The
first war of independence was considered “peoples war”. It was
determined by the spontaneous uprisings that broke out in various parts of
Italy, to spread across Europe. This popular movement was called “spring
of the peoples”. The first riots broke out in Sicily against the Bourbons
on January 12, 1848, resulting in the division of the kingdom of the Two
Sicilies in kingdom of Naples and Sicily.
The revolution in that island was intended to put an end to the rule of the
Bourbons who were considered to be outside the island. After the unification of
the two kingdoms took place in 1815, the state was represented exclusively by
Neapolitan officials. Military control and police of Sicily were in the hands of
Neapolitan plenipotentiaries. This situation had led to an increasingly violent
rebellion, which then resulted in the riots of January ’48.
Since 1846 in Milan it began the discontent of citizens. The cause was the
heavy hand of Josef Radetzky, commander of the troops manning the
Lombardo-Veneto, and the presence of soldiers in the army of Croatian origin.
In the territories of Croatia, bordering with Dalmatia and Istria, the
coexistence of Italian origin populations with population of Slavic origin was
somewhat difficult because of the different economic situations of the two
ethnic groups, rich landowners and merchants the Italians, farmers and workers
the Slavs. This situation gave rise to the movement “Popular Croatian
Risorgimento” that was opposed to the Italian Dalmatians. These contrasts
in the areas of origin were translated into antipathy and intolerance between
the military, Croats of Slavic ethnicity, and civilians of the Lombardo-Veneto.
In 1847 Pope Pius IX appointed the new archbishop of Milan, Carlo Bartolomeo
Romilli, Italian, successor of Archbishop Karl von Kaitan Gaisruck, of Austrian
nationality. The Milanese interpreted the appointment as a support of the pope
to the irredentist will of the majority of the population of Milan. The joy for
the appointment of the new archbishop provoked street riots that were opposed
by the Austrian troops. One demonstrator died and others were injured as a
result of gunshots fired by the gendarmes.
Other clashes followed the so-called “tobacco strike”. The Milanese,
wanting to harm the Austro-Hungarian finances, stopped smoking, depriving the
treasury of revenue related to heavy imposts hanging over tobacco. Croatian
soldiers were sent by Radetzky on the streets to smoke, blowing smoke
provocatively in face of citizens. The resulting riots in this behavior caused
deaths and injuries among civilians.
On the beginning of 1848 there were movements of
rebellion even in major European capitals. In March, rioting broke out in
Vienna, where citizens demanded the granting of the constitution, which was
granted by Emperor Ferdinand I. Paris was in flames. February 24 King Louis
Philippe abdicated allowing the birth of the Second French Republic. Barricades
were erected in Berlin.
The Milanese encouraged by what was happening in the other Italian and European
cities, counting on the fact that the Austrians were distracted by uprisings in
Vienna, decided to rebel against the occupants of the Lombardo-Veneto. The
Milanese patriots were divided into three irredentist parties: Republicans, who
identified themselves in the patriotic vision of Mazzini, the reformists,
against everyone and everything, also wanted a revolution against the King of
Sardinia, the most moderate class, identifiable mainly in the nobility, which would simply be added to the Kingdom of
Sardinia.
The protagonists of the revolt were Luciano Manara and Cristina Trivulzio
Belgiojoso representing the first group, Carlo Cattaneo who led the reformists
and Gabrio Casati who was the exponent of the urban nobility.
Luciano Manara, a friend of Carlo Cattaneo, was born in Milan in 1825. He had
completed his studies at the naval college in Venice. Still very young he had
traveled around Europe, stopping in Germany and in Paris, where he met Cristina
Trivulzio. He became a follower of Mazzini’s ideas. He had three children, had
with his wife Carmelita Fè. Manara was one of the most active in the rebellion
against the Austrian presence in Milan.
Cristina Trivulzio Belgiojoso was born in Milan in 1808. She belonged to one of
the noblest families in Milan. She was introduced to the followers of Mazzini
from Ernesta Bisi, who had been her drawing teacher, and she had remained
friends. She had a great pain, still a teenager, because the father Alessandro
Visconti d’Aragona (who had married the mother of Cristina after she was
widowed of her first husband, the real child’s father) was jailed for two years
after he had participated in the secret society of “Carboneria” motions of
1820-21. Cristina was regretted the mother
began a relationship with a Sicilian nobleman in the meantime that her husband
was imprisoned. In 1824 Cristina married Prince Emilio Barbiano of Belgiojoso.
The marriage was not happy because the prince, after marrying the rich heiress,
spent his time in the arms of various mistress. In 1828 the couple was legally
separated, but the prince and Cristina were linked by a deep friendship.
Cristina moved to Genoa to escape the resulting chatter to her separation,
where she was a guest in the entertainments held by Teresa Doria. After staying
in Rome and Naples she stopped for some time in Florence where she attended the
patriot Gian Pietro Vieusseux and his literary cabinet. The Austrian police had
been informed of the revolutionary associates of Cristina Trivulzio, and
therefore was prevented from returning to her native Milan. After a stay in
Switzerland, fearing to be classified compulsory to Milan where she was waiting
for a trial and possibly the prison, she left for France, passing through
Genoa. She was accompanied in Nice, in the carriage, by a friend, shortly after
she moved to Paris. Cristina Trivulzio lived for many years in the French
capital, always in connection with Italians revolutionary circles. In 1938 she
had a daughter, Mary, who officially was registerred as husband’s daughter with
whom, despite the separation, she was often in contact. Most likely Maria was
the daughter of Francois Mignet, a journalist and historian lover of Cristina.
She was in Naples at the outbreak of the Milanese riot. Immediately she went to
Milan. 200 Neapolitan patriots left with her to help the Lombard in struggle
for Freedom.
Carlo Cattaneo was a member of the federalist
current, he dreamed of a federal republic to join all Italians. He was born in
1801 in Milan, he graduated in Pisa and he performed activity of journalist.
Cattaneo was a moderate idealist who wished the maximum freedom by Austria,
then gradually move to an Italic federation. He collided with the maximalist of
patriotic movements for these moderate ideas. He realized that the rebellion of
Milan was now unstoppable, he adapted to the ideas of Luciano Manara and
Cristina Trivulzio. It is said that one day, crossing a group of young rebels
exclaimed: “When the boys are around, the men are home.”
Gabrio Casati was an exponent of the Milanese nobility. He sided with the
expulsion of the Austrians peacefully or with the help of the army of Piedmont,
and sided for the merger between Piedmont and Lombardy and Veneto under the
Savoy crown. Casati was appointed mayor of Milan by the viceroy Ranieri Joseph
of Habsburg-Lorraine, son of Leopold of Tuscany. In 1847 he was able to travel
to Turin, where he made contact with the House of Savoy, urging the Piedmontese
intervention in the matter of the Lombardo-Veneto. During the smoke strike
openly he sided with the Milanese, against the provocations of the Austrian
soldiers, resurrecting an old ordinance that banned smoking on the street.
The victory of the Paris insurgents with the constitution of the Second Republic
and the news that arrived from Vienna of the resignation of Prime Minister
Metternich persuaded the Milanese that it was time for an armed rebellion
against the occupiers.
On March 18th a peaceful demonstration soon turned into an assault on the government
palace. Radetzky was convinced that the threat of his guns was enough to take
good the people. He was unprepared when happened the riots. Hastily he took
refuge in Castello Sforzesco with all the troops present in Milan, a garrison
of about 8,000 men who soon received reinforcements from the military
detachments of Lombardy. There were in the castle about a hundred guns ready to
fire on the city. Radetzky was anxious to regain the Government Palace, the
Cathedral, the Archbishop and all public buildings.
On March 19 the situation for the Austrian troops appeared difficult because,
despite that they had the freedom to travel in the various points of the city,
the huge number of barricades that the Milanese citizens had built up during
the night, around 1000, effectively prevented the circulation. The families had
private with all the furnishings putting together such a large number of
barricades. The Milanese, in order to move more safety, without the risk of
being hit by the gunfire of the Austrians, had broken through the walls of the
apartments between adjacent buildings, creating secret ways within blocks of
downtown.
The rioters were in possession of very few weapons.
They also served the Spanish muskets preserved in museums, halberds of the Scala
opera house, sabers, swords, knives butcher. Built spears tying knives on
wooden rods. Fabricated rudimentary grenades with gunpowder, nails and short
fuses, all in the bags closed with a garter.
In the night between 19 and 20 March a large group of young and old Milanese
noble ladies, headed by Princess Cristina Trivulzio Belgiojoso, arrived in
great haste from Naples along with a group of Neapolitan patriots eager to
participate in the fighting, climbed the barricades to give refreshment and
encourage young rioters. The their contributed so generously gave young
Milanese patriots the courage to go to fight in the streets.
On March 20 an emergency council was formed with Carlo Cattaneo, Enrico
Cernuschi and Giorgio Clerici to equip the rebels scattered in the city of a
coordination and control center. The Committee was the first nucleus of a city
government. Balloons were built to transmit messages between the various rebel
groups. “Martinitt”, the little guests of the orphanages of city, intervened
in the battle as well as the messenger.
At the end of the day Radetzky, who had not seen a way out of the situation in
which the troops found, safe at barracks but unable to move, presented a
proposal for an armistice to the heads of the rioters.
In the night between 20 and 21 March there were heated discussions between
those who wanted to accept the armistice and to request the intervention of
Piedmont and who was against it and wanted to go to the bottom in the battle
not liking the intrusion of the King of Sardinia.
On March 21, the war council decided to continue fighting until the liberation
of the city. A group of insurgents, including Emilio Dandolo, Luciano Manara
and Emilio Morosini, managed to conquer the military genius building due to the
fire of its door caused by Pasquale Sottocorno. The conquest of the building
convinced Radetzky that remain trapped in the city was useless and dangerous.
On March 22 the city was in the hands of the Milanese patriots while the
Austrian troops were confined to barracks and in the Castello Sforzesco. The
rioters were now armed sufficiently for the help they had received from fellow
patriots of neighboring cities and weapons captured to the Austrians. Luciano
Manara led an assault decisive in the conquest of one of the gates of the city,
Porta Tosa, which was occupied by the rebels. After this episode was called
Porta Vittoria. The council of war sent a message to the King of Sardinia Carlo
Alberto asking to intervene as soon as possible with his troops. In the evening
began the withdrawal of the military led by Marshal Radetzky. The Austrians
made their way toward the fortresses of the Quadrilateral among Peschiera,
Mantua, Verona and Legnago.
March 23 the end of “War of the people”
was marked and the so-called “Royal War” began, with the intervention
of the armies of the Kingdom of the Two Sicilies, the Papal States, the Grand
Duchy of Tuscany and Carlo Alberto, who came in Lombardy with his troops,
declaring war on Austria. The first Italian war of independence officially
began.
Carlo Alberto settled in Milan freed from Milanese people. His main concern was
not to defeat the Austro-Hungarians, but to carry out a plebiscite in Milan for
the annexation of Lombardy to the Kingdom of Sardinia. April 29, Pope Pius IX,
regretting his initiative to bring help to the people of northern Italy under
Austrian rule, made a statement against all wars with an ambiguous speech
before the Consistory and, therefore, he recalled his troops marching towards
Milan and Venice. Ferdinand II took advantage of this statement to queue at the
pope’s decision, calling back the Bourbon troops commanded by General Guglielmo
Pepe. At the time the expeditionary force was located in Emilia, ready to get
to Venice to bring help to the revolutionaries of the city of San Marco. It was
at this juncture that Guglielmo Pepe, the old patriot, refused to follow orders
of the king, continuing, with soldiers and officers loyal to him, to Venice.
The Savoy troops meanwhile clashed with the soldiers of Radetzky in Peschiera
del Garda, conquering the local fortress. The Radetzky reaction came in
Curtatone and Montanara, where he defeated the Tuscan formations and in Goito
where the same had a setback.
The hesitation of Carlo Alberto, that for these indecision was nicknamed
“hesitating King (Re Tentenna)”, with his main interest to organize
soon a plebiscite in Milan in favor of his person, made him neglect the
military part of his mission. He had no desire to cross the Lombardy to oust
the Austrians also from Veneto. On June 10, 1848 was proclaimed the result of
plebiscite favorable for annexation to the state of Sardinia with 99% of votes.
The Savoy troops were defeated in battles with the Austrian troops who were in
Custoza between 23 and 26 July. On July 29, the Radetzky army crossed the Oglio
river and headed for Milan. On August 5, Carlo Alberto, demonstrating its
decisiveness, hastened to sign a yield retreating with his army in Piedmont,
Milan abandoning to its fate.
The Milanese formed a provisional government, in which Giuseppe Garibaldi
played a role, and also formed a committee for the defense of the city to which
Mazzini and Cattaneo belonged. The adventure of the Milanese people, betrayed
by Carlo Alberto, ended with the Armistice of Salasco on August 9. The shrewd
Radetzky allowed all those who wished to leave Milan, thus avoiding the most
exposed and compromise people would suffer the inevitable processes of the
Austrian Justice, which would end with harsh sentences and executions.
Luciano Manara took refuge in Piedmont where he was
appointed Major of sharpshooters. He moved to Rome with his 600 sharpshooters,
where he distinguished himself in the defense of the Roman Republic. For his
merits he was promoted to colonel on the field. On June 30 he was seriously
wounded in the defense of Villa Spada attacked by the French, he died shortly
thereafter. His body was at first moved to Switzerland in Vezia, where he was
buried in the tomb of the Morosini family. Only a few years later his mother
was able to obtain authorization to transfer the mortal remains of his son in
Barzanò in the province of Lecco, places of origin of his family.
Princess Cristina Trivulzio Belgiojoso, after leaving Milan, went to Rome where
she participated in the defense of the Republic. She was commissioned to
organize field hospitals to the rescue of republican forces engaged in the
defense of the city from the attack of the French troops. After Rome she faced
a journey that took her to Malta and then in a Turkish village of Asia Minor,
near Ankara, where she stayed for five years along with other Italian exiles.
In 1855, following an amnesty, she was able to return to his native Milan. He
died in 1871, just 63 years, due to his poor health and an assassination
attempt that had left serious consequences.
Carlo Cattaneo moved to Castagnola Switzerland. He became rector of the Lyceum
of Lugano. He was elected several times member of the Italian parliament but he
would never accept the position to not have to make an oath of allegiance to
King Vittorio Emanuele II. He died in 1869, was buried in the Monumental
Cemetery in Milan.
Gabrio Casati became Turin city and was named Senator of the Kingdom of
Sardinia. He was also appointed Minister of Education of the Government La
Marmora. He was president of the Senate of the Kingdom of Italy between 1865
and 1870. He died in Milan in 1873.
