History of Savoy of 1416 to 1792

The period of 1416 to 1792 corresponds roughly so that it is agreed to call the modern time, but for the Savoy , these two dates correspond to particularly significant events; In 1416, Savoy surrounded of the duchies of Milan and Burgundy, Dauphine French, obtains, with Amédée VIII '' the Pacific '' the statute of duchy of the Empire. 1792 mark the beginning of the first period of fastening of Savoy with France.

Savoy in XVe century

Fastening of Piedmont

The majority of the authors, as for example Avezou consider the reign of Amédée VIII, of 1416 to 1451 like the apogee of the Savoyard State. It is a fact that the field of the Counts de Savoie did not cease growing during the previous centuries and that moreover, in the year 1418 will see the final fastening of Piedmont in Savoy, following the death without posterity of Louis d' Achaïe, deceased without posterity and who chose like heir his/her brother-in-law Amédée VIII legitimates. In 1430, the State of Savoy includes/understands, in addition to the clean Savoy (area of Chambéry), the Bugey, the Bresse, the Chablais, the Faucigny, the Genevois, Geneva and the Pays of Vaud, the Maurienne and the Tarentaise, the valleys of Aoste and Suse, the Piedmont, the Comté of Nice and even the Ossola. The court of Amédée VIII is brilliant, with three hundred dignitaries, the castle of Chambéry appears in all its splendor, except perhaps its not yet finished vault. The Maison of Savoy has the control of the collars and passages of the Valais to the the Mediterranean. Between monarchies French, Germanic, Spanish or Austrian, the Savoyard sovereigns by their alliances become impossible to circumvent in Europe.

Reforms of Amédée VIII: The Statutes of Savoy

Once raised of the ducal title, Amédée VIII required of lawyers to redesign and unify the multiple laws in force in the various territories of the new duchy. This new constitution will be known under the name of Statutia de Sabaudiae ( Statuts of Savoy ) or universal Réformes of Savoy .

the Chancelier of Savoy is the second character of the State, after the sovereign. He chairs of right the itinerant Conseil , a kind of Sénat of which raises the diplomatic businesses, financial and legal. Its members are appointed for lives by the duke among the nobility and the senior officials.
the Assemblies of the three States have vocation to establish a bond between the duke and the people. They are to some extent State-Generals who meet in variable places and which vote the amount of the tax which is still extraordinary.
a Conseil Reside which sits at Chambéry represents the top of the legal building. In the provinces, justice is exerted by the Judges Mages , whereas at the local level, it is the business of the ordinary judges and the lords of the manor. This justice of State will coexist, until the middle of the 18th century with a justice seigneuriale.

If the Statuts codify the various institutions, at the same time besides that they affirm that any justice comes from God, they leave side what we now call the civil law. The various obligations are left with the discretion of the interested parts, and their working is the business of the notaries, omnipresent. In the only locality of Rumilly, one could count forty of them.

Public services in XVe century

What we call today public services in the forefront of which finds the instruction and the public assistance does not arise at the 15th century of attributions of the princes and the lords and, when they contribute to it, " one would be tempted to give the characters of a generosity deprived to the expenditure of the princes in these fields, if one did not know how much the limits between their own richnesses and the profits of their government " were undecided;. The Church considers on the other hand that teaching belonged to its mission. In Savoy, in particular, before the 15th century, the ecclesiastics and the laymen educated resulting from the schools of are évêchés and the monasteries. Year level of the villages, certain dedicated priests also give lessons. Beside the institutions connected with the church, cities like Chambéry or Montmélian also remunerate " Masters of écoles". Moreover, as from the 15th century develops a private patronage: A use which will last until the 18th century pushes most fortunate to bequeath a little their goods so that a Master can inform youth. Thus appear small colleges, financed by the cities and the private individuals, who can produce the big battalions of notaries that consumes Savoy, but also personalities more in sight as Guillaume Fichet which will become vice-chancellor of the Université of Paris and which is resulting from the college of the Rock. But generally, the intellectual elite, i.e. the judges magi and the members of the the Councils and the Chambre of the accounts must perfect their formation in a large European university like Paris, Pavia or Avignon. The people remain in illiterate majority, as it is the case in Europe, but some is the admiration which one can carry to the archaeological vestiges of the time and with the relative prosperity of the States of Savoy, in the cultural field, Savoy remains in this beginning of the Renaissance, provincial, i.e. tributary and imitatrice of what was done in France or Italy.

As surprising as that can appear, a very large number of hospital strew old Savoy. One of the explanations to this great number is that Savoy is a country of roads and that orders like the Templiers or the Hospitaliers of Midsummer's Day of Jerusalem mark out refuges for pilgrims the great routes. One counts ten " hôpitaux" in Chambéry of the 14th century which hardly counts more than fifteen hundred inhabitants, but under the term of hospital one indicates all kinds of establishments, the maladières for the leprous ones, of the huts for pestiferous. The Hospital of Chambéry was founded in 1370 by two middle-class men. It is, in theory, paying for the patients easy and free for the poor ones, the poor pilgrims and expectant mothers. The founders bequeathed their creation to the Syndic S of the city and operation is ensured until the Revolution day before by various donations: Notable, priests, but also of people of modest means who bequeath a vine or the incomes out of wheat of an indicated ground. Until 1470 when they are expelled, the doctors are often Juif S probably resulting from the University of Montpellier.

Decline of the State of Savoy (1450-1550)

Of Louis I {{er}} with Philibert II '' the Beautiful '' (1450-1504)

Amédée VIII is regarded as a great man of state, wise and pious, so much so that it is withdrawn initially as a hermit with the Château of Feast and that it is then elected pope by the Council of Basle under the name of Felix V, or more exactly antipape, in the hope to put to agreement the two other popes, that of Rome and that of Avignon. Amédée is thus brought to abdicate in 1440 and to prematurely pass the hand to his/her son Louis I {{er}}. That is not inevitably very good for Savoy, the more so as Amédée itself had not been so wise that one could think it by unnecessarily causing France weakened by occupying the Valentinois and the Diois. Savoy never became a European great power, and for little that a sovereign without real scale, as it is the case of Louis 1st, lets develop the rival factions, the great powers will not miss handling the party which has their favor. Counterpart of the fastening of Piedmont in Savoy, one sees being born a Piedmontese party and a Savoyard party, this last supported by the king of France Louis XI. The sister of Louis XI, Yolande de France, wife of the son of Louis Ier, Amédée IX is officially regent as from 1472, but exerts a determining influence dice 1465 because of epilepsy of her husband. It is an energetic woman who serves the interests of the duchy before those of France, and precisely comes from there to support if not the Piedmontese party at least the town of Turin at the expense of Chambéry to be with the shelter of the French influences. Philippe of Bresse, brother badly parcelled out of Amédée IX is the man of all treasons. Yolande becomes one moment the allied one of Charles Bold the to be opposed to the Swiss ones. By doing this, it puts at back her brother, combined the Swiss ones and does not prevent that the Berneses devastate the Pays of Vaud, and that the Valaisans do not invade the Chablais. When it approaches to the French and the Swiss ones, its old ally makes it captive. His/her brother makes it escape and while reconciling himself with it and more or less establishes a protectorate on Savoy.

After the death of Yolande, in 1478, the internal quarrels develop. The Jacquerie of the Faucigny in 1492 is undoubtedly revealing faintness of the peasants resulting from misfiring at the top of the State.

In 1494, the Blanche regent of Montferrat is combined with the king of France Charles VIII and the duchy to go guerroyer to Italy authorizes it to cross. Philippe of Bresse accompanies the French to Rome and the guide in the maze by the Italian political intrigues.

In 1496, Philippe of Bresse receives finally the crown to which he had aspired all his life. He becomes for two years Philippe II of Savoy. His/her son Philibert II '' the Beautiful '' is more known by its second marriage, in 1501, with Marguerite of Austria, girl of the emperor of Austria Maximilien de Habsbourg and godmother of Charles Quint. He preferred the frivolous hunting and occupations with the control of the State which he left with his half-brother Rene of Savoy. In 1504, Philibert drinks ice-cold water following a heat shooting party in Bugey and he dies about it. Its Marguerite widow goes back to the Netherlands where it becomes the teacher of the future Charles Quint, but in remembering the beautiful last years with Philibert which it cherished, it makes build close to Borough-in-Bresse the church of Husks, blazing chief of work of the Gothic , to lay out to with it the burial of Philibert and his.

The reign of Charles III '' the Good '' and first French occupation (1504-1553)

Concerning the unhappy events which will mark out the reign of the brother of Philibert II, Charles III known as the Good , Ménabréa, sees there the trace of a weakness of character of this sovereign whom it however depicts like gifted and very honest good, whereas Avezou rather sees there the mechanisms intrinsic of the regional history.

A first disappointment with which Charles III is confronted is the secession of Geneva which will be made effective by a treaty of combourgeoisy in 1526. At the origin of the secession, an unfavourable regulation on the behavior of the fairs which deprived the town of its subsidies had causes the constitution of a local movement for the defense of the franknesses and local freedoms. A few years after the secession Geneva becomes acquired with the Réforme, whereas Savoy remains resolutely papist.

After the secession of Geneva, Savoy will be taken in the swirl of the conflict which awoke between the kings of France and the Maison of Austria. The wife of Charles III, Beatrice of Portugal, sister-in-law of the emperor of Germany and king d' Espagne, does not hide her sympathies to this last. Savoy which had however been the allied one of François 1st in 1525 at the time of the battle of Pavia is now supposed to be more or less last in the enemy camp. The king of France which decided to carry out a descent in Italy wants to make sure beforehand of the control of Savoy and Piedmont. In 1536, the French troops enter to Savoy jointly with the Bernois and the Valais years. The troops of Charles III oppose only one low resistance to the invaders. Only the citadel of Nice remains inviolate. The country not only is occupied, but also dismembered. The Swiss ones seize the country of Vaud and settle in Thonon. Savoy, occupied by the French, is attached to the Dauphine one. It does not remain any more in Charles III that Verceil, some places in Piedmont of the east, the valley of Aoste and Nice. According to political Avezou .la of occupation of the French in Savoy respects the local practice and hardly meets resistance: Chambéry is equipped with a Parliament, and the assimilation is done even more easily in the Genevese, i.e. the area of Annecy, with marked French affinities. In 1539, the Ordonnance of Villers-Cotterêts introduces the Registry office in Savoy. One needed of them little which Savoy does not become definitively French, but, in 1559 the second Traité of Cateau-Cambrésis which puts an end to the Italian ambitions of kings de France restores with the applicant of the house of Savoy Emmanuel-Philibert the provinces occupied by France since 1536. Ménabréa stresses that, in spite of the cultural proximity of Savoy and France, François 1st was interested especially in Italy and forever have the serious project to annex Savoy in France.

The duchy rocks of with dimensions Italian

Emmanuel-Philibert and restoration of the States of Savoy (1528-1580)

When it receives the ducal crown in 1553, the Emmanuel-Philibert young person inherits only scraps of territories. Not only the Traités of Cateau-Cambrésis restore the States of Savoy including the Bresse, the Bugey and the Pays of Gex, but they also give to the duke a wife who is not other than almost the quadragénaire girl of François Ier, Marguerite de France (1523-1574), sister of the king Henri II, friendly woman of letters of Ronsard.

Initially been useful by the chance, Emmanuel-Philibert also puts at the service of its duchy all its qualities of statesman, sagacious, authoritative and overflowing of activities: Censuses are organized, which make it possible to raise a tax by Capitation and thus to cleanse finances. The Church always enjoys a privileged position: Jesuits are installed in Chambéry which lost its role of capital in 1562, because the French invasion caused to convince Emmanuel-Philibert which it is necessary for him to install its capital of the other with dimensions of the Alps, with Turin. Like Lovie notes it, in spite of the restoration of the State which can give an impression of richness, and the maintenance of the peace which preserves the country of the plundering of the armies in shift, Savoy remains a poor area, where the villages counts to a majority of poor wretches , leading to a constant flow of emigration, especially towards the Rhenish Switzerland and countries.

According to the analysis of Jean Nicolas, after the transfer of the capital from Turin in Chambéry, " one period new opens for the duchy, henceforth managed like an eccentric possession by magistrates and civils servant more and more narrowly controlled "

New period of disorders (1580-1630)

The son of Emmanuel-Philibert, Charles-Emmanuel Ier known as Large the is as adventurous as his/her father was wise. He wants to make profitable the weakening of France by the wars of religion and conquers the marquisat of Saluces, with the prospect to then reconquer Geneva, the country of Vaud, the Dauphiné and the Provence. They is at that time that is launched work of reinforcement of the citadels in the various parts of Savoy (Extremely of Annonciade with Rumilly, fortress of Montmélian, citadels of the Savoyard Avant-Pays) In order to as well as possible defend the collars and passages of the Alps, far from Turin. The adventurous aimings of Charles-Emmanuel turn to the complete fiasco and Savoy finds itself invaded by all kinds of foreign troops: Bernese, Valaisans and Protestants French in Chablais, French in the Grésivaudan, without counting the troops mercenaries, in theory with the service of Charles-Emmanuel, but which live, like the others on the country. It is the constable of France Lesdiguières which orders the French troops. Sully and Henri IV is invested personally and forced Charles-Emmanuel to sign the Traité of Lyon in 1601: France recovers the Bresse and Bugey so that Savoy seems from now on an outgrowth of Piedmont isolated in the west from the Alps.

In 1602, Charles-Emmanuel undergoes a piteous failure at the time of an coup attempt of force against the town of Geneva, known under the name of the Climbing. The treaty of Saint-Julien imposed by France forces Charles-Emmanuel to move away his troops 4 miles of the city. Less than thirty years later, in 1629, always under the reign of Charles Emmanuel, a war bursts again, in connection with the principality of Montferrat located between Turin and Milan. Charles-Emmanuel is in the Spanish camp, against France of Richelieu what is worth in Savoy a new French occupation. Victor-Amédée Ier which succeeds his/her father in 1630 concludes with France the treaty from Cherasco (1631) by which it gives up the town of Pignerol

According to Avezou, when the French Armies occupy it for the third time, Savoy hardly concerns itself a state of prolonged exhaustion, consecutive with the wars of the end of the 16th century " and with the requirements of the army rabble foreign employed by Charles-Emmanuel who had drawn without brake his subsistence from the local resources during more than ten years " . François Dirty note dilapidation of the places of worship. The epidemics of Peste reach their culminating point in 1629-30.

Savoy at the XVIIe century

Reform and Counter-Reformation

As the rest of Europe, Savoy was touched as from the 16th century by the great religious movements which are the Protestant Réforme and the catholic Counter-Reformation. Geneva, integral part of Savoy at the beginning of the 16th century will be acquired with the Reform and Calvin will make a theocratic state in 1541 of it. The catholics leave Geneva in 1535, and évêché of the Genevese settles with Annecy. With the invasion of Chablais by the Berneses in 1536, this province in the camp of the Reform will push.

In Savoy, the Counter-Reformation incarnates in François Dirty, an ecclesiastic of good nobility which will be thereafter canonized. Not only he is the workman of the catholic reconquest of Chablais, as from 1594, but he also manages to revivify a Church in full decline: The diocese of Geneva-Annecy is completely visited, the preached people, the notable ones brought to a level of spirituality seldom reached. It thus leads a true policy against-reformist vis-a-vis to the Nouvelle Rome Genevese . Hardened Catholicism remains an important component of the Savoyard identity.

The lull

As from 1631, after the treaty of Cherasco, under the reigns of Victor-Amédée Ier, Charles-Emmanuel II and Victor-Amédée II, Savoy can enjoy sixty years of peaceful life, even if this peace is made in the shade growing power of France. Louis XIV will treat really the duchy of Savoy-Piedmont in vassal state. For as much, found peace does not produce abundance in this country which remains poor. Part of the population must emigrate. This emigration relates to especially the mountainous regions, Faucigny at the head. The destinations Germany, Geneva, Were worth it, the country of Vaud, the Franche-Comté, the Lorraine, the Burgundy and the Flanders S. Lyon and Piedmont are also a destination for the populations of the valleys of the Tarentaise and the Maurienne.

The general cultural level knows a progression. At the end of the century, the majority of the inhabitants of the Tarentaise can read and write. In the interior valleys, the easy families, but also the emigrants having earned some money found schools. The level of the clergy is also in rise, but as Lovie notes it, this clergy more educated becomes less close to the people " Hay of the priests plowmen or merchants living with partner and children with known and within sight of flocks completely blasées "

Savoy at the XVIIIe century

Again in the storm of the European wars

In 1686, most of Europe leagued against France of Louis XIV with made its power. One gives the name of Ligue of Augsburg to this coalition. It is the moment that the new sovereign of Piedmont-Savoy Victor-Amédée II chooses to release itself from the heavy French supervision. The consequence was a new French occupation of Savoy, between 1690 and 1696. The treated of Turin of August 19th, 1796 obliged the duke to pass by again in the French camps and the marriage of his/her daughter with the duke of Burgundy. Savoy is then abused in the swirls of the War of succession of Spain, which is worth a new French occupation to him, in 1703-1713, which will make lose with the French their reputation of easy occupants. Not only the French troops live on the country, but three winters of continuation, the troops of Victor-Emmanuel launch counter-attacks starting from the peaks of the Alps. This time, France sets up what resembles a pure and simple annexation well. The Traités of Utrecht (1713) decides some differently and restores Savoy with the Maison of Savoy. It is at this time that Victor-Amédée II receives the crown of Sicily which it exchanges with the Sardinia in 1720, following the treated of London of 1718.

The last test will be the Spanish occupation between 1742 and 1749. The treaties of Utrecht had made of Spain a power second-rate, but Louis XIV had installed the Spaniards in Italy of North to obstruct Austria, and when Charles-Emmanuel III, king de Sardaigne, carries out a reversal of alliance and passes in the camp of Marie-Therese of Austria. France lets its Spanish allies then declare the war in Sardinia which cannot avoid the occupation of Savoy by the Spaniards who will puncture the country copiously. The sovereign of Turin treats Savoy then as simple a glacis whose abandonment with its fate is preferable with a vain defense. Although the capital remains in Turin, that Piedmont remains about it the heart whose Sardinia is only one eccentric possession, one qualifies from now on " Sarde" what was formerly the duchy of Savoy: Sardinian state, Sardinian administration, Sardinian roads, Sardinian army etc

A healthy management

It is with Charles-Emmanuel III that one owes the modernization and the effectiveness of a state which becomes in advance over its time in many fields. It is not a question of democracy, Charles-Emmanuel belongs to the category of the enlightened despotic . He obtains an army of 30000 men, reorganized by a German and can thus do without the contest of the feudal nobility. He grants more and more capacities to his civils servant, at the expense of those of the communities of inhabitants, he removes with the Senate of Chambéry his Court of Auditors, and if the professors remain resulting from the clergy, they become civils servant of State. All the new regulations are condensed in the " Code Victorin" also called " Royal Constitutions, promulgated in 1723 and which represents the second legal monument after the Statutia de Sabaudiae of Amédée VIII. In order to institute the tax just possible, and thus most effective, it sets up in 1728 the immense building site of the Sardinian Mappe, i.e. a land register on the scale 1:2400. Of passage to Chambéry at that time, it is while working with the services of the land register that Jean-Jacques Rousseau will earn her living.

The successor of Charles-Emmanuel III, Victor-Amédée III, will continue the work of modernization of the Sardinian kingdom by removing with compensation the seigneuriaux rights in the years in the years 1770-1780. The Jesuits were expelled of the States of Savoy in 1773.

A primarily agricultural economy

To include/understand the conditions of economic development at that time, it is necessary well to become aware of the transport conditions: The few a hundred and twenty kilometers to go from Chambéry to Thonon require three days of road. These transport conditions make the trade rather difficult. Savoy lives mainly in autarky, the majority of the exchanges being limited to the exchanges between the valleys and the areas of altitude. The introduction of the Potato as from 1740-50 and corn as from 1780 is a progress factor.

There is well a small industrial activity and mining in the sectors of Modane, Tarentaise and Annecy. It is limited to the local needs. The 18th century sees an important innovation nevertheless: The development of clock making industry in the Faucigny, close to Geneva.

Social evolution at the XVIIIe century

The Savoyard population is formed to 90% of peasants for which the life remains hard and can become dramatic as in 1709, in the middle of the French occupation of 1703-1713, at the time of terrible the " great winter " from 1709 which leads the senators of Chambéry to write a report evoking " complete and nearest ruin " province. This permanent exposure to the risks of the climate and the foreign occupations does not prevent a certain village democracy from opening out: Sunday, after the mass, the men meet regularly under the market for a general meeting announced in pulpit by the priest. A notary is present as well as the lord of the manor who represents the lord or the duke, but the assembly is chaired by elected syndics: The discussed subjects relate to lntretiens of the communal goods, mills, fountains, furnaces, presses, of the recruiting thepastoral ones, amount of the communal taxes. In does the Tectonic foreland of Annecy, the communal goods account for 11? 4% of the surface, in more mountainous areas, like the Wallows or the country of Thônes, this percentage reach 43%. It is still higher in Tarentaise or Maurienne. The villages are often richer in mountain, partly thanks to the traditions of immigration that around Chambéry where the tenant farming with the profit of the nobility and the middle-class dominates.

As regards dominant class, one witnesses on the one hand a renewal of the nobility by ennoblement of the highest layer of the middle-class: Magistrates, syndics, and on another side to a stiffening of the nobility. In fact the middle-class indicates in Savoy, at that time, not industrialists, but a class of robins (i.e. of these very many notaries), which had taken part in the repurchase of the seigneuriaux rights starting from their setting on sale in 1770, and by a elitic kind of reflex, the nobility holds rigor of it to them so that the bringing together between the two privileged classes of which the rights and the economic position tend to become identical does not make. The widening of the nobility indeed is not massive, it is the king who keeps in hand his recruitment. The formal loss of the privileges does not exclude their maintenance symbolic system.

Dukes of Savoy and Kings de Sardaigne of 1416 to 1792

1416 - 1451: Amédée VIII '' the Pacific '' (1383-1451)
1451 - 1465: Louis Ier (1402-1465), wire of the precedent
1465 - 1472: Amédée IX '' the Happy '' (1435-1472), wire of the precedent
1472 - 1482: Philibert Ier '' the Hunter '' (1465-1482), wire of the precedent
1482 - 1490: Charles Ier '' the Warrior '' (1468-1490), brother of the precedent
1490 - 1496: Charles II alias Charles-Jean-Amédée (1489-1496), wire of the precedent
1496 - 1497: Philippe II '' without Ground '' (1438-1497), great-uncle of the precedent, wire of Louis Ier
1497 - 1504: Philibert II '' the Beautiful '' (1480-1504), wire of the precedent
1504 - 1553: Charles III (1486-1553), brother of the precedent
1553 - 1580: Emmanuel-Philibert '' Tête of Iron '' (1528-1580), wire of the precedent
1580 - 1630: Charles-Emmanuel Ier '' Large the '' (1562-1630), wire of the precedent
1630 - 1637: Victor-Amédée Ier (1587-1637), wire of the precedent
1637 - 1638: François-Hyacinthe (1627-1638), wire of the precedent
1638 - 1675: Charles-Emmanuel II (1634-1675), brother of the precedent
1675 - 1730: Victor-Amédée II (1666-1732), wire of the precedent, king de Sicile (1713-1720), then king de Sardaigne (1720-1730), abdicates in 1730.
1730 - 1773: Charles-Emmanuel III (1701-1773), wire of the precedent
1773 - 1796: Victor-Amédée III (1726-1796), wire of the precedent

Sources of the article

Henri Ménabréa, History of Savoy , joined together Printing works of Chambéry, 1976 (1st edition, Grasset, 1933)
R. Avezou, History of Savoy , PUF, 1949
Jean Nicolas, Savoy at the 18th century, Nobility and Middle-class , Maloine editor, 1978 (thesis)
Jacques Lovie, Art and Histoire , in Savoy , Christine Bonneton editor, 1978
Jean and Renee Nicolas, daily life in Savoy with XVIIe and XVIIIe century , Hatchet, 1979

See too

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