Monarch Profile: King Charles Emmanuel III of Piedmont-Sardinia
Only the second king of the House of Savoy, Charles Emmanuel III was
undoubtedly one of the most ambitious and military-minded of the family.
That he was to prove an astute and formidable monarch is all the more
noteworthy inasmuch as he was not raised with the expectation of taking
on such a responsibility and had been neither very well liked or well
prepared by his father. Charles Emmanuel of Savoy was the second son of
King Victor Amadeus II by his wife Queen Anne Marie d’Orleans. He was
born in Turin on April 27, 1701, well before his father was King of
Sardinia and was thus only Duke of Savoy. He was nicknamed “Carlino” as a
boy for being rather frail and not the strapping, handsome son all
fathers wish for. In time, however, his people would give him a more
praiseworthy nickname; “the Hardworking” king. As his father became
involved in the War of the Spanish Succession and because of the long
military tradition of the family, young Charles Emmanuel was given a
more thorough education on the subject of warfare though other subjects
were neglected.
In 1713 his father became King of Sicily as part of the peace following
the War of Spanish Succession but this aroused the jealousy and
opposition of other powers so that the first reign of the Savoy over
Sicily would be a relatively short one. At the same time tragedy struck
the family when Charles Emmanuel’s older brother, Prince Victor Amadeus
of Piedmont, died from smallpox at the age of only fifteen. His father
had adored and doted on the boy, even making him regent during his year
long absence from 1713-14 despite his young age. It was a devastating
blow for the King and also thrust Prince Charles Emmanuel, Duke of
Aosta, into the position of heir to the throne. The throne he would be
heir to soon changed though as in 1720 his father finally came to an
agreement to appease the other crowned heads of Europe by trading the
Kingdom of Sicily for the Kingdom of Sardinia. In previous times, this
might have aroused some opposition on the part of the German Emperor as
there were supposed to be no other kings in the empire besides himself,
however, the Hohenzollern rulers of Prussia had already set a precedent
for princes within the empire to be kings of territories outside the
empire.
Nonetheless, Victor Amadeus II would not rule for long as his life was
being overtaken by grief and sadness. His eldest daughter (mother of
King Louis XV of France) died in 1712, his second daughter did not
survive childhood, his third daughter (wife of King Felipe V of Spain)
died in 1714 and his eldest son died in 1715. In 1728 his grief-stricken
wife Queen Anne Marie also passed away from heart failure. Trying to
flee from his depression, in August of 1730 the King secretly married an
old girlfriend with special permission from Pope Clement XII. The
following month they made their marriage public and shortly thereafter
the King announced his abdication, signing over his powers to his son on
September 3, 1730 who then became King Charles Emmanuel III. The whole
affair over the new wife and the abdication caused quite a scandal and
King Charles Emmanuel III, who had never been his father’s favorite, was
less than pleased with having to deal with it. He did his best to keep
the former monarch out of sight and out of mind.
After so much gloom and grief, King Charles Emmanuel III tried to
restore a more festive atmosphere to his court and Piedmont as a whole.
However, his father was soon giving him trouble as, after recovering
from a stroke, he tried to reassert himself and possibly retake the
throne. This was potentially disastrous as not only had the whole
abdication fiasco made Victor Amadeus II rather unpopular but father and
son had never been on very good terms. For one thing, Charles Emmanuel
had never been as good as his older brother as far as his father was
concerned, he was not as strong, not as attractive, he did not measure
up in the eyes of his father in any way. The new King had also had
plenty of heartaches of his own. His father had arranged both of his
marriages, the first to a German countess who died in childbirth at only
19 and the second to the Hessian Princess Polyxena with whom he had a
successful marriage and six children. However, their domestic life was
upset by the King who decided that his wife was too distracting and took
up too much of his son’s time so he ordered them to sleep in separate
beds.
Although she had only a few more years to live herself, Queen Polyxena
was adamant that her husband be firm in dealing with his father. King
Charles Emmanuel III gained the support of the Crown Council and managed
to have his father arrested and confined to Rivoli castle and probably
just in the nick of time as he had been rumored to be plotting an
invasion Lombardy with the aim of conquering Milan, which would surely
have sparked a war. In any event, that crisis was averted, his father
had been dealt with and would trouble him no more and King Charles
Emmanuel III could get on with the business of ruling his country. He
did not have long to wait before an actual war broke out, once again
over a disputed royal succession. The monarchy in dispute was that of
Poland with France, Spain and Parma (so the Bourbon family basically)
supporting Stanislas I and Russia, Austria, Prussia and Saxony
supporting Augustus III. Rather than backing the empire, King Charles
Emmanuel III joined the French and quickly led a very successful
invasion of Lombardy, conquering Milan with little difficulty.
Unfortunately, the Spanish demanded Milan and Mantua as their reward for
joining the coalition and the last thing King Charles Emmanuel wanted
was for northern Italy to fall back under Spanish control again. He had
ambitions to unite Italy which, though a tall order, he famously said
the Savoy could accomplish the same way one eats an artichoke; one layer
at a time. In any event, while the diplomats argued, King Charles
Emmanuel III proved himself a skillful military leader as the commander
of the combined Franco-Spanish-Italian forces in Italy. However,
suspecting that the French would take away his gains and hand them over
to Spain, he purposely botched the campaign to take Mantua. He did,
however, prove himself in command of Franco-Piedmontese forces in
victories at the Battle of Crocetta and the Battle of Guastalla. When
France and Austria finally came to terms, as expected, the Piedmontese
were obliged to withdraw from Lombardy rather than retain their
conquests, however, King Charles Emmanuel III did gain Langhe, Tortona
and Novara in the final settlement. In the end, the House of Bourbon
gained territory but the candidate preferred by Russia, Austria and
Prussia, Augustus III, became King of Poland (though he would not have a
happy time of it).
This war over the Polish throne had a few significant results for the
Savoy monarchy. First, it had secured the reputation of King Charles
Emmanuel III as a capable military leader with his campaign which
secured several battlefield victories and showed his skill at maneuver
in preventing the union of the armies from Austria and Naples. Secondly,
it showed that the hope for greater gains to be had by allying with the
French were not to be taken for granted. It caused no small amount of
frustration in Turin that so much territory which the Piedmontese had
fought for and won would be so quickly handed over to another power.
Another conflict was soon on the horizon and King Charles Emmanuel III
would certainly not be taking the side of the French again. That
conflict, the War of Austrian Succession, was the next great crisis of
his reign.
The War of Austrian Succession (known as King George’s War in America)
was basically an effort by the French and the Prussians to prevent the
Archduchess of Austria and Queen of Hungary Maria Theresa from
inheriting the Habsburg monarchy. Her father had spent all but his last
thaler trying to buy the support of the crowned heads of Europe to
ensure a peaceful succession for his daughter but, as soon as he was
gone, most opposed her anyway. King Charles Emmanuel III threw his
support behind Empress Maria Theresa and the Habsburgs. He brought his
own skills and a small but proficient army, however, his small state
could not sustain the effort it would take to fight what was effectively
a world war. However, the British, who also backed the Austrians as a
way of opposing the power of the Bourbon French and Spanish, provided
economic support for the House of Savoy, effectively funding their war
effort. The war began in 1740 when King Frederick the Great of Prussia
invaded Silesia, however Piedmont-Sardinia was not immediately involved.
In 1741 the Spanish and their Neapolitan proxies made a fast and
aggressive invasion north with the aim, once again, of taking control of
Milan and northern Italy for Spain. Empress Maria Theresa sent her
people to talk to King Charles Emmanuel III’s people and work out an
alliance. 1742 saw these negotiations concluded and combat begin, though
the Habsburg-Savoy alliance was directed at Spain rather than France.
At first, the Austrians did well enough and seemed to need no help,
however, by early 1743 the Spanish got the better of them. More troops
were rushed in from Germany and the Spanish retreated but the scare was
enough to involve the French were drawn into a frustrating conflict in
the Alps against the Piedmontese troops of the House of Savoy. 1744
promised to be decisive with a major Franco-Spanish invasion planned for
the conquest of northern Italy. The French, Spanish and Neapolitan
troops, led by the King of Naples who would later be King Charles III of
Spain, won the Battle of Nemi (or First Battle of Velletri) and then a
second by thwarting an Austrian raid that intended to capture the future
Spanish monarch.
After this, the Austrians wrote off Naples and focused on supporting
their Savoy ally in the north against the French forces under the Prince
of Conti. King Charles Emmanuel III fought the French as best he could
but, though he suffered several defeats, still managed to prevent the
French and Spanish forces from uniting against him in battles throughout
the summer of 1744. The successful defense of Cuneo was critical to
that. The following year, the Republic of Genoa joined the Bourbon side
and declared war on Piedmont-Sardinia. The French launched a renewed
offensive in 1745 with a combined force of 80,000 men which managed to
draw the Austrians away and then pounce upon the small, isolated
Piedmontese army at the Battle of Bassignano on September 27, 1745.
However, by that time, Prussia had made peace with Austria and more
Austrian troops could be committed to Italy. The French and Spanish
still fought ferociously and took a huge toll on the Austrians, the
Genoese also holding their own surprisingly well against the Habsburg
armies.
King Charles Emmanuel III lost a succession of battles against a
Franco-Spanish army that outnumbered his roughly 3-to-1, however, in
1746 he was given some Austrian reinforcements to make good his losses
and began to turn the situation around. Alessandria and Asti were
recaptured from the enemy and in 1747 he won a stunning and decisive
victory over the French at the Battle of Assietta. Despite being heavily
outnumbered, the Italians defeated the French and inflicted 5,300
losses on them while losing only 299 of their own. It was such an
overwhelming victory that the Bourbon forces gave up on the Italian
front and shifted their main war effort to the Franco-German border and
the Netherlands. King Frederick the Great of Prussia famously said that
if he had an army like the Piedmontese, he would make himself King of
Italy in quick order. King Charles Emmanuel III was not without at least
some such aspirations but, as his remark about the artichoke
demonstrates, he knew that he would have to play the long game. As it
was, he showed his remarkable skill as a negotiator when both sides of
the war finally determined to come to terms for peace. The Treaty of
Aix-la-Chapelle might not have fulfilled every aspiration but it
considerably expanded Savoy territory and recovered all that had been
lost at the hands of the French.
When the Seven Years’ War (French & Indian War to Americans) broke
out not long after, King Charles Emmanuel III remained neutral. His
country had been stretched to the breaking point, invaded, occupied and
needed a period of peace to recover its strength. He worked on improving
the government, developing Sardinia, making the army more efficient,
his fortresses stronger and improving higher education. He was also able
to take time to indulge in his love of great works of art, enlarging
the Savoy family collection and even establishing a tapestry workshop in
Turin. Happiness in his private life continued to be short-lived. In
1737 he had married Princess Elisabeth Therese of Lorraine but, sadly,
their life together was to be dominated by heartache. They had three
children together, the first two dying in childhood with only their
third, a son, surviving to adulthood and Elisabeth Therese died of fever
shortly after this third childbirth. King Charles Emmanuel III could
only busy himself with his duties, improving his military defenses,
strengthening the army and so on, which he did until his death on
February 20, 1773.
