Alpes-Maritimes
Alpes-Maritimes is a department of France located in the extreme southeast corner of the country, near the border with Italy and on the Mediterranean coast. Part of the Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur region, it had a population of 1,080,771 in 2013, it has become in recent years one of the world's most attractive destinations, featuring cities such as Nice, Cannes and Grasse, numerous alpine ski resorts. Alpes-Maritimes entirely surrounds Monaco; the department's inhabitants are called Maralpines. The Alpes-Maritimes department is surrounded by the departments of Var in the southwest, Alpes-de-Haute-Provence in the northwest and the Mediterranean Sea to the south, it surrounds the Principality of Monaco on the west and east. Its topography is mixed; as its name suggests, most of the department is a constituent part of the overall topographic Alps – including the Maritime Alps – but it has the distinction of being a coastal district with its Mediterranean coast. The coastal area and densely populated, includes all the cities in an continuous conurbation from Cannes to Menton, while the larger but sparsely populated mountainous area is rural with the exception of the three large resorts of Valberg and Isola 2000.
The highest point of the department is the Cime du Gélas on the Franco-Italian border which dominates the Vallée des Merveilles further east. In fact the summit of Monte Argentera is higher at 3297 m above sea level but it is located in Italian territory. There is Mount Mounier which dominates the south of the vast Dôme de Barrot, formed of a mass of more than 900 m thick red mudstones indented by the gorges of Daluis and Cians. Except in winter, four passes allow passage to the north of the Mercantour/Argentera mountain range whose imposing 62 km long barrier covered in winter snow, visible from the coast. From the west the Route des Grandes Alpes enters the Cayolle Pass first on the way to the Alps and the sources of the Var in the commune of Entraunes; the route follows the Col de la Bonette – the highest pass in Europe at 2715 m – to connect to the valley of the Tinée the Ubaye. Further east, the Lombard pass above Isola 2000 allows access to the shrine of Saint-Anne de Vinadio in Italy.
At its eastern end, the Col de Tende links with Cuneo in Italy. The only region of the Alps close to Nice has an afforestation rate of 60.9% higher than the average of the department and well above the average of 39.4% for the Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur region. The rivers in alphabetical order are: It is the climate that made the Côte d'Azur famous; the current department of Alpes-Maritimes, does not have only one climate, the complex terrain and high mountains divide the department between those who are well exposed and those which are less and with the mild Mediterranean climate there can be violent storms and prolonged droughts. The coastal area has a Mediterranean climate. Towards the interior in the north, a mountain climate. One of the attractions of the department is its level of sunshine: 300 days per year. Despite this the department is the most stormy of France with an average of 70 to 110 thunderstorm days per year. Alpes-Maritimes is divided into 2 arrondissements: the Grasse and the Nice,27 cantons and 163 communes.
In 2002 there were 14 intercommunalities. Including: 4 metropolitan intercommunalities of which: 3 are agglomeration communities Agglomeration community of Pôle Azur Provence Agglomeration community of the Riviera Française Agglomeration community of Sophia Antipolis and 1 is an urban community Urban community of Nice Côte d'Azur; the other 10 are Communauté de communes: Communauté de communes de la Vallée de l'Estéron Communauté de communes des Monts d'Azur Communauté de communes du Pays des Paillons Communauté de communes des Coteaux d'Azur Communauté de communes des Vallées d'Azur Communauté de communes de la Tinée Communauté de communes de Cians Var Communauté de communes des Stations du Mercantour Communauté de communes des Terres de Siagne Communauté de communes Vésubie MercantourThe following is a list of most populous cities of the department: Nice Antibes Cannes Grasse Cagnes-sur-Mer Le Cannet Saint-Laurent-du-Var Menton Vallauris Mandelieu-la-Napoule Vence Mougins Alpes Maritimae was created by Octavian as a Roman military district called maritimae Alps in 14BC, became a full Roman province in the middle of the 1st century AD with its capital first at Cemenelum and subsequently at Embrun.
At its greatest extent in AD 297, the province reached north to Briançon. A first French département of Alpes-Maritimes existed in the same area from 1793 to 1814, its boundaries differed from those of the modern department, however. In 1793 Alpes-Maritimes included Monaco and San Remo, but not Grasse, part of the départment of Var; the département was subdivided into the following arrondissements and cantons: Nice, cantons: Nice, Aspremont, La Brigue, Monaco, Roquebillière, Saint-Sauveur-sur-Tinée, Saorge, L'Escarène, Sospel and Villefranche-sur-Mer. Sanremo
Drumcliff
Drumcliff or Drumcliffe is a village in County Sligo, Ireland. It is 8 km north of Sligo town on the N15 road on a low gravel ridge between the mountain of Ben Bulben and Drumcliff bay, it is on the Drumcliff river called the "Codnach", which drains Glencar Lake. Drumcliff is the resting place of the Irish poet W. B. Yeats The old name of Drumcliff was Cnoc na Teagh; the village is one of several possible locations in Co. Sligo for the settlement of Nagnata as marked on Claudius Ptolemy's early map of Ireland; the name Codnach means placid or tempered river. A battle was fought on this river in in A. M. 3656 by the legendary Milesian monarch Tigearnmas. Tigernmas. Cath Codnaige in Tuath Eba in Cairpre moir Droma Cliab, fought by Tigernmas AFM An ancient topographical poem in the Dinnsenchus tells how the baskets in the name refer to the wicker frames of a fleet of boats, once made here; the poem is part of a lost epic story involving the Fomorians in a raid on an island in the western ocean. Drumcliff formed the western extremity of the kingdom of Bréifne, the northern extremity of Tir Fhiacrach Múaidhe.
The Battle of the Book took place near Drumcliff between the years 555 AD and 561 AD. St. Colmcille founded a monastery in Drumcliff in about 575.. The monastery was of such importance that it gave its name to the territory of Cairbre Drom Cliabh in which it resides; the first abbot was St. Mothorian. Lord of Cairbre, Dunadhach, a noble protection, a famous man by whom hostages were held, A pious soldier of the race of Conn under hazel crosses at Drumcliff The annals tell us that in 1225, Amlaib Ó Beólláin, erenach of Drumcliff, a man eminent for generosity and for his guest-house, died this year; the Ó Beólláin family were hereditary keepers of Drumcliff monastery. -1187- Drumcliff was plundered by the son of Mael Seachlainn Ó Ruairc, King of Uí Briúin Bréifne and Conmaicne Maigh Rein and by the son of Cathal Ó Ruairc, accompanied by the English of Meath. But God and St. Columbkille wrought a remarkable miracle in this instance. One hundred and twenty of the son of Melaghlin's retainers were killed throughout Conmaicne and Carbury of Drumcliff, through the miracles of God and St. Columbkille.
1355.1 - Conor Mac Consnava, Bishop of Bréifne Kilmore, from Drumcliff to Kells, died. All that remains of the monastery now is an Irish High Cross dating to c. 1100, a ruined 10th or 11th century round tower, the only one known in County Sligo, The round tower was struck by lightning in 1396. Further decorated cross slabs are built into the walls of the current church. Drumcliff is the final resting place of the poet W. B. Yeats, buried in the graveyard of St. Columba's Church of Ireland. Although Yeats died in Roquebrune-Cap-Martin, France in January 1939, his remains were brought home to Ireland by the Irish Naval Service and re-interred at Drumcliff in 1948 in the presence of a large number of local people and dignitaries which included the Minister for External Affairs, Eamonn De Valera and Seán MacBride, who represented the Government, his famous epitaph, written in the poem Under Bare Benbulbens Head reads Yeats paternal great-grandfather was rector in Drumcliff, as John Butler Yeats remarked in a letter to his son William in 1913: My father, tho' a low Churchman, hated Presbyterianism and Presbyterians.
Why? Because he knew like members of his own family the Catholic peasants of Drumcliff. In his time there were forty houses between the rectory gate and the round tower, now there is only one. In my grandfather's time he & the parish priest were friends. Maynooth did not exist, the priest was educated in the liberal atmosphere of a French College, both of them read Voltaire and Gibbon. One of the peasants told me he remembered the priest getting up a bonfire to celebrate my grandfather's return to the parish from a protracted sojourn in Dublin. List of towns and villages in Ireland Drumcliff group of parishes http://goireland.about.com/od/countysligo/gr/drumcliff_sligo.htm
Italy
Italy the Italian Republic, is a country in Southern Europe. Located in the middle of the Mediterranean Sea, Italy shares open land borders with France, Austria and the enclaved microstates San Marino and Vatican City. Italy covers an area of 301,340 km2 and has a temperate seasonal and Mediterranean climate. With around 61 million inhabitants, it is the fourth-most populous EU member state and the most populous country in Southern Europe. Due to its central geographic location in Southern Europe and the Mediterranean, Italy has been home to a myriad of peoples and cultures. In addition to the various ancient peoples dispersed throughout modern-day Italy, the most famous of which being the Indo-European Italics who gave the peninsula its name, beginning from the classical era and Carthaginians founded colonies in insular Italy and Genoa, Greeks established settlements in the so-called Magna Graecia, while Etruscans and Celts inhabited central and northern Italy respectively; the Italic tribe known as the Latins formed the Roman Kingdom in the 8th century BC, which became a republic with a government of the Senate and the People.
The Roman Republic conquered and assimilated its neighbours on the peninsula, in some cases through the establishment of federations, the Republic expanded and conquered parts of Europe, North Africa and the Middle East. By the first century BC, the Roman Empire emerged as the dominant power in the Mediterranean Basin and became the leading cultural and religious centre of Western civilisation, inaugurating the Pax Romana, a period of more than 200 years during which Italy's technology, economy and literature flourished. Italy remained the metropole of the Roman Empire; the legacy of the Roman Empire endured its fall and can be observed in the global distribution of culture, governments and the Latin script. During the Early Middle Ages, Italy endured sociopolitical collapse and barbarian invasions, but by the 11th century, numerous rival city-states and maritime republics in the northern and central regions of Italy, rose to great prosperity through shipping and banking, laying the groundwork for modern capitalism.
These independent statelets served as Europe's main trading hubs with Asia and the Near East enjoying a greater degree of democracy than the larger feudal monarchies that were consolidating throughout Europe. The Renaissance began in Italy and spread to the rest of Europe, bringing a renewed interest in humanism, science and art. Italian culture flourished, producing famous scholars and polymaths such as Michelangelo, Leonardo da Vinci, Raphael and Machiavelli. During the Middle Ages, Italian explorers such as Marco Polo, Christopher Columbus, Amerigo Vespucci, John Cabot and Giovanni da Verrazzano discovered new routes to the Far East and the New World, helping to usher in the European Age of Discovery. Italy's commercial and political power waned with the opening of trade routes that bypassed the Mediterranean. Centuries of infighting between the Italian city-states, such as the Italian Wars of the 15th and 16th centuries, left the region fragmented, it was subsequently conquered and further divided by European powers such as France and Austria.
By the mid-19th century, rising Italian nationalism and calls for independence from foreign control led to a period of revolutionary political upheaval. After centuries of foreign domination and political division, Italy was entirely unified in 1871, establishing the Kingdom of Italy as a great power. From the late 19th century to the early 20th century, Italy industrialised, namely in the north, acquired a colonial empire, while the south remained impoverished and excluded from industrialisation, fuelling a large and influential diaspora. Despite being one of the main victors in World War I, Italy entered a period of economic crisis and social turmoil, leading to the rise of a fascist dictatorship in 1922. Participation in World War II on the Axis side ended in military defeat, economic destruction and the Italian Civil War. Following the liberation of Italy and the rise of the resistance, the country abolished the monarchy, reinstated democracy, enjoyed a prolonged economic boom and, despite periods of sociopolitical turmoil became a developed country.
Today, Italy is considered to be one of the world's most culturally and economically advanced countries, with the sixth-largest worldwide national wealth. Its advanced economy ranks eighth-largest in the world and third in the Eurozone by nominal GDP. Italy owns the third-largest central bank gold reserve, it has a high level of human development, it stands among the top countries for life expectancy. The country plays a prominent role in regional and global economic, military and diplomatic affairs. Italy is a founding and leading member of the European Union and a member of numerous international institutions, including the UN, NATO, the OECD, the OSCE, the WTO, the G7, the G20, the Union for the Mediterranean, the Council of Europe, Uniting for Consensus, the Schengen Area and many more; as a reflection
W. B. Yeats
William Butler Yeats was an Irish poet and one of the foremost figures of 20th-century literature. A pillar of the Irish literary establishment, he helped to found the Abbey Theatre, in his years served as a Senator of the Irish Free State for two terms, he was a driving force behind the Irish Literary Revival along with Lady Gregory, Edward Martyn and others. Yeats was born in Sandymount and educated there and in London, he spent childhood holidays in County Sligo and studied poetry from an early age when he became fascinated by Irish legends and the occult. These topics feature in the first phase of his work, which lasted until the turn of the 20th century, his earliest volume of verse was published in 1889, its slow-paced and lyrical poems display debts to Edmund Spenser, Percy Bysshe Shelley, the poets of the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood. From 1900, his poetry grew more realistic, he renounced the transcendental beliefs of his youth, though he remained preoccupied with physical and spiritual masks, as well as with cyclical theories of life.
In 1923, he was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature. William Butler Yeats was born at Sandymount in Ireland, his father, John Butler Yeats, was a descendant of Jervis Yeats, a Williamite soldier, linen merchant, well-known painter who died in 1712. Benjamin Yeats, Jervis's grandson and William's great-great-grandfather, had in 1773 married Mary Butler of a landed family in County Kildare. Following their marriage, they kept the name Butler. Mary was a descendant of the Butler of Ormond family from the Neigham Gowran branch. By his marriage, William's father John Yeats was studying law but abandoned his studies to study art at Heatherley School of Fine Art in London, his mother, Susan Mary Pollexfen, came from a wealthy merchant family in Sligo, who owned a milling and shipping business. Soon after William's birth the family relocated to the Pollexfen home at Merville, Sligo to stay with her extended family, the young poet came to think of the area as his childhood and spiritual home, its landscape became, over time and symbolically, his "country of the heart".
So did its location on the sea. The Butler Yeats family were artistic. Yeats was raised a member of the Protestant Ascendancy, at the time undergoing a crisis of identity. While his family was broadly supportive of the changes Ireland was experiencing, the nationalist revival of the late 19th century directly disadvantaged his heritage, informed his outlook for the remainder of his life. In 1997, his biographer R. F. Foster observed that Napoleon's dictum that to understand the man you have to know what was happening in the world when he was twenty "is manifestly true of W. B. Y." Yeats's childhood and young adulthood were shadowed by the power-shift away from the minority Protestant Ascendancy. The 1880s saw the rise of the home rule movement; these developments had a profound effect on his poetry, his subsequent explorations of Irish identity had a significant influence on the creation of his country's biography. In 1867, the family moved to England to aid John, to further his career as an artist.
At first the Yeats children were educated at home. Their mother entertained them with Irish folktales. John provided an erratic education in geography and chemistry, took William on natural history explorations of the nearby Slough countryside. On 26 January 1877, the young poet entered the Godolphin school, he did not distinguish himself academically, an early school report describes his performance as "only fair. Better in Latin than in any other subject. Poor in spelling". Though he had difficulty with mathematics and languages, he was fascinated by zoology. In 1879 the family moved to Bedford Park taking a two-year lease on 8 Woodstock Road. For financial reasons, the family returned to Dublin toward the end of 1880, living at first in the suburbs of Harold's Cross and Howth. In October 1881, Yeats resumed his education at Dublin's Erasmus Smith High School, his father's studio was nearby and William spent a great deal of time there, where he met many of the city's artists and writers. During this period he started writing poetry, and, in 1885, the Dublin University Review published Yeats's first poems, as well as an essay entitled "The Poetry of Sir Samuel Ferguson".
Between 1884 and 1886, William attended the Metropolitan School of Art—now the National College of Art and Design—in Thomas Street. In March 1888 the family moved to 3 Blenheim Road in Bedford Park; the rent on the house was £50 a year. He began writing his first works. Other pieces from this period include a draft of a play about a bishop, a monk, a woman accused of paganism by local shepherds, as well as love-poems and narrative lyrics on German knights; the early works were both conventional and, according to the critic Charles Johnston, "utterly unIrish", seeming to come out of a "vast murmurous gloom of dreams". Although Yeats's early works drew on Shelley, Edmund Spenser, on the diction and colouring of pre-Raphaelite verse, he soon tu
Referendum
A referendum is a direct vote in which an entire electorate is invited to vote on a particular proposal. This may result in the adoption of a new law. In some countries, it is synonymous with a vote on a ballot question; some definitions of'plebiscite' suggest that it is a type of vote to change the constitution or government of a country. However, some other countries define it differently. For example, Australia defines'referendum' as a vote to change the constitution, and'plebiscite' as a vote that does not affect the constitution. In Ireland, the vote to adopt its constitution was called a "plebiscite", but a subsequent vote to amend the constitution is called a'referendum', so is a poll of the electorate on a non-constitutional bill; the word referendum is a general word used for both legislative referrals and initiatives.'Referendum' is the gerundive form of the Latin verb refero "to carry back". As a gerundive is an adjective, not a noun, it cannot be used alone in Latin and must be contained within a context attached to a noun such as Propositum quod referendum est populo, "A proposal which must be carried back to the people".
The addition of the verb sum to a gerundive, denotes the idea of necessity or compulsion, that which "must" be done, rather than that, "fit for" doing. Its use as a noun in English is thus not a grammatical usage of a foreign word, but is rather a freshly coined English noun, which therefore follows English grammatical usage, not Latin grammatical usage; this determines the form of the plural in English, which according to English grammar should be "referendums". The use of "referenda" as a plural form in English is thus insupportable according to the rules of both Latin and English grammar alike; the use of "referenda" as a plural form is posited hypothetically as either a gerund or a gerundive by the Oxford English Dictionary, which rules out such usage in both cases as follows: Referendums is logically preferable as a plural form meaning'ballots on one issue'. The Latin plural gerundive'referenda', meaning'things to be referred' connotes a plurality of issues, it is related to the political agenda, "those matters which must be driven forward", from ago, to drive.
The name and use of the'referendum' is thought to have originated in the Swiss canton of Graubünden as early as the 16th century. The term'plebiscite' has a similar meaning in modern usage, comes from the Latin plebiscita, which meant a decree of the Concilium Plebis, the popular assembly of the Roman Republic. Today, a referendum can often be referred to as a plebiscite, but in some countries the two terms are used differently to refer to votes with differing types of legal consequences. For example, Australia defines'referendum' as a vote to change the constitution, and'plebiscite' as a vote that does not affect the constitution. In contrast, Ireland has only held one plebiscite, the vote to adopt its constitution, every other vote has been called a referendum. Plebiscite has been used to denote a non-binding vote count such as the one held by Nazi Germany to'approve' in retrospect the so-called Anschluss with Austria, the question being not'Do you permit?' but rather'Do you approve?' of that which has most already occurred.
The term referendum covers a variety of different meanings. A referendum can be advisory. In some countries, different names are used for these two types of referendum. Referendums can be further classified by who initiates them: mandatory referendums prescribed by law, voluntary referendums initiated by the legislature or government, referendums initiated by citizens. A deliberative referendum is a referendum designed to improve the deliberative qualities of the campaign preceding the referendum vote, and/or of the act of voting itself. From a political-philosophical perspective, referendums are an expression of direct democracy. However, in the modern world, most referendums need to be understood within the context of representative democracy. Therefore, they tend to be used quite selectively, covering issues such as changes in voting systems, where elected officials may not have the legitimacy or inclination to implement such changes. Since the end of the 18th century, hundreds of national referendums have been organised in the world.
Italy ranked second with 72 national referendums: 67 popular referendums, 3 constitutional referendums, one institutional referendum and one advisory referendum. A referendum offers the electorate a choice of accepting or rejecting a proposal, but not always; some referendums give voters the choice among multiple choices and some use Transferable voting even. In Switzerland, for example, multiple choice referendums are common. Two multiple choice referendums were held in Sweden, in 1957 and in 1980, in which voters were offered three options. In 1977, a referendum held in Australia to determine a new national anthem was held in which voters had four choices. In 1992, New Zealand held a five-option referendum on their electoral system. In 1982, Guam had referendum that used six options, with an additional blank option for anyone wishing to vote for their own seventh option. A multiple choice referendum pose
House of Grimaldi
The House of Grimaldi is associated with the history of the Republic of Genoa, of the Principality of Monaco. The Grimaldi dynasty is a princely house originating in Italy, founded by the Genoese leader of the Guelphs, Francesco Grimaldi, who in 1297 took the lordship of Monaco along with his soldiers dressed as Franciscans. In that principality his successors have reigned to the present day. During much of the Ancien Regime the family spent much of its time in the French court, where from 1642 they used their French title of Duke of Valentinois; the current head of the family is Albert II of Monaco, Sovereign Prince of Monaco and successor of Prince Rainier III and the princess consort Grace of Monaco Grace Kelly. The Grimaldis descend from a Genoese statesman at the time of the early Crusades, he may have been a son of Otto Canella, a consul of the Republic of Genoa in 1133. In turn Grimaldo became a consul in 1160, 1170 and again in 1184, his numerous descendants led maritime expeditions throughout the Mediterranean, the Black Sea, soon the North Sea.
They became one of the most powerful families of Genoa. The Grimaldis feared that the head of a rival Genoese family could break the fragile balance of power in a political coup and become lord of Genoa, as had happened in other Italian cities, they entered into a Guelphic alliance with the Fieschi family and defended their interests with the sword. But the Guelfs were banned from the City in 1271, took refuge in their castles in Liguria and Provence, they signed a treaty with Charles of Anjou, King of Naples and Count of Provence to retake control of Genoa, to provide mutual assistance. In 1276, they accepted a peace under the auspices of the Pope, which however did not put an end to the civil war. Not all the Grimaldis chose to return to Genoa, as they preferred to settle in their fiefdoms, where they could raise armies. In 1299, the Grimaldis and their allies launched a few galleys to attack the port of Genoa before taking refuge on the Western Riviera. During the following years, the Grimaldis entered into different alliances that would allow them to return to power in Genoa.
This time, it was the turn of the Spinola family, to be exiled from the city. During this period, both the Guelphs and Ghibellines took and abandoned the castle of Monaco, ideally located to launch political and military operations against Genoa. Therefore, the tale of Francis Grimaldi and his faction — who took the castle of Monaco disguised as friars in 1297 — is anecdotal. In the early 14th century, the Aragonese raided the shores of Provence and Liguria, challenging Genoa and King Robert of Provence. In 1353, the combined fleet of eighty Venetian and Aragonese galleys gathered in Sardinia to meet the fleet of sixty galleys under the command of Anthony Grimaldi. Only nineteen Genoese vessels survived the battle. Fearing an invasion, Genoa rushed to request the protection of the Lord of Milan. Several of the oldest feudal branches of the House of Grimaldi appeared during these conflicts, such as the branches of Antibes, Nice and Sicily. In 1395, the Grimaldis took advantage of the discords in Genoa to take possession of Monaco, which they ruled as a condominium.
This is the origin of today's principality. As was customary in Genoa, the Grimaldis organised their family ties within a corporation called albergo. In the political reform of 1528, the Grimaldi became one of the 28 alberghi of the Republic of Genoa, which included the Doria and Pallavicini families, to which other families were formally invited to join; the House of Grimaldi provided several doges, cabinet ministers, military officers of historical note. By convention, sovereign European houses are reckoned in the male line. Therefore, since 1731, it has been determined genealogically that it was in fact the French noble House of Goyon-Matignon that ruled as Princes of Monaco until 1949. However, one of the terms of James de Goyon de Matignon becoming Prince of Monaco jure uxoris was that he adopt the name and arms of Grimaldi so that the house would be preserved on the throne, the right of succession was through his wife Louise-Hippolyte Grimaldi, who abdicated in her husband's favour; when Charlotte Louvet was legitimised in 1911 and made successor to Monaco, her husband, Count Pierre de Polignac, adopted, as a condition of the marriage, the name and arms of Grimaldi.
In this way the "Grimaldi" name and arms were continued. There is a branch of the Grimaldi family in England who believe they have more right to the throne as they are descended from an all-male line from Alessandro Maria Grimaldi, an exile from Genoa, himself a direct descendant of Otto Canella, the father of Grimaldo Canella, who started the patronymic "Grimaldi."Until 2002, a treaty between Monaco and France stated that if the reigning Prince failed to leave dynastic offspring sovereignty over the Grimaldi realm would revert to France. The 2002 agreement modified this to expand the pool of potential heirs to dynastic collaterals of the reigning Prince, guaranteeing Monegasque independence. Article I of Monaco's house law requires that the reigning Prince or Princess bear the surname of Grimaldi; the coat of arms of the House of Grimaldi is described as fusily argent and gules, i.e. a red and white diamond pattern, with no further modifiers. Albert II of Monaco, Sovereign Prince of Monaco and successor of Rainier III and Grace Kelly.
Charlène de Monaco, Princess Consort of Monaco. Jacques, Hereditary Prince of Monaco, son of Albert II and Charlène. Princess Gabriella, Countess of Carladès, daughter of Albert II and Charlène. Caroline, Princess of Hanover, older si
House of Savoy
The House of Savoy is a royal family, established in 1003 in the historical Savoy region. Through gradual expansion, the family grew in power from ruling a small county in the Alps north-west of Italy to absolute rule of the kingdom of Sicily in 1713 to 1720. Through its junior branch, the House of Savoy-Carignano, it led the unification of Italy in 1861 and ruled the Kingdom of Italy from 1861 until 1946 and the Kingdom of Spain in the 19th century; the Savoyard kings of Italy were Victor Emmanuel II, Umberto I, Victor Emmanuel III, Umberto II. The last monarch ruled for a few weeks before being deposed following the Constitutional Referendum of 1946, after which the Italian Republic was proclaimed; the name derives from the historical region of Savoy in the Alpine region between what is now France and Italy. Over time, the House of Savoy expanded its territory and influence through judicious marriages and international diplomacy. From rule of a small region on the French/Italian border, the dynasty's realm grew to include nearly all of the Italian Peninsula by the time of its deposition.
The house descended from Count of Sabaudia. Humbert's family is thought to have originated near Magdeburg in Saxony, with the earliest recording of the family being two 10th century brothers and Humbert. Though Sabaudia was a poor county counts were diplomatically skilled, gained control over strategic mountain passes in the Alps. Two of Humbert's sons were commendatory abbots at the Abbey of St. Maurice, Agaunum, on the River Rhone east of Lake Geneva, Saint Maurice is still the patron of the House of Savoy. Humbert's son, Otto of Savoy succeeded to the title in 1051 after the death of his elder brother Amedeo and married the Marchioness Adelaide of Turin, passing the Marquessate of Susa, with the towns of Turin and Pinerolo, into the House of Savoy's possession; this diplomatic skill caused the great powers such as France and Spain to take the counts' opinions into account. They once had claims on the modern canton of Vaud, where they occupied the Château of Chillon in Switzerland, but their access to it was cut by Geneva during the Protestant Reformation, after which it was conquered by Bern.
Piedmont was joined with Sabaudia, the name evolved into "Savoy". The people of Savoy were descended from the Romans. By the time Amadeus VIII came to power in the late 14th century, the House of Savoy had gone through a series of gradual territorial expansions and he was elevated by the Holy Roman Emperor Sigismund to the Duke of Savoy in 1416. In 1494, Charles VIII of France passed through Savoy on his way to Italy and Naples, which initiated the Italian War of 1494–98. During the outbreak of the Italian war of 1521-1526, Emperor Charles V stationed imperial troops in Savoy. In 1536, Francis I of France invaded Piedmont taking Turin by April of that year. Charles III, Duke of Savoy, fled to Vercelli; when Emmanuel Philibert came to power in 1553 most of his family's territories were in French hands, so he offered to serve France's leading enemy the House of Habsburg, in the hope of recovering his lands. He served Philip II as Governor of the Netherlands from 1555 to 1559. In this capacity he led the Spanish invasion of northern France and won a victory at St. Quentin in 1557.
He took advantage of various squabbles in Europe to regain territory from both the French and the Spanish, including the city of Turin. He moved the capital of the duchy from Chambéry to Turin; the 17th century brought about economic development to the Turin area and the House of Savoy took part in and benefitted from that. Charles Emmanuel II built a road through the Alps towards France, and through skillful political manoeuvres territorial expansion continued. In early 18th century in the War of the Spanish Succession Victor Amadeus switched sides to assist the Habsburgs and via the Treaty of Utrecht they rewarded him with large pieces of land in northeastern Italy, a Crown in Sicily. Savoy rule over Sicily lasted only seven years; the crown of Sicily, the prestige of being kings at last, the wealth of Palermo helped strengthen the House of Savoy further. In 1720 they were forced to exchange Sicily for Sardinia as a result of the War of the Quadruple Alliance. On the mainland, the dynasty continued its expansionist policies as well.
Through advantageous alliances during the War of the Polish Succession and War of the Austrian Succession, Charles Emmanuel III gained new lands at the expense of the Austrian-controlled Duchy of Milan. In 1792 Piedmont-Sardinia joined the First Coalition against the French First Republic, but was beaten in 1796 by Napoleon and forced to conclude the disadvantageous Treaty of Paris, giving the French army free passage through Piedmont. In 1798, Joubert occupied Turin and forced Charles Emmanuel IV to abdicate and leave for the island of Sardinia. In 1814 the kingdom was restored and enlarged with the addition of the former Republic of Genoa by the Congress of Vienna. In the meantime, nationalist figures such as Giuseppe Mazzini were influencing popular opinion. Mazzini believed that Italian unification could only be achieved through a popular uprising, but after the failure of the 1848 revolutions, the Italian nationalists began to look to the Kingdom of Sardinia and its prime minister Count Cavour as leaders of the unification movement.
In 1848, Charles Albert conceded a constitution known as the Statuto Albertino to Piedmont-Sardinia, which remained the basis of the Kingdom's legal system after Italian unification was achieved and the Kingdom of Sardinia became the Kingdom of Italy in 1861. The Kingdom of I
.jpg)
