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CAMILLE DE CAVOUR

Camille de Cavour (1810-1861)

Philippine de Sales (1762-1849) - daughter of the Marquis Paul-François (1721-1795) - married, in 1781, Joseph Benso Marquis de Cavour. Their son Michel de Cavour (1781-1850) was appointed chamberlain to Prince Camille Borghese, thanks to the benevolence of Emperor Napoleon I. The emperor also entrusted a courtly charge to Philippine by naming her lady-in-waiting to his sister, Princess Pauline, wife of Prince Borghese. The latter was the godfather of the future great statesman, Camille de Cavour, to whom he gave his first name.

Camille de Cavour (1810-1861) was the second son of Michel de Cavour and Adèle de Sellon, grandson of Joseph de Cavour and Philippine de Sales. His elder brother, Gustave (1806-1864) was the sixth Marquis de Cavour. Camille, Count de Cavour, began a military career, then turned to politics after organizing model agriculture on his father's vast estates. First elected to the Parliament of the Kingdom of Sardinia (26 June 1848), under the reign of King Charles-Albert (1798-1831-1849), Cavour became Minister of Agriculture, Trade and the Navy (11 October 1850) before becoming President of the Council of Ministers on 2 November 1852.

A close friend of the King of Sardinia Victor-Emmanuel II of Savoy (1820-1878), who ascended to the throne on 23 March 1849 following the abdication of his father after the defeat of Novara, Camille de Cavour achieved Italian Unity for the benefit of his sovereign with the help of Napoleon III. This led Victor-Emmanuel II to cede the county of Nice and the duchy of Savoy (spring 1860) to the Emperor of the French, among other compensations.

"Old Savoy has lived. The uniformity of Parisian fashion replaced the originality of national customs. The provincial life of yesteryear is now only a memory. We become unremarkable while we were somebody."François Descôtes, lawyer and Savoyard writer (1846-1908).

The ephemeral kingdom of Italy (1861-1946)

On March 17, 1861, Victor-Emmanuel II became the first of the four kings who ruled over unified Italy. On the same day, Cavour addressed a letter to the writer and statesman Massimo d'Azeglio (1798-1866), written in French as was customary at the time, in which the Prime Minister wrote:"From that day on, Italy asserts its own existence in the face of the world". The following day was marked by the solemn opening of the first Italian National Parliament. Although Camille de Cavour witnessed Victor Emmanuel's accession to the Italian throne, his work did not come to an end, as he died on 6 June 1861.

Shortly after Parliament proclaimed the Kingdom of Italy, the Marquis of Azeglio, whom Cavour had succeeded to the presidency of the Council in 1852, coined the famous phrase:"Abiamo fatto l'Italia, ora dobbiamo fare gli italiani!"("We created Italy, now we must create Italians!") The unity of the State was completed with the capture of Rome on September 20, 1870, and the annexation of most of the Pope's States, except for the Vatican. On January 9, 1878, on the death of the king, his son Humbert I (1844-1900) ascended the throne. He could have reigned under the name of Humbert IV, but he broke with his predecessors, wishing to mark the fact that the dynasty of Savoy was now reigning over a new kingdom. This reign was interrupted on 29 July 1900 by the assassination of the king in Monza.

His son Victor-Emmanuel III (1869-1947) succeeded him. A sovereign more interested in his private life than in the actual exercise of power, he was quickly relegated to the role of "official puppet" by the dictator Mussolini. On April 12, 1944, under pressure from the Allies, Victor-Emmanuel III was forced to delegate the general lieutenancy of the kingdom to the heir to the throne, but with effect from the liberation of Rome. The old sovereign, while remaining nominally king of Italy, withdrew from the affairs of state. It was therefore on 4 June 1944, at the time of the liberation of Rome, that the Prince of Piedmont, Humbert of Savoy (1904-1983), assumed the office of Lieutenant General of the Kingdom. Victor-Emmanuel IIl abdicated on 9 May 1946 in favour of his son Humbert.

Humbert II, a fierce opponent of fascism, reigned for only one month, from 9 May to 13 June 1946; he was thus nicknamed "The King of May". The referendum of 2 June 1946, apparently marred by irregularities, gave victory to the republic against the monarchy. At the same time a constituent assembly was elected. On June 10, 1946, the Court of Cassation announced the results of this referendum, but did not proclaim the Republic, postponing the final judgment to a later session, scheduled for June 18, because of claims related to the results.

On 13 June, shortly after midnight, without waiting for the official proclamation of the Republic by the Court of Cassation, the Council of Ministers, in a "coup de main" - described by some historians as a veritable coup d'état - seized power and proclaimed the establishment of a transitional regime, during which the President of the Council, Alcide De Gasperi, was to exercise the functions of Head of State. Italy thus found itself in the presence of two Heads of State: the legitimate King and a provisional President of a republic not yet proclaimed .

The Italian Republic

That same day, in order to avoid bloodshed, as the civil war threatened, Humbert II left Italy for Portugal, without however abdicating: he was convinced that he would return quickly. On the contrary, a year and a half later, a law of exile struck the sovereign and the male descendants of the House of Savoy. As announced, the session of the Court of Cassation to officially proclaim the results of the referendum was held on 18 June 1946 at 6 p.m. in Palazzo Montecitorio (Chamber of Deputies) in Rome.

Guiseppe Pagano, the first president of the highest Italian court, read out the minutes of the final judgment and then announced the results, despite the protests and complaints of the monarchists: 12,717,923 votes in favour of the republic; 10,719,284 in favour of the monarchy; 1,498,136 invalid votes. The republic, established by a coup de force after a legitimately questionable victory at the ballot box, thus offered itself a legal finery a posteriori . Alcide De Gasperi ran it provisionally until 28 June 1946, when Enrico De Nicola was elected as the first President of the Republic, until a Constitution was given to Italy. The Constitution of the Italian Republic, based on the Satuto granted to its subjects by the King of Sardinia, Charles-Albert, was adopted on 22 December 1947 and promulgated on 27 December.

The following day, 28 December 1947, the former King Victor-Emmanuel III died in exile in Alexandria, Egypt. The Constitution came into force on New Year's Day 1948. The first paragraph of Article XIII of the "Transitional and Final Provisions" of this Constitution then stipulated: "The members and descendants of the House of Savoy shall not have the right to vote or to hold public or elective office". The second paragraph stated that: "The former kings of the House of Savoy, their wives and male descendants are prohibited from entering and residing on national territory" These paragraphs 1 and 2 of the 13th provision were repealed, at the initiative of the Berlusconi government, by Constitutional Law No. 1 of 23 October 2002, promulgated by the President of the Italian Republic Carlo Azeglio Ciampi, published in the Gazzetta Ufficiale No. 252 of 26 October 2002, which came into force on 10 November 2002.

However, in return, Prince Victor-Emmanuel of Savoy (1937), son of King Humbert II, and his son Prince Emmanuel-Philibert (1972) undertook to recognise the republican form of the Italian government, to the great displeasure of their cousins, Prince Amédée of Savoy-Aosta (1943), Duke of Aosta, also a pretender to the Italian throne, and his son Prince Aymon of Savoy-Aosta (1967), Duke of Puglia.After 56 years of exile, Prince Victor-Emmanuel of Savoy, accompanied by his wife Marina and their son Prince Emmanuel-Philibert, was able to set foot on Italian soil again. This reunion with Italy took place in the morning of Monday, December 23, 2002, during a brief and above all symbolic journey.

In the afternoon of that same day, the princes were received in audience at the Vatican by His Holiness Pope John Paul II. Humbert II of Savoy, the last king of Italy, died in Geneva on 18 March 1983 at the age of 78; his body now rests in the Royal Abbey of Hautecombe, in Savoy, alongside King Charles-Felix (1821-1831) and the first sovereigns of the White Hand dynasty. His wife Queen Marie-José of Saxe-Cobourg-Gotha (1906-2001) lies in the same tomb. The memory of this monarch remains in the castle of Thorens where he was received by his friend Count Jean-François de Roussy de Sales (1928-1999). In the collective memory, he remains as an upright, good, intelligent and very cultured man; a head of state that the Italians should not have deprived themselves of, according to the historians of the peninsula today...

Text: Gilles Carrier-Dalbion, Guide du Patrimoine des Pays de Savoie. Reproduction of the text, even partial, is forbidden without permission.