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Savoy (; ) is a cultural-historical region in the Western Alps. Situated on the cultural boundary between Occitania and Piedmont, the area extends from Lake Geneva in the north to the Dauphiné in the south and west and to the Aosta Valley in the east.
Savoy, formerly a part of the Kingdom of Burgundy, emerged as the Feudalism County of Savoy ruled by the House of Savoy during the 11th to 14th centuries. The Romance of the House of Savoy (Vol.1). Weil, Alethea. Putnam, New York (1898), Intro. p.1 The original territory, also known as "ducal Savoy" or "Savoy proper", is largely co-terminous with the modern French Savoie and Haute-Savoie départements in the region of Rhône-Alpes, but the historical expansion of Savoyard territories, as the Duchy of Savoy (1416–1860), included parts of what is now western Italy and southwestern Switzerland. The current border between France and Italy is due to the Plombières Agreement of 1858, which in preparation for the unification of Italy ceded western Savoy to France, while the eastern territories in Piedmont and Liguria were retained by the House of Savoy, which was to become the ruling dynasty of Italy.
The traditional capital remains Chambéry (in Italian language, Ciamberì, from Latin Camberia) on the rivers Leysse and Albane, hosting the castle of the House of Savoy and the Savoyard senate. The state included six districts:
The County and Duchy of Savoy incorporated Turin and other territories in Piedmont, a region in northwestern Italy that borders Savoy, which were also possessions of the House of Savoy. The capital of the Duchy remained at the traditional Savoyard capital of Chambéry until 1563, when it was moved to Turin.
From the 10th to 14th century, parts of what would ultimately become Savoy remained within the Kingdom of Burgundy-Arles. Beginning in the 11th century, the gradual rise to power of the House of Savoy is reflected in the increasing territory of their County of Savoy between 1003 and 1416.
The County of Savoy was detached de jure from the Kingdom of Arles by Charles IV, Holy Roman Emperor in 1361. It acquired the County of Nice in 1388, and in 1401 added the County of Geneva, the area of Geneva except for the city proper, which was ruled by its prince-bishop, nominally under the duke's rule: the bishops of Geneva, by unspoken agreement, came from the House of Savoy until 1533.See the career of the last prince-bishop Pierre de La Baume.
Vaud was annexed by Bern in 1536, and Savoy officially ceded Vaud to Bern in the Treaty of Lausanne of 30 October 1564.
In 1714, as a consequence of the War of the Spanish Succession, Savoy was technically subsumed into the Kingdom of Sicily, then (after that island was traded to Austria for Sardinia) the Kingdom of Sardinia from 1720. While the heads of the House of Savoy were known as the Kings of Sardinia, Turin remained their capital.
Two-thirds of Savoy was restored to the Kingdom of Sardinia in the First Restoration of 1814 following Napoleon's abdication; approximately one-third of Savoy, including the two most important cities of Chambéry and Annecy, remained in France. Following Napoleon's brief return to power during the Hundred Days and subsequent defeat at Waterloo, the remaining one-third of Savoy was restored to the Kingdom of Sardinia at the Congress of Vienna to strengthen Sardinia as a buffer state on France's southeastern border.
On 21 July 1858 in Plombières-les-Bains, Vosges, the prime minister of the Kingdom of Sardinia, Camillo Benso, Count of Cavour, met in secret with Napoleon III to secure French military support against the Austrian Empire during the conflicts associated with the Italian unification. During the discussion, Cavour promised that Sardinia would cede the County of Nice and Duchy of Savoy to the Second French Empire. Though this was a secret arrangement, it quickly became widely known.John Russell, 1st Earl Russell, address to the House of Common, July 5, 1861, HC Deb 05 July 1861 vol 164 cc436-61
The treaty annexing Nice and Savoy to France was signed in Turin on 24 March 1860 (Treaty of Turin). In the northern provinces of the Chablais and Faucigny, there was some support for annexation to neighboring Switzerland, with which the northern provinces had longstanding economic ties. To help reduce the attractiveness of Switzerland, the French government conceded a Free-Trade Zone that maintained the longstanding duty-free relationship of northern Savoyard communes to Geneva. After the treaty was already signed, a referendum was held on 22–23 April. Employing universal male suffrage, voters in the ceded provinces were offered the option of voting "Yes" to approve the treaty and join France or voting "No" and rejecting the treaty. Voters were not permitted the options of either joining Switzerland, remaining with Italy, or regaining its independence, were the source of some opposition. With a 99.8% vote in favour of joining France, there were allegations of vote-rigging, notably by the British government, which opposed continental expansion by its traditional French enemy. The correspondent of The Times in Savoy who was in Bonneville on 22 April called the vote "the lowest and most immoral farce(s) which was ever played in the history of nations". The Times , April 28, 1860, Universal Suffrage In Savoy . He finished his letter with those words:
I leave you to draw your own conclusions from this trip, which will show clearly what the vote was in this part of Savoy. The vote was the bitterest irony ever made on popular suffrage. The ballot-box in the hands of those very authorities who issued the proclamations; no control possible; even travellers suspected and dogged lest they should pry into the matter; all opposition put down by intimidation, and all liberty of action completely taken away. One can really scarcely reproach the Opposition with having given up the game; there was too great force used against them. As for the result of the vote, therefore, no one need trouble himself about it; it will be just as brilliant as that in Nice. The only danger is lest the Savoy authorities in their zeal should fare as some of the French did in the vote of 1852, finding to their surprise rather more votes than voters inscribed on the list.In his letter to the ambassador of Vienna Lord Augustus Loftus, the then–Foreign Secretary, Lord John Russell, said, "Voting in Savoy and Nice a farce ... we are neither entertained or edified".PRO 30/22/98 Austria. Vol 1. Legation (from Nov. 1860) embassy in Vienna. Private correspondence (drafts). Lord John (earl from 1861) Russell, foreign secretary to Hon. Julian Fane, legation later embassy secretary; Lord Augustus Loftus, envoy; Lord Bloomfield, ambassador. Document conserved at The National Archives
The annexation was promulgated on 14 June 1860. On 23 August 1860 and 7 March 1861, two agreements were signed between the Second French Empire and the Kingdom of Sardinia to settle the remaining issues concerning the annexation.
This was part of a secret agreement (the Plombières Agreement) brokered between the French emperor Napoleon III and the Count Camillo of Cavour (Prime Minister of Sardinia at that time) that allowed the final steps in the process of unification of Italy. Victor Emmanuel's dynasty, the House of Savoy, retained its Italian lands of Piedmont and Liguria and became the ruling dynasty of Italy.
In 1960, the term annexation having acquired negative connotations in France, particularly after Germany's 1871 annexation of Alsace-Lorraine, the annexation was renamed Rattachement de la Savoie à la France (Incorporation of Savoy to France). It was the latter term which was used by the French authorities during the festivities celebrating the 100th anniversary of the annexation. La Savoie au miroir du Centenaire de son Rattachement à la France , Lacharme Amandine Daniel Rops of the French Academy justified the new title with these words:
Savoy has begun to solemnize the feasts in 1960, commemorating the centenary of its incorporation ( rattachement) to France. It is on purpose that the word incorporation ( rattachement) is highlighted here: the Savoyards attach great value to it, and it is the only one they have resolved to use in the official terminology of the Centenary. In that, they are infinitely right. Yesterday another term that was used: annexation. Looking at it more closely it was wrong! Can we say annexation when we talk about a decision which was approved by 130,889 voters over 135,449? .... Savoy was not annexed ... but actually incorporated freely and by the will of its inhabitants.
A former French deputy, P. Taponnier, spoke of the annexation:
In late March 1860, the betrothal ceremony of Savoy to France took place in Tuileries Palace ..., a ceremony which was a pact of love and fidelity ... it is with free consent that she Savoy gave itself to France by a solemn plebiscite of which our leaders can ignore neither the terms nor the commitments. ... May the bells of our cities ... in Savoy vibrate in unison to glorify, in this magnificent Centenary, the indefectible commitment of Savoy to France. The Savoyards did not feel Italian. Besides, they spoke French. This explains why in 1858–1859 when rumours ran of the Plombières secret agreement, where Napoleon III and Cavour decided of the fate of Savoy, the Savoyards themselves took the initiative to ask for the incorporation ( rattachement). ... Incorporation, not annexation ... The incorporation was an act of free will, in the logical order of geography and history ....
A very marginal Separatism movement has also appeared in Savoy within the past twenty years, most prominently represented by the Ligue Savoisienne, founded in 1994. In the March 1998 regional elections, 1 seat (out of 23) was won by Patrice Abeille, leader of the Ligue, which won a total of 17,865 votes across the two departments. In 2004, Waiting for Freedom in Savoy was founded to promote the peaceful separatist cause to young people.
According to surveys conducted in 2000, between 41% and 55% of the population were in favour of the proposal for a separate Savoy region. Towards the end of 2005, Hervé Gaymard called for Savoie to be given special status, similar to a French region, under his proposed "Conseil des Pays de Savoie". Région Savoie .
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