Charles Felix (; 6 April 1765 – 27 April 1831) was the King of Sardinia and ruler of the Savoyard states from 12 March 1821 until his death in 1831. He was the last male-line member of the House of Savoy that started with Victor Amadeus I, and caused the line of Victor Amadeus I's younger brother Thomas Francis to seize the throne after Felix's death.
Early life Charles Felix was born in Turin as the eleventh child and fifth son born to Victor Amadeus III of Savoy and Maria Antonia Ferdinanda of Spain. His paternal grandparents were Charles Emmanuel III of Savoy and his German wife Polyxena of Hesse-Rotenburg. His maternal grandparents were French-born King Philip V of Spain and his Italian wife, Elisabeth Farnese.
He was a younger brother of two other rulers of Savoy Charles Emmanuel IV and Victor Emmanuel I. He spent his childhood with his sister Maria Carolina and his younger brother, Giuseppe Benedetto Placido, Count of Moriana, at the Castle of Moncalieri.
From his youth, Carlo Felice was reported as having a very complex character: on the one hand consistent and inflexible, private, distrustful, and impulsive, if not touchy and vindictive; on the other hand honest, sincere, and capable of emotion and fondness. He had a clever mind, at times even ironic. He possessed a sacral conception of the monarchy and the right to reign.G. Locorotondo, Carlo Felice, pp.365-366
During the years of the French Revolution and the Italian campaign, Charles Felix formed part of a "parallel court" opposed to Charles Emmanuel IV's circle, along with his brother Victor Emmanuel, the latter's wife Maria Theresa, Maurizio Giuseppe Duke of Monferrat, and Giuseppe Placido, count of Moriana.A. Segre, Vittorio Emanuele I, p. 42
In this period, Charles Felix began to keep a personal diary, which is an important source for events and his conflicts with the court in Savoy.
Italian campaign (1792–1798) When war broke out with France, Charles Felix did not distinguish himself as a soldier, despite having received a military education. In 1792, after the French occupation of the Duchy of Savoy and the county of Nice, he followed the troops to Saluzzo and in 1793, he accompanied his father, Victor Amadeus III, who had directed the operations for the reconquest of Nice and Savoy along with the Austrians under general J. de Vins, into the Susa Valley, to Pinerolo, Cuneo, and Tende.
Charles Felix remained very far from the front lines in any case. In spring 1794, after the arrival in Aosta of his brother the Duke of Monferrat, Charles Felix and Giuseppe Placido went to Morgex in order to retake some positions of relative strategic importance, but they did not achieve anything.S. Costa di Beauregard, Unhomme d'autrefois, Paris 1877, p. 274
On 28 April 1796, Victor Amadeus III was forced to sign the Armistice of Cherasco with the French, which was followed by the Treaty of Paris on 15 May, which accepted French control of Nice, Savoy, Genevoise, and some fortresses. Charles Felix, who had been titled Duke of Genoa, obtained the title of Marquis of Susa in compensation for his nominal loss.
Victor Amadeus III died in October of the same year and was succeeded as Prince of Piedmont by Charles Emmanuel IV. The relationship between the new king and Charles Felix had never been good but now deteriorated as the king strove to keep his brothers in the dark about affairs of the state.
Two years into his reign, Charles Emmanuel IV was forced to surrender all royal control on the mainland. Along with the king and the rest of the royal family, Charles Felix left Turin on the evening of 9 December 1798 for Cagliari, where they arrived on 3 March 1799.
Viceroy of Sardinia (1799–1814)
Charles Emmanuel IV was childless and, after the death of his wife, he abdicated in favour of his brother Victor Emmanuel I on 4 June 1802. The latter did not take possession of the domains in Sardinia himself, preferring to entrust them to Charles Felix as viceroy.
Charles Felix's government of Sardinia was rather rigid and authoritarian. Since the in 1794, the island had experienced a period of disorder, exacerbated by widespread poverty, which had led to an increase in crime, which the viceroy suppressed with notable harshness, writing to his brother the king, "slaughter, slaughter, for the good of the human race."
Charles Felix established a military regime, such that his Sardinian subjects referred to him as "Carlo Feroce" (Charles the Ferocious). The tool of this regime was the special court of the Viceregal delegation for the investigation of political proceedings, which took action immediately against the "capopolo" (popular leader), Vincenzo Sulis, who was guilty of nothing other than having been more successful than the viceroy in defeating the revolutionary movements. When Sulis was condemned to twenty years in jail, the viceroy considered it a lenient sentence. Furthermore, in the persecution of "state criminals," Charles Felix legitimated the adoption of military procedures and granted every power to the police, from spying to censoring letters and placing bounties on suspects.
In his reorganisation work, however, he displayed notable energy to control the autonomy of the judiciary and the local bureaucracy and managed to correct some abuses of the feudal regime.
In fact, when the Stamenti, the parliament of the kingdom, voted to pay a tax of 400,000 lire, Charles Felix exerted significant pressure to have the poorest classes exempted from the tax and he judged disputes in feudal jurisdiction in favour of vassals rather than feudal lords. When an anti-feudal revolt took place against the Duke of Asinara, who had refused to conform to the regulations of the viceroy, Charles Felix decided to punish both the duke, who was stripped of his property, as well as the revolutionaries.
Despite the precarious political and social situation, Charles Felix was able to bring some improvements to the agriculture and economy of the island. Under his rule, an agrarian society and an office for the administration of Crown mines and forests were established. Additionally, the farming of olives was encouraged and commercial contracts were granted to encourage local production. Finally, he began a project to systematise the road network.
Marriage and return to Turin (1814–1821)
On 7 March 1807, in the Cappella Palatina of the Palazzo dei Normanni in Palermo, Charles Felix married by proxy Maria Cristina of Naples and Sicily (17 January 1779 – 11 March 1849), daughter of Ferdinand IV King of Naples and Sicily and Maria Carolina of Austria.
The marriage, which had originally been opposed by Charles Felix, had been arranged for dynastic reasons. Neither Charles Emmanuel nor Victor Emmanuel had male children (the son of the latter had become sick and died in Sardinia), while the Duke of Montferrat and the Count of Morian were deceased, so Charles Felix had become the heir presumptive and therefore had to produce a male heir.
Although the marriage to Maria Cristina proved harmonious, she was unable to have children, forcing Victor Emmanuel to consider the succession of Charles Albert, Prince of Carignano, from a collateral line of the House of Savoy.
After the fall of Napoleon and the return of Victor Emmanuel to Turin on 20 May 1814, Charles Felix joined him for a brief period before returning to Sardinia the following year with his wife. He formally retained the role of Viceroy until 1821, although he returned to the court in Turin after a short period.
Revolution of 1821 Origin Following revolts in Cádiz in 1820, King Ferdinand VII of Spain was forced to restore the Spanish Constitution of 1812 and the hope of obtaining similar concessions from their own sovereigns arose in many European states. Insurrections broke out in Naples and Palermo.
The initial indications of the crisis were confirmed on 11 January 1821 when four students were stopped by the police at a theatre performance in Turin because they were wearing red caps with black bows, a symbol of the carboneria. The young men offered resistance and were arrested, provoking a large brawl.
The next day, all the students and many of their teachers protested, calling for the release of the youths and, when this was refused, they blockaded themselves in the university and the government was forced to call in the army. Although nobody was killed, the wounded were very numerous and the situation escalated.
A connection was made between the protestors and the secret society of the "Federati", whose leaders Santorre di Rossi, Giacinto Collegno, Carlo Emanuele Asinari, and Guglielmo Moffa di Lisio Gribaldi (all soldiers, officials, or sons of ministers) and Roberto d'Azeglio met with Charles Albert on 6 March. They were ready to act, having identified the prince as a new man for the House of Savoy, who might be willing to break with the absolutist past.
The goal of the conspirators was not to abolish the House of Savoy, but to induce it to enact political and social reforms and then undertake a war against Austria, which seemed possible in light of the deeply anti-Austrian sentiments of the Victor Emmanuel I.
In this, the conspirators took advantage of the absence of Charles Felix, who they thought would have been able to induce Victor Emmanuel to oppose their plans. They planned to raise the army, surround the royal residence at Moncalieri castle and force him to grant a constitution and declare war on Austria. The role of Charles Albert would have been to mediate between the conspirators and the king, but the following morning, he changed his mind and attempted to escape from the conspirators, although he did not disavow them.
Beginning of the revolt The conspirators grew suspicious and prepared to cancel the insurrection which they had planned for the 10th. The same day, Charles Albert, completely penitent, raced to Moncalieri in order to confess everything to Victor Emmanuel and beg for pardon. In the night the garrison of Alessandria, commanded by one of the conspirators, Guglielmo Ansaldi, rebelled and occupied the city. Although they had been abandoned by the Prince, the rest of the revolutionaries decided to act at this point.
Abdication of Victor Emmanuel and regency of Charles Albert
On Sunday 11 March 1821, King Victor Emmanuel I met with the Crown Council, of which Charles Albert was a member. As a result of the king's indecision, no action was taken.
On 12 March, the Citadel of Turin fell into the hands of the rebels. Victor Emmanuel encouraged Charles Albert and Cesare Balbo to negotiate with the Carbonari, who refused to listen to their messages. Thus, in the evening, in the face of the spreading military uprising, the king abdicated in favour of his brother Charles Felix. Since the latter was in Modena at the time, Charles Albert was appointed regent.
The abdication of the king, which followed the dismissal of the ministers of state, led to chaos because it created a dynastic crisis which foreign powers would not ignore and because it split the army and bureaucracy, preventing every possibility of maintaining order.
The regent tried to take control by naming a new government (the lawyer, Ferdinando del Pozzo (1768–1843) as Minister of the Interior, general Emanuele Pes di Villamarina as minister of war, and Lodovico Sauli d'Igliano as minister of foreign affairs) and attempted to negotiate with the rebels, but he achieved nothing.
Given the impossibility of taking any decisions without the agreement of the new king, Charles Albert sent Charles Felix an account of the events, seeking instructions, but the letter took a very long time to reach its destination.
Fearful of becoming the object of popular anger, on the evening of 13 March 1821, Charles Albert signed a decree granting a constitution along the lines of the Spanish constitution of 1812, which would not become law until approved by the king.