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Unlock This CoursePiedmont had kept its constitution, but nobody yet knew if king and parliament could work together. The first test came at once. The peace treaty with Austria, signed at Milan in August 1849, had to be approved by parliament. The elected lower house, the Chamber of Deputies, was controlled by the democrats. They were angry about the defeat and refused to approve the treaty.
The King lost patience. In November 1849 he dissolved parliament and issued the Proclamation of Moncalieri, named after the royal castle near Turin where he signed it. In it he appealed directly to the voters to elect more moderate men. He warned that if they did not, he would not be responsible for what happened next. Many people read this as a threat to the Statuto itself.
It worked. The elections of December 1849 gave the moderates a large majority, and the new Chamber approved the treaty in January 1850. The crisis had two results. The King had got his way by leaning hard on the voters, which showed how much power he still held. But he had also done it through an election, not by force, so parliament survived and grew in importance.
Key terms:
Victor Emmanuel II was 29 when he became king. He ruled Piedmont until 1861, and then Italy until his death in 1878.
He was a soldier at heart. He had fought in the war of 1848-49, and he liked the army and hunting far more than paperwork or debates. He was blunt and no great thinker, but his plain manners made him popular. He wanted Austria out of Italy and more land and glory for his family, the House of Savoy.
He did not love parliaments, but he accepted the Statuto and worked within it. He left most day-to-day government to his ministers. However, he guarded the powers the Statuto gave him, above all over the army and foreign affairs, and he sometimes went behind his ministers' backs.
From May 1849 to 1852 his prime minister was Massimo d'Azeglio, a moderate who was also a well-known painter and novelist. D'Azeglio was honest and respected, and he wrote the Proclamation of Moncalieri for the King. Under him, Piedmont settled down as a working constitutional state. But he disliked the daily grind of politics, and a far more driven man was rising in his government.
Count Camillo di Cavour was born in Turin in 1810, the younger son of a noble family. As a young man he left the army and ran the family's farms, using modern methods to make them pay. He travelled in France and Britain and came home full of admiration for Britain's parliament, railways and industry. He was a moderate liberal: he wanted progress, but he feared revolution and distrusted Mazzini.
Cavour sat on the centre-right. Early in 1852, without telling d'Azeglio, he made an alliance with Urbano Rattazzi, the leader of the centre-left. It became known as the connubio. Together the two groups had a majority in the Chamber. In May 1852 Cavour helped Rattazzi to be elected president (speaker) of the Chamber. D'Azeglio was furious, and Cavour had to leave the government. But d'Azeglio could no longer control parliament without him.
In October 1852 d'Azeglio resigned after a quarrel with the King over a marriage law that the Pope opposed. Victor Emmanuel disliked Cavour, whom he found pushy and too clever, and he tried to form a government from the right. It failed, because only Cavour could command a majority. On 4 November 1852 the King appointed Cavour prime minister.
The connubio gave Cavour a solid majority in the centre of the Chamber. He stayed prime minister, with one short break, until his death in 1861. Strong, lasting government made it possible to plan large reforms, which you will study in the lesson 'Cavour's Reforms in Piedmont'.
Both ends of politics lost influence. On the far right were conservatives and supporters of the Church who wanted to weaken the Statuto. On the far left were republicans who followed Mazzini. Neither could now win a vote against the centre.
Under the Statuto the King chose his ministers. Yet in 1852 he had to appoint a man he disliked, because that man had the majority. In practice, a prime minister now needed the backing of the Chamber as well as the King. Power was shifting from the palace to parliament.
Piedmont now had a skilful, modern-minded leader and a parliament that worked. This made it even more attractive to liberals and nationalists across Italy, who saw nothing like it in their own states.
There were limits. The King still held great power and never fully trusted Cavour. And Cavour kept his majority by making deals between groups, not by winning clear contests between parties, in a country where very few men could vote.
Extract A (a practice extract written for this lesson, in the style of a modern history book)
From a modern history textbook.
Cavour's climb to power owed more to scheming than to principle. While still a minister in d'Azeglio's government, he quietly struck a bargain with Rattazzi, a leader of the opposition, without a word to his own prime minister. D'Azeglio, who had brought him into the government, was left humiliated. Within months the restless, ambitious count had manoeuvred himself into the highest office, forced upon a king who could barely stand the sight of him.
What impression does the author give about Cavour's rise to power? You must use Extract A to explain your answer. [6 marks]
The author gives the impression that Cavour rose to power through cunning and selfish ambition, not through merit. This comes across in the author's language. His rise is called 'scheming', and he 'quietly struck a bargain' and 'manoeuvred himself' into office, which suggests a sly plotter working in secret. Describing him as 'restless' and 'ambitious', and saying he was 'forced upon' the King, makes him sound pushy and unwanted. The author has also chosen to stress the harm to d'Azeglio, who was 'left humiliated' by a man he had helped. The extract leaves out Cavour's ability and his success as a minister, and the fact that the connubio gave Piedmont a stable majority, so the impression is entirely negative.
What lifts it to the top level: it names one clear impression, proves it with short quotations and what they suggest, and explains what the author chose to stress and to leave out.
Look at the verbs the author gives Cavour: 'struck a bargain', 'manoeuvred'. Verbs like these carry the author's opinion, so quote them and say what each suggests. Then ask what a fairer account would add, here Cavour's talent and the stable government he built. For more help, see the Exam Skills lesson 'Paper 1 Question (a): What Impression Does the Author Give?'.