S. Stefano; on the 8th of February 1849 the republic was proclaimed, and on the 21st, at the pressing request of the pope and the king of Naples, Leopold went to Gaeta.
Ferdinand did not openly break his constitutional promises until Sicily was reconquered. His troops had captured Messina after a bombardment which earned him the sobriquet of “King Bomba”; Catania and Syracuse fell soon after, hideous atrocities being everywhere committed with his sanction. He now prorogued parliament, adopted stringent measures against the Liberals, and retired to Gaeta, the haven of refuge for deposed despots.
But so long as Piedmont was not completely crushed none of
the princes dared to take decisive measures against their subjects;
in spite of Custozza, Charles Albert still had an army, and Austria,
with revolutions in Vienna, Hungary and Bohemia on her
hands, could not intervene. In Piedmont the Pinelli-Revel
ministry, which had continued the negotiations for an alliance
with Leopold and the pope, resigned as it could not count
on a parliamentary majority, and in December the returned
exile Gioberti formed a new ministry. His proposal to reinstate
Leopold and the pope with Piedmontese arms, so as to avoid
Austrian intervention, was rejected by both potentates, and met
with opposition even in Piedmont, which would thereby have
forfeited its prestige throughout Italy. Austrian mediation
was now imminent, as the Vienna revolution had been crushed,
and the new emperor, Francis Joseph, refused to consider any
settlement other than on the basis of the treaties of 1815. But
Charles Albert renews
the war.
Charles Albert, who, whatever his faults, had a generous
nature, was determined that so long as he had an
army in being he could not abandon the Lombards
and the Venetians, whom he had encouraged in their
resistance, without one more effort, though he knew full well
that he was staking all on a desperate chance. On the 12th of
March 1849, he denounced the armistice, and, owing to the
want of confidence in Piedmontese strategy after 1848, gave the
chief command to the Polish General Chrzanowski. His forces
amounted to 80,000 men, including a Lombard corps and some
Roman, Tuscan and other volunteers. But the discipline and
moral of the army were shaken and its organization faulty.
General Ramorino, disobeying his instructions, failed to prevent
a corps of Austrians under Lieut. Field-Marshal d’Aspre
from seizing Mortara, a fault for which he was afterwards court-martialled
and shot, and after some preliminary fighting Radetzky
won the decisive battle of Novara (March 23) which broke up
the Piedmontese army. The king, who had sought death in vain
all day, had to ask terms of Radetzky; the latter demanded
Accession of Victor Emmanuel II.
a slice of Piedmont and the heir to the throne (Victor
Emmanuel) as a hostage, without a reservation for
the consent of parliament. Charles Albert, realizing
his own failure and thinking that his son might obtain
better terms, abdicated and departed at once for Portugal, where
he died in a monastery a few months later. Victor Emmanuel
went in person to treat with Radetzky on the 24th of March.
The Field-Marshal received him most courteously and offered
not only to waive the demand for a part of Piedmontese territory,
but to enlarge the kingdom, on condition that the constitution
should be abolished and the blue Piedmontese flag substituted
for the tricolor. But the young king was determined to abide
by his father’s oath, and had therefore to agree to an Austrian
occupation of the territory between the Po, the Ticino and the
Sesia, and of half the citadel of Alessandria, until peace should
be concluded, the evacuation of all districts occupied by his
troops outside Piedmont, the dissolution of his corps of Lombard,
Polish and Hungarian volunteers and the withdrawal of his
fleet from the Adriatic.
Novara set Austria free to reinstate the Italian despots. Ferdinand at once re-established autocracy in Naples; though the struggle in Sicily did not end until May, when Palermo, after a splendid resistance, capitulated. In Tuscany disorder continued, and although Guerrazzi, who had been appointed dictator, saved the country from complete anarchy, a large part of the population, especially among the peasantry, was still loyal to the grand-duke. After Novara the chief question was how to avoid an Austrian occupation, and owing to the prevailing confusion the town council of Florence took matters into its own hands and declared the grand-duke reinstated, but on a constitutional basis and without foreign help (April 12). Leopold accepted as regards the constitution, but said nothing about foreign intervention. Count Serristori, the grand-ducal commissioner, arrived in Florence on the 4th of May 1849; the national guard was disbanded; and on the 25th, the Austrians under d’Aspre entered Florence.
On the 28th of July Leopold returned to his capital, and while that event was welcomed by a part of the people, the fact that he had come under Austrian protection ended by destroying all loyalty to the dynasty, and consequently contributed not a little to Italian unity.
In Rome the triumvirate decided to defend the republic to the last. The city was quieter and more orderly than it had ever been before, for Mazzini and Ciceruacchio successfully opposed all class warfare; and in April the defenders received a priceless addition to their strength in the Garibaldi. person of Garibaldi, who, on the outbreak of the revolution in 1848, had returned with a few of his followers from his exile in South America, and in April 1849 entered Rome with some 500 men to fight for the republic. At this time France, as a counterpoise to Austrian intervention in other parts of Italy, decided to restore the pope, regardless of the fact that this France and the Roman Republic. action would necessitate the crushing of a sister republic. As yet, however, no such intention was publicly avowed. On the 25th of April General Oudinot landed with 8000 men at Civitavecchia, and on the 30th attempted to capture Rome by surprise, but was completely defeated by Garibaldi, who might have driven the French into the sea, had Mazzini allowed him to leave the city. The French republican government, in order to gain time for reinforcements to arrive, sent Ferdinand de Lesseps to pretend to treat with Mazzini, the envoy himself not being a party to this deception. Mazzini refused to allow the French into the city, but while the negotiations were being dragged on Oudinot’s force was increased to 35,000 men. At the same time an Austrian army was marching through the Legations, and Neapolitan and Spanish troops were advancing from the south. The Roman army (20,000 men) was commanded by General Rosselli, and included, besides Garibaldi’s red-shirted legionaries, volunteers from all parts of Italy, mostly very young men, many of them wealthy and of noble family. The Neapolitans were ignominiously beaten in May and retired to the frontier; on the 1st of June Oudinot declared that he would attack Rome on the 4th, but by beginning operations on the 3rd, when no attack was expected, he captured an important position in the Pamphili gardens.
In spite of this success, however, it was not until the end of the month, and after desperate fighting, that the French penetrated within the walls and the defence ceased (June 29). The Assembly, which had continued in session, was dispersed by the French troops on the 2nd of July, but Mazzini escaped a week later. Garibaldi quitted the city, followed by 4000 of his men, and attempted to join the defenders of Venice. In spite of the fact that he was pursued by the armies of four Powers, he succeeded in reaching San Marino; but his force melted away and, after hiding in the marshes of Ravenna, he fled across the peninsula, assisted by nobles, peasants and priests, to the Tuscan coast, whence he reached Piedmont and eventually America, to await a new call to fight for Italy (see Garibaldi).
After a heroic defence, conducted by Giuseppe Martinengo,
Brescia was recaptured in April by the Austrians under Lieut.
Field-Marshal von Haynau, the atrocities which
followed earning for Haynau the name of “The
Hyena of Brescia.” In May they seized Bologna,
Reduction
of Venice
by Austria.
and Ancona in June, restoring order in those towns
by the same methods as at Brescia. Venice alone still held out;
after Novara the Piedmontese commissioners withdrew and
Manin again took charge of the government. The assembly
