The Savoyard state is a

term of art Jargon is the specialized terminology associated with a particular field or area of activity. Jargon is normally employed in a particular communicative context and may not be well understood outside that context. The context is usually a partic ...

used by historians to denote collectively all of the states ruled by the counts and dukes of Savoy from the

Middle Ages In the history of Europe, the Middle Ages or medieval period lasted approximately from the late 5th to the late 15th centuries, similar to the post-classical period of global history. It began with the fall of the Western Roman Empire ...

to the formation of the

Kingdom of Italy The Kingdom of Italy ( it, Regno d'Italia) was a state that existed from 1861, when Victor Emmanuel II of Kingdom of Sardinia, Sardinia was proclamation of the Kingdom of Italy, proclaimed King of Italy, until 1946, when civil discontent led to ...

. At the end of the 17th century, its population was about 1.4 million.Geoffrey Symcox
"Victor Amadaeus II: Absolutism in the Savoyard State, 1675-1730."
Page 245.Gregory Hanlon. "The Hero of Italy: Odoardo Farnese, Duke of Parma, his Soldiers, and his Subjects in the Thirty Years' War." Routledge: May 2014. Page 87. Piedmont's population is given at 700,000, and Savoy's at 400,000 in 1630; Aosta and the County of Nice are not listed.

History

The multi-century history of

Savoy Savoy (; frp, Savouè ; french: Savoie ) is a cultural-historical region in the Western Alps. Situated on the cultural boundary between Occitania and Piedmont, the area extends from Lake Geneva in the north to the Dauphiné in the south. Sa ...

included the period before the County of Savoy, then the County of Savoy, the

Duchy of Savoy The Duchy of Savoy ( it, Ducato di Savoia; french: Duché de Savoie) was a country in Western Europe that existed from 1416. It was created when Sigismund, Holy Roman Emperor, raised the County of Savoy into a duchy for Amadeus VIII. The du ...

, the period from Savoy to Sicily and Sardinia before

Italian unification The unification of Italy ( it, Unità d'Italia ), also known as the ''Risorgimento'' (, ; ), was the 19th-century political and social movement that resulted in the consolidation of different states of the Italian Peninsula into a single ...

, and thereafter. From the

, the state comprised the

, the

Principality of Piedmont The lordship of Piedmont, later the principality of Piedmont ( it, Piemonte), was originally an appanage of the Savoyard county and as such its lords were members of the Achaea branch of the House of Savoy. The title was inherited by the elder br ...

, the

Duchy of Aosta __NOTOC__ The Duchy of Aosta, originally the County of Aosta, was a realm ruled by the House of Savoy from the early 11th century until the late 18th, when its independent institutions were aligned with those of the Principality of Piedmont. The ti ...

and the

County of Nice The County of Nice (french: Comté de Nice / Pays Niçois, it, Contea di Nizza/Paese Nizzardo, Niçard oc, Contèa de Niça/País Niçard) is a historical region of France located around the southeastern city of Nice and roughly equivalent t ...

, all of which were formally part of the

Holy Roman Empire The Holy Roman Empire was a political entity in Western, Central, and Southern Europe that developed during the Early Middle Ages and continued until its dissolution in 1806 during the Napoleonic Wars. From the accession of Otto I in 962 unt ...

. However, the Savoyards often acted against the Emperor, repeatedly siding with the French during the Franco-Habsburg Wars. From 1708, it included the

Duchy of Montferrat The Duchy of Montferrat was a state located in Northern Italy. It was created out of what was left of the medieval March of Montferrat after the last Palaeologus heir had died (1533) and the margraviate had been briefly controlled by the Emperor ...

, then the

Kingdom of Sicily The Kingdom of Sicily ( la, Regnum Siciliae; it, Regno di Sicilia; scn, Regnu di Sicilia) was a state that existed in the south of the Italian Peninsula and for a time the region of Ifriqiya from its founding by Roger II of Sicily in 1130 un ...

from 1713 until 1720, the

Kingdom of Sardinia The Kingdom of Sardinia,The name of the state was originally Latin: , or when the kingdom was still considered to include Corsica. In Italian it is , in French , in Sardinian , and in Piedmontese . also referred to as the Kingdom of Savoy-S ...

from 1720, and the

Duchy of Genoa The Duchy of Genoa () () was a country consisting of the territories of the former Republic of Genoa. It was formed when the former territories of the republic were given to the Kingdom of Sardinia in 1815 as a result of the Congress of Vienna, an ...

from 1815. These territories formed a composite state under the

House of Savoy The House of Savoy ( it, Casa Savoia) was a royal dynasty that was established in 1003 in the historical Savoy region. Through gradual expansion, the family grew in power from ruling a small Alpine county north-west of Italy to absolute rule of ...

until the

Perfect Fusion The Perfect Fusion ( it, Fusione perfetta) was the 1847 act of the Savoyard king Charles Albert of Sardinia which abolished the administrative differences between the mainland states ( Savoy and Piedmont) and the island of Sardinia, in a fashio ...

union in 1847. By 1861, this unified state had acquired most of the other states on the Italian peninsula and formed the

, while its territories north and west of the Alps (including Savoy proper) became part of France. The Final Act of the

Congress of Vienna The Congress of Vienna (, ) of 1814–1815 was a series of international diplomatic meetings to discuss and agree upon a possible new layout of the European political and constitutional order after the downfall of the French Emperor Napoleon ...

of 1815 refers to them as the "States of His Majesty the King of Sardinia". Among contemporaries, "Kingdom of Sardinia" and "Sardinia" were used as common short forms, even though they were confounded with the island. "Piedmont", "Savoy-Piedmont" and "Piedmont-Sardinia" are also sometimes used to emphasise that the economic and political centre of the Savoyard state was the Piedmont since the late Middle Ages. The seat of the rulers was in

Turin Turin ( , Piedmontese language, Piedmontese: ; it, Torino ) is a city and an important business and cultural centre in Northern Italy. It is the capital city of Piedmont and of the Metropolitan City of Turin, and was the first Italian capital ...

. Each state had its own institutions and laws.

Territory

File:Pagi rhônalpins.png, Savoy during the Karling Empire File:Savoie 12 13e siecles.GIF, County of Savoy during the 12th File:Savoie 15e siecle.GIF, Duchy of Savoy in the 15th File:Italy 1843.svg, Italian Peninsula in 1843 File:Pays de Savoie relief location map.jpg, Proper Savoy today File:Map of region of Piedmont, Italy, with provinces-it.svg, Today's Administrative Piedmont in

Italy Italy ( it, Italia ), officially the Italian Republic, ) or the Republic of Italy, is a country in Southern Europe. It is located in the middle of the Mediterranean Sea, and its territory largely coincides with the homonymous geographical ...

Flags

File:Königsbanner 14Jh.svg, The first counts used the

banner as proof of their loyalty to the Emperor File:Savoie flag.svg, Flag of the County of Savoy and Duchy of Savoy (until 1783) File:Flag of the Kingdom of Sardinia.svg, Flag of the Kingdom of Sardinia used in the late 18th (1783-1802) File:Flag of Kingdom of Sardinia (1848).svg, Flag of the Kingdom of Sardinia (1832-1848), obtained by merging the flag of

Sardinia Sardinia ( ; it, Sardegna, label=Italian, Corsican and Tabarchino ; sc, Sardigna , sdc, Sardhigna; french: Sardaigne; sdn, Saldigna; ca, Sardenya, label= Algherese and Catalan) is the second-largest island in the Mediterranean Sea, aft ...

and

Genoa Genoa ( ; it, Genova ; lij, Zêna ). is the capital of the Italian region of Liguria and the sixth-largest city in Italy. In 2015, 594,733 people lived within the city's administrative limits. As of the 2011 Italian census, the Province of ...

File:Flag of Italy (1861-1946).svg, Flag of Kingdom of Sardinia (1848–1861)

References

States and territories established in 1003 Savoy Former countries in Europe 1861 disestablishments in Europe {{Europe-geo-stub