5 Lire Silver Coin featuring: King Charles Albert of Sardinia (Carlo Alberto di Savoia)

in numismatics •  3 years ago 

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Obverse

He became king of Sardinia in 1831 on the death of his distant cousin Charles Felix, who had no heir. As king, after an initial conservative period during which he supported various European legitimist movements, he adopted the idea of a federal Italy, led by the Pope and freed from the House of Habsburg in 1848. In the same year he granted the Albertine Statute, the first Italian constitution, which remained in force until 1947.

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Lettering:
CAR.ALBERTVS D.G.REX SARD.CYP.ET HIER·
Translation: Carlo.Alberto, by God's grace, King of Sardinia, Cyprus and Jerusalem

Charles Albert led his forces against the Imperial Austrian army in the First Italian War of Independence (1848–1849), but was abandoned by Pope Pius IX and Ferdinand II of the Two Sicilies and was defeated in 1849 at the Battle of Novara, after which he abdicated in favour of his son, Victor Emmanuel II. Charles Albert died in exile a few months later in the Portuguese city of Porto.

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Reverse

Lettering:
DVX SAB· GENVAE ET MONTISF· PRINC· PED. &·

Translation: Duke of Savoy, Genua and Montferrat, Prince of Piedmont, etc.

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 were continued successfully by his son Victor Emmanuel II, who became the first king of a unified Italy in 1861.

Charles Albert received 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 hesitated for a long time between the establishment of a constitutional monarchy and the reinforcement of absolute rule.
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