123-463: Timeline The unification of Italy ( Italian : Unità d'Italia , Italian: [uniˈta ddiˈtaːlja] ), also known as the Risorgimento ( / r ɪ ˌ s ɔːr dʒ ɪ ˈ m ɛ n t oʊ / , Italian: [risordʒiˈmento] ; lit. ' Resurgence ' ), was the 19th century political and social movement that in 1861 ended in the annexation of various states of
246-631: A Constitution, which influenced the development of a similar movement in Italy. Inspired by the Spaniards, a regiment in the army of the Kingdom of Two Sicilies , commanded by Guglielmo Pepe , a Carbonaro (member of the secret republican organization), mutinied, conquering the peninsular part of Two Sicilies. The king, Ferdinand I , agreed to enact a new constitution. The revolutionaries, although, failed to court popular support and fell to Austrian troops of
369-679: A campaign of conquest in Western Frisia ( Frisia Citerior ) and defeated the Frisian king Radbod near Dorestad , an important trading centre. All the land between the Scheldt and the Vlie was incorporated into Francia. Then, circa 690, Pepin attacked central Frisia and took Utrecht . In 695 Pepin could even sponsor the foundation of the Archdiocese of Utrecht and the beginning of
492-600: A central theme of the foundational legacy of the Risorgimento as the narrative of the Italian nation fighting for independence. The exiles were deeply immersed in European ideas, and often hammered away at what Europeans saw as Italian vices, especially effeminacy and indolence. These negative stereotypes emerged from Enlightenment notions of national character that stressed the influence of the environment and history on
615-746: A constitution to the Papal States, which was both unexpected and surprising considering the historical recalcitrance of the Papacy. On 23 February 1848, King Louis Philippe of France was forced to flee Paris , and the Second French Republic was proclaimed. By the time the revolution in Paris occurred, three states of Italy had constitutions—four if one considers Sicily to be a separate state. Meanwhile, in Lombardy, tensions increased until
738-613: A long time experienced a privileged status but was not converted into a province . Under Augustus , the previous differences in municipal and political rights were abolished and Roman Italy was subdivided into administrative regions ruled directly by the Roman Senate. After the fall of the Western Roman Empire , Italy remained united under the Ostrogothic Kingdom and after 568 was disputed between
861-842: A major part in the struggle for unification and liberation from foreign domination included King Victor Emmanuel II of Italy , Camillo Benso, Count of Cavour , Giuseppe Garibaldi , and Giuseppe Mazzini . Borrowing from the old Latin title Pater Patriae of the Roman emperors , the Italians gave to King Victor Emmanuel II the epithet of Father of the Fatherland ( Italian : Padre della Patria ). Even after 1871, many ethnic Italian-speakers ( Trentino-Alto Adigan Italians, Savoyard Italians , Corfiot Italians , Niçard Italians , Swiss Italians , Corsican Italians , Maltese Italians , Istrian Italians and Dalmatian Italians ) remained outside
984-546: A native of Nice (then part of Piedmont ), participated in an uprising in Piedmont in 1834 and was sentenced to death. He escaped to South America, although, spending fourteen years in exile, taking part in several wars, and learning the art of guerrilla warfare before his return to Italy in 1848. Many of the key intellectual and political leaders operated from exile; most Risorgimento patriots lived and published their work abroad after successive failed revolutions. Exile became
1107-444: A people's moral predisposition. Italian exiles both challenged and embraced the stereotypes and typically presented gendered interpretations of Italy's political "degeneration". They called for a masculine response to feminine weaknesses as the basis of national regeneration and fashioned their image of the future Italian nation firmly in the standards of European nationalism. In 1820, liberal Spaniards successfully revolted , demanding
1230-824: A political rally held in the Apollo Theater, a young Roman priest, the Abbé Carlo Arduini , had made a speech in which he had declared that the Temporal power of the Holy See was a "historical lie, a political imposture, and a religious immorality". In early March 1849, Giuseppe Mazzini arrived in Rome and was appointed Chief Minister. In the Constitution of the Roman Republic, religious freedom
1353-473: A program for establishing a free, independent, and republican nation with Rome as its capital. Following his release in 1831, he went to Marseille in France, where he organized a new political society called La Giovine Italia (Young Italy) , whose mottos were " Dio e Popolo " ('God and People') and " Unione, Forza e Libertà " ('Union, Strength and Freedom"), which sought the unification of Italy. Garibaldi,
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#17327728790141476-404: A reformer, but conflicts with the revolutionaries soured him on the idea of constitutional government. In November 1848, following the assassination of his Minister Pellegrino Rossi , Pius IX fled just before Giuseppe Garibaldi and other patriots arrived in Rome. In early 1849, elections were held for a Constituent Assembly, which proclaimed a Roman Republic on 9 February. On 2 February 1849, at
1599-408: A short fight, the whole band was taken prisoner and escorted to Cosenza, where a number of Calabrians who had taken part in a previous rising were also under arrest. The Bandiera brothers and their nine companions were executed by firing squad; some accounts state they cried " Viva l'Italia! " ('Long live Italy!') as they fell. The moral effect was enormous throughout Italy, the action of the authorities
1722-575: A significant part of what is now western and southern Germany. It was by building upon the basis of these Merovingian deeds that the subsequent Carolingian dynasty— through the nearly continuous campaigns of Pepin of Herstal , his son Charles Martel , grandson Pepin the Short , great-grandson Charlemagne , and great-great-grandson Louis the Pious — secured the greatest expansion of the Frankish empire by
1845-592: A system of city-states . Southern Italy was governed by the long-lasting Kingdom of Sicily or Kingdom of Naples , which had been established by the Normans. Central Italy was governed by the pope as a temporal kingdom known as the Papal States . This situation persisted through the Renaissance but began to deteriorate with the rise of modern nation-states in the early modern period . Italy, including
1968-559: A willingness to give the French whatever they wanted in return for essential military intervention. As a result of this France received Nice and Savoy in 1860. Secondly, the patriots realized that the pope was an enemy, and could never be the leader of a united Italy. Thirdly, they realized that republicanism was too weak a force. Unification had to be based on a strong monarchy, and in practice that meant reliance on Piedmont (the Kingdom of Sardinia ) under King Victor Emmanuel II (1820–1878) of
2091-466: A young man, had fought on their side) to death for failing to unite Italy, and the group almost succeeded in assassinating him in 1858, when Felice Orsini , Giovanni Andrea Pieri , Carlo Di Rudio and Andrea Gomez threw three bombs at him. Many leaders of the unification movement were at one time or other members of this organization. The chief purpose was to defeat tyranny and to establish constitutional government. Although contributing some service to
2214-470: Is founding making royal judgements against the interests of his supposed masters, the Arnulfings. When Pepin died in 714, however, the Frankish realm plunged into civil war and the dukes of the outlying provinces became de facto independent. Pepin's appointed successor, Theudoald , under his widow, Plectrude , initially opposed an attempt by the king, Dagobert III , to appoint Ragenfrid as mayor of
2337-465: Is securely dated to 507. One year after this battle, Clovis made Paris his capital, and in the Christmas Day of the same year he converted to Catholicism , and some time later he orchestrated the murders of Frankish kings Sigobert and Ragnachar , uniting all Franks under his rule. The sole source for this early period is Gregory of Tours , who wrote around the year 590. His chronology for
2460-489: The plebs abandoned Rome for the nearby Monte Sacro . Marius was elected consul for the first of three years in a row. Civil wars would follow with the first breaking out in 238, another in 249 followed by a third in 253. From 235 through 284 the average reign of a Roman Emperor was just 18 months, down from average just over 9 years during the first centuries of the Empire. Frankish Empire The Kingdom of
2583-692: The Alemanni ( Battle of Tolbiac in 496) and established Frankish hegemony over them. Clovis defeated the Visigoths ( Battle of Vouillé in 507) and conquered all of their territory north of the Pyrenees save Septimania , and conquered the Bretons (according to Gregory of Tours ) and made them vassals of the Franks. He also incorporated the various Roman military settlements ( laeti ) scattered over Gaul:
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#17327728790142706-478: The Auvergne , and eastern Aquitaine were assigned to the third son, Sigebert I , who also inherited Austrasia with its chief cities of Reims and Metz . The smallest kingdom was that of Soissons, which went to the youngest son, Chilperic I . The kingdom Chilperic ruled at his death (584) became the nucleus of later Neustria . This second fourfold division was quickly ruined by fratricidal wars, waged largely over
2829-576: The Battle of Wogastisburg in 631, made all the far eastern peoples subject to the court of Neustria and not of Austrasia. This, first and foremost, incited the Austrasians to request a king of their own from the royal household. The subkingdom of Aquitaine corresponded to the southern half of the old Roman province of Aquitania and its capital was at Toulouse . The other cities of his kingdom were Cahors , Agen , Périgueux , Bordeaux , and Saintes ;
2952-563: The Capetian dynasty , becoming the Kingdom of France , while East Francia and Lotharingia came under the control of the non-Frankish Ottonian dynasty , becoming the Kingdom of Germany , which would conquer Burgundy and Italy to then form the medieval Holy Roman Empire . Competing French and German nationalisms in later centuries would claim succession from Charlemagne and the original kingdom, but nowadays both have become seen by many as Pan-European symbols. The term "Franks" emerged in
3075-468: The Dentelin , but they then fell foul of each other and the remainder of their time on the thrones was spent in infighting, often incited by their grandmother Brunhilda, who, angered over her expulsion from Theudebert's court, convinced Theuderic to unseat him and kill him. In 612 he did and the whole realm of his father Childebert was once again ruled by one man. This was short-lived, however, as he died on
3198-602: The Gothic War on the side of the Gepids and Lombards against the Ostrogoths , receiving the provinces of Raetia , Noricum , and part of Veneto . His son and successor, Theudebald , was unable to retain them and on his death all of his vast kingdom passed to Chlothar, under whom, with the death of Childebert in 558, the entire Frankish realm was reunited under the rule of one king. In 561 Chlothar died and his realm
3321-612: The Holy Alliance . Di Santarosa's troops were defeated, and the would-be Piedmontese revolutionary fled to Paris . In Milan , Silvio Pellico and Pietro Maroncelli organized several attempts to weaken the hold of the Austrian despotism by indirect educational means. In October 1820, Pellico and Maroncelli were arrested on the charge of carbonarism and imprisoned. Denis Mack Smith argues: Few people in 1830 believed that an Italian nation might exist. There were eight states in
3444-568: The Holy Alliance . Ferdinand abolished the constitution and began systematically persecuting known revolutionaries. Many supporters of revolution in Sicily , including the scholar Michele Amari , were forced into exile during the decades that followed. The leader of the 1821 revolutionary movement in Piedmont was Santorre di Santarosa , who wanted to remove the Austrians and unify Italy under
3567-559: The House of Savoy . Camillo Benso, Count of Cavour (1810–1861) provided critical leadership. He was a modernizer interested in agrarian improvements, banks, railways and free trade. He opened a newspaper as soon as censorship allowed it: Il Risorgimento called for the independence of Italy, a league of Italian princes, and moderate reforms. He had the ear of the king and in 1852 became prime minister. He ran an efficient active government, promoting rapid economic modernization while upgrading
3690-551: The House of Savoy . The Piedmont revolt started in Alessandria , where troops adopted the green, white, and red tricolore of the Cisalpine Republic . King Victor Emmanuel I abdicated in response, and the regent for the new king, Prince Charles Albert , approved a new constitution to appease the revolutionaries, but when King Charles Felix returned he disavowed the constitution and requested assistance from
3813-679: The Italian Peninsula and its outlying isles to the Kingdom of Sardinia , resulting in the creation of the Kingdom of Italy . Inspired by the rebellions in the 1820s and 1830s against the outcome of the Congress of Vienna , the unification process was precipitated by the Revolutions of 1848 , and reached completion in 1871 after the capture of Rome and its designation as the capital of the Kingdom of Italy. Individuals who played
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3936-489: The Kingdom of Lombardy–Venetia and indirectly the duchies of Parma , Modena and Tuscany . With the fall of Napoleon and the restoration of the absolutist monarchical regimes , the Italian tricolour went underground, becoming the symbol of the patriotic ferments that began to spread in Italy and the symbol which united all the efforts of the Italian people towards freedom and independence. The Italian tricolour waved for
4059-705: The Kingdom of Sicily with Ruggero Settimo as chairman of the independent state until 1849, when the Bourbon army took back full control of the island on 15 May 1849 by force. In February 1848, there were revolts in Tuscany that were relatively nonviolent, after which Grand Duke Leopold II granted the Tuscans a constitution. A breakaway republican provisional government formed in Tuscany during February shortly after this concession. On 21 February, Pope Pius IX granted
4182-605: The Kingdom of the Lombards and the Byzantine (Eastern Roman) Empire , losing its unity for centuries. Following conquest by the Frankish Empire , the title of King of Italy merged with the office of Holy Roman Emperor ; however, the emperor was an absentee German -speaking foreigner who had little interest in governing Italy and indeed never controlled the entire peninsula. As a result, Italy gradually developed into
4305-604: The Republic of San Marco was proclaimed under Daniele Manin . While Radetzky consolidated control of Lombardy–Venetia and Charles Albert licked his wounds, matters took a more serious turn in other parts of Italy. The monarchs who had reluctantly agreed to constitutions in March came into conflict with their constitutional ministers. At first, the republics had the upper hand, forcing the monarchs to flee their capitals, including Pope Pius IX. Initially, Pius IX had been something of
4428-614: The Somme river . Though Sidonius Apollinaris relates that Flavius Aetius defeated a wedding party of his people (c. 431), this period marks the beginning of a situation that would endure for many centuries: the Germanic Franks ruled over an increasing number of Gallo-Roman subjects . The Merovingians , believed by some in the latter half of the 6th century to be relatives of Chlodio as reported by Gregory of Tours (although, he himself did not share this belief), arose from within
4551-463: The Thuringii (532), Burgundes (534), and Saxons and Frisians (c. 560) were incorporated into the Frankish kingdom. The outlying trans-Rhenish tribes were loosely attached to Frankish sovereignty, and though they could be forced to contribute to Frankish military efforts, in times of weak kings they were uncontrollable and liable to attempt independence. The Romanised Burgundian kingdom, however,
4674-589: The Treaty of Rapallo in 1920. Some historians see the Risorgimento as continuing to that time, which is the view presented at the Central Museum of the Risorgimento at Altare della Patria in Rome. Italy was unified by the Roman Republic in the latter part of the third century BC. For 700 years, it was a de facto territorial extension of the capital of the Roman Republic and Empire , and for
4797-545: The campaigns of the French Revolutionaries in 1792–97 when a series of client republics were set up. In 1806, the Holy Roman Empire was dissolved by the last Roman-German Emperor , Francis II , after its defeat by Napoleon at the Battle of Austerlitz . French rule destroyed the old structures of feudalism in Italy and introduced modern ideas and efficient legal authority; it provided much of
4920-633: The "ancient valour in Italian hearts is not yet dead" in Italia Mia . Machiavelli later quoted four verses from Italia Mia in The Prince , which looked forward to a political leader who would unite Italy "to free her from the barbarians ". The Italian Wars saw 65 years of French attacks on some of the Italian states, starting with Charles VIII's invasion of Naples in 1494. However, the Peace of Cateau-Cambrésis (1559) saw parts of Italy fall under
5043-724: The 3rd century AD as a term for several Germanic tribes who settled on the northern Rhine frontier of the Roman Empire , including the Bructeri , Ampsivarii , Chamavi , Chattuarii and Salians . While all of them had a tradition of participating in the Roman military, the Salians were allowed to settle within the Roman Empire. In 358, having already been living in the civitas of Batavia for some time, Emperor Julian defeated
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5166-474: The Alemanni were, for the time being, restored to the Frankish fold. However, in southern Gaul, which was not under Arnulfing influence, the regions were pulling away from the royal court under leaders such as Savaric of Auxerre , Antenor of Provence , and Odo of Aquitaine . The reigns of Clovis IV and Childebert III from 691 until 711 have all the hallmarks of those of rois fainéants , though Childebert
5289-526: The Austrasian who had installed Dagobert II , Sigebert III's son, in their kingdom (briefly in opposition to Clovis III ). In 687 he was defeated by Pepin of Herstal , the Arnulfing mayor of Austrasia and the real power in that kingdom, at the Battle of Tertry and was forced to accept Pepin as sole mayor and dux et princeps Francorum : " Duke and Prince of the Franks ", a title which signifies, to
5412-432: The Austrasians demanded a king of their own again and Chlothar installed his younger brother Childeric II . During Chlothar's reign, the Franks had made an attack on northwestern Italy, but were driven off by Grimoald, King of the Lombards , near Rivoli . In 673, Chlothar III died and some Neustrian and Burgundian magnates invited Childeric to become king of the whole realm, but he soon upset some Neustrian magnates and he
5535-552: The Austrasians, who had been seen as a distinct people within the realm since the time of Gregory of Tours, who were to make the most strident moves for independence. The young Sigebert was dominated during his minority by the mayor, Grimoald the Elder , who convinced the childless king to adopt his own Merovingian-named son Childebert as his son and heir. After Dagobert's death in 639, the duke of Thuringia , Radulf , rebelled and tried to make himself king. He defeated Sigebert in what
5658-663: The Austrian troops. Menotti was executed, and the idea of a revolution centred in Modena faded. At the same time, other insurrections arose in the Papal Legations of Bologna , Ferrara , Ravenna , Forlì , Ancona and Perugia . These successful revolutions, which adopted the tricolore in place of the Papal flag , quickly spread to cover all the Papal Legations, and their newly installed local governments proclaimed
5781-433: The Austrians besieged Venice, which was defended by a volunteer army led by Daniele Manin and Guglielmo Pepe , who were forced to surrender on 24 August. Pro-independence fighters were hanged en masse in Belfiore , while the Austrians moved to restore order in central Italy, restoring the princes who had been expelled and re-establishing Papal control over the Legations. The revolutions were thus completely crushed. Morale
5904-454: The Austrians retreated. Timeline of Italian history Timeline This is a timeline of Italian history , comprising important legal and territorial changes and political events in Italy and its predecessor states, including Ancient Rome and Prehistoric Italy . Date of the prehistoric era are approximate. For further background, see history of Italy and list of prime ministers of Italy . Lucius Sicinius Vellutus ,
6027-476: The Austrians ten days later. There remained the Roman and Venetian Republics. In April, a French force under Charles Oudinot was sent to Rome. Apparently, the French first wished to mediate between the pope and his subjects, but soon the French were determined to restore the pope. After a two-month siege, Rome capitulated on 29 June 1849 and the pope was restored. Garibaldi and Mazzini once again fled into exile—in 1850 Garibaldi went to New York City . Meanwhile,
6150-453: The Bourbon Kingdom of the Two Sicilies, with its 8 million inhabitants, seemed aloof and indifferent: Sicily and Naples had once been ruled by Spain, and it had always been foreign to the rest of Italy. The common people in each region, and even the intellectual elite, spoke their mutually unintelligible dialects, and lacked the least vestiges of national consciousness. They wanted good government, not self-government, and had welcomed Napoleon and
6273-436: The Chamavi and Salians, allowing the latter to settle further away from the border, in Toxandria . Some of the early Frankish leaders, such as Flavius Bauto and Arbogast , were committed to the cause of the Romans, but other Frankish rulers, such as Mallobaudes , were active on Roman soil for other reasons. After the fall of Arbogastes, his son Arigius succeeded in establishing a hereditary countship at Trier and after
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#17327728790146396-413: The Frankish kingdom later came to be known as Austrasia (the "eastern lands"), while the large Romanised Frankish kingdom in the west came to be known as Neustria . Chlodio's successors are obscure figures, but what can be certain is that Childeric I , possibly his grandson, ruled a Salian kingdom from Tournai as a foederatus of the Romans. Childeric is chiefly important to history for bequeathing
6519-429: The Franks ( Latin : Regnum Francorum ), also known as the Frankish Kingdom , the Frankish Empire (Latin: Imperium Francorum ) or Francia , was the largest post-Roman barbarian kingdom in Western Europe . It was ruled by the Frankish Merovingian and Carolingian dynasties during the Early Middle Ages . Francia was among the last surviving Germanic kingdoms from the Migration Period era. Originally,
6642-423: The Franks to his son Clovis , who began an effort to extend his authority over the other Frankish tribes and to expand their territorium south and west into Gaul . Clovis converted to Christianity and put himself on good terms with the powerful Church and with his Gallo-Roman subjects. In a thirty-year reign (481–511) Clovis defeated the Roman general Syagrius and conquered the Kingdom of Soissons , defeated
6765-565: The French as more equitable and efficient than their native dynasties, many of which had died out in the 18th century. After 1830, revolutionary sentiment in favour of a unified Italy began to experience a resurgence, and a series of insurrections laid the groundwork for the creation of one nation along the Italian peninsula. The Duke of Modena , Francis IV , was an ambitious man, and he hoped to become king of northern Italy by increasing his territory. In 1826, Francis made it clear that he would not act against those who subverted opposition toward
6888-457: The Gallo-Roman military, with Childeric and his son Clovis being called "King of the Franks" in the Gallo-Roman military, even before having any Frankish territorial kingdom. Once Clovis defeated his Roman competitor for power in northern Gaul, Syagrius , he turned to the kings of the Franks to the north and east, as well as other post-Roman kingdoms already existing in Gaul: Visigoths , Burgundians , and Alemanni . The original core territory of
7011-496: The Italian Risorgimento shortly after his death. Meanwhile, artistic and literary sentiment also turned towards nationalism; Vittorio Alfieri , Francesco Lomonaco and Niccolò Tommaseo are generally considered three great literary precursors of Italian nationalism , but the most famous proto-nationalist work was Alessandro Manzoni 's I promessi sposi (The Betrothed) , widely read as thinly veiled allegorical criticism of Austrian rule. Published in 1827 and extensively revised in
7134-426: The Italians . Pope Pius IX at first appeared interested but he turned reactionary and led the battle against liberalism and nationalism. Giuseppe Mazzini and Carlo Cattaneo wanted the unification of Italy under a federal republic , which proved too extreme for most nationalists. The middle position was proposed by Cesare Balbo (1789–1853) as a confederation of separate Italian states led by Piedmont . One of
7257-462: The King of Sardinia (who ruled Piedmont and Savoy ), urged by the Venetians and Milanese to aid their cause, decided this was the moment to unify Italy and declared war on Austria ( First Italian Independence War ). After initial successes at Goito and Peschiera , he was decisively defeated by Radetzky at the Battle of Custoza on 24 July. An armistice was agreed to, and Radetzky regained control of all of Lombardy–Venetia save Venice itself, where
7380-453: The Milanese and Venetians rose in revolt on 18 March 1848. The insurrection in Milan succeeded in expelling the Austrian garrison after five days of street fights—18–22 March ( Cinque giornate di Milano ). An Austrian army under Marshal Josef Radetzky besieged Milan, but due to the defection of many of his troops and the support of the Milanese for the revolt, they were forced to retreat to the Quadrilatero fortresses. Soon, Charles Albert ,
7503-463: The Napoleonic era , in 1797, the first official adoption of the Italian tricolour as a national flag by a sovereign Italian state, the Cispadane Republic , a Napoleonic sister republic of Revolutionary France , took place, on the basis of the events following the French Revolution (1789–1799) which, among its ideals, advocated the national self-determination . This event is celebrated by the Tricolour Day . The Italian national colours appeared for
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#17327728790147626-496: The Papal States, then became the site of proxy wars between the major powers, notably the Holy Roman Empire (including Austria ), Spain , and France . Harbingers of national unity appeared in the treaty of the Italic League , in 1454, and the 15th century foreign policy of Cosimo de' Medici and Lorenzo de' Medici . Leading Renaissance Italian writers Dante , Petrarch , Boccaccio , Machiavelli and Guicciardini expressed opposition to foreign domination. Petrarch stated that
7749-425: The Sardinian Prime Minister Count Cavour found an ally in Napoleon III . Napoleon III signed a secret alliance and Cavour provoked Austria with military maneuvers and eventually led to the war in April 1859. Cavour called for volunteers to enlist in the Italian liberation. The Austrians planned to use their army to beat the Sardinians before the French could come to their aid. Austria had an army of 140,000 men, while
7872-401: The Sardinians had a mere 70,000 men by comparison. However, the Austrians' numerical strength was outweighed by an ineffectual leadership appointed by the Emperor on the basis of noble lineage, rather than military competency. Their army was slow to enter Piedmont, taking almost ten days to travel the 80 kilometres (50 mi) to Turin . By this time, the French had reinforced the Sardinians, so
7995-487: The Saxons again, and in 724 he defeated Ragenfrid and the rebellious Neustrians, ending the civil war phase of his rule. In 720, when Chilperic II died, he had appointed Theuderic IV king, but this last was a mere puppet of his. In 724 he forced his choice of Hugbert for the ducal succession upon the Bavarians and forced the Alemanni to assist him in his campaigns in Bavaria (725 and 726), where laws were promulgated in Theuderic's name. In 730 Alemannia had to be subjugated by
8118-417: The Saxons of Bessin , the Britons and the Alans of Armorica and Loire valley or the Taifals of Poitou to name a few prominent ones. By the end of his life, Clovis ruled all of Gaul save the Gothic province of Septimania and the Burgundian kingdom in the southeast. The exact date on which Clovis became "king of all Franks" is not known, but it happened sometime after the Battle of Vouillé , which
8241-452: The Spanish Bourbons until the end of the War of the Austrian Succession . A sense of Italian national identity was reflected in Gian Rinaldo Carli 's Della Patria degli Italiani , written in 1764. It told how a stranger entered a café in Milan and puzzled its occupants by saying that he was neither a foreigner nor a Milanese. " 'Then what are you?' they asked. 'I am an Italian', he explained." The Habsburg rule in Italy came to an end with
8364-424: The Two Sicilies . His small force landed on the island of Ponza . It overpowered guards and liberated hundreds of prisoners. In sharp contrast to his hypothetical expectations, there was no local uprising and the invaders were quickly overpowered. Pisacane was killed by angry locals who suspected he was leading a Romani band trying to steal their food. The Second War of Italian Independence began in April 1859 when
8487-420: The Visigoths in 612. On the opposite end of his realm, the Alemanni had defeated Theuderic in a rebellion and the Franks were losing their hold on the trans-Rhenish tribes. In 610 Theudebert had extorted the Duchy of Alsace from Theuderic, beginning a long period of conflict over which kingdom was to have the region of Alsace, Burgundy or Austrasia, which was only terminated in the late seventh century. During
8610-413: The administration of the army and the financial and legal systems. He sought out support from patriots across Italy. In 1855, the kingdom became an ally of Britain and France in the Crimean War , which gave Cavour's diplomacy legitimacy in the eyes of the great powers. In 1857, Carlo Pisacane , an aristocrat from Naples who had embraced Mazzini's ideas, decided to provoke a rising in the Kingdom of
8733-579: The ancient Germanic practice of electing a war-leader at an assembly of the warriors. At the death of Clovis, his kingdom was divided territorially by his four adult sons in such a way that each son was granted a comparable portion of fiscal land , which was probably land once part of the Roman fisc, now seized by the Frankish government. Clovis's sons made their capitals near the Frankish heartland in northeastern Gaul. Theuderic I made his capital at Reims , Chlodomer at Orléans , Childebert I at Paris , and Chlothar I at Soissons . During their reigns,
8856-449: The assassinated Sigebert (575). Together the territory of Guntram and Childebert was well over thrice as large as the small realm of Chilperic's successor, Chlothar II . During this period Francia took on the tripartite character it was to have throughout the rest of its history, being composed of Neustria, Austrasia, and Burgundy. When Guntram died in 592, Burgundy went to Childebert in its entirety, but he died in 595. His two sons divided
8979-599: The author of the Liber Historiae Francorum , the beginning of Pepin's "reign". Thereafter the Merovingian monarchs showed only sporadically, in our surviving records, any activities of a non-symbolic and self-willed nature. During the period of confusion in the 670s and 680s, attempts had been made to re-assert Frankish suzerainty over the Frisians, but to no avail. In 689, however, Pepin launched
9102-460: The borders of the Kingdom of Italy, planting the seeds of Italian irredentism . Italy celebrates the anniversary of the unification on 17 March (the date of proclamation of the Kingdom of Italy ). Some of the states that had been envisaged as part of the unification process ( terre irredente ) did not join the Kingdom until after Italy defeated Austria-Hungary in World War I , culminating in
9225-508: The brief minority of Sigebert II, the office of the Mayor of the Palace , which had for sometime been visible in the kingdoms of the Franks, came to the fore in its internal politics, with a faction of nobles coalescing around the persons of Warnachar II , Rado , and Pepin of Landen , to give the kingdom over to Chlothar in order to remove Brunhilda, the young king's regent, from power. Warnachar
9348-477: The cause of Italian unity, historians such as Cornelia Shiver doubt that their achievements were proportional to their pretensions. Many leading Carbonari revolutionaries wanted a republic, two of the most prominent being Giuseppe Mazzini and Giuseppe Garibaldi . Mazzini's activity in revolutionary movements caused him to be imprisoned soon after he joined. While in prison, he concluded that Italy could − and therefore should − be unified, and he formulated
9471-518: The conversion of the Frisians under Willibrord . However, Eastern Frisia ( Frisia Ulterior ) remained outside of Frankish suzerainty. Having achieved great successes against the Frisians, Pepin turned towards the Alemanni. In 709 he launched a war against Willehari , duke of the Ortenau , probably in an effort to force the succession of the young sons of the deceased Gotfrid on the ducal throne. This outside interference led to another war in 712 and
9594-475: The core Frankish territories inside the former Western Roman Empire were located close to the Rhine and Meuse rivers in the north, but Frankish chiefs such as Chlodio would eventually expand their influence within Roman territory as far as the Somme river in the 5th century. Childeric I , a Salian Frankish king, was one of several military leaders commanding Roman forces of various ethnic affiliations in
9717-528: The creation of a united Italian nation. The revolts in Modena and the Papal Legations inspired similar activity in the Duchy of Parma , where the tricolore flag was adopted. The Parmese duchess Marie Louise left the city during the political upheaval. Insurrection provinces planned to unite as the Italian United Provinces , which prompted Pope Gregory XVI to ask for Austrian help against
9840-867: The direct or indirect control of the Spanish Habsburgs . The Peace of Westphalia in 1648 formally ended the rule of the Holy Roman Emperors in Italy. However, the Spanish branch of the House of Habsburg , which ruled the Spanish Empire , continued to rule southern Italy and the Duchy of Milan until the War of the Spanish Succession (1701–14). Following this war the Austrian Habsburgs struggled for dominance with
9963-656: The duchy of Vasconia was also part of his allotment. Charibert campaigned successfully against the Basques, but after his death they revolted again (632). At the same time the Bretons rose up against Frankish suzerainty. In 635 an army sent by Dagobert subdued the Basques, while threats of military action induced the Breton leader Judicael to relent, make peace with the Franks, and pay tribute. Meanwhile, Dagobert had Charibert's infant successor Chilperic assassinated and reunited
10086-527: The early 9th century, which was by this point referred to as the Carolingian Empire . During the reign of the Merovingian and Carolingian dynasties, the Frankish realm was one large polity , generally subdivided into several smaller kingdoms ruled by different members of the ruling dynasties. Whilst these kingdoms coordinated, they also regularly came into conflict with one another. The old Frankish lands, for example, were initially contained within
10209-417: The entire Frankish realm again (632), though he was forced by the strong Austrasian aristocracy to grant his own son Sigebert III to them as a subking in 633. This act was precipitated largely by the Austrasians' desire to be self-governing at a time when Neustrians dominated at the royal court. Chlothar had been the king at Paris for decades before becoming the king at Metz as well and the Merovingian monarchy
10332-571: The eve of preparing an expedition against Chlothar in 613, leaving a young son named Sigebert II . During their reigns, Theudebert and Theuderic campaigned successfully in Gascony , where they had established the Duchy of Gascony and brought the Basques to submission (602). This original Gascon conquest included lands south of the Pyrenees , namely Biscay and Gipuzkoa , but these were lost to
10455-607: The fall of the usurper Constantine III some Franks supported the usurper Jovinus (411). Jovinus was dead by 413, but the Romans found it increasingly difficult to manage the Franks within their borders. The Frankish king Theudemer was executed by the sword, in c. 422. Around 428, the king Chlodio , whose kingdom may have been in the civitas Tungrorum (with its capital in Tongeren ), launched an attack on Roman territory and extended his realm as far as Camaracum ( Cambrai ) and
10578-580: The first time in the history of the Risorgimento on 11 March 1821 in the Cittadella of Alessandria , during the revolutions of 1820s , after the oblivion caused by the restoration of the absolutist monarchical regimes. An important figure of this period was Francesco Melzi d'Eril , serving as vice-president of the Napoleonic Italian Republic (1802–1805) and consistent supporter of the Italian unification ideals that would lead to
10701-534: The first time on a tricolour cockade in 1789, anticipating by seven years the first green, white and red Italian military war flag , which was adopted by the Lombard Legion in 1796. After Napoleon fell (1814), the Congress of Vienna (1814–15) restored the pre-Napoleonic patchwork of independent governments. Italy was again controlled largely by the Austrian Empire , as they directly controlled
10824-513: The fledgling revolutionary movement. In 1844, two brothers from Venice , Attilio and Emilio Bandiera , members of Young Italy , planned to make a raid on the Calabrian coast against the Kingdom of Two Sicilies in support of Italian unification. They assembled a band of about twenty men ready to sacrifice their lives and set sail on their venture on 12 June 1844. Four days later they landed near Crotone , intending to go to Cosenza , liberate
10947-517: The following years, the 1840 version of I Promessi Sposi used a standardized version of the Tuscan dialect , a conscious effort by the author to provide a language and force people to learn it. Three ideals of unification appeared. Vincenzo Gioberti , a Piedmontese priest, had suggested a confederation of Italian states under the leadership of the pope in his 1842 book Of the Moral and Civil Primacy of
11070-577: The intellectual force and social capital that fueled unification movements for decades after the First French Empire collapsed in 1814. The French Republic spread republican principles, and the institutions of republican governments promoted citizenship over the rule of the Bourbons and Habsburgs and other dynasties. The reaction against any outside control challenged Napoleon Bonaparte 's choice of rulers. As Napoleon's reign began to fail,
11193-411: The king back on the condition that he receive his father's positions (718). There were no more active Merovingian kings after that point and Charles and his Carolingian heirs ruled the Franks. After 718 Charles Martel embarked on a series of wars intended to strengthen the Franks' hegemony in western Europe. In 718 he defeated the rebellious Saxons, in 719 he overran Western Frisia, in 723 he suppressed
11316-570: The kingdom by the joint action of father and son. When Chlothar died in 628, Dagobert, in accordance with his father's wishes, granted a subkingdom to his younger brother Charibert II . This subkingdom, commonly called Aquitaine, was a new creation. Dagobert, in his dealings with the Saxons, Alemans, and Thuringii, as well as the Slavs beyond the borders of Francia, upon whom he tried to force tribute but who instead defeated him under their king Samo at
11439-517: The kingdom of Austrasia , centred on the Rhine and Meuse , roughly corresponding to later Lower Lotharingia . The bulk of the Gallo-Roman territory to its south and west was called Neustria . The exact borders and number of these subkingdoms varied over time, until a basic split between eastern and western domains became persistent. After various treaties and conflicts in the late-9th and early-10th centuries, West Francia came under control of
11562-509: The kingdom, with the elder Theudebert II taking Austrasia plus Childebert's portion of Aquitaine, while his younger brother Theuderic II inherited Burgundy and Guntram's Aquitaine. United, the brothers sought to remove their father's cousin Chlothar II from power and they did succeed in conquering most of his kingdom, reducing him to only a few cities, but they failed to capture him. In 599 they routed his forces at Dormelles and seized
11685-426: The kingdom—not unlike the late Roman Empire —was conceived of as a single realm ruled collectively by several kings and the turn of events could result in the reunification of the whole realm under a single king. The Merovingian kings ruled by divine right and their kingship was symbolised daily by their long hair and initially by their acclamation, which was carried out by raising the king on a shield in accordance with
11808-514: The lyrics, or Fratelli d'Italia , from its opening line . On 5 January 1848, the revolutionary disturbances began with a civil disobedience strike in Lombardy , as citizens stopped smoking cigars and playing the lottery , which denied Austria the associated tax revenue. Shortly after this, revolts began on the island of Sicily and in Naples . In Sicily the revolt resulted in the proclamation of
11931-710: The most influential revolutionary groups was the Carbonari , a secret political discussion group formed in southern Italy early in the 19th century. After 1815, Freemasonry in Italy was repressed and discredited due to its French connections. A void was left that the Carbonari filled with a movement that closely resembled Freemasonry but with a commitment to Italian nationalism and no association with Napoleon and his government. The response came from middle-class professionals and businessmen and some intellectuals. The Carbonari disowned Napoleon but nevertheless were inspired by
12054-457: The murder of Galswintha , the wife of Chilperic, allegedly by his mistress (and second wife) Fredegund . Galswintha's sister, the wife of Sigebert, Brunhilda , incited her husband to war and the conflict between the two queens continued to plague relations until the next century. Guntram sought to keep the peace, though he also attempted twice (585 and 589) to conquer Septimania from the Goths, but
12177-509: The northern part of what is now France. His son, Clovis I , succeeded in unifying most of Gaul under his rule in the 6th century by notably conquering Soissons in 486 and Aquitaine in 507 following the collapse of the Western Roman Empire, as well as establishing leadership over all the Frankish kingdoms on or near the Rhine frontier; thus founding what would come to be known as the Merovingian dynasty. The dynasty subsequently gained control over
12300-509: The palace in all the realms, but soon there was a third candidate for the mayoralty of Austrasia in Pepin's illegitimate adult son, Charles Martel . After the defeat of Plectrude and Theudoald by the king (now Chilperic II ) and Ragenfrid, Charles briefly raised a king of his own, Chlothar IV , in opposition to Chilperic. Finally, at a battle near Soisson , Charles definitively defeated his rivals and forced them into hiding, eventually accepting
12423-530: The peninsula, each with distinct laws and traditions. No one had had the desire or the resources to revive Napoleon's partial experiment in unification. The settlement of 1814–15 had merely restored regional divisions, with the added disadvantage that the decisive victory of Austria over France temporarily hindered Italians in playing off their former oppressors against each other. ... Italians who, like Ugo Foscolo and Gabriele Rossetti , harboured patriotic sentiments, were driven into exile. The largest Italian state,
12546-558: The political prisoners, and issue their proclamations. Tragically for the Bandiera brothers, they did not find the insurgent band they were told awaited them, so they moved towards La Sila . They were ultimately betrayed by one of their party, the Corsican Pietro Boccheciampe, and by some peasants who believed them to be Turkish pirates. A detachment of gendarmes and volunteers were sent against them, and after
12669-546: The principles of the French Revolution regarding liberty, equality and fraternity. They developed their own rituals and were strongly anticlerical. The Carbonari movement spread across Italy. Conservative governments feared the Carbonari, imposing stiff penalties on men discovered to be members. Nevertheless, the movement survived and continued to be a source of political turmoil in Italy from 1820 until after unification. The Carbonari condemned Napoleon III (who, as
12792-513: The rebels. Austrian Chancellor Klemens von Metternich warned Louis-Philippe that Austria had no intention of letting Italian matters be and that French intervention would not be tolerated. Louis-Philippe sent a naval expedition to Ancona, which restored Papal authority there and even arrested Italian patriots living in France. In early 1831, the Austrian army began its march across the Italian peninsula, slowly crushing resistance in each province that had revolted. This military action suppressed much of
12915-490: The regional differences between the three kingdoms of Francia and probably granted the nobles more control over judicial appointments. By 623 the Austrasians had begun to clamour for a king of their own, since Chlothar was so often absent from the kingdom and, because of his upbringing and previous rule in the Seine basin, was more or less an outsider there. Chlothar thus granted that his son Dagobert I would be their king and he
13038-401: The reigns of the early kings is almost certainly fabricated, often contradicting itself and other sources. Clovis' baptism, traditionally dated to 496, is now believed to have taken place in 508. The Merovingians were a hereditary monarchy . The Frankish kings adhered to the practice of partible inheritance : dividing their lands among their sons. Even when multiple Merovingian kings ruled,
13161-500: The rulers he had installed tried to keep their thrones (among them Eugène de Beauharnais , Viceroy of Italy , and Joachim Murat , King of Naples ) further feeding nationalistic sentiments. Beauharnais tried to get Austrian approval for his succession to Napoleon's Kingdom of Italy, and on 30 March 1815, Murat issued the Rimini Proclamation , which called on Italians to revolt against their Austrian occupiers. During
13284-658: The surviving brothers. Theuderic died in 534, but his adult son Theudebert I was capable of defending his inheritance, which formed the largest of the Frankish subkingdoms and the kernel of the later kingdom of Austrasia . Theudebert was the first Frankish king to formally sever his ties to the Roman Emperor in Constantinople by striking gold coins with his own image on them and calling himself magnus rex (great king) because of his supposed suzerainty over peoples as far away as Pannonia . Theudebert interfered in
13407-583: The sword and its duke, Lantfrid , was killed. In 734 Charles fought against Eastern Frisia and finally subdued it. In the 730s the Umayyad conquerors of Spain , who had also subjugated Septimania , began advancing northwards into central Francia and the Loire valley . It was at this time (circa 736) that Maurontus , the dux of Provence, called in the Umayyads to aid him in resisting the expanding influence of
13530-890: The unification of Italy. Encouraged by the declaration, revolutionaries in the region began to organize. During the July Revolution of 1830 in France, revolutionaries forced King Charles X to abdicate and created the July Monarchy with encouragement from the new French king, Louis-Philippe I . Louis-Philippe had promised revolutionaries such as Ciro Menotti that he would intervene if Austria tried to interfere in Italy with troops. Fearing he would lose his throne, Louis-Philippe did not, however, intervene in Menotti's planned uprising. The Duke of Modena abandoned his Carbonari supporters, arrested Menotti and other conspirators in 1831, and once again conquered his duchy with help from
13653-463: The war with Austria. He was quickly defeated by Radetzky at Novara on 23 March 1849. Charles Albert abdicated in favour of his son, Victor Emmanuel II , and Piedmontese ambitions to unite Italy or conquer Lombardy were, for the moment, brought to an end. The war ended with a treaty signed on 9 August. A popular revolt broke out in Brescia on the same day as the defeat at Novara, but was suppressed by
13776-638: Was a minor for almost the whole of his reign. He was dominated by his mother Nanthild and the mayor of the Neustrian palace, Erchinoald . Erchinoald's successor, Ebroin , dominated the kingdom for the next fifteen years of near-constant civil war. On his death (656), Sigbert's son was shipped off to Ireland, while Grimoald's son Childebert reigned in Austrasia. Ebroin eventually reunited the entire Frankish kingdom for Clovis's successor Chlothar III by killing Grimoald and removing Childebert in 661. However,
13899-683: Was a serious reversal for the ruling dynasty (640). The king lost the support of many magnates while on campaign and the weakness of the monarchic institutions by that time are evident in his inability to effectively make war without the support of the magnates; in fact, he could not even provide his own bodyguard without the loyal aid of Grimoald and Adalgisel . He is often regarded as the first roi fainéant : "do-nothing king", not insofar as he "did nothing", but insofar as he accomplished little. Clovis II , Dagobert's successor in Neustria and Burgundy, which were thereafter attached yet ruled separately,
14022-496: Was assassinated (675). The reign of Theuderic III was to prove the end of the Merovingian dynasty's power. Theuderic III succeeded his brother Chlothar III in Neustria in 673, but Childeric II of Austrasia displaced him soon thereafter—until he died in 675, and Theuderic III retook his throne. When Dagobert II died in 679, Theuderic received Austrasia as well and became king of the whole Frankish realm. Thoroughly Neustrian in outlook, he allied with his mayor Berchar and made war on
14145-492: Was defeated both times. All the surviving brothers benefited at the death of Charibert, but Chilperic was also able to extend his authority during the period of war by bringing the Bretons to heel again. After his death, Guntram had to again force the Bretons to submit. In 587, the Treaty of Andelot — the text of which explicitly refers to the entire Frankish realm as Francia — between Brunhilda and Guntram secured his protection of her young son Childebert II , who had succeeded
14268-524: Was divided, in a replay of the events of fifty years prior, between his four sons, with the chief cities remaining the same. The eldest son, Charibert I , inherited the kingdom with its capital at Paris and ruled all of western Gaul. The second eldest, Guntram , inherited the old kingdom of the Burgundians, augmented by the lands of central France around the old capital of Orléans, which became his chief city, and most of Provence . The rest of Provence,
14391-475: Was duly acclaimed by the Austrasian warriors in the traditional fashion. Nonetheless, though Dagobert exercised true authority in his realm, Chlothar maintained ultimate control over the whole Frankish kingdom. During the joint reign of Chlothar and Dagobert, who have been called "the last ruling Merovingians", the Saxons, who had been loosely attached to Francia since the late 550s, rebelled under Berthoald, Duke of Saxony , and were defeated and reincorporated into
14514-400: Was ever after him to be a Neustrian monarchy first and foremost. Indeed, it is in the 640s that "Neustria" first appears in writing, its late appearance relative to "Austrasia" probably due to the fact that Neustrians (who formed the bulk of the authors of the time) called their region simply "Francia". Burgundia too defined itself in opposition to Neustria at about this time. However, it was
14637-620: Was guaranteed by article 7, the independence of the pope as head of the Catholic Church was guaranteed by article 8 of the Principi fondamentali , while the death penalty was abolished by article 5, and free public education was provided by article 8 of the Titolo I . Before the powers could respond to the founding of the Roman Republic, Charles Albert, whose army had been trained by the exiled Polish general Albert Chrzanowski , renewed
14760-573: Was himself already the mayor of the palace of Austrasia, while Rado and Pepin were to find themselves rewarded with mayoral offices after Chlothar's coup succeeded and Brunhilda and the ten-year-old king were killed. Immediately after his victory, Chlothar II promulgated the Edict of Paris (614), which has generally been viewed as a concession to the nobility, though this view has come under recent criticism. The Edict primarily sought to guarantee justice and end corruption in government, but it also entrenched
14883-428: Was of course badly weakened, but the dream of Risorgimento did not die. Instead, the Italian patriots learned some lessons that made them much more effective at the next opportunity in 1860. Military weakness was glaring, as the small Italian states were completely outmatched by France and Austria. France was a potential ally, and the patriots realized they had to focus all their attention on expelling Austria first, with
15006-465: Was preserved in its territoriality by the Franks and converted into one of their primary divisions, incorporating the central Gallic heartland of Chlodomer's realm with its capital at Orléans. The fraternal kings showed only intermittent signs of friendship and were often in rivalry. On the early death of Chlodomer, his brother Chlothar had his young sons murdered in order to take a share of his kingdom, which was, in accordance with custom, divided between
15129-462: Was universally condemned, and the martyrdom of the Bandiera brothers bore fruit in the subsequent revolutions. In this context, in 1847, the first public performance of the song Il Canto degli Italiani , the Italian national anthem since 1946, took place. Il Canto degli Italiani , written by Goffredo Mameli set to music by Michele Novaro , is also known as the Inno di Mameli , after the author of
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