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Chapter 52 The Italian Question
Chapter 52 The Italian Question
"While I do advocate for unification, peace shall always remain my highest priority. The last thing Christians should do is fight each other for petty purposes."- Pope Pius IX 1851
"Dear Ferdinand, as you can tell the motion that Italia is moving towards is that of the Vatican while our two kingdoms are met with internal strife and anarchy by those damn revolutionaries. If we don't take action soon then the mob will vote for the Pope to take control and we'll be mere vassals to Rome. While I am a faithful Catholic, it is clear that Pius is stepping too much into temporal affairs. I think it is time for action to be taken."- King Charles Albert 1851
"By undertaking this course we will have pleased the Conservatives while gaining a new ally, two birds with one stone."- Emperor Napoleon III 1852
While the question of German and Hungarian Nationalism had been settled in the 1846 Revolutions, one question that had yet to be answered was that of the fate of Italy. While the Lombard-Venetian War had ended in an Italian victory that had essentially eliminated Austria out of the Peninsula and liberated all Italian lands under Hapsburg rule, they had not changed the balance of power, rather it had been pushed to a greater divide between the two main powers; the Papal States and the Kingdom of Sardinia-Piedmont. On one side you had Pope Pius IX, a rising star within European politics who was shaping to be a reformer of the Catholic Church by liberalizing much of the Papal States and making motions to meet with several members of the College of Cardinals so that the reforms would not only be implemented in Italy, but throughout the world in the Church's teachings. Pius was much beloved by the common folk and the parish priests routinely praised their pontiffs brilliance and divinity in mass. On the other side was King Charles Albert. While King Charles did not have the same level of authority as the head of the world's largest religion, he was head of Italy's most powerful Kingdom, Sardinia-Piedmont having spent the last century gaining more power and land through their various wars and political strikes. The House of Savoy had many friends among the great European royalty and Charles Albert was a man who commanded respect from his people, yet he was not terribly beloved outside of his Kingdom. Two men who could said to be quite near polar opposites, both desiring the crown of the Lombards. One to unify the peninsula to bring peace and prosperity under the will of God, the other set on creating a glorious empire that will last for ages. One would soon rise to such glory, while the other trampled in the sea of Nationalism.
In the five years since the end of the Lombard-Venetian War, the Italian states had been undergoing a great amount of growth in the new Italian Confederation. In the aftermath of the war the first session was proclaimed in March 18th, on the anniversary of the five days of Milan. There was much argument first over where the expected capitol of this new confederation would reside, eventually though the ancient city of Rome was chosen to become the place of the new Italian Parliament. While there was much grumbling from Charles Albert, Pius did point out that Rome was the central most place in all of Italy and had much historical importance as the center of the Roman Empire. Much of the focus though was trying to keep it within the heart of Italy in the same manner that the Americans chose Washington D.C. Over the next five years the Confederation would go to quick work in uniting the peninsula and making sure that all Italian states would thrive. The first major change to be implemented was for all of the Italian States to draft up a constitution much in the manner that Pius had done so that the liberals and the common masses would be appeased. The Constitutions worked much in the manner as that of America's in that it set up a legislative branch that would create the laws and would have some checks on the executive, in this case being the monarch (although even the Pope still held much state authority). A Judicial branch would be set up to review laws. Religious freedom would be protected, though Catholicism was still the state religion and no Protestant churches would be set up within the boundaries of Rome. Many other rights were guaranteed such as freedom of the press and assembly and protest. Finally the people were given a right to vote for their representatives in their respective legislative branch, though this ranged in a number of different practices with universal male suffrage in the Papal States to landed property voting in Sicily. With the question of political and social stability being met, a greater importance was then put towards the greater economic development of Italy. While their neighbors Germany and France were currently undergoing a wave of industrialization and unprecedented economic growth, Italy still remained a much agrarian society in the south while the north had lost its trade status in the 18th century and had been in somewhat of an economic slump since then. Tariffs were nonexistent in the borders of the Confederation and citizens of the Italian states were allowed to move across borders without a need of checking. Subsidiaries and funding were also being invested all throughout the Peninsula so that industry would begin to take root in the states and the first tracks of railroad could be laid down in a peninsular system that could travel from Palermo to Venice. Finally in a practice to the Roman style of rule, much of the funding was diverted to developing new infrastructure in roads and canals so that transportation of goods, people, and communication would increase exponentially in Italy. While Italy was slow in catching up to the rest of Western Europe, the economic reforms were already starting to take root in the Confederation with unemployment dropping increasingly and the average income of the Italian worker being doubled. Within the Papal States, Pope Pius was also experimenting into a new system of economics that would combine both socialism and Church doctrine that would allow the free market to flourish yet protect the working class and offer support to the poor. This system would soon develop into what is now known today as Christian Capitalism, an economic system where corporations would form which would be run by the church in support of a certain type of profession for the common class. These semi-unions would not interfere in the control of the economy, but would work together to provide support for their sectors and promote growth in cooperation. In 1850 Pius would come to publish a Papal Encyclical that detailed the Church's responsibility to the poor and the morality that all Christians must undertake when dealing in business. These economic reforms had a huge effect in increasing Pius's popularity with the masses and much of the Western World. Meanwhile Charles Albert looked on in worry, while his Kingdom had been one of the main benefactors of the success of the Federation, he was not being hailed as the head of unity and his role in the revolution was being forgotten in favor of Garibaldi and Pius. Tensions would soon come to a head in 1852, when the issue of leadership came up.
View attachment 301397
Colored photograph of an bustling Italian Market (Right) Voting Day in Venice (Center) Pius made sure to have the trains run on time (Left)
On March 31st, 1852, the Milan Parliament was formed in order to discuss the current state of the Italian Confederation and the possibility of further unification. The parliament while originally planned to take place in Rome in the Confederate Senate, was moved to Milan in order to pay tribute to the Revolutionaries who started the Lombard-Venetian War and gave their lives to drive out Austria. It was actually all a large political ploy by Charles Albert who had subtly encouraged the nationalists to place the parliament their so that it could take place within his own kingdom. Much like the fateful meeting in Rome six years ago that had brought about the beginning of the war, the heads of states of all the Italian states were gathered along with the Confederation's highest most prominent nationalists and other figures of importance. Overall around 200 people had shown up for the occasion, much like the famous Frankfurt Parliament, the future of Italy would be decided in these halls. When the council first began the issue of what to do at first was whether or not to unite Italy totally into a country or to continue its current course. The Republicans and Nationalists had been all for the former as they had justified that the people had longed for this day to come and that a unified Italy would soon become the Fourth Rome, a mighty power that could one day dominate Europe as they had in the Medieval era. Overall the monarchists and Conservatives had been against the idea, saying that the already had done enough reforms and that to do so would totally destroy the sovereignty of the individual states which had lasted for centuries. Many of the liberals then pointed out that the German Empire had practically done the same thing and yet the Kings of Bavaria and Hanover still had much power when they were essentially vassals of the Kaiser. Weeks of bickering came on and soon two main camps had formed, those that had wished for unification, and those who wished to maintain the status quo. Within the unification camp was a split in two factions which desired either for Charles Albert to take the throne as King of Italy, or for a democratic republic to be set up. What many had noticed throughout the events is that two important figures had yet to take action, King Ferdinand and Pope Pius. Ferdinand while a man who wanted to become monarch of Italia, knew that at the end of the day his chances of becoming head of Italy were very slim. The Sicilians Bourbons had little friends in the North and the two regions were so radical in difference that it was similar in situation to the North and South divide within the United States. Ferdinand desired unification buy only under his rule, anything else would require the protection of Sicily's autonomy and his right as King of Naples. While many thought he would go towards the Confederation camp, Ferdinand stuck to the sidelines, determined to wait out and see what opportunities might come in the future. Pius, while determined to unify all of Italy under the Church's guidance, did not want for any bloodshed or huge conflict to happen in the process. He knew that many of the monarchs and nobles would be very against giving up their rights to rule and the independence of their respective states. At the same time the Nationalists were getting angsty and would accept nothing less than total unification. If nothing was done too placate both sides than a Civil War or another revolution would come out and all of Italy would suffer. In order to solve this issue Pius came up with a compromise. Speaking in front of all the assembled delegates on May 10th, Pius explained his solution for the issue of unification which would involve the continuation of the Confederation for the next five years under the guidance of an elected head of the Confederacy. When 1857 came around, all of the Italian states would hold a referendum for its people on whether or not they were to stick to the status quo, or move into the unification of one state. When Pius finished his speech, he was met with a standing ovation from a large majority of the delegates as the solution had meet all of their needs, it had guaranteed the independence of the states for a short time and let the people decide whether they wanted to unify into one state. While it was widely known that the masses were in favor of Unification, those five years were critical in giving each party the time to support their desired position and plan for any outcome that might occur. When the vote for the leader of the Confederation commenced, it soon became a threeway race between Charles Albert, Guiseppe Garibaldi, and Pope Pius. While Charles was a contender in the beginning, it soon became clear that he would not be able to achieve the desired majority as his support came only from delegates from his kingdom. While Garibaldi was a popular candidate for the liberals and nationalists, he knew that he could never gain the support of the conservatives to give him a good majority. So in the fourth round of voting, Garibaldi threw his support behind Pius as the pontiff had been a good supporter of Italian Unification so far and had been the first to meet the desired reforms of the people, while it was not a secular republic as Garibaldi would have wanted, it was a situation that would best serve the interests of the Italian people. Soon afterwords the Italians became near unanimous in their support of Pius, and he was elected President on May 7th. The Parliament would later convene on the 12th after the delegates had set about on the specifics of the planned referendum and the activities of the Confederation until then. When the parliament had ended, all of the delegates had left Milan with most leaving satisfied as the meeting of their objectives, with the exception of one man, Charles Albert.
The Milan Parliament
When King Charles had returned to Piedmont, to say he was pissed on the whole affair was quite the understatement. The Sardinian King had expected to enter the Parliament and emerge victorious as head of all of Italy. Not only did he leave though with little change in his status than before, the whole conference had actually increased Pius's popularity and the people's desire to have him become the head of Italy. Indeed the whole vote for Pius as President of the Confederation seemed little more than a foreshadowing in Charles's mind of the eventual resorts of the referendum. The Pope would be head of two Rome's, the Church and an Empire. Yet Charles knew he still had time to reverse the whole affair. The War of German Unification had shown that the traditional rulers in a region such as Austria, could be overthrown as seen with Prussia's rise to power as head of the German Empire. In the beginning of the Lombard-Venetian War Charles had been looked towards as one of the heads of the Unification movement and still had allies throughout the Peninsula, even among the Republicans as Garibaldi once offered his support to the monarch. Foreign events abroad had also suggested that if Charles was to make a move, the time was now. Great Britain was currently locked in a soon to be war against Russia over the dispute of its role as protectors of Christians living in the Ottoman Empire. France was still in much political turmoil as Napoleon's reign was still unsecure and there was the ever present possibility of another French Revolution. The Spanish were on a trend of stagnation. Both the Germans and Hungarians were still recovering from the revolutions, and Austria was merely a shell of its former self. If there was any time to act, it was now. Charles Albert then spent the next few months mobilizing his army, using the excuse of preparing for an expedition into Africa. He sent out multiple diplomatic correspondence to the Sicilians, Austrians, Germans, and French, inviting each of them to support Sardinia Piedmont's bid to become head of Italy in exchange for some possible concessions and an alliance. Charles also spent the time meeting with potential support from Republican Revolutionaries. When Charles tried to reach for external aid, he found himself displeased. The Italian Nationalists while stating they could support Charles, were content to wait for the referendum as that would fulfill their wish of the country unifying under the wishes of the people. All foreign correspondence was met with either vague promises of eventual support or replies of neutrality at the current time. What Charles did not realize though, was that he made a fatal mistake in contacting both Napoleon and Ferdinand. Thinking arrogantly that one quick strike was all that was needed, Charles brought himself before the Piedmontese Parliment, producing false documents which were forged to be under the Pope's signature that revealed plans for a conquest of Sardinia-Piedmont to bring them under Papal control. While many present where skeptical of his claims, Charles had enough planted supporters in the Parliment that a slim majority where able to rise in support of the King, with Charles Albert declaring war on the Papal States and announcing a occupation of the rest of the Italian states in order to ensure that Papal collaborators would not harm Sardinia Piedmont. What the nobles present did not know though, was that Charles Albert had already submitted orders that morning for his generals to march the army into the rest of Italy, showing that he was going to declare war whether he had support or not. The Sardinian Heresy had begun.
View attachment 301398
Sardinian Soldiers March off to war (Right) Royal Prince Victor Emmanuel leading the Charge for the House of Savoy (Center) Napoleon III, soon to be the biggest player in the war (Left)
"While I do advocate for unification, peace shall always remain my highest priority. The last thing Christians should do is fight each other for petty purposes."- Pope Pius IX 1851
"Dear Ferdinand, as you can tell the motion that Italia is moving towards is that of the Vatican while our two kingdoms are met with internal strife and anarchy by those damn revolutionaries. If we don't take action soon then the mob will vote for the Pope to take control and we'll be mere vassals to Rome. While I am a faithful Catholic, it is clear that Pius is stepping too much into temporal affairs. I think it is time for action to be taken."- King Charles Albert 1851
"By undertaking this course we will have pleased the Conservatives while gaining a new ally, two birds with one stone."- Emperor Napoleon III 1852
While the question of German and Hungarian Nationalism had been settled in the 1846 Revolutions, one question that had yet to be answered was that of the fate of Italy. While the Lombard-Venetian War had ended in an Italian victory that had essentially eliminated Austria out of the Peninsula and liberated all Italian lands under Hapsburg rule, they had not changed the balance of power, rather it had been pushed to a greater divide between the two main powers; the Papal States and the Kingdom of Sardinia-Piedmont. On one side you had Pope Pius IX, a rising star within European politics who was shaping to be a reformer of the Catholic Church by liberalizing much of the Papal States and making motions to meet with several members of the College of Cardinals so that the reforms would not only be implemented in Italy, but throughout the world in the Church's teachings. Pius was much beloved by the common folk and the parish priests routinely praised their pontiffs brilliance and divinity in mass. On the other side was King Charles Albert. While King Charles did not have the same level of authority as the head of the world's largest religion, he was head of Italy's most powerful Kingdom, Sardinia-Piedmont having spent the last century gaining more power and land through their various wars and political strikes. The House of Savoy had many friends among the great European royalty and Charles Albert was a man who commanded respect from his people, yet he was not terribly beloved outside of his Kingdom. Two men who could said to be quite near polar opposites, both desiring the crown of the Lombards. One to unify the peninsula to bring peace and prosperity under the will of God, the other set on creating a glorious empire that will last for ages. One would soon rise to such glory, while the other trampled in the sea of Nationalism.
In the five years since the end of the Lombard-Venetian War, the Italian states had been undergoing a great amount of growth in the new Italian Confederation. In the aftermath of the war the first session was proclaimed in March 18th, on the anniversary of the five days of Milan. There was much argument first over where the expected capitol of this new confederation would reside, eventually though the ancient city of Rome was chosen to become the place of the new Italian Parliament. While there was much grumbling from Charles Albert, Pius did point out that Rome was the central most place in all of Italy and had much historical importance as the center of the Roman Empire. Much of the focus though was trying to keep it within the heart of Italy in the same manner that the Americans chose Washington D.C. Over the next five years the Confederation would go to quick work in uniting the peninsula and making sure that all Italian states would thrive. The first major change to be implemented was for all of the Italian States to draft up a constitution much in the manner that Pius had done so that the liberals and the common masses would be appeased. The Constitutions worked much in the manner as that of America's in that it set up a legislative branch that would create the laws and would have some checks on the executive, in this case being the monarch (although even the Pope still held much state authority). A Judicial branch would be set up to review laws. Religious freedom would be protected, though Catholicism was still the state religion and no Protestant churches would be set up within the boundaries of Rome. Many other rights were guaranteed such as freedom of the press and assembly and protest. Finally the people were given a right to vote for their representatives in their respective legislative branch, though this ranged in a number of different practices with universal male suffrage in the Papal States to landed property voting in Sicily. With the question of political and social stability being met, a greater importance was then put towards the greater economic development of Italy. While their neighbors Germany and France were currently undergoing a wave of industrialization and unprecedented economic growth, Italy still remained a much agrarian society in the south while the north had lost its trade status in the 18th century and had been in somewhat of an economic slump since then. Tariffs were nonexistent in the borders of the Confederation and citizens of the Italian states were allowed to move across borders without a need of checking. Subsidiaries and funding were also being invested all throughout the Peninsula so that industry would begin to take root in the states and the first tracks of railroad could be laid down in a peninsular system that could travel from Palermo to Venice. Finally in a practice to the Roman style of rule, much of the funding was diverted to developing new infrastructure in roads and canals so that transportation of goods, people, and communication would increase exponentially in Italy. While Italy was slow in catching up to the rest of Western Europe, the economic reforms were already starting to take root in the Confederation with unemployment dropping increasingly and the average income of the Italian worker being doubled. Within the Papal States, Pope Pius was also experimenting into a new system of economics that would combine both socialism and Church doctrine that would allow the free market to flourish yet protect the working class and offer support to the poor. This system would soon develop into what is now known today as Christian Capitalism, an economic system where corporations would form which would be run by the church in support of a certain type of profession for the common class. These semi-unions would not interfere in the control of the economy, but would work together to provide support for their sectors and promote growth in cooperation. In 1850 Pius would come to publish a Papal Encyclical that detailed the Church's responsibility to the poor and the morality that all Christians must undertake when dealing in business. These economic reforms had a huge effect in increasing Pius's popularity with the masses and much of the Western World. Meanwhile Charles Albert looked on in worry, while his Kingdom had been one of the main benefactors of the success of the Federation, he was not being hailed as the head of unity and his role in the revolution was being forgotten in favor of Garibaldi and Pius. Tensions would soon come to a head in 1852, when the issue of leadership came up.
Colored photograph of an bustling Italian Market (Right) Voting Day in Venice (Center) Pius made sure to have the trains run on time (Left)
On March 31st, 1852, the Milan Parliament was formed in order to discuss the current state of the Italian Confederation and the possibility of further unification. The parliament while originally planned to take place in Rome in the Confederate Senate, was moved to Milan in order to pay tribute to the Revolutionaries who started the Lombard-Venetian War and gave their lives to drive out Austria. It was actually all a large political ploy by Charles Albert who had subtly encouraged the nationalists to place the parliament their so that it could take place within his own kingdom. Much like the fateful meeting in Rome six years ago that had brought about the beginning of the war, the heads of states of all the Italian states were gathered along with the Confederation's highest most prominent nationalists and other figures of importance. Overall around 200 people had shown up for the occasion, much like the famous Frankfurt Parliament, the future of Italy would be decided in these halls. When the council first began the issue of what to do at first was whether or not to unite Italy totally into a country or to continue its current course. The Republicans and Nationalists had been all for the former as they had justified that the people had longed for this day to come and that a unified Italy would soon become the Fourth Rome, a mighty power that could one day dominate Europe as they had in the Medieval era. Overall the monarchists and Conservatives had been against the idea, saying that the already had done enough reforms and that to do so would totally destroy the sovereignty of the individual states which had lasted for centuries. Many of the liberals then pointed out that the German Empire had practically done the same thing and yet the Kings of Bavaria and Hanover still had much power when they were essentially vassals of the Kaiser. Weeks of bickering came on and soon two main camps had formed, those that had wished for unification, and those who wished to maintain the status quo. Within the unification camp was a split in two factions which desired either for Charles Albert to take the throne as King of Italy, or for a democratic republic to be set up. What many had noticed throughout the events is that two important figures had yet to take action, King Ferdinand and Pope Pius. Ferdinand while a man who wanted to become monarch of Italia, knew that at the end of the day his chances of becoming head of Italy were very slim. The Sicilians Bourbons had little friends in the North and the two regions were so radical in difference that it was similar in situation to the North and South divide within the United States. Ferdinand desired unification buy only under his rule, anything else would require the protection of Sicily's autonomy and his right as King of Naples. While many thought he would go towards the Confederation camp, Ferdinand stuck to the sidelines, determined to wait out and see what opportunities might come in the future. Pius, while determined to unify all of Italy under the Church's guidance, did not want for any bloodshed or huge conflict to happen in the process. He knew that many of the monarchs and nobles would be very against giving up their rights to rule and the independence of their respective states. At the same time the Nationalists were getting angsty and would accept nothing less than total unification. If nothing was done too placate both sides than a Civil War or another revolution would come out and all of Italy would suffer. In order to solve this issue Pius came up with a compromise. Speaking in front of all the assembled delegates on May 10th, Pius explained his solution for the issue of unification which would involve the continuation of the Confederation for the next five years under the guidance of an elected head of the Confederacy. When 1857 came around, all of the Italian states would hold a referendum for its people on whether or not they were to stick to the status quo, or move into the unification of one state. When Pius finished his speech, he was met with a standing ovation from a large majority of the delegates as the solution had meet all of their needs, it had guaranteed the independence of the states for a short time and let the people decide whether they wanted to unify into one state. While it was widely known that the masses were in favor of Unification, those five years were critical in giving each party the time to support their desired position and plan for any outcome that might occur. When the vote for the leader of the Confederation commenced, it soon became a threeway race between Charles Albert, Guiseppe Garibaldi, and Pope Pius. While Charles was a contender in the beginning, it soon became clear that he would not be able to achieve the desired majority as his support came only from delegates from his kingdom. While Garibaldi was a popular candidate for the liberals and nationalists, he knew that he could never gain the support of the conservatives to give him a good majority. So in the fourth round of voting, Garibaldi threw his support behind Pius as the pontiff had been a good supporter of Italian Unification so far and had been the first to meet the desired reforms of the people, while it was not a secular republic as Garibaldi would have wanted, it was a situation that would best serve the interests of the Italian people. Soon afterwords the Italians became near unanimous in their support of Pius, and he was elected President on May 7th. The Parliament would later convene on the 12th after the delegates had set about on the specifics of the planned referendum and the activities of the Confederation until then. When the parliament had ended, all of the delegates had left Milan with most leaving satisfied as the meeting of their objectives, with the exception of one man, Charles Albert.
The Milan Parliament
When King Charles had returned to Piedmont, to say he was pissed on the whole affair was quite the understatement. The Sardinian King had expected to enter the Parliament and emerge victorious as head of all of Italy. Not only did he leave though with little change in his status than before, the whole conference had actually increased Pius's popularity and the people's desire to have him become the head of Italy. Indeed the whole vote for Pius as President of the Confederation seemed little more than a foreshadowing in Charles's mind of the eventual resorts of the referendum. The Pope would be head of two Rome's, the Church and an Empire. Yet Charles knew he still had time to reverse the whole affair. The War of German Unification had shown that the traditional rulers in a region such as Austria, could be overthrown as seen with Prussia's rise to power as head of the German Empire. In the beginning of the Lombard-Venetian War Charles had been looked towards as one of the heads of the Unification movement and still had allies throughout the Peninsula, even among the Republicans as Garibaldi once offered his support to the monarch. Foreign events abroad had also suggested that if Charles was to make a move, the time was now. Great Britain was currently locked in a soon to be war against Russia over the dispute of its role as protectors of Christians living in the Ottoman Empire. France was still in much political turmoil as Napoleon's reign was still unsecure and there was the ever present possibility of another French Revolution. The Spanish were on a trend of stagnation. Both the Germans and Hungarians were still recovering from the revolutions, and Austria was merely a shell of its former self. If there was any time to act, it was now. Charles Albert then spent the next few months mobilizing his army, using the excuse of preparing for an expedition into Africa. He sent out multiple diplomatic correspondence to the Sicilians, Austrians, Germans, and French, inviting each of them to support Sardinia Piedmont's bid to become head of Italy in exchange for some possible concessions and an alliance. Charles also spent the time meeting with potential support from Republican Revolutionaries. When Charles tried to reach for external aid, he found himself displeased. The Italian Nationalists while stating they could support Charles, were content to wait for the referendum as that would fulfill their wish of the country unifying under the wishes of the people. All foreign correspondence was met with either vague promises of eventual support or replies of neutrality at the current time. What Charles did not realize though, was that he made a fatal mistake in contacting both Napoleon and Ferdinand. Thinking arrogantly that one quick strike was all that was needed, Charles brought himself before the Piedmontese Parliment, producing false documents which were forged to be under the Pope's signature that revealed plans for a conquest of Sardinia-Piedmont to bring them under Papal control. While many present where skeptical of his claims, Charles had enough planted supporters in the Parliment that a slim majority where able to rise in support of the King, with Charles Albert declaring war on the Papal States and announcing a occupation of the rest of the Italian states in order to ensure that Papal collaborators would not harm Sardinia Piedmont. What the nobles present did not know though, was that Charles Albert had already submitted orders that morning for his generals to march the army into the rest of Italy, showing that he was going to declare war whether he had support or not. The Sardinian Heresy had begun.
Sardinian Soldiers March off to war (Right) Royal Prince Victor Emmanuel leading the Charge for the House of Savoy (Center) Napoleon III, soon to be the biggest player in the war (Left)
- Kaiser Chris
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