Ignazio Thaon di Revel

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Ignazio Thaon di Revel

Ignazio Isidoro Thaon di Revel e Saint-André, count of Pralungo (10 May 1760 – 26 January 1835) was an Italian military figure and politician.

Biography

Early life

Ignazio Thaon di Revel was born in Nice, the son of Carlo Thaon di Sant'Andrea and Maddelena Galleani di Todon. Passionate about literary studies, he embarked on a military career like his father, with whom (alongside his elder brother Giuseppe Alessandro) he was aide-de-camp during the War of the Alps. A trusted man of the House of Savoy, he was later commissioned to carry out several important missions of both diplomatic and political and military order.

Diplomatic missions and imprisonment during the French occupation

Appointed minister plenipotentiary (ambassador) of the Kingdom of Sardinia at The Hague (June 1789–August 1791), he negotiated peace with Revolutionary France in May 1796. With the Treaty of Paris, the Thaon di Revel and Saint-André lost their fiefs in the County of Nice and the castle of Saint-André. In 1797 Ignazio was appointed provisional governor of Asti. With the creation of the Piedmontese Republic, he refused to cooperate with the new administration imposed by the Directory. In December 1798 he was reported among those closest to the falling monarchy, and on December 30 he was ordered by General Grouchy to leave within 24 hours for Grenoble. He crossed the Mont-Cenis on January 1, 1799, together with his brother Giuseppe Alessandro, who had received a similar order. They were after an initial detention in Grenoble transferred to Dijon. The two brothers escaped from prison on July 14 the same year and after a daring journey, full of pitfalls and difficulties, in the fall they joined their father in Turin who was appointed commander of the Sardinian army. Ignazio, unlike his father and brother who after the defeat at the Battle of Marengo joined Charles Felix in Sardinia, preferred to retire to the Cimena estate near Chivasso where he remained for the duration of the French occupation of Piedmont.

At the Congress of Vienna

When the Savoy returned (April 15, 1814), by virtue of his refusal to collaborate with the French and because of the loyalty of members of his household to the crown, he was appointed a member of the regency council. In 1815 he was sent on a mission to Paris to the peace negotiations, where with skill he obtained the return of Savoy to the Kingdom of Sardinia. On September 25, 1814, he obtained from Victor Emmanuel I, the title of Count of Pralungo (created for the second time), thus beginning the cadet branch of counts in the Thaon dynasty.

As minister plenipotentiary at the Congress of Vienna in 1815, he received possession of Genoa from the British, which thus became part of the Kingdom of Sardinia.[1]

In addition to issues related to territorial compensation later enshrined, he worked on an issue of great importance to the Kingdom of Sardinia concerning succession to the throne. King Victor Emmanuel I had no direct male heirs and his brother, Charles Felix had no children. According to the family law of 1307, the succession was to fall to the second-born branch, the Savoy-Carignano family represented at the time by Charles Albert. During his stay first in Paris then on a mission to London, Ignazio di Revel worked very hard to have Prince Charles Albert recognized as the eventual heir to the crown of Sardinia. Favor for this succession was obtained from France and England, opposed on the other hand by Austria, which unsuccessfully supported the candidacy of Francis IV, Duke of Modena.

Returning from the Congress of Vienna, Victor Emmanuel entrusted him with the governorship of Genoa, a post he held for a couple of years. During his time in Genoa, he established the questura. He baptized his last born son in honor of the city.

Appointed Viceroy of Sardinia in 1818, he left Genoa for Cagliari and upon his return to Piedmont in 1820, succeeded on the death of his older brother in the governorship of Turin.

Carbonari uprisings of 1820–1821

The sovereign disavowed the Spanish constitution granted by the prince of Carignan, and during the riots, Revel went to the French imperial court to enlist the support of Louis XVIII's armies to quell the uprisings. He advised Victor Emmanuel I either vigorous resistance or abdication in favor of his brother Charles Felix of Savoy. After Victor Emmanuel I's removal from the throne, he joined Charles Felix in Modena, from whom he was instructed to establish diplomatic contacts with Austria to secure Holy Alliance intervention if necessary.

On April 19, 1821 he was appointed lieutenant general of the kingdom with full alter ego powers, with the specific task of restoring order in the state after the student revolts in Turin. He provided in fact, with the fall of the provisional government of Santorre di Santa Rosa, for the restoration of order. The repression of the uprising was extremely harsh; he established a Royal Delegation to judge those who had compromised themselves in the conspiracy. Seventy-one death sentences were issued, five to life imprisonment and 20 to prison terms ranging from 5 to 20 years. Many of the convicted conspirators had fled abroad, however, and only 2 military personnel were sentenced to death. According to the testimony of Ludovico Sauli d'Igliano, a foreign ministry official in Turin (and some historians), it was Ignazio Thaon himself who had the passports surrendered and let the most compromised take the path of exile. The Revel's decision was motivated, says Roberto Guerri, "thinking that the restored legitimate authority would have loved better to punish the mere names of the absentees, rather than drive into prison and chastise an infinity of unhappy victims." The social status of the conspirators, largely exponents of the Piedmontese nobility, who were also linked by ties of friendship and kinship with the Thaons, did not fail to influence them.

In March of the same year, Ignazio Thaon sent a letter to Chancellor Metternich asking him to intercede with Emperor Franz I of Habsburg on behalf of Silvio Pellico, who had been sentenced by the Lombardo-Veneto court to 15 years of harsh imprisonment in the trial against the Federati sect. From the emperor he received a predictable denial but attested to Metternich's esteem and high regard.[2] He urged Charles Felix to reduce the question of the responsibility of Charles Albert of Savoy, Prince of Carignano to a family affair, of which the international powers should not interfere.

Last years

He later reassumed the governorship of Turin, which he held until his death in 1835.

He was appointed Marshal of Savoy (1829) and in 1831, vice-president of the Council of State.

He was awarded the Order of Saints Maurice and Lazarus, Commander of the Military Merit of Savoy, and on August 15, 1820, Knight of the Supreme Order of the Most Holy Annunciation.

Private life

He married Sabina, of the Spitalieri counts of Cessole, and had twelve children with her: Federico, Carolina, Leonello, Ottavio, Orazio, Alessandro, Marziano, Flavia, Carlo Francesco, Adriano, Ersilia and Genova.

Nearly all the sons pursued military careers: Federico (1799–1824) became Second Lieutenant in the Guards and aide-de-camp to his father; Leonello (1802–1843), Captain of the General Staff; Marziano (1807–1884) Colonel of Infantry, Marshal of the Bodyguard and Squire of the King; Carlo Francesco (1811–1870), Major in the Grenadiers and Captain of the Guards.

Noteworthy for their careers are:

  • Adriano (1813–1854), minister plenipotentiary in Vienna and London. Grand Cordon SS. Maurice and Lazarus, first victim of cholera in Turin.
  • Ottavio, senator of the kingdom of Italy in 1861 minister of finance and signer of the Statuto Albertino.
  • Genova, general, minister of war, senator of the kingdom and diplomat. Received one gold and two silver medals for military valor.

Honors

Works

Thaon also distinguished himself as an excellent Latinist,[3] composing a memoir and several works of a historical-political nature:

  • Della rivoluzione del Piemonte, con delle osservazioni sulle diverse forme di governo e sulle dottrine rivoluzionarie (1822)
  • Testament Politique (1826)
  • Mémoires sur la guerre des Alpes et les événements en Piémont pendant la révolution française tirés des papiers du comte Ignace Thaon de Revel de St-André et de Pralungo (1871)

Notes

  1. ↑ Vitale, Vito (1938). "Gli studi di storia Ligure nell'ultimo ventennio," Archivio Storico Italiano, Vol. XCVI, No. 4 (368), pp. 233–47.
  2. ↑ Guerri (2015), p. 58.
  3. ↑ Manno, Antonio (1895). Il patriziato subalpino: notizie di fatto storiche, genealogiche, feudali ed araldiche, desunte da documenti. Firenze: Giuseppe Civelli.

References

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