A History of the House of Savoy: From Its Origins to Its End

In June 1946, Italians voted in a referendum to choose the future institutional form of the state. Around 54 percent decided to replace the monarchy with a republic, thus ending the rule of the House of Savoy in Italy. One of the oldest royal families, the House of Savoy first appeared during the reign of Conrad II, the founder of the Salian dynasty. Initially controlling a small county in the Alps, the members of the Savoy family gradually extended their territorial possessions to encompass large areas of northern Italy. After becoming the ruling house of the Kingdom of Piedmont-Sardinia in the 18th century, the Savoy dynasty played a central role in the movement for Italian unification.

The earliest mention of the House of Savoy dates back to the mid-11th century, when Humbert the Whitehanded, a count in Burgundy, became a prominent figure at the court of Rudolf III. However, the exact origins of the Savoy dynasty’s founder are still unclear. Some suggest he might have been the son of Bérold of Saxony. Others claim he was of Saxon or Provençal descent. Known by the Romans as Sabauda, the county of Savoy was originally inhabited by the Celtic tribe of the Allobroges. It then became part of the province of Gallia Narbonensis. After the fall of the Roman Empire, the area of Savoy was annexed by the Burgundians and was later included in the Holy Roman Empire.

After Rudolf’s death, Humbert pledged his loyalty to his successor, Conrad II. In particular, the Savoy knight played an important part in establishing the emperor’s authority in Burgundy. As the county of Savoy included the strategic area between France and northern Italy, Conrad II, hoping to secure the Alpine passes, rewarded Humbert’s loyalty by assigning him control of the Great St. Bernard Pass and the Simplon Pass. In 1035, the founder of the Savoy dynasty attacked the city of Saint-Jean de Maurienne as retaliation for the local bishop’s refusal to pay homage to the Salic king. In return, Conrad II named Humbert Count of Maurienne. The title was later changed to Count of Savoy.

From Dukes to Kings

In the 15th century, Count Amadeus VIII received the title of duke from emperor Sigismundus (1416). Towards the last period of his life, the first Duke of Savoy became involved in the struggle between the Catholic Church, suffering from the Western Schism, and the French. In 1439, the members of the Council of Basel, opposing Pope Eugenius IV, elected Amadeus as an antipope. He reigned as Pope Felix V for ten following years.

In the 16th century, the dukes of Savoy struggled to maintain the independence of their territories, coveted by the rival European powers. After his father lost the duchy to France and Spain, Emmanuel Philibert Iron-Head managed to regain control of most of Savoy with the Peace of Cateau-Cambrésis, the agreement ending the struggle between Spain and France for establishing their authority in the Italian peninsula. After recovering the duchy, Emmanuel Philibert, who fought alongside the Spanish, moved the capital to Turin, introducing Italian as the official language of his territories.

In the second half of the 17th century, Victor Amadeus II pursued a flexible diplomatic policy to protect the independence of the duchy of Savoy, as the strategic region was once again drawn into the power struggles threatening Europe’s stability. In particular, he had to navigate the rivalry between the Bourbons and the Habsburgs over the succession to the Spanish throne.

After switching his alliances numerous times, in 1703, Victor Amadeus II decided to back the Habsburgs’ claims. In 1713, his diplomatic acumen led him to acquire the title of King of Sicily by the terms of the Treaty of Utrecht. In 1718, however, he had to replace Sicily with Sardinia. Two years later, he became the first member of the house of Savoy to receive the title of king. As the first King of Sardinia, Victor Amadeus II created the basis for the future involvement of the dynasty in the history of Italy.

As the French Revolution upset the existing order in Europe, the Savoy kings supported the advocates of the ancien régime. Victor Amadeus III, for example, actively aided the royalist cause against the French Republic. However, the war efforts ended up draining the economic resources of the Kingdom of Sardinia. In 1796, the Treaty of Paris forced Victor Amadeus III to cede Savoy and Nice to the victorious French.

The following year, his successor, the very religious Charles Emmanuel IV, ordered the violent repression of the republican uprisings that broke out in his kingdom. In 1798, however, as the French troops led by Napoleon Bonaparte quickly conquered northern Italy, the Savoy king lost his territorial possessions. He then fled to Sardinia, one of the two Italian regions that would not become part of the Italian republics and kingdoms established by the French.

In the first decade of the 19th century, as Napoleon renewed his military efforts in the Italian peninsula, Savoy remained in the French sphere of influence. Victor Emmanuel I, who succeeded his brother in 1802, regained control of his kingdom in 1815 when the Congress of Vienna restored the political order upset by the French Revolution and the Napoleonic Wars. After his reinstatement on the throne, Victor Emmanuel systematically abolished the administrative, political, and social reforms introduced by the French. His policy of restoration, however, caused widespread discontent among the liberal upper class and intellectual elite.

In 1821, a conspiracy, initially supported by Charles Albert, the heir apparent to the throne, drove Victor Emmanuel I to abdicate in favor of his brother, Charles Felix. In the absence of the designated successor, Charles Albert became regent of the kingdom, introducing a liberal constitution. However, Charles Felix, assisted by the Austrians, soon regained possession of the throne. An absolute monarch, Charles Felix was the last member of the main Savoy line to rule.

In 1831, Charles Albert succeeded Charles Felix as King of Piedmont-Sardinia. A fierce opponent of the Austrians, the new king belonged to the Carignano branch of the royal dynasty. In 1810, Napoleon Bonaparte had made him a count. Unlike his predecessor, Charles Albert was sympathetic towards the patriotic cause spreading among the liberal elite.

During the French occupation, the ideals of the French Revolution and the liberal reforms led to a general renewal of Italian society. At the same time, a sense of national consciousness began to spread among the inhabitants of the peninsula, united for the first time in centuries in inter-regional states. As the Restoration sought to abolish the changes introduced by the French, secret societies and members of the literary circles advocated for the unification of the Italian peninsula and its independence from foreign control. The subsequent nationalist movement is known as Risorgimento (renewal).

In 1848, as a wave of popular uprising against the reorganization of Europe created in Vienna broke out in many countries, Charles Albert promulgated a liberal constitution, the Statuto Albertino. When, in Milan, the patriots revolted against Austrian rule, the Savoy king seized the opportunity to declare war against Austria-Hungary, a decision partly aimed at preventing the republican and democratic wing from dominating the patriotic movement. While Charles Albert’s troops suffered defeat, he laid the foundations for the future role of the House of Savoy in the movement for Italian unification.

Charles Albert’s successor, Victor Emmanuel II, supported by the diplomatic acumen of Camillo Benso, Count of Cavour, headed the future anti-Austrian military efforts. In 1859, with a famous speech, Victor Emmanuel II officially announced his support for the patriotic cause. “We are … not insensitive to the cries of distress which we hear emanating from so many parts of Italy,” declared the monarch.

The following year, during their meeting at Teano, Giuseppe Garibaldi addressed Victor Emmanuel II as “King of Italy.” In March 1861, the monarch of Piedmont-Sardinia became the first king of the Italian Kingdom.

After establishing the Italian Kingdom, the Statuto Albertino became the new state’s constitution. By the document, the king recognized the role of the parliament and guaranteed civil rights. At the same time, he retained the executive power and the prerogative to appoint and dismiss the state ministers.

At the turn of the 19th century, among economic difficulties, the rising cost of living, and the failure of the First Italo-Ethiopian War, the constitutional government experienced a deep crisis. In May 1898, a strike to protest against the high price of bread in Milan ended in tragedy, with the soldiers led by General Bava Beccaris using artillery and even cannons to suppress the revolt. Hundreds of civilians died.

One month later, King Umberto I decorated General Beccaris “to reward the great service you rendered to our institutions and to civilization, and to attest to my affection and the gratitude of myself and the country.”

In the face of the social upheaval of the last years of the 19th century, the conservative forces attempted to curtail the role of the parliament, declaring that widespread corruption made it unfit to perform its duties. While Umberto I adhered to the terms of the constitution, he also held a more authoritarian notion of his role. In 1882, for example, he had used his prerogatives to arrange a treaty with Germany and Austria-Hungary, the so-called Triple Alliance. In 1898, when social unrest spread throughout the country, Umberto I agreed to declare martial law.

As the king supported the conservatives’ wave of harsh repression and curtailing of civil liberties, Gaetano Bresci, a young Italian anarchist living in Paterson, New Jersey, received the news regarding the bloody event of Milan. After returning to Italy, he shot and killed Umberto I in Monza on July 29, 1900.

In 1900, Victor Emmanuel III succeeded his father to the throne. Unlike Umberto I, the new monarch was a more hesitant ruler. During his reign, Victor Emmanuel III faced two world wars and several periods of political and social instability. However, he rarely intervened in Italian politics.

The most relevant exception to his “neutral” attitude occurred in October 1922. After Benito Mussolini organized his March on Rome on October 24, showing the menacing strength of his Fascist movement, the government hastily contacted the king, who was vacationing in Tuscany. Upon his return to the capital, Victor Emmanuel III initially instructed the Prime Minister, Luigi Facta, to begin drafting the proclamation of martial law. However, he later refused to impose the emergency measure. The real reason behind the king’s decision is still a matter of debate among scholars. Victor Emmanuel III later claimed he sought to avoid the outbreak of a civil war.

While the relationship between the king and the Duce was at times difficult, the cooperation of the monarchy with the fascist regime irremediably compromised the House of Savoy. In July 1943, in the face of an imminent military capitulation, the king, in a surprising move, ordered the arrest of Mussolini, backing the vote of no confidence against the dictator issued by the Grand Council. After the Armistice of Cassibile with the Allies, as the German troops began advancing toward Rome, Victor Emmanuel II and the new government, led by General Pietro Badoglio, made the highly criticized decision to flee from the capital toward the Allied-controlled South.

In the aftermath of World War II, it soon became clear that the monarchy’s support for the fascist regime had disaffected the population. On June 2, 1946, a referendum called on the Italians to decide the future institutional form of the peninsula. In May, to repair the damaged reputation of his dynasty, Victor Emmanuel III had abdicated in favor of his son, Umberto II. While the South expressed their support for the House of Savoy, the Center and North voted in favor of the republic. On June 13, King Umberto II and his wife, Marie-José of Belgium, nicknamed la regina di maggio (the May Queen), left Italy for exile. The Italian constitution subsequently banned all members of the House of Savoy from the peninsula. The ban was lifted only in 2002.