CHARLES ALBERT (CARLO ALBERTO) (1798-1849), king of Sardinia (Piedmont), son of Prince Charles of Savoy-Carignano and Princess Albertine of Saxe-Courland, was born on Oct. 12, 1798, a few days before the French occupied Piedmont and forced his cousin, King Charles Emmanuel, to take refuge in Sardinia. In 1802 King Charles Emmanuel abdicated in favour of his brother, Victor Emmanuel I. On the fall of Napoleon in 1814 the Piedmontese court returned to Turin, and the king was anxious to secure the succession for Charles Albert, knowing that Austria meditated excluding him from it in favour of an Austrian arch duke. He was summoned to Turin, given tutors to instruct him in legitimist principles, and on Oct. 1, 1817, married the archduchess Maria Theresa of Tuscany, who, on March 14, 1820, gave birth to Victor Emmanuel, afterwards king of Italy.
The Piedmontese government at this time was most reactionary, and had made a clean sweep of all French institutions. But there were strong Italian nationalists and anti-Austrian tendencies among the younger nobles and army officers, and the Carbonari and other revolutionary societies had made much progress. Their hopes centred in the young Carignano, whose agreeable manners had endeared him to all, and who had many friends among the Liberals and Carbonari. Early in 182o a revolutionary movement was set on foot. Charles Albert no doubt was aware of this, but he never actually became a Carbonaro, and was surprised and startled when after the outbreak of the Neapolitan revolution of 1820 some of the leading conspirators in the Piedmontese army informed him that a military rising was ready and that they counted on his help (March 2, 1821). He induced them to delay the outbreak and informed the king, requesting him, however, not to punish anyone. On the loth the garrison of Alessandria mu tinied, and two days later Turin was in the hands of the insurgents, the people demanding the Spanish constitution. The king at once abdicated and appointed Charles Albert regent. The latter, pressed by the revolutionists and abandoned by his ministers, granted the constitution and sent to inform Charles Felix, who was now king, of the occurrence. Charles Felix, who was then at Modena, repudiated the regent's acts, accepted Austrian military assistance, with which the rising was easily quelled, and exiled Charles Albert to Florence. The young prince found himself the most unpopular man in Italy, for while the Liberals looked on him as a traitor, to the king and the Conservatives he was a dangerous revolutionist. At the Congress of Verona (1822) the Austrian chancellor, Prince Metternich, tried to induce Charles Felix to set aside Charles Albert's rights of succession. But the king was piqued by Austria's interference, and as both the grand-duke of Tuscany and the duke of Wellington supported him, Charles Albert's claims were re spected. But it was not until he had signed a secret undertaking binding himself, as soon as he ascended the throne, to place him self under the tutelage of a council composed of the higher clergy and the knights of the Annunziata, and to maintain the existing forms of the monarchy (D. Berti, Cesare Alfieri, xi. 77, Rome, 1871), that he was allowed to return to Turin and forgiven. On the death of Charles Felix (April 27, 1831) Charles Albert succeeded; he inherited a kingdom without an army, with an empty treasury, a chaotic administration and mediaeval laws. His first task was to set his house in order ; he reorganized the finances, created the army, and started Piedmont on a path which, if not liberalism, was at least progress. In 1833 a conspiracy of the Giovane Italia society, organized by Mazzini, was discovered, and a number of its members punished with ruthless severity. The election in 1846 of Pius IX., who appeared to be a Liberal and an Italian patriot to some extent, reconciled the king to the Liberal movement, for it accorded with his religious views. On Oct. 3o he issued a decree granting wide reforms, and when risings broke out in other parts of Italy early in 1848, and further liberties were demanded, he was at last induced to grant the constitution (Feb. 8).
When the news of the Milanese revolt against the Austrians reached Turin (March 19) public opinion demanded that the Piedmontese should succour their struggling brothers; and after some hesitation the king declared war. But much time had been wasted and many precious opportunities lost. With an army of 6o,000 Piedmontese troops and 30,00o men from other parts of Italy the king took the field, and after defeating the Austrians at Pastrengo on April 3o, and at Goito on May 3o, where he was him self slightly wounded, more time was wasted in useless operations. Radetzky, the Austrian general, having received reinforcements, drove the centre of the extended Italian line back across the Mincio (July 23) , and in the two days' fighting at Custozza (July 24-25) the Piedmontese were beaten, forced to retreat and to ask for an armistice. The revolutionary movement throughout Italy was breaking down, but Charles Albert felt that while he possessed an army he could not abandon the Lombards and Vene tians, and determined to stake all on a last chance. On March 12, 1849, he denounced the armistice and took the field again with an army of 8o,000 men. He gave the chief command to the Polish general Chrzanowski, but he was completely out-generalled and defeated at La Bicocca near Novara on the 23rd. The Piedmon tese fought with great bravery, and the unhappy king sought death in vain. After the battle he asked terms of Radetzky, who demanded the occupation by Austria of a large part of Piedmont, and the heir to the throne as a hostage. Thereupon, feeling him self to be the obstacle to better conditions, Charles Albert abdi cated in favour of his son Victor Emmanuel. That same night he departed alone and made his way to Oporto, where he retired into a monastery and died on July 28, 1849.
Charles Albert was not a man of first-rate ability; he was of a hopelessly vacillating character. Devout and mystical to an almost morbid degree, hating revolution and distrusting Liberal ism, he was a confirmed pessimist, yet he had many noble qual ities : he was brave to the verge of foolhardiness, devoted to his country, and ready to risk his crown to free Italy from the foreigner. To him the people of Italy owe a great debt, for if he failed in his object he at least materialized the idea of the Risorgimento in a practical shape, and the charges which the Republicans and demagogues brought against him were mon strously unjust.