Whilst in Arbatax, on the east coast of Sardinia, awaiting Missy Bear’s admission to Yacht hospital, I continued reading a book that Alix had bought for me from the Oxfam bookshop in Cirencester, where she volunteers. It is called ‘Portillo’s Hidden History of Britain’. I quite like Michael’s narrative style and I can recommend the book, which basically looks at the stories behind some of Britain’s fabulous buildings, some of which are soon to be re-purposed.
One such building is the Cambridge Military Hospital in Aldershot, not far from our old home in Fleet. It is a grand building, of an Italianate style as it happens. Behind the imposing façade, the hospital interior layout was designed to follow the principles adopted by Florence Nightingale, and based upon her experiences of treating casualties of the Crimean War.
At that point Portillo mentions that the main protagonists against Russia included the Sardinians. Well, that was a surprise, and the fact immediately landed me back on our sunny island. Why on earth were Sardinians fighting along with us, the French and the Turks in Crimea?
The clue might be obvious to anyone who played ‘Risk’ as a child. Risk is a geographical-based board game, where you form alliances with other players to invade and take over other player’s countries.
Despite the battle being fought on the north coast of the Black Sea, one player’s war objective was far away…
Prior to 1861, Italy had not been a unified country since the 6th century. After the fall of the Roman Empire, waves of invaders, including Vandals then Ostrogoths ruled the land. Islamic invaders conquered Northern Africa and the Iberian Peninsula, as well as nearby Mediterranean islands such as Sicily, and the southern Italian mainland.
In 1130, the Norman king Roger II defeated the Muslims, and formed the Kingdom of Sicily. This combined the island of Sicily with the southern part of the Italian Peninsula (the Kingdom of Naples) and Malta. The overall capital of the kingdom was Palermo. Rule of this Kingdom passed to the House of Anjou (in modern France).
Eventually, the Sicilian islanders revolted against Angevin rule, and with help from our friends from the Crown of Aragon (you may remember from an earlier blog) threw out the Angevins. The Aragonese ruled Sicily, but the Angevins retained the mainland part of - what they still referred to as - the Kingdom of Sicily. This is where the term the ‘Two Sicilies’ comes from: the island Sicily; and the mainland Sicily (also known as the Kingdom of Naples).
You may also remember from a previous blog that, under the Treaty of Utrecht, which ended the War of the Spanish Succession, the Spanish (successors to the Crown of Aragon) ceded the island of Sicily, along with some of the Duchy of Milan, to Savoy. They also ceded the Kingdom of Sicily (Kingdom of Naples), Sardinia and most of the Duchy of Milan to the Holy Roman Emperor - and Austrian Hapsburg - Charles VI. The Papal States remained in the middle.
But in 1720, Savoy and the Holy Roman Emperor swapped Sicily for Sardinia (just like that!), so re-creating the Two Sicilies. And in 1734, the Two Sicilies was conquered by the Spanish Bourbons to once again come under Spanish rule…
You can see that Italy, as we now know it, was very fragmented, and mostly ruled by foreign powers! The situation was not helped by Napoleon I, who conquered and then lost much of his northern Italy possesions, during his post-revolutionary expanionist wars.
Over the centuries, many ‘Italians’ yearned for their ancient country to be reunited. One of these unification chaps was Victor Emmanuel II (King of Sardinia). You may remember that the rulers of Sardinia were actually based in Savoy and then Piedmont. Victor was born in Turin and he fought in the First Italian War of Independence, against the ‘occupying’ Austrians.
In the game of real-world Risk, the Crimean war offered Victor an opportunity. In November 1852 he had made the wise decision to turn his government over to the able and determined Count Cavour. The two of them decided to side Sardinia with France (and UK and Turkey) simply to gain favours with France. Specifically, they allied themselves with Napoleon III, Emperor of France. In return, France supported Sardinia in the Second Italian War of Independence, which resulted in the liberation of Lombardy from Austrian rule.
Victor Emmanuel then supported the ‘Expedition of the Thousand’ (1860–1861) - led by Giuseppe Garibaldi of biscuit fame - which resulted in the rapid fall of the Kingdom of the Two Sicilies: Garibaldi’s red-shirted* army landed in Marsala on Sicily in 1860 to liberate the island;
Garibaldi then went onto liberate the southern mainland from the Spanish House of Bourbon. In short, a Garibaldi fought and beat a Bourbon, in the 'Battle of the Biscuits'!
But Victor stopped Garibaldi from attacking Rome (ruled by the Papal States), because it was under French protection, and he owed them a favour I suppose.
In 1860, many other Italian regions decided to side with Sardinia-Piedmont, and Victor seized the opportunity and won a battle against the Papal forces. He then met Garibaldi, receiving from him control of the Two Sicilies. Victor Emmanuel II became the first King of Italy on 17 March 1861.
In 1866, he won a third war of independence to win Venice, and finally took the Papal States in 1870, when France withdrew in weakness following their loss in the Franco-Prussian War. So, Italy looks like it does now. And they have a decent football team to show for it.
One man’s vision sent his Sardinian subjects to battle in a far-off land, simply to court favour with a powerful (yet temporary) ally, simply to win a different war with a much greater prize. You have to admire the thinking, planning and execution, don’t you?
Victor’s big win means that when we sail on Missy Bear from Sardinia to Sicily and then along the foot of the mainland towards Greece, we will not have to change our Italian courtesy flag for the duration.