 Michael Mallett and Christine Shaw, The Italian Wars, 1494-1559, 230-231.
↑ Henry Kamen, Philip of Spain, (Yale University Press, 1997), 64.
↑ "In order to prevail the thirteenth final provision of the Italian Constitution ( ... ) international law provides for the special instrument of "reserves" duly stamped by the Italian State at the time of its instrument of ratification deposit of the fourth Protocol" ECHR: Buonomo, Giampiero (2000). "Né l'Unione europea, né i diritti dell'uomo possono aprire le frontiere a Casa Savoia". Diritto&Giustizia. Archived from the original on 2019-12-11. Retrieved 2016-03-19.
Francesco Cognasso: I Savoia nella politica europea. Milano, 1941 (Storia e politica).
Robert Katz: The Fall of the House of Savoy. A Study in the Relevance of the Commonplace or the Vulgarity of History, London 1972.
Eugene L. Cox: The Eagles of Savoy. The House of Savoy in thirteenth-century Europe. Princeton, N.J., 1974.
Denis Mack Smith: Italy and its Monarchy, New Haven, 1992.
Toby Osborne: Dynasty and Diplomacy in the Court of Savoy. Political Culture and the Thirty Years' War (Cambridge Studies in Italian History and Culture), Cambridge 2002.
Paolo Cozzo: La geografia celeste dei duchi di Savoia. Religione, devozioni e sacralità in uno Stato di età moderna (secoli XVI-XVII), Bologna, il Mulino, 2006, 370 pp.
Enrico Castelnuovo (a cura di): La Reggia di Venaria e i Savoia. Arte, magnificenza e storia di una corte europea. Vol. 1–2. Turin, Umberto Allemandi & C., 2007, 364 + 309 pp.
Walter Barberis (a cura di): I Savoia. I secoli d'oro di una dinastia europea. Torino, Giulio Einaudi Editore, 2007, 248 pp.
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