Kingdom of Sardinia-Piedmont (IV)
Carlo Mezzacapo (1817-1905)
(Service: 1859-82, Background: generals_aide, Personality: able)
Vittorio Emanuele di Savoia, Duke of Savoy (1820-1878)
(Service: 16th March 1842-1867, Background: aristocrat, Personality: spirited)
(HISTORICAL NOTE: King Carlo Alberto's eldest son; from 23rd March 1849, King of Sardinia, and from 17th March 1861, King of Italy)
Enrico Cosenz (1820-1896)
(Service: October 1860-31st August 1896, Background: engineer, Personality: confident)
Nino Bixio (1821-1873)
(Service: 1860-1871, Background: politician, Personality: bold)
Ferdinando di Savoia, Duke of Genova (1822-1855)
(Service: 1845-1855, Background: uncommonly_young, Personality: heroic)
(HISTORICAL NOTE: King Carlo Alberto's youngest son, brother of Vittorio Emanuele II)
The Kingdom of Sardinia was by the time when Vicky Grand Campaign starts, the only one of the Italian states with a liberal parlamentarian from of government. This, together with the facts that the House of Savoy was the only Italian ruling house of native ascent and that the Kingdom of Sardinia was perhaps the most economically advanced of all the Italian states, turned the Kingdom into the beacon of many Italian nationalists who saw it as the great hope for a future unification of the Italian peninsula. Not everybody shared those views, though: many Italian nationalists were republicans (followers of Mazzini) or even put their hopes in king Ferdinand II of the Two Sicilies, who was seen as the most powerful ruler in Italy.
The fact that in 1848 king Charles Albert chose to declare war on Austria to help the rebelled provinces of Lombardy and Venice while king Ferdinand did everything in his power to stop the revolutionary wave, turned the Kingdom of Sardinia definitively into the beacon for the Italian nationalists.
Accordingly, many Italian officers born in other parts of the peninsula fled to Piedmont and entered the Sardinian army. Some of the leaders that I've posted in here follow this pattern:
The
Mezzacapo brothers were Neapolitans, and began their military careers as artillery officers in the army of the Two Sicilies. When the 1848 revolutionary wave struck Naples, the king was forced to proclaim a constitution and accept a parliamentary government, which immediately dispatched an army corps of 16000 men to the North in help of the Sardinians, commanded by the veteran liberal general Guglielmo Pepe. many junior officers of liberal ideas voluntarily joined the expediation. But when this force reached Bologna, it received the news that king Ferdinand had launched a countercoup and after assuming again absolute power had recalled the army back to the south. 2000 of its members though, together with general Pepe, chose to disobey the orders and joined the war against Austria. After the defeat of the revolution in Italy and elsewhere in 1849, these dissafected officers decided to exile themselves in Piedmont, and in the following years many of them joined the Sardinian army.
Enrico Cosenz was also one of these Neapolitan officers to join the Sardinian army.
Domenico Cucchiari began his military career in the army of his native Duchy of Modena, but his political convictions made him take part in a failed coup agains the Habsburg duke of Modena, so he fled the Duchy and by 1848 he had become a division general in Charles Albert's army.
The
Durando brothers were born in Rome, and disliking the situation in the Papal States, joined the Piedmontese army at quite an early stage, well before 1848. In this year, Giovanni Durando was put in command of the contingent of 7500 men that Pope Pius IX sent to serve with the Sardinian army.
The leadermod only deals with leaderfiles and pictures, so we're not going to work on events, but I think that probably the Kingdom of Sardinia should not receive these leaders if it not follows its historical path of being a Constitutional Monarchy (or a Democracy) and to raise the flag of Italian unification in 1848 or earlier.
The Sardinian leaders are finished. I will begin to work now with the leaders for Italy.
PD: Thanks for your efforts, Kaiser Franz. Any help is much appreciated!