on the part of the French king and of Philip of Bresse, and
Savoy would probably have been dismembered but for the
patriotic action of the States General. On Amadeus's death,
his son Philibert I. (1472-1482) succeeded, but as he was aminor
the States General appointed his mother Yolande regent. Wars
and civil commotions occupied the period of his minority and
Savoy lost Freiburg and many other territories. Yolande died in
1472, and the regency was disputed by various claimants; Philip
of Bresse having obtained it by force, he carried off Philibert,
who died in 1482 at Lyons. He was succeeded by his brother
Charles I. (1482-1490), who, freed by Louis XI. from the dangerous
protection of Philip of Bresse and by death from that of the
French king, crushed the rebellious nobles and seized Saluzzo
(1487). He did much to raise the falling fortunes of his house,
but died at the age of thirty-one. Under his successor Charles II.
(1490-1496), an infant in arms, the duchy was again distracted
by civil war and foreign invasions. Charles died at an early age,
and, having no male heirs, the aged Philip of Bresse succeeded,
but reigned only for one year. Philibert II. (1497-I 504) followed,
but he was devoted only to pleasure and left the helm of state
to his half-brother, Renato, and later to his wife, Margaret of
Austria. He died without heirs and was succeeded by his
brother, Charles III. During his reign Savoy abandoned its
attitude of subservience to France, adopting a policy of greater
independence, and became more friendly to Austria.
Under Charles III. (1504-1553), the duchy suffered a series of
misfortunes. Although the duke strove after peace at almost
Emmanuel any price, he was nearly always involved in war and
p, ,, m, e, ., lost many possessions, including Geneva and Vaud.
At his death the whole country was overrun by
the hostile armies of Francis I. of France and of the Emperor
Charles V., while his son and successor, Emmanuel Philibert
(1553-1580), was serving in the Spanish armies. Emmanuel
could not take possession of the duchy at once, but continued
to serve the emperor as governor-general of the Low Countries.
By his victory at St Quentin over the French in 1 5 57 he proved
himself one of the first generals of the day, and by the terms of
the subsequent treaty of Cateau Cambrésis he was reinstated in
most of his hereditary possessions (1559). Under Emmanuel
Philibert Savoy lost all traces of constitutional government and
became an absolute despotism of the type then predominating
throughout the greater part of Europe. At the same time he
raised his country from ruin and degradation into a prosperous
and powerful monarchy. He induced both France and Spain
to evacuate the fortresses which they still held in Piedmont,
made a profitable exchange of territory with the Bernese, and
acquired an extension of seaboard by the purchase of Tenda
and Oneglia (see EMMANUEL PHILIBERT of Savoy).
His son and successor, Charles Emmanuel I., surnamed
ue!
the Great, strengthened the tendency of Savoy to become less of a French and more of an Italian Power. In 1 588 he wrested Saluzzo from the French, but his expeditions to Provence and Switzerland were unsuccessful. In the war between France and Spain after the accession of Henry IV., he took the Spanish side, and at the peace of Lyons (1601), although he gave up all his territories beyond the Rhone, his possession of Saluzzo was confirmed. His attempt to capture Geneva by treachery (1602) failed, and although on the death of Francesco Gonzaga, duke of Mantua and Montferrat, he seized the latter city (1612) he was forced by Spain and her allies to relinquish it. The Spaniards invaded the duchy, but after several years of hard fighting the peace of 1618 left his territory almost intact. In 1628 he sided with Spain against France; the armies of the latter overran the duchy, and Charles Emmanuel died in 1630 (see CHARLES EMMANUEL). His son, Victor Amadeus I. (1630-1637), succeeded to little more than a title, but by his alliance with F rance-his wife Christina being a daughter of Henry IV.-he managed to regain most of his territories. He proved a wise and popular ruler, and his early death was much deplored. His eldest son, Francis Giacinto, a minor, lived only a year, and his second son, Charles Emmanuel II., also a minor, remained under the regency of his mother. That princess, in spite of her French origin, resisted the attempts of France, then dominated by Cardinal Richelieu, to govern Savoy, but her quarrels with her brothers-in-law led to civil war, in which the latter obtained the help of Spain, and Christina that of France. In the end the duchess succeeded in patching up these feuds and saving the dynasty, and in 1648 Charles Emmanuel II. assumed the government. The war between France and Spain continued to rage, and Savoy, on whose territory much of the fightingitook place, suffered severely in consequence. By the treaty of the Pyrenees (1669) the war came to an end and Savoy regained most of the towns occupied by France. Charles died in 1675 and was succeeded by his only son, Victor Amadeus II. (167 5-1732). The Amadeus latter's minority was passed under the regency of his " able but imperious mother, Ieanne of Savoy-Nemours. He married Anne of Orleans, daughter of Henrietta of England and niece of Louis XIV. of France. The French king treated Victor Amadeus almost as a vassal, and obliged him' to persecute his Protestant (Waldensian) subjects. But the young duke, galled by Louis's overbearing arrogance, eventually asserted his independence and joined the league of Austria, Spain and Venice against him in,1690. The campaign was carried on with varying success, but usually to the advantage of Louis, and the French victory at Marsiglia and the selfish icon duct of the allies induced Victor to come to terms with France, and to turn against the imperialists (1696). By the treaty of Ryswick a general peace was concluded. In the war of the Spanish Succession (1700) we find Victor at first on the French side, until, dissatisfied with the continued insolence of Louis XIV. and of Philip of Spain, he went over to the Austrians in 1704. The French invaded Piedmont, but were totally defeated at the siege of Turin by Victor Amadeus and Prince Eugene of Savoy (1706), and eventually driven from the country. By the treaty, of Utrecht (1713) Victor received the long-coveted Montferrat and was made king of Sicily; but in 1718 the powers obliged him to exchange that kingdom for Sardinia, which conferred The km!" on the rulers of Savoy and Piedmont the title subse- g';f ':, ;5a quently borne by them until they assumed that of kings of Italy. In 1730 he abdicated in favour of his son, Charles Emmanuel, retired to Chambéry, and married the countess of San Sebastiano (afterwards Marchioness of Spigno). His wife's ambitions induced him to try to regain the crown, but his son had him arrested, and he died in prison in 1732 (see VICTOR AMADEUS II.).
Charles Emmanuel III. (1730-1773) was a born soldier and took part in the war of the Polish Succession on the side of France against Austria, and for his victory at Guastalla (1734) was awarded the duchy of Milan, which, however, he was forced to relinquish at the peace of Vienna (1736), retaining only Novara. and Tortona. In the war of the Austrian Succession, which broke out on the death of the Emperor Charles VI., he took the side of Maria Theresa (1742). By the peace of Aix-la-Chapelle in 1748, following on the defeat of the French, Savoy gained some further accessions of territory in Piedmont. The reign of Charles's son, Victor Amadeus III. (177 3-1 796), was a period of decadence; the king was incapable and extravagant, and he chose equally incapable ministers. On the outbreak of the French Revolution he sided with the royalists and was eventually brought into conflict with the French republic. The army being demoralized and the treasury empty, the kingdom The fell an easy prey to the republican ~forces. Savoy French became a French province, and, although the Pied- UWUPS montese troops resisted bravely for four years in the “°" face of continual defeats, Victor at last gave up the struggle as hopeless, signed the armistice of Cherasco, and died soon afterwards (1796). He was succeeded in turn by his three sons, Charles Emmanuel IV., Victor Emmanuel I., and Charles Felix. Charles Emmanuel (1796-1802), believing in Bonaparte's promises, was induced to enter into a confederation with France and give up the citadel of Turin to the French, which meant the end of his country's independence. Realizing his folly he abdicated on the 6th of December 1796, and retired to Sardinia, Victor
