Camillo Benso di Cavour

Kingdom of Sardinia state institutions Liberalism and republicanism Kingdom of Sardinia Italy 1810–1861 ○ Natural causes

Liberal Piedmontese statesman who called for a constitution in 1848 and as prime minister of Sardinia steered Italian unification

Born in Turin under Napoleonic rule in 1810, the second son of a noble family, he served in the engineer corps of the Royal Sardinian Army until 1831, when boredom and dislike of Charles Albert's reactionary policies made him resign. Managing his family estates, he promoted chemical fertilisers and railways. He founded the political newspaper Il Risorgimento and in 1848 spoke for a constitution for Piedmont. Minister of agriculture, commerce and the navy in 1850 and of finance in 1851, he formed the Connubio coalition with Urbano Rattazzi and became prime minister in 1852. He was an enemy of republicans and revolutionaries. Through the Crimean War and the Plombières agreement with Napoleon III he won Lombardy in the war of 1859, and he brought the south that Garibaldi had conquered into the kingdom. In 1861 he became the first prime minister of Italy and died three months later.

Also known as: Count of Cavour

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