CHARLES ALBERT ABDICATES: VICTOR EMMANUEL II SUCCEEDS
[1849 A.D.]
Charles Albert, despairing of his success but holding the feeling of his military and princely honour deep in his heart, abdicated in favour of his son, Victor Emmanuel II, fled from the land of his fathers and in distant Portugal sought a resting place for the short remainder of his days. He died in the firm belief that the power and future of Italy rested in the Piedmontese dynasty.[g]
Charles Albert, great only in misfortune, was not unworthy of magnanimous treatment and was now very willing to receive it. He had risked all to redeem the word pledged to the fatherland, and his plans of ambition and aggrandisement were frustrated and shattered, his sword and courage completely broken. Italy, both republican and reactionary, had left him alone on the place of election with his people; he feared and mistrusted the French Republic; he must have been tired of all the fine counsels, empty promises of England. He awaited death with calmness, and devoutly performed the last duties of the Catholic Christian; on the afternoon of the 26th of July, 1849, he succumbed to a third stroke of apoplexy.
Victor Emmanuel II
(1820-1878)
The impression wrought by his death was that of an expiation, a sacrifice to the fatherland; his remains were brought to Genoa on the Piedmontese war vessel Monzambano. His body was worshipped as that of a martyr and saint, and thousands followed it to its grave on the lovely summit of Superga, eastward of Turin.
Besides his rare patience and courage, Charles Albert possessed no prominent intellectual qualities; if in the one sense he was a brave soldier, he also proved himself a very indifferent general. As a prince he had good intentions, but was wanting in all application, desire for instruction, and in determination to such a point that cunning and dissimulation were indispensable to him. Nevertheless he was a man, and the great dangers, the deep suffering which he had to undergo for a cause also borne by the noblest of the people, conciliated and glorified his memory; thus he left his successor and his state a very promising but weighty legacy.[h]
The young king Victor Emmanuel concluded a truce March 26th, 1849, with the victorious field marshal, but this aroused so much disfavour throughout the country that the chamber of deputies refused to ratify it and a revolt broke out in Genoa. Not until the treaty had been cancelled and the revolt put down by force, did the people succumb to the inevitable. The new chambers later confirmed the peace with Austria, which placed a great burden of debt on the country to pay for the expenses of the war. From that time the Sardinian kingdom advanced on the way of liberal reform and healthy internal development.