Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 21.djvu/361

Rh SAVOY 341 rial throne, and received from him Kyburg in the diocese of Lausanne, conveniently near to the county of Geneva, which had been willed to him by the last count. But this increase of territory only brought new anxieties, for Peter's short reign was occupied in reducing refractory vassals to obedience. At his death in 1268 he was succeeded by his brother PHILIP I., who died in 1285, when their nephew AMADEUS V. came to the throne. This prince, surnamed the Great, united Bauge and Bresse to his states in right of his wife Sibylla, and later on Lower Faucigny and part of Geneva. For his second wife he married Mary of Bra- bant, sister of the emperor Henry VII., from whom, in reward for his services in North Italy, he received the seigneury of Aosta. His life was passed in continual and victorious warfare, and one of his last exploits was to force the Turks to raise the siege of Rhodes. In commemoration of his victory it is said that he substituted for the eagles in his arms the letters F.E.R.T. (Fortitudo ejus Rhodum tenuit). He died in 1323 while making preparations for a campaign in aid of his nephew, the emperor of the East. His son EDWARD succeeded him, and, dying in 1329, was followed by his brother AYMON. This prince died in 1343, when his son AMADEUS VI. ascended the throne. His reign was, like his grandfather's, a series of petty wars, from which he came out victorious and with extended terri- tory, until, accompanying Louis of Anjou on his expedition against Naples, he died there of the plague (1383). The reign of his son AMADEUS VII. promised to be as glorious as those of his ancestors, but it was cut short by a fall from his horse in 1391. Before his death, however, he had received the allegiance of Barcelonnette, Ventimiglia, Villafrauca, and Nice, so gaining access to the Mediter- ranean. His son AMADEUS VIII. now came to the throne, under the guardianship of his grandmother Bonne de Bourbon. On attaining his majority he first directed his efforts to strengthening his power in the outlying provinces, and in this he was particularly successful. The states of Savoy now extended from the Lake of Geneva to the Mediterranean, and from the Saone to the Sesia. Its prince had therefore considerable power, and Amadeus threw all the weight of this on the side of the emperor. Sigismund was not ungrateful, and in 1416 erected the counties of Savoy and Piedmont into duchies. At this time too the duke recovered the fief of Piedmont, which had been granted to Philip, prince of Achaia, by Amadeus V., and his power was thus thoroughly consolidated. The county of Vercelli afterwards rewarded him for joining the league against the duke of Milan, but in 1434 a plot against his life made him put into execution a plan he had long formed of retiring to a monastery. He accordingly made his son Louis lieutenant-general of the dukedom, and assumed the habit of the knights of S. Maurice, a military order he had founded at the priory of Pupaille. But he was not destined to find the repose he sought. The prelates assembled at the council of Basel voted the deposition of Pope Eugenius IV., and elected Amadeus in his place. Felix V., as he was now called, then abdicated his dukedom definitively, but without much gain in tem- poral honours, for the schism continued until the death of Eugenius in 1447, shortly after which it was healed by the honourable submission of Felix to Nicholas V. The early years of Louis's reign were under the guidance of his father, and peace and prosperity blessed his people ; but he afterwards made an alliance with the dauphin which brought him into conflict with Charles VII. of France, though a lasting reconciliation was soon effected. His son AMADEUS IX. succeeded in 1465, but, though his virtues led to his beatification, his bodily sufferings made him assign the regency to his wife Yolande, a daughter of Charles VII. He died in 1472, when his son PHILIBERT I. succeeded to the throne and to his share in the contests of Yolande with her brother and brothers-in-law, who tried to deprive their nephew of his rights. His reign lasted only ten years, when he was succeeded by his brother CHARLES I. This prince raised for a time by his valour the droop- ing fortunes of his house, but he died in 1489 at the age of thirty-one, having inherited from his aunt, Charlotte of Lu- signano, her pretensions to the titular kingdoms of Cyprus, Jerusalem, and Armenia. He was succeeded by his son CHARLES II., an infant, who, dying in 1496, was followed by PHILIP II., brother of Amadeus IX. He died in 1497, leaving PHILIBERT II., who succeeded him, and CHARLES III., who ascended the throne on his brother's death in 1504. In spite of himself Charles was drawn into the wars of the period, for in the quarrel between Francis I. and the pope he could not avoid espousing the cause of his nephew. But the decisive victory of Francis at Mari- gnano gave the duke the opportunity of negotiating the conference at Bologna which led to the conclusion of peace in 1516. So far well, but Charles was less fortunate in the part he took in the wars between Francis I. and Charles V., the brother-in-law of his wife. He tried to maintain a strict neutrality, but his attendance at the emperor's coronation at Bologna in 1530 was imperative in his double character of kinsman and vassal. The visit was fatal to him, for he was rewarded with the county of Asti, and this so displeased the French king that, on the revolt of Geneva to Protestantism in 1532, Francis sent help to the citizens. Bern and Freiburg did likewise, and so expelled the duke from Lausanne and Vaud. Charles now sided definitely with the emperor, and Francis at once raised some imaginary claims to his states. On their rejection the French army marched into Savoy, and, finding the pass of Susa unfortified, descended on Piedmont and seized Turin (1536). Charles V. came to the aid of his ally, and invested the city, but, being him- self hard pressed, was obliged to make peace. France kept Savoy, and the emperor occupied Piedmont, so that only Nice remained to the duke. On the resumption of hostilities in 1541 Piedmont again suffered. In 1544 the treaty of Crespy restored his states to Charles, but the terms were not carried out and he died of grief in 1553. His only surviving son EMMANUEL PHILIBERT succeeded to -the rights but not the domains of his ancestors. Since 1536 he had attached himself to the service of the emperor, and had already given promise of a brilliant career. On the abdication of Charles V; the duke was appointed governor of the Low Countries, and in 1557 the victory of St Quentin marked him as one of the first generals of his time. Such services could not go unrewarded, and the peace of Cateau-Cambresis restored him his states, with certain exceptions still to be held by France and Spain. One of the conditions of the treaty also provided for the marriage of the duke with the lovely and accomplished Margaret of France, sister of Henry II. The evacuation of the places held by them was faithfully carried out by the contracting powers, and Emmanuel Philibert occupied himself in strengthening his military and naval forces, until his death in 1580 prevented the execution of the ambitious designs he had conceived. His son CHARLES EMMANUEL I., called the Great, being prevented by Henry III. from retaking Geneva, threw in his lot with Spain, and in 1590 invaded Provence and was received by the citizens of Aix. His intention was doubtless to revive the ancient kingdom of Aries, but his plans were frustrated by the accession of Henry IV. to the throne of France. After effecting with Henry an exchange of Bresse and Bugey for the marquisate of Saluzzo he kept up an intermittent war with him until 1609, when, disgusted with the