Charles Albert

Kingdom of Sardinia state institutions Monarchy and royalism 1798–1849 ○ Died in exile

King of Sardinia who granted the Albertine Statute, declared war on Austria and abdicated after defeat at Custoza and Novara

Born at the Palazzo Carignano in Turin to a cadet line of the House of Savoy, he received a liberal education in Napoleonic France. In 1821 he backed and then abandoned a constitutional rising, and in 1823 he joined the legitimist expedition against the Spanish liberals. Becoming King of Sardinia in 1831, he ruled at first as a conservative, having twelve Young Italy conspirators shot in 1833. In the 1840s he saw in Pius IX a way to an anti-Austrian course; on 4 March 1848 he granted the Albertine Statute, the first Italian constitution, and on the 23rd declared war on Austria. Abandoned by the Pope and the King of Naples and beaten at Custoza in 1848 and at Novara in March 1849, he abdicated in favour of his son Victor Emmanuel II. He went into exile at Porto in Portugal and died there a few months later.

Also known as: Charles Albert of Sardinia · Carlo Alberto I