Charles Albert of Sardinia

Charles Albert (Italian: Carlo Alberto I; October 2, 1798 – July 28, 1849) is the King of Sardinia from April 27, 1831 to March 23, 1849.

His name is bound up with the first Italian constitution, the Albertine Statute, and with the First Italian War of Independence (1848–1849).

During the Napoleonic period, he resides in France, where he receives a liberal education.

As Prince of Carignano in 1821, he grants, then withdraws his support for a rebellion that seeks to force Victor Emmanuel I to institute a constitutional monarchy.

He becomes a conservative and participates in the legitimist expedition against the Spanish liberals in 1823.

He becomes king of Sardinia in 1831 on the death of his distant cousin Charles Felix, who has no heir.

As king, after an initial conservative period during which he supports various European legitimist movements, he adopts the idea of a federal Italy, led by the Pope and freed from the House of Habsburg in 1848

In the same year he grants the Albertine Statute, the first Italian constitution, which will remain in force until 1947.

Charles Albert leads his forces against the Imperial Austrian army in the First Italian War of Independence (1848–1849), but is abandoned by Pope Pius IX and Ferdinand II of the Two Sicilies and is defeated in 1849 at the Battle of Novara, after which he abdicates in favor of his son, Victor Emmanuel II.

Charles Albert dies in exile a few months later in the Portuguese city of Porto.

The attempt to free northern Italy from Austria represents the first attempt of the House of Savoy to alter the equilibrium established in the Italian peninsula after the Congress of Vienna.

These efforts are continued successfully by Victor Emmanuel II, who will become the first king of a unified Italy in 1861.

Charles Albert receives a number of nicknames, including "the Italian Hamlet" (given to him by Giosuè Carducci on account of his gloomy, hesitant and enigmatic character) and "the Hesitant King" (Re Tentenna) because he hesitates for a long time between the establishment of a constitutional monarchy and the reinforcement of absolute rule.

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