Victory Lap
The Cathedral of Our Lady of the Assumption of Ajaccio
To celebrate Corsica’s long-awaited independence, King Theodore decided to make an official tour of the island. On October 25th, he began a tour of the
Diqua which would start in the Castagniccia, the heart of the rebellion. The king and his entourage, including the royal princes, were greeted in the Castagniccian villages by cheering crowds, church bells, and incessant celebratory gunfire. The
notabili of each village turned out to pay homage to the king and gain the honor of receiving the royal party, while their wives lined up in their best dresses and offered cakes, sweets, and garlands of flowers. “I am thoroughly sick of
fiadone,”
[1] wrote Don
Matteo, Principe di Porto Vecchio to his wife, adding that they had received so much of it “we might reasonably subsist on cake alone.” The king and his men listened patiently to speeches which the local leaders had prepared, as well as verse from those who fancied themselves poets; one
caporale insisted on declaiming a series of sonnets he had composed for the occasion.
The reaction to the king’s arrival in Bastia was understandably more subdued. This was not to say that there were no
naziunali in Bastia; the rebels had always enjoyed the assistance of a sympathetic segment of the population. Still, Bastia had been continually assaulted over the course of the rebellion, from when rebel mobs had raided the suburbs in early 1730 up to the city’s sack by Theodore’s army, and the royalist government had treated the city like occupied territory. In the closing years of the Revolution, Bastia was effectively the island’s largest barracks, as Minister of War Count
Marcantonio Giappiconi figured that by moving his training camp from Vescovato to Bastia he could simultaneously keep the population in line by the regular army’s presence.
Nevertheless, independence had not been immediately followed by a mass exodus. The great Genoese families had for the most part already left in years past, and even the
filogenovese and “Corso-Genoese” families proved reluctant to flee. Bastia was their home, and despite all the hardships they had endured they were not keen to abandon their livelihoods and properties to become penniless exiles in Genoa, a city already teeming with the displaced and destitute. Most Bastiacci opted to stay put as long as life remained tolerable.
After an entrance to the city on horseback, Theodore hosted a banquet for the prominent local families - virtually all of them
filogenovesi - who presided over the political and economic life of the city. Dining with them at the governor’s palace, Theodore attempted to win over his former foes and reconcile them with the new regime. He proved very interested - or at least a sufficiently good actor to feign interest - in the economy of Bastia, and discussed possibilities for investment and development with the local merchants. Launching into a speech, he explained that whatever their allegiances in the past, they were now all Corsicans together and ought to work for the common prosperity of Corsica. He further announced the end of military rule in Bastia - the city had been under martial law since the sack - and pledged that the Bastiacci would be permitted the same right as the other communes of Corsica to elect their own
podesta. Six weeks later this was accomplished, and
Anton Giuseppe Mattei was elected as Bastia’s first post-independence
podesta. Although undoubtedly a
filogenovese during the rebellion, Mattei’s selection was ratified by the king, and the new
podesta pledged his loyalty to Theodore and the constitution.
One of the important dignitaries at Theodore’s banquet had been
Salvatore Viale, a major player in the fishing industry. Fishing was one of the few industries on Corsica which was dependent on credit; because the capital involved could be significant, most fishermen borrowed money for equipment and provisions - often as groups who would work on the same boat together - and repaid their loans at the season’s end. Viale was among the most prominent of these “marine financiers,” owning several ships and operating what might be considered one of Corsica’s only indigenous banks. In a move that surprised almost everyone, Theodore offered Viale the position of Secretary of the Navy. The king had a number of loyal captains, but to actually
administer the tiny Corsican navy he sought someone who could organize a department and balance the books. Viale initially declined the offer; he was not a military man, he explained, and there was not all that much of a navy to administer. But Theodore was not done with him, and a few months later Viale would finally consent to serve.
Theodore’s offer to Viale - and his eventual appointment - was not without controversy. Viale was not just any native of Bastia; he came from a distinguished Genoese noble house, and another Viale (a distant cousin) would be elected Doge of Genoa a few months later. In 1640, his ancestor Benedetto Viale had served as Commissioner-General of Corsica, and had decided to settle permanently in Bastia along with his family. Although they had intermarried with local Corsican families in the century since then, the Viale clan of Bastia had always been reliable supporters of the Genoese regime. When Commissioner-General Spinola had sought loans from the citizens of Bastia to help fund his beleaguered forces in the interior, Salvatore Viale had been among his willing creditors. Some in the cabinet objected to such a man being made a minister, considering him to be more Genoese than Corsican. Theodore, however, felt that it was necessary to set an example that independence marked a clean break with the animosities of the past.
From Bastia, Theodore went overland to San Fiorenzo and then to Nonza in Capo Corso, whence he sailed west to Isola Rossa aboard the
Cyrne, the “flagship” corvette of the Corsican state, which had been embellished with some faux gilding (actually yellow paint). At Isola Rossa he was received grandly by Marquis
Simone Fabiani. lthough relations between Theodore and Fabiani had been somewhat strained in past years, it was not in evidence now, and one of his secretaries reported that Fabiani and the king greeted each other like old friends. The king confirmed Fabiani in his governorship and named him “Captain-General of the Army,” a title which held more prestige than actual power. Theodore also met with representatives of the
Nederlands-Corsicaanse Compagnie who gave him a brief tour of their newly constructed depot. It was not much to look at yet, but the Dutch had plans for more than just a warehouse. They discussed plans to establish a coopery to produce barrels for export on-site, as well as shops for carpenters and ironmongers to provide materials for this work.
After spending more than a week in the Balagna, the royal party re-embarked on the
Cyrne at Calvi and sailed to Ajaccio. Rough seas delayed their arrival for several days, but ultimately the ship arrived without incident. It was now nearly Christmas, and the tour had been going at a breakneck speed. With winter upon them and the weather worsening, Theodore decided to postpone the rest of the tour and remain at Ajaccio until spring. The king was received with much celebration; the people came to the harbor in a great throng to see the “King’s Ship” arrive, flying the Moor’s Head and decked with streamers of green cloth. Theodore disembarked in his crimson robes and passed through the crowd to cheers of “
Evvivu Corsica, Evvivu u Re!” The reception was notably different than his rather sober entrance into Bastia; then again, the population of Ajaccio was substantially more “Corsican,” and unlike Bastia’s military occupation Ajaccio had been ruled with a fairly light hand. Count
Giuseppe Costa, Theodore’s intendant, had administered the city with the cooperation of the local elders. As in Bastia, Theodore dined with the elders and other notables, and restored elective government to the city. Costa stepped down to be replaced with the Ajaccian lawyer and city elder
Giuseppe Maria Buonaparte. Buonparte may or may not have had royalist sympathies before the fall of Ajaccio, but certainly emerged as a committed
naziunale after the city’s fall. He would later ennobled by Theodore with the title of
cavaliere.
[2]
Theodore established his “winter headquarters” in the
palazzo publico, the former residence of the Genoese commissioner within the upper town. The king spent the mild Ajaccian winter in something resembling a vacation; it was the first time in more than a decade he had not been either an insurgent leader or a wanted exile. As Christmas approached, the king was presented with a kid by the local herders - the traditional Christmas meat - while the fishermen supplied the royal table with “Corsican caviar,” known as
bottarga (cured mullet roe), a seasonal delicacy. Even Theodore’s vacations, however, were not idle. In December he went on a riding tour of the olive orchards in Ajaccio’s hinterland, observing the annual harvest and the oil pressing. He held regular audiences at the
palazzo publico and received delegations from groups of tradesmen and local notables, and made several forays to towns and villages in the greater Ajaccio area.
Genoa’s defeat had augured poorly for the Greek community, as they had always maintained their loyalty to the republic. Only Theodore stood between them and a hostile population. The king had every desire to maintain them in Corsica and if possible resettle them at their old colony of Paomia, but there were conflicting land claims by the neighboring pieves. In January, he summoned representatives from Vico, Renno, and other local communes to discuss a territorial settlement. The solution Theodore eventually imposed was to cede formerly Genoese lands in the vicinity to satisfy the Corsicans and allow the Greeks to retain title to most of their former lands in the vicinity Paomia - somewhat reduced from the Genoese grant, but certainly enough to sustain the community.
To the Greeks, Theodore offered to renew the agreement they had made with the Genoese. This required the Greeks to submit to papal authority (while maintaining their own Greek rite), serve the crown in a military fashion when required, and pay the same taxes as the Corsicans, while granting them the full use of their lands and permitting them to keep and bear arms (the Greeks had been disarmed after the fall of Ajaccio). What he could not offer them, however, was what they needed to actually rebuild their colony - building materials, livestock, seed, and so on. Theodore simply did not have the money. Although the Greek leaders assented to the new agreement, for the moment the community remained in Ajaccio as they lacked the resources to start again from scratch at Paomia.
In March, Theodore received another “ethnic” delegation, this one made up of Jews representing the communities of Livorno and Tunis. They had been among Theodore’s earliest financial backers, and although it had taken somewhat longer than expected their investment in the Westphalian baron had finally borne fruit. To their delight, they found that Theodore’s tolerance was not merely a ploy to obtain loans, and that he remained fully committed to religious toleration and the settlement of Jews in Corsica. His offer was astonishing for its time: Other than Poland, Corsica was the only state in Europe which offered civic equality for Jews. They would enjoy full legal rights, and there were to be no ghettos, no additional taxes, no restrictions on the trades they could practice, and no distinctive clothing or badges. Although this policy provoked harsh criticism from some quarters, it made Theodore famous among European Jews - a Jewish poet of the 1750s, citing his policies on slavery and religious tolerance, hailed him a bit over-dramatically as “the German Cyrus” - as well as a renowned figure among the more religiously progressive Enlightenment thinkers of his day.
Notwithstanding this initial promise, Theodore’s original offer to give the Jews a colony at Aleria proved overly optimistic. It became clear to the would-be settlers that Aleria was not the most salubrious site for a settlement, and it also lacked any natural harbor. Instead, Jewish immigration in Theodore’s day was to focus mainly on Bastia and Ajaccio, the former because of its proximity to Italy and Livorno, and the latter because it was a center of the coral trade, which was already an industry with a large Jewish presence. Although their presence in Corsica and Theodore’s liberal attitudes would spark intense controversy, the king’s policy succeeded in attracting skilled artisans, merchants, and a number of renowned writers and intellectuals of the Jewish community.
The most important foreigner to present himself before Theodore at Ajaccio, however, was
Pierre Emmanuel, Marquis de Crussol-Florensac, envoy extraordinary and plenipotentiary of the King of France to the King of Corsica, who arrived in late March. The 32 year old Marquis de Crussol was no stranger to Corsica; he had been a colonel in the army of the French intervention and had led his regiment at the battles of the Balagna and Ponte Novu. In the latter engagement he had been shot twice and seriously wounded, but he eventually recovered and continued to serve in the French army of occupation until the withdrawal of the army from Corsica. The marquis was promoted to brigadier and served gallantly in Germany and Italy in the subsequent War of the Austrian Succession, but was forced to surrender along with the rest of the French army of Italy at Piacenza. He was paroled and spent a year on garrison duty before rejoining the French army in Provence in late 1747, and received a promotion to
maréchal de camp just before the end of the war.
Exemplifying the gallantry of the French nobility of his age, the Marquis de Crussol harbored no evident resentment towards the Corsicans for his near-death experience (or the
actual deaths of many men in his regiment). In fact he spoke very highly of the “fighting spirit” of the Corsicans thereafter, and shared the general contempt of the French expeditionary officers for their Genoese counterparts. In a letter to a fellow officer written during his parole in 1747, he contrasted the conduct of the Corsicans, who had fought “to the last redoubt” to defend their island, to the conduct of their Genoese masters who had capitulated to the Austrians as soon as enemy troops set foot upon their territory. Crussol did not question the rightness of his king’s cause or approve of rebellion, but he was at heart a soldier who respected military virtue in others.
Crussol’s role in Corsica was expansive. More than a mere embassy, his mission was intended to be simultaneously diplomatic, military, and economic. Most obviously, he was to be the physical representation of that tether which Versailles hoped to keep upon King
Theodore and his kingdom, and ensure that the policy of Europe’s newest monarchy was in line with the demands of French security. Crussol, however, was not merely to be Theodore’s minder but the director of a development project, arriving at Ajaccio with a modest but skilled entourage of French officers, clerks, surveyors, and engineers. The aim was both noble and practical: It was a “civilizing mission” to bring the benefits of enlightened French civilization to the half-savage Corsicans, but the mission’s expertise was also intended to develop the resources of this wild country for the benefit of France and cultivate the good will of Corsican people. This, in turn, would bring Corsica more solidly within the French orbit - and prepare the ground for an eventual annexation by the French state, if it became desirable and expedient to do so.
Theodore fêted Crussol as much as he was able, and the marquis had come just in time to witness the king presiding over Ajaccio’s easter celebration. Crussol wrote that the gunfire was so great on Good Friday that it was as if “the city was besieged and being taken by assault.” The king had hoped to continue his tour in the south, but concerning developments abroad and the demands of his administration forced the rest of the southern tour to be postponed. Theodore and the royal party returned directly to Corti, to begin in earnest the task of ruling Corsica.
The Royal Tour of 1749-50
Footnotes
[1] An indigenous cheesecake made from
brocciu (a ricotta-like cheese made from sheep or goat’s milk) and flavored with lemon.
[2] The Buonaparte family had long claimed to be nobles by pointing out the nobility of other branches of their family in mainland Italy. As with many Corsican families which claimed nobility, they were denied this recognition by the Genoese, a factor which drove many leading Corsican houses to side with Theodore during the Revolution.