Luigi Villari

“ But he well knew that although Piedmont must be made as efficient as possible from the military point of view, it could not defeat Austria single-handed. He would have preferred an alliance with Great Britain, who would never demand territorial compensation; but although British sympathies were wholly Italian, the government was desperately anxious to avoid war. From Napoleon more was to be hoped, for the emperor still preserved some of his revolutionary instincts, while the insecurity of his situation at home made him eager to gain popularity by winning military glory abroad ”

“ Massimo d’Azeglio was a very attractive personality, as well as an absolutely honest patriot, and a characteristic example of the best type of Piedmontese aristocrat. He was cautious and conservative; in his general ideas on the liberation of Italy he was wrong, and to some extent he was an amateur in politics, but of his sincerity there is no doubt. As an author his political writings are trenchant and clear, but his novels are somewhat heavy and old-fashioned, and are interesting only if one reads the political allusions between the lines. ”

“ Manfredi surrendered in April 1501, on the promise that his life should be spared; but Cesare broke his word, and sent him a prisoner to Rome, where he was afterwards foully outraged and put to death. After taking Castel Bolognese he returned to Rome in June, to take part in the Franco-Spanish intrigues for the partition of Naples. He was now lord of an extensive territory, and the pope created him duke of Romagna. His cruelty, his utter want of scruple, and his good fortune made him a terror to all Italy. ”

“ There he presented himself to the grand master of the Maltese order as Count Cagliostro, and curried favour with him as a fellow alchemist, for the grand master’s tastes lay in the same direction. From him he obtained introductions to the great houses of Rome and Naples, whither he now hastened. At Rome he married a beautiful but unprincipled woman, Lorenza Feliciani, with whom he travelled, under different names, through many parts of Europe. ”

“ Although the new king was obliged to conclude peace with Austria and the Italian revolution was crushed, Cavour nevertheless did not despair; he believed that so long as the constitution was maintained in Piedmont, the Italian cause was safe. There were fresh elections in July, and this time Cavour was returned. He was still in the difficult position of a moderate Liberal at a time when there seemed to be room for none but reactionaries and conspirators, but by his consummate ability he convinced men that his attitude was the right one, and he made it triumph. ”

“ Manfred, too, encountered the hostility of the popes, against whom he had to wage war, generally with success, and of some of the barons whom the papacy encouraged to rebel; and in 1258, on a rumour of Conradin’s death, he was offered and accepted the crown of Naples and Sicily. The rumour proved false, but he retained the crown, promising to leave the kingdom to Conradin at his death and to defend his rights. He now became head of the Ghibellines or Imperialists of Italy, and his position was strengthened by the marriage of his daughter Costanza to Peter, son of King James of Aragon. ”

“ The king, owing to his charm of manner, his handsome face, and his brilliant personality, gained many sympathies, and began to aspire to absolute independence. He gradually became estranged from Napoleon, and although he followed him to Russia and afterwards took part in the German campaign, he secretly opened negotiations with Austria and Great Britain. In January 1814 he signed a treaty with Austria, each power guaranteeing the dominions of the other, while Sicily was to be left to Ferdinand. ”

“ In Hungary, in Germany, in Paris, in Vienna itself the revolution was triumphant; constitutions were granted, dynasties tottered and fell, and provisional governments were set up. In all parts of Italy, too, revolts broke out against the established order. But the Piedmontese army, although the troops behaved with gallantry, was no match for Austria’s veteran legions, and except in a few minor engagements, in one of which Cavour’s nephew Gustavo was killed, it was generally unsuccessful, and an armistice was concluded in the summer. In the meanwhile the elections were being held in Piedmont. ”

“ No definite treaty was signed, but the basis of an agreement was laid, whereby France and Piedmont were to declare war against Austria with the object of expelling her from Italy, and a north Italian state was to be formed; in exchange for this help France was to receive Savoy and possibly Nice. But the emperor still hesitated, and refused to decide on war unless Austria attacked Piedmont; the British government, too, in its anxiety to preserve peace, was not very friendly to the Italian cause. Cavour saw that the only way to overcome all these obstacles was to force Austria’s hand. ”

“ In France, Carbonarism began to take root about 1820, and was more thoroughly organized than in Italy. The example of the Spanish and Italian revolutions incited the French Carbonari, and risings occurred at Belfort, Thouars, La Rochelle and other towns in 1821, which though easily quelled revealed the nature and organization of the movement. The Carbonarist lodges proved active centres of discontent until 1830, when, after contributing to the July revolution of that year, most of their members adhered to Louis Philippe’s government. ”

“ Francesco Novello, his son, resisted bravely, but was compelled to surrender owing to dissensions in Padua itself. He was forced to renounce his dominions, and received a castle near Asti, but he escaped to France, and after a series of romantic adventures succeeded in making peace with Venice, who was becoming alarmed at the restless ambition and treachery of Visconti; in 1390 he raised a small armed force and seized Padua, where he was enthusiastically welcomed by the citizens, and for several years reigned there in peace. ”

“ As a result of this victory Charles was soon master of almost the whole kingdom, and he entered Naples, which now became the capital instead of Palermo. He persecuted the nobles who had sided with Manfred, and established a military despotism which proved more oppressive than that of the Hohenstaufens had ever been. Old laws, customs and immunities were ruthlessly swept away, the people were ground down with taxes, and the highest positions and finest estates conferred on French and Provençal nobles. ”

“ In Sicily the revolutionists were purely insular in their aspirations and bitterly hostile to the Neapolitans, and the attempts at conciliation, although favoured by Lord Minto, failed, for Naples wanted one constitution and one parliament, whereas Sicily wanted two, with only the king in common. The Sicilian assembly met in March 1848, and SettimoSicily. in his inaugural speech declared that the Bourbon dynasty had ceased to reign, that the throne was vacant and that Sicily united her destinies to those of Italy. ”

“ Vittoria was admired and worshipped by all the cleverest and most brilliant men in Rome, and being luxurious and extravagant although poor, she and her husband were soon plunged in debt. Among her most fervent admirers was P. G. Orsini, duke of Bracciano, one of the most powerful men in Rome, and her brother Marcello, wishing to see her the duke’s wife, had Peretti murdered (1581) . The duke himself was suspected of complicity, inasmuch as he was believed to have murdered his first wife, Isabella de’ Medici. ”

“ Austria must first be isolated and then an alliance had to be obtained with some other power. Some of his acts, especially his policy towards the Neapolitan kingdom, have been criticized as politically immoral; but apart from the fact that few revolutions—and Cavour, after all, was a revolutionist—can be conducted without attacking vested rights, it is hard to see that any policy which led to the destruction of a government, rightly described as the “negation of God on earth,” could be deemed immoral. He has been accused of changing his views, but what statesman has not? ”

“ The Venetian government made every effort to have Bianca arrested and brought back, but the grand duke Cosimo de’ Medici intervened in her favour and she was left unmolested. However she did not get on well with her husband’s family, who were very poor and made her do menial work, until at last her beauty attracted Francesco, the grand duke’s son, a vicious and unprincipled rake. Although already married to the virtuous and charming Archduchess Giovanna of Austria, he seduced the fair Venetian and loaded her with jewels, money and other presents. ”

“ Capponi began to take a more active interest in politics, and entered into communication with the Liberals of all parts of Italy. He had discussed the possibility of liberating Italy with Prince Charles Albert of Savoy-Carignano, to whom he had introduced the Milanese revolutionist Count Confalonieri (q. v.) . But the collapse of the rising of 1821 and the imprisonment of Confalonieri made Capponi despair of achieving anything by revolution, and he devoted himself to the economic development of Tuscany and to study. ”

“ In the meanwhile the marriage negotiations were concluded, and during the emperor’s visit to Turin a military convention was signed between the two states, and Savoy and Nice were promised to France as a reward for the expulsion of the Austrians from Italy. But the British government was still unfavourable, and Napoleon, ever hesitating, again sought an excuse for backing out of his engagements; he jumped at the Russian proposal to settle the Italian question by means of his own favourite expedient, a congress. ”

“ He was back in Rome early in 1503, and took part in reducing the last rebel Orsinis. He was gathering troops for a new expedition in central Italy in the summer, when both he and his father were simultaneously seized with fever. The pope died on the 18th of August, while Cesare was still incapacitated, and this unfortunate coincidence proved his ruin; it was the one contingency for which he had not provided. On all sides his enemies rose up against him; in Romagna the deposed princes prepared to regain their own, and the Orsinis raised their heads once more in Rome. ”

“ In any case, Rome must not be touched for the present, since Napoleon was pledged to protect the pope; but as the latter had made large armaments, and his forces, consisting largely of brigands and foreigners under the French general Lamoricière, were in a menacing attitude on the frontier, Cavour decided on the momentous step of annexing the papal states with the exception of the Roman province. ”

“ Here it suffices to say that these issued in the congress of Troppau (October 1820) and the proclamation of the famous Troppau protocol affirming the right of collective “Europe” to interfere to crush dangerous internal revolutions. Both France and Great Britain protested against the general principle laid down in this instrument; but neither of them approved of the Neapolitan revolution, and neither of them was opposed to an intervention in Naples, provided this were carried out, not on the ground of a supposed right of Europe to interfere, but by Austria for Austrian ends. ”

“ The Italian army crossed the frontier from Romagna on the 11th of September, whereupon every power, except Great Britain and Sweden, withdrew its minister from Turin. But the troops advanced and were everywhere received with open arms by the people; Ancona was taken, Lamoricière was defeated and captured at the battle of Castelfidardo, and on the 20th King Victor marched into the Neapolitan kingdom. On the 1st of October Garibaldi defeated the Neapolitan troops on the Volturno, and Gaeta alone, where King Francis of Naples had retired, still held out. ”

“ Francesco changed the traditional policy of his house by quarrelling with the Venetians, in the hope of obtaining more advantages from the Visconti of Milan. When the former were at war with Hungary over Dalmatia in 1356 and asked Carrara to help them, he refused. Their resentment was all the more bitter when at the instance of the pope he mediated between them and Hungary and brought about peace on terms unfavourable to the republic. He received Feltre, Belluno and Cividale from the Hungarian king, but in 1369 a frontier dispute led to war between him and Venice. ”

“ Ferdinand was impatient of Austrian influence, but on the death of his first wife, Cristina of Savoy, he married Maria Theresa of Austria, who encouraged him in his reactionary tendencies and brought him closer to Austria. An outbreak of cholera in 1837 led to disorders in Sicily, which, having assumed a political character, were repressed by Del Caretto with great severity. The government tended to become more and more autocratic and to rely wholly on the all-powerful police, the spies and the priests ”

“ Victor Emmanuel himself wrote to, Garibaldi urging him to abstain from an attack on Naples, but Garibaldi refused to obey, and on the 19th of August he crossed with 4500 men and took Reggio by storm. He was soon joined by the rest of his troops, 15,000 in all, and although the Neapolitan government had 30,000 men in Calabria alone, the army collapsed before Garibaldi’s advance, and the people rose in his favour almost everywhere. Francis offered Garibaldi a large sum of money if he would abstain from advancing farther, and 50,000 men to Garibaldi on the mainland. ”

“ The Invasion of Charles VIII.The French king entered Italy in September 1495, and conquered the Neapolitan kingdom without much difficulty. Alphonso abdicated, his son Ferrandino and his brother Frederick withdrew to Ischia, and only a few towns in Apulia still held out for the Aragonese. But when the pope, the emperor, Spain and Venice, alarmed at Charles’s progress, formed a defensive league against him, he quitted Naples, and Ferrandino, with the help of Ferdinand II. of Spain, was able to reoccupy his dominions. He died much. ”

“ But the Venetians were victorious, and by the peace of Turin Carrara found himself in the status quo ante, but he bought Treviso from Austria, to whom Venice had given it in the day of her trouble. In 1385 the Venetians set the Scala against Carrara, who thereupon allied himself with the treacherous Gian Galeazzo Visconti. The Scala were expelled from Verona, but Carrara and Visconti quarrelled over the division of the spoils. Visconti was determined to capture Padua as well as Verona, and made an alliance with Venice and the house of Este for the purpose. ”

“ The cabinet resigned the next day, but remained in office provisionally, and Cavour privately advised the revolutionists of central Italy to resist the return of the princes, by force if necessary: “for we must now become conspirators ourselves,” he said. His policy was thus continued after he left office, and Palmerston, who had meanwhile succeeded Malmesbury as foreign minister, informed France and Austria that Great Britain would never tolerate their armed intervention in favour of the central Italian despots. ”