House of Savoy

“ SAVOY, HOUSE OF, a dynasty which ruled over the territory of Savoy and Piedmont for nine centuries, and now reigns over the kingdom of Italy. The name of Savoy was known to the Romans during the decline of the empire. In the 5th century the territory was conquered by the Burgundians, and formed part of their kingdom ”

“ Previously it had been the residence of the rulers of Savoy, and to this luxurious dwelling the princesses of the house invariably came to give birth to the inheritors to the throne. Louise de Savoie, the mother of François Premier, was born here in 1476, and here died Philibert II, Duc de Savoie, in 1504, he whose death gave impetus to the erection of that magnificent mausoleum, the Église de Brou.
Belley, a matter of fifty kilometres further on, is a veritable gateway through which passed the ancient Route de Savoie along which trotted the palfreys and rolled the coaches of Renaissance days. ”

“ The succession of counts reads like any other mediæval genealogy; and their exploits, raids, and sieges viewed from this cold distance have a somewhat monotonous similarity; but survival proves the worth and valour of the stock, and when after long centuries the people of Italy had need of princes, the House of Savoy was the only noble house that had retained power and respect. It is a brilliant example of the truth of [Pg 174] the saying that those who have been faithful over a few things shall be masters over many. ”

“ The Duke of Savoys titles and greatness.This Turin is the Seat of one of the greatest Princes in Italy, the Duke of Savoy, and Prince of Piedmont, who is also treated with the title of Altezza Reale, and Vicario Generale del Imperio in Italia. This house of Savoy which now governs here, came anciently from Siguardo King of Saxony, in the year of Christ 636, and hath conserved it self ever since, that is, for a thousand and odd years in a continual series of Heroical Princes, whose Pedegree was never vitiated nor interrupted by any degenerate Off-spring. ”

“ The outbreak of the first French Revolution again threatened the House of Savoy with destruction. Almost simultaneously, in 1792, the territory of Nice, and the whole of Savoy, were invaded, and occupied by the troops of the Directory; a few years later, Piedmont was incorporated into the French dominions, and Sardinia was all that remained to Charles Emmanuel IV., who, in 1796, succeeded to what he bitterly designated as “a veritable crown of thorns.” ”

“ Express your admiration of the many great men that the house of Savoy has produced; observe, that nature, instead of being exhausted by those efforts, seems to have redoubled them in the persons of the present king, and the Duke of Savoy ”

“ An unjust hatred for the House of Savoy attracted to their standard a large body of patriots, who, aspiring after a democratic independence, hoped to rid themselves of hereditary monarchy and to break with Catholicism, its main ally. ”

“ There are a few nice votive pictures in the church, and one or two very early frescoes, which are not without interest; but the main charm of the place is in the architecture, and the sense at once of age and strength which it produces. The stock things to see are the vaults in which many of the members of the royal house of Savoy, legitimate and illegitimate, lie buried; they need not, however, be seen. ”

“ He unfortunately espoused the cause of Louis, duke of Anjou, and while aiding that prince in his attempt to recover the kingdom of Naples he died of the plague, leaving his realm to his son, Amadeus VII., the Conte Rosso or “Red Count” (1383–1391) ; the latter added Nice (1388) and other territories to his domains. During the reign of Amadeus VIII. (1391–1440) , Savoy prospered in every way. The count extended his territories both in Savoy itself and in Italy, and in 1416 was created duke by the emperor Sigismund. ”

“ Savoy itself was so far favoured as to be allowed to keep its ancient name, and to form the departments of High and Low Savoy, instead of being condemned, as in the former temporary annexation, to bear the names of Leman and Mont Blanc. The Burgundian Counts who have grown into Italian Kings have thus lost the land under whose name their House grew famous. ♦Aosta spared.♦ Aosta alone remains as the last relic of the times when the Savoyard Dukes, the greatest lords of the Middle Kingdom, still kept their place as the truest representatives of the Middle Kingdom itself. ”

“ Open the history of France or Italy where you will, and there is always a duke of Savoy, a prince of Savoy, a king of Piedmont, a king of Sardinia, Philibert or Humbert, Amadeo or Victor — the house is too old for a surname — holding the mountain-gates between the two countries, allying himself with both or either, or betraying either or both, but always, amidst all changes, maintaining a reputation for daring, for adroitness, and for a certain determined persistence, which impressed observers even when the politics of the house became most tortuous, or in appearance vacillating. ”

“ And Harvey's arms and the Leete house ready to receive her.
However, a ray of hope opened for her at the Savoy—not much, a prospect.
The Savoy was crowded. Men in uniform, a sprinkling of anxious-faced wives and daughters, and more than a sprinkling of gaily dressed and painted women, filled the lobby or made their way slowly up and down the staircase. It was all so utterly different from what she had expected—so bright, so full of life. These well-fed people they seemed happy enough. ”

“ The terrible struggle of which we have just spoken began in the first half of the thirteenth century. The 20 house of Savoy finding two powers at Geneva and in Genevois, the bishop and the count, resolved to take advantage of their dissensions to creep both into the province and into the city, and to take their place. It declared first in favour of the bishop against the count, the more powerful of the two, in order to despoil him. Peter of Savoy, Canon of Lausanne, became in 1229, at the age of twenty-six, Provost of the Canons of Geneva ”

“ This last territory had however, though technically Burgundian, geographically more to do with the Italian possessions of the house. ♦Savoy brought into the neighbourhood of France.♦ But this great extension of territory brought Savoy on its western side into closer connexion with the most dangerous of neighbours. Her frontier for a certain distance joined the actual kingdom of France. The rest joined the Dauphiny, which was now practically French, and the county of Provence, which was ruled by French princes and which before the end of the century became an actual French possession. ”

“ He alone of the sons of Thomas I. left male heirs, and his son Amadeus V. (1285–1323) reunited the scattered dominions of his house. When Amadeus succeeded to the throne these were divided into the county of Savoy (his own territory) , the principality of Piedmont ruled by his nephew Philip, prince of Achaea (a title acquired through his wife, Isabella of Villehardouin, heiress of Achaea and the Morea) , and Vaud ruled by his brother Louis. ”

“ Arrived in the lists, he spoke aloud to the assembly; recalling to the memories of all there that the particulars of the Red Count’s death had already been brought before them in the course of a solemn trial, which had in no manner stained his own honour.
“Nobles of Savoy,” he exclaimed, “relatives and vassals of the reigning house, if I have done this deed, why have you left retribution to Gerard of Estavayér? he is a false liar; be it the worse for him as it is well for me.” The young Count of Savoy rose and made the 223 sign of the cross. ”

“ He induced both France and Spain to evacuate the fortresses which they still held in Piedmont, made a profitable exchange of territory with the Bernese, and acquired an extension of seaboard by the purchase of Tenda and Oneglia (see EMMANUEL PHILIBERT of Savoy) . His son and successor, Charles Emmanuel I., surnamed ue!
the Great, strengthened the tendency of Savoy to become less of a French and more of an Italian Power. In 1 588 he wrested Saluzzo from the French, but his expeditions to Provence and Switzerland were unsuccessful. ”

“ By the peace of Aix-la-Chapelle in 1748, following on the defeat of the French, Savoy gained some further accessions of territory in Piedmont. The reign of Charles's son, Victor Amadeus III. (177 3-1 796) , was a period of decadence; the king was incapable and extravagant, and he chose equally incapable ministers. On the outbreak of the French Revolution he sided with the royalists and was eventually brought into conflict with the French republic. The army being demoralized and the treasury empty, the kingdom The fell an easy prey to the republican ~forces. ”

“ The king's marriage in 1236 to Eleanor of Provence was followed by the arrival in England of the new queen's uncles. The "Savoy," as his house in the Strand was named, still recalls Peter of Savoy who arrived five years later to take for a while the chief place at Henry's council-board; another brother, Boniface, was consecrated on Archbishop Edmund's death to the highest post in the realm save the Crown itself, the Archbishoprick of Canterbury. The young Primate, like his brother, brought with him foreign fashions strange enough to English folk. His armed retainers pillaged the markets. ”

“ Its interior was decorated, and its splendid staircase built, by command of Christina, daughter of France and duchess of Savoy. Before her time it was said of this palace that it was a house without a staircase, as now that it is a staircase without a house, the former being far too grand for the apartments to which it leads.
The stables for our horses are less delightful than the inn for ourselves, being dark, ill-kept, and crowded. ”

“ The King of Sardinia happened to be keeping his court at a small town on the southern shores of the lake of Geneva, and the conversion of Madame de Warens to Catholicism by the preaching of the Bishop of Annecy, [40] gave a zest to the royal visit, as being a successful piece of sport in that great spiritual hunt which Savoy loved to pursue at the expense of the reformed church in Switzerland. The king, to mark his zeal for the faith of his house, conferred on [i.50] the new convert a small pension for life ”

“ The war between France and Spain continued to rage, and Savoy, on whose territory much of the fightingitook place, suffered severely in consequence. By the treaty of the Pyrenees (1669) the war came to an end and Savoy regained most of the towns occupied by France. Charles died in 1675 and was succeeded by his only son, Victor Amadeus II. (167 5-1732) . The Amadeus latter's minority was passed under the regency of his " able but imperious mother, Ieanne of Savoy-Nemours. He married Anne of Orleans, daughter of Henrietta of England and niece of Louis XIV. of France. ”

“ The French invaded Piedmont, but were totally defeated at the siege of Turin by Victor Amadeus and Prince Eugene of Savoy (1706) , and eventually driven from the country. By the treaty, of Utrecht (1713) Victor received the long-coveted Montferrat and was made king of Sicily; but in 1718 the powers obliged him to exchange that kingdom for Sardinia, which conferred The km!" on the rulers of Savoy and Piedmont the title subse- g';f ':, ;5a quently borne by them until they assumed that of kings of Italy. ”

“ Now that they had become immediate neighbours of the city, they began before long to be its most dangerous enemies. The acquisition of the Genevois took place in the reign of the famous Amadeus, the Eighth, the first Duke of Savoy, who received that rank by grant of King Siegmund [1417] , and who was afterwards the Anti-pope Felix. See PAPACY: A. D. 1431-1448. In his reign the dominions of Savoy, as a power ruling on both sides of the Alps, reached their greatest extent. But the Savoyard power was still pre-eminently Burgundian, and Chambery was its capital. ”

“ Here and there, too, upon some rocky height which commanded the entrance of the gorges of the mountain, a feudal castle would raise its battlements, gray, and stern, and warlike; and either in the open plain—where such a thing was found—or in the warm valleys in the hills, were seen the villages and small towns of Savoy, with their grayish white walls and their graceful church towers crowning the loveliness of the whole with the aspect of human life. ”

“ As the transition from day to night grew more palpable, the hamlets of Savoy became gray and hazy, the shades thickened around the bases of the mountains in a manner to render their forms indistinct and massive, and the milder glory of the scene was transferred to their summits. Seen by sun-light, these noble heights appear a long range of naked granite, piled on a foundation of chestnut-covered hills, and buttressed by a few such salient spurs as are perhaps necessary to give variety and agreeable shadows to their acclivities. ”

“ It would seem that the air of Savoy—that pure, fine air—suits not your constitution. We must keep you more with us in Paris."
"I have been suffering some anxiety and grief, sire," replied the lady, while the eyes of the Lord of Masseran were bent keenly and fiercely upon her.
"Most sorry am I to hear it," replied the king. "We believed that, in providing for you so noble and high a husband as the Lord of Masseran, we should have moved grief and anxiety from you altogether. We trust that we have not been deceived in this noble lord," continued the king, gazing sternly upon the Savoyard. ”