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CHARLES ALBERT [CARLO ALBERTO] (1798-...

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Originally appearing in Volume V05, Page 939 of the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.
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CHARLES See also:ALBERT [CARLO ALBERTO] (1798-1849) , See also:king of See also:Sardinia (See also:Piedmont), son of See also:Prince Charles of See also:Savoy-See also:Carignano and Princess Albertine of See also:Saxe-See also:Courland, was See also:born on the 2nd of See also:October 1798, a few days before the See also:French occupied Piedmont and forced his See also:cousin King Charles See also:Emmanuel to take See also:refuge in Sardinia. Although Prince and Princess Carignano adhered to the French Republican regime, they soon See also:fell under suspicion and were summoned to See also:Paris. Prince Charles died in 1800, and his widow married a See also:Count de Montleart and for some years led a wandering existence, chiefly in See also:Switzerland, neglecting her son and giving him See also:mere scraps of See also:education, now under a devotee of J. J. See also:Rousseau, now under a Genevan Calvinist. In 1802 King Charles Emmanuel abdicated in favour of his See also:brother See also:Victor Emmanuel I.; the latter's only son being dead, his brother Charles See also:Felix was See also:heir to the See also:throne, and after him Charles Albert. On the fall of See also:Napoleon in 1814 the Piedmontese See also:court returned to See also:Turin and the king was anxious to secure the See also:succession for Charles Albert, knowing that See also:Austria meditated excluding him from it in favour of an See also:Austrian See also:archduke, but at the same See also:time he regarded him as an objectionable See also:person on See also:account of his revolutionary upbringing. Charles Albert was summoned to Turin, given tutors to instruct him in legitimist principles, and on the 1st of October 1817 married the archduchess Maria See also:Theresa of See also:Tuscany, who, on the 14th of See also:March 1820, gave See also:birth to Victor Emmanuel, afterwards king of See also:Italy. The Piedmontese See also:government at this time was most reactionary, and had made a clean sweep of all French institutions. But there were strong See also:Italian nationalists and See also:anti-Austrian tendencies among the younger nobles and See also:army See also:officers, and the See also:Carbonari and other revolutionary See also:societies had made much progress. Their hopes centred in the See also:young Carignano, whose agreeable See also:manners had endeared him to all, and who had many See also:friends among the Liberals and Carbonari. See also:Early in 1820 a revolutionary See also:movement was set on See also:foot, and vague plans of combined risings all over Italy and a See also:war with Austria were talked of.

Charles Albert no doubt was aware of this, but he never actually became a Carbonaro, and was surprised and startled when after the outbreak of the Neapolitan revolution of 1820 some of the leading conspirators in the Piedmontese army, including Count Santorre di See also:

Santarosa and Count See also:San Marzano, informed him that a military rising was ready and that they counted on his help (2nd March 1821). He induced them to delay the outbreak and informed the king, requesting him, however, not to punish anyone. On the loth the See also:garrison of See also:Alessandria mutinied, and two days later Turin was in the hands of the insurgents, the See also:people demanding the See also:Spanish constitution. The king at once abdicated and appointed Charles Albert See also:regent. The latter, pressed by the revolutionists and abandoned by his ministers, granted the constitution and sent to inform Charles Felix, who was now king, of the occurrence. Charles Felix, who was then at See also:Modena, repudiated the regent's acts, accepted Austrian military assistance, with which the rising was easily quelled, and exiled Charles Albert to See also:Florence. The young prince found himself the most unpopular See also:man in Italy, for while the Liberals looked on him as a traitor, to the king and the Conservatives he was a dangerous revolutionist. At the See also:Congress of See also:Verona (1822) the Austrian See also:chancellor, Prince Metternich, tried to induce Charles Felix to set aside Charles Albert's rights of succession. But the king was piqued by Austria's interference, and as both the See also:grand-See also:duke of Tuscany and the duke of See also:Wellington supported him, Charles Albert's claims were respected. See also:France having decided to intervene in the Spanish revolution on the See also:side of See also:autocracy, Charles Albert asked permission to join the duc d'See also:Angouleme's expedition. The king granted it and the young prince set out for See also:Spain, where he fought with such gallantry at the storming of the Trocadero (1st of See also:September 1823) that the French soldiers proclaimed him the " first See also:Grenadier of France." But it was not until he had signed a See also:secret under-taking binding himself, as soon as he ascended the throne, to See also:place himself under the tutelage of a See also:council composed of the higher See also:clergy and the knights of the Annunziata, and to maintain the existing forms of the See also:monarchy (D. Berti, Cesare See also:Alfieri, xi.

77, See also:

Rome, 1871), that he was allowed to return to Turin and forgiven. On the See also:death of Charles Felix (27th of See also:April 1831) Charles Albert succeeded; he inherited a See also:kingdom without an army, with an empty See also:treasury, a chaotic See also:administration and See also:medieval See also:laws. His first task was to set his See also:house in See also:order; he reorganized the finances, created the army, See also:sand started Piedmont on a path which if not liberalism was at least progress. " He was," wrote his reactionary See also:minister, Count della Margherita, " hostile to Austria from the depths of his soul and full of illusions as to the possibility of freeing Italy from dependence on her. . . . As for the revolutionaries, he detested them but feared them, and was convinced that sooner or later he would be their victim." In 1833 a See also:conspiracy of the Giovane Italia Society, organized by Mazzini, was discovered, and a number of its members punished with ruthless severity. On the See also:election in 1846 of See also:Pius IX., who appeared to be a Liberal and an Italian patriot, the eyes of all Italy were turned on him as the See also:heaven-born See also:leader who was to See also:rescue the See also:country from the foreigner. This to some extent reconciled the king to the Liberal movement, for it accorded with his religious views. " I confess," he wrote to the See also:marquis of Villamarina, in 1847, " that a war of See also:national See also:independence which should have for its See also:object the See also:defence of the See also:pope would be the greatest happiness that could befall me." On the 3oth of October he issued a See also:decree granting wide reforms, and when risings See also:broke out in other parts of Italy early in 1848 and further liberties were demanded, he was at last induced to See also:grant the constitution (8th See also:February). When the See also:news of the Milanese revolt against the Austrians reached Turin (19th of March) public See also:opinion demanded that the Piedmontese should succour their struggling See also:brothers; and after some hesitation the king declared war. But much time had been wasted and many See also:precious opportunities lost. With an army of 6o,000 Piedmontese troops and 30,000 men from other parts of Italy the king took the See also:field, and after defeating the Austrians at Pastrengo on the 3oth of April, and at See also:Goito on the 3oth of May, where he was himself slightly wounded, more time was wasted in useless operations.

See also:

Radetzky, the Austrian See also:general, having received reinforcements, drove the centre of the extended Italian See also:line back across the Mincio (23rd of See also:July), and in the two days' fighting at See also:Custozza (24th and 25th of July) the Piedmontese were beaten, forced to See also:retreat, and to ask for an See also:armistice. On re-entering See also:Milan Charles Albert was badly received and reviled as a traitor by the Republicans, and although he declared himself ready to See also:die defending the See also:city the See also:municipality treated with Radetzky for a See also:capitulation; the See also:mob, urged on by the demagogues, made a See also:savage demonstration against him at the Palazzo Greppi, whence he escaped in the See also:night with difficulty and returned to Piedmont with his defeated armp. The French See also:Republic offered to intervene in the See also:spring of 1848, but Charles Albert did not See also:desire See also:foreign aid, the more so as in this See also:case it would have had to be paid for by the cession of See also:Nice and Savoy. The revolutionary movement throughout Italy was breaking down, but Charles Albert See also:felt that while he possessed an army he could not abandon the See also:Lombards and Venetians, and determined to stake all on a last See also:chance. On the 12th of March 1849 he denounced the armistice and took the field again with an army of 8o,000 men, but gave the See also:chief command to the See also:Polish general Chrzanowski. General Ramorino commanding the Lombard See also:division proved unable to prevent the Austrians from See also:crossing the See also:Ticino (20th of April), and Chrzanowski was completely out-generalled and defeated at La Bicocca near See also:Novara on the 23rd . The Piedmont sse fought with See also:great bravery, and the unhappy king sought death in vain. After the See also:battle he asked terms of Radetzky, who demanded the occupation by Austria of a large See also:part of Piedmont and the heir to the throne as a See also:hostage. Thereupon, feeling himself to be the obstacle to better conditions, Charles Albert abdicated in favour of his son Victor Emmanuel. That same night he departed alone and made his way to See also:Oporto, where he retired into a monastery and died on the 28th of July 1849. Charles Albert was not a man of first-See also:rate ability; he was of a hopelessly vacillating See also:character. Devout and mystical to an almost morbid degree, hating revolution and distrusting Liberal-ism, he was a confirmed pessimist, yet he had many See also:noble qualities: he was brave to the See also:verge of foolhardiness, devoted to his country, and ready to See also:risk his See also:crown to See also:free Italy from the foreigner.

To him the people of Italy owe a.great See also:

debt, for if he failed in his object he at least materialized the See also:idea of the Risorgimento in a See also:practical shape, and the charges which the Republicans and demagogues brought against him were monstrously unjust.

End of Article: CHARLES ALBERT [CARLO ALBERTO] (1798-1849)

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