Kingdom of Sardinia

Reino de Cerdeña (Spanish) Regno di Sardegna (Italian) Royaume de Sardaigne (French) Rennu de Sardigna (Sardinian)
Kingdom of Sardinia
1239 / 1720-1861
Motto : FERT FERT FERT
Official language	Catalan (before the 17th century in Sardinia) Spanish (until 1760 in Sardinia) Italian (from 1760 in Sardinia, before that in Piedmont and Nice) French
Head of state , also head of government	King of Sardinia
area	73 810 km²
population	7 287 000 (1859)
currency	Sardinian lira
National anthem	Marcia Reale , S'hymnu sardu nationale
Kingdom of Sardinia, 1843

Kingdom of Sardinia ( Spanish : Reino de Cerdeña , Italian : Regno di Sardegna , French : Royaume de Sardaigne , Sardinian : Rennu de Sardigna ) was the name for a kingdom encompassing the island of Sardinia , which existed from the High Middle Ages until 1861 ( titular until 1946). For most of this time, however, "King of Sardinia" was only a title worn by foreign rulers; a united, independent state with a capital on the island never existed.

In 1720, after having been a viceroyalty of Spain for centuries, Sardinia fell to the Duke of Savoy , who then assumed the higher-ranking Sardinian royal title, creating the independent "Kingdom of Sardinia". The real center of the new state and residence of its rulers, however, was Turin in Piedmont , and apart from its role as eponym, the remote and sparsely populated island in the kingdom was of little importance. For this reason, the state is often referred to as Sardinia-Piedmont or Piedmont-Sardinia , but this was never an official name. The Kingdom of Italy emerged from the Kingdom of Sardinia as a result of the Risorgimento in 1861 .

history

Sardinia received its status as a kingdom when Emperor Frederick II proclaimed his illegitimate son Enzio to be "King of Sardinia" in 1239 . After Enzio's capture in 1249, the island was divided between Genoa and Pisa before Genoa managed to conquer the entire territory .

On April 4, 1297, Pope Boniface VIII transferred the island as a fief to King James II of Aragón , who was only able to finally occupy it in 1323 after battles with Genoa and Pisa.

In 1383, however, the Arborea judiciary succeeded in driving out the Aragonese and conquering almost the entire island. Only after the death of Eleonora di Arborea was Aragon able to gain a foothold in Sardinia again and bring the area under his control again by 1409. Aragon renewed the Sardinian imperial status in 1420 and administered it as a viceroyalty. After the unification of Spain, the empire was then a subsidiary of the Spanish crown, including under Emperor Charles V.

In the course of the War of the Spanish Succession , the island was ceded to Austria in 1714, but in 1720 it was given to the House of Savoy in exchange for Sicily . The Duke of Savoy then accepted the higher ranking Sardinian king title, which resulted in the independent "Kingdom of Sardinia".

As a result of the French Revolution, the kingdom temporarily lost its holdings on the mainland, above all Piedmont, where the autonomous Piedmontese republic was established in 1799 and which was annexed by France in 1802. After the fall of Napoléon Bonaparte , the “Kingdom of Sardinia-Piedmont” was re-established at the Congress of Vienna . After a period of restoration, under the pressure of the March Revolution , the state became a liberal constitutional monarchy and finally played a decisive role in the Italian Wars of Unification , with the Piedmontese rulers under Prime Minister Camillo Benso von Cavour at the head of the Italian national movement, the Risorgimento , posed. The kingdom then comprised the present-day Italian regions of Piedmont including the Aosta Valley and Liguria as well as Savoy and the county of Nice . Piedmont-Sardinia therefore took part in the Crimean War against Russia on the side of the alliance between France and Great Britain created to support the Ottoman Empire . This makes it won the support of France and later Prussia , thereafter in the Sardinian war politically weakened by the Crimean War Austria at the Battle of Solferino in almost all northern Italy to expel. This paved the way for Italian unification, and Victor Emanuel II of Sardinia was crowned the first king of unified Italy in 1861.

The Kingdom of Sardinia was thus integrated into the new Kingdom of Italy . Turin became the capital of Italy for four years before moving to Florence and finally to Rome in 1871 .

See also

• List of rulers of Sardinia
• History of Sardinia
• List of Viceroys of Sardinia

Web links

Commons : Kingdom of Sardinia  - Collection of pictures, videos and audio files