The Legion of Antibes was recruited under direction of Pope Pius IX's secretary of state,

Giacomo Antonelli Giacomo Antonelli (2 April 1806 – 6 November 1876) was an Italian cardinal deacon. He was the Cardinal Secretary of State from 1848 until his death; he played a key role in Italian politics, resisting the unification of Italy and affectin ...

, following the

September Convention The September Convention was a treaty, signed on 15 September 1864, between the Kingdom of Italy and the French Empire, under which: * French Emperor Napoleon III would withdraw all French troops from Rome within two years. * King Victor Emmanuel ...

of 1864, to replace French troops garrisoned in Rome, during the closing phase of Italian unification, the ''Risorgimento''. The September Convention permitted the Pope to keep an army, but it did not give

Napoleon III Napoleon III (Charles Louis Napoléon Bonaparte; 20 April 18089 January 1873) was the first President of France (as Louis-Napoléon Bonaparte) from 1848 to 1852 and the last monarch of France as Emperor of the French from 1852 to 1870. A nephew ...

the right to continue to maintain forces in Rome, supporting papal temporal power in the rump

Papal States The Papal States ( ; it, Stato Pontificio, ), officially the State of the Church ( it, Stato della Chiesa, ; la, Status Ecclesiasticus;), were a series of territories in the Italian Peninsula under the direct sovereign rule of the pope fro ...

. Nevertheless, at the

battle of Mentana The Battle of Mentana was fought on November 3, 1867, near the village of Mentana, located north-east of Rome (then in the Papal States, now modern Lazio), between French-papal troops and the Italian volunteers led by Giuseppe Garibaldi, who wer ...

, fought 3 November 1867 between French-Papal troops and the Italian volunteers led by Giuseppe Garibaldi, it became public knowledge that the "Legion" was composed of French Imperial recruits, Antibes lying on the Mediterranean coast close to the border with

Piedmont it, Piemontese , population_note = , population_blank1_title = , population_blank1 = , demographics_type1 = , demographics1_footnotes = , demographics1_title1 = , demographics1_info1 = , demographics1_title2 ...

: their "services to the Pope were rendered as services to the French Empire," the former Prime Minister of Italy, Francesco Crispi recalled in 1891. "It is singular that on the dead bodies were found livrets French regiments, to which every one of these men belonged, with the number of his matriculation, and with formula of the oath of fidelity to the Emperor." No formal denunciation of French intervention so contrary to the spirit of the September convention was lodged, however. A frank remark of the French minister

Jules Favre Jules Claude Gabriel Favre (21 March 1809 – 20 January 1880) was a French statesman and lawyer. After the establishment of the Third Republic in September 1870, he became one of the leaders of the Opportunist Republicans in the National Assem ...

with the Italian ambassador Costantino, count Nigra, 6 September 1874, allowed the obvious: "The convention of September 15th is very dead".''Archives Diplomatiques'', 1874, pp 2, 24, noted by Crispi 1891:714. Cardinal Antonelli continued to call for the Catholic powers of Europe to come to the aid of the Pope, but there was no response.

Notes

{{reflist Italian unification Military history of Italy Second French Empire Military of the Papal States Military units and formations established in 1864 France–Italy relations