the regalia or visible emblems of the kingly inheritance of Boson and Rudolph. Beyond this cluster of four or five states, the bishops of Geneva, of Lausanne, and of Sion, in Valais, all favoured the princes of Savoy.

It is further worthy of remark, that within this original nucleus of Savoy, Maurienne, Tarentaise, Chablais, and Aosta, there were no cities. The episcopal sees of St. Jean, Moutiers, and Belley were mere districts, and the Counts of Savoy had to make their own cities. Thomas I. bought Chambery on the 15th of May, 1232, from Berlion, its viscount, whose family had possessed lordly rights there. The castle was, however, only ceded to Amadeus V., in 1295, by the Lords de la Rochette, and it was only then that Amadeus removed thither the seat of government, which had hitherto been at Aiguebelle. (Menabrea, Histoire de Chambéri, I. vii. 23.)

Faucigny was ruled by its own feudal lords, who traced their pedigree to Oliver, one of the Paladins of Charlemagne, till the family becoming extinct, it passed into the hands of the Dauphins of Dauphiny (supposed to have been so called from a dolphin on their coat of arms), and between whom and the Counts of 'Savoy there was incessant contention. So also with the Genevois, whose counts, probably also created in the time of Charlemagne, resided in the castles of La Roche, or Faverge, or Annecy, whilst the city of Geneva was under the jurisdiction of its bishops. Ebles, Count of Genevois, who died in England in 1259, bequeathed his titles to the county to Peter, son of Thomas I. of Savoy, surnamed the "Little Charlemagne." This Peter, like most of the Counts of Savoy, was so great a friend to the people, and such a champion of the cause of freedom, that the Genevese burghers raised him to the dignity of their chief and protector in 1260. Amadeus V., who had possession of the castle Bourg du Four, obtained a final mastery over the city by possessing himself also of the castle of the Isle du Rhône, which he took from the bishop. The town itself, however, remained a prey to the factions of Genevois and Savoy, and the latter waged an irregular war against both Genevois and Dauphiny for some eighty years; each party busied itself with the restoration of old castles or the reconstruction of new ones, and Amadeus V. is said to have been present at thirty-two sieges. Many French feudal lords also took part against Savoy. The primates of Vienne hurled the thunders of the Church against its princes. The castle called La Perrière, built by Amadeus V. on the mountains above Voreppe and Voira, was the especial focus of strife. The wars between the Dauphins and the Counts never utterly ceased till the former country passed into the hands of the French kings, and Charles V. decreed, in 1364, that the title and estate of the Dauphins should always be made over to the eldest son of the French king, as hereditary prince of France. Amadeus VI. ceded Voiron, and other possessions in the Viennois, to France (fixing thus at the Rhône and the Guiers the limits of his states), and he received in exchange Faucigny, with its dependencies in the Pays de Gex and Bugey. The House of Genevois did homage to that of Savoy, but the Green Count had to give up his bride, Joan of Burgundy, who, in accordance with the custom of the time, had been brought up for him at the castle of Bourget (and whom King John of France now doomed to the melancholy lot of an old maid), and

with her all hopes to the succession of the duchy of Burgundy, accepting, instead the hand of Bonne of Bourbon. Ultimately, Oddo de Villars made a formal cession of Genevois to Amadeus VIII. of Savoy, on the 5th of August, 1401, at Paris. The same prince was raised in his latter years to the see of Geneva, and several princes of his house monopolised the diocese after him; so that by their means Savoy exercised a more or less direct authority over the city, till at last the great object of all her ambition was obtained, and the temporalities of the see were actually made over to one of her reigning princes. But the stubborn spirit of the burghers was anything but broken, and that very last act of usurpation became the signal for the complete emancipation of Geneva. (Spon, Histoire de Genève, i. 76.)

The progress of Savoy in Helvetia does not concern us here. It is our object to treat more particularly of the relations of Savoy with France. An exception occurs in the Chablais, the name of which some derive from the Latin "caput laci," or "water head," whilst others think it a corruption of "caballiacum," supposing the Romans to have had there a stud of war-horses. This district, originally held by the Dukes of Zähringen, and then by the Counts of Kyburg, passed into the hands of Peter of Savoy.

It is the same with regard to Piedmont as it is with Switzerland. The progress of the House of Savoy in that country only interests us here in a secondary degree. At the death of the Countess Adelaide, her successor, Humbert II., was the only male representative of both houses— that of Maurienne or Savoy, and that of Turin; but the decline of the House of Savoy in Italy was at first brought about by the enmity of the German emperors, and followed up by the Piedmontese towns organising themselves into free states after the manner of the Lombard cities. This was followed by the long-lasting contests between the empire and the cities, and the formation of the Lombard League, during which Frederick I., the well-known Barbarossa, advanced to the attack, for the fifth time, through Mont Cenis, burning Susa, where he had, on a previous occasion, nearly lost his life on the way. Humbert III. of Savoy, who had favoured Barbarossa in his flight in 1168, and had opened the passes of the Alps to him, was but ill repaid by the imperial lieutenants, who deprived him of the greater portion of his Italian possessions. Thomas I. relieved the fortunes of Savoy for a time, and, in favour with the emperors, he warred successfully against the feudal barons, haughty prelates, and turbulent cities of Northern Italy; but Amadeus IV., the most indolent prince of the family, made over his Italian possessions to his brother, Thomas II., Count of Flanders, in 1235. Thomas II., albeit he reduced Turin for a time, was no more than Peter II., conqueror of the Vaud, successful in Italy. The House of Montferrat was in the ascendancy at that time, and that of Savoy in the decline. Thomas III. came to revive its fortunes. This prince defeated William VII. of Montferrat, and effected the final conquest of Turin. Happily for Savoy, at this epoch the rival Houses of Montferrat and Saluzzo were not only at variance with one another, but even within themselves. Amadeus VI., the Green Count, was not only victorious over James of Achaia, but he was so powerful as to be placed at the head of a league against Milan, and that at an epoch when Violante, daughter of John II. of Montferrat,

having married Lionel Duke of Clarence, Mondovi, Caraglio, Cuneo, and other towns, were held by English adventurers. Cuneo and Anjou, which in the lapse of one hundred and seventy years had obeyed fifteen different masters, came at last into the hands of Savoy, in April, 1382.

It was at this epoch, whilst Northern Italy was still distracted by the war of the Houses of Montferrat, Saluzzo, Achaia, Visconti, and Savoy, that Amadeus VIII., after a separation which had lasted for a hundred and twenty years, united the Piedmontese fiefs to the other possessions of Savoy in 1418. Savoy had been previously created into a duchy by the Emperor Sigismund in 1416; and after the extinction of the House of Achaia, Amadeus gave his Italian possessions the name of a principality. The count even made a last attempt upon the domain of the ancient foes of his family-the Dauphins-but he was routed under the walls of the castle of Anthon, on the Rhône, in May, 1430.,

The "States" of Savoy had at this time attained power, and as they were at once the organs of public opinion and contributors of finance, they acquired great influence. Amadeus VIII., a prince of great energy and strength of will, did not often need the support or advice of the States of Savoy; but in calamitous times, under his successors, the States stood forth conspicuous, and made up by their wisdom for the deficiencies of their rulers. But in this great work of centralisation, which began under Amadeus VIII., and which was followed up by Louis XI. in France, the Savoy prince soon became aware that he was at the head of two nations, and that he needed two centres. A council was created at Pinerolo, on the model of the one sitting at Chambery, but it was finally removed to Turin in 1459, after which time that city became the capital of the possessions of Savoy in Italy.

Hence it was, also, that the decline of Savoy dates from the ascendancy of its princes in Italy, and its constitution into a duchy. From the death of Amadeus VIII., in 1451, to the restoration of Emmanuel Philibert, in 1559, no less than eight dukes ascended the throne, but only a few of them showed themselves worthy of their race. For some time, however, Piedmont continued to be a mere dependency, till the frequent meetings of the States-General made the third estate aware of its own importance. In these assemblies the Piedmontese soon outnumbered the Savoyards, and the wealth of their towns gave them still greater weight. The united principality remained, however, in a distracted state between France, Switzerland, and Burgundy, till all Italy fell under the power of Charles V., and among the princes who went to do obeisance to the emperor at Bologna was Charles III., Duke of Savoy.

In 1536, Savoy was invaded on two sides at once; on the one by the French under Francis I., on the other by the Swiss, who stormed the last stronghold of the country, the castle of Chillon, and burst open the dungeon of its famous prisoner. In this war, the mountaineers of Tarentaise and Maurienne not only drove the French from their own valleys, but they fell upon them at Chambery, and wrested that town from their hands-a daring feat, but unavailing, since the enemy came back with superior forces, retook Chambery, and pursued the routed mountaineers into their own rugged homes, which fire and slaughter laid desolate.

The edifice which the Counts of Savoy had reared, and which Amadeus VIII. had almost completed in Subalpine lands, immediately

crumbled under the dukes his successors, and was all but entirely demolished under the ill-starred Charles III. With all the rest of the peninsula, Turin and Asti, Saluzzo and Montferrat, were trodden to dust; more wreck and ruin floated on the desolate surface of the old world; princes and people had lost sight of their mutual relations-lost almost the very recollection of one another.

Had Emmanuel Philibert fallen at St. Quentin, as Gallenga pathetically remarks, he might have cried, "Finis Sabaudia!" France, and Spain, or Austria, would haye bordered upon one another at the Alps, and the intermediate state would never have been missed. But it was otherwise decreed. The prince conquered at St. Quentin, and won back his states. He continued the annals of his house, and he began those of Piedmont to a certain extent, for at this very crisis, where Italy, as a nation, had reached its end, the nationality of separate states, and more especially of Piedmont, came into existence.

The instinctive dread of the crushing ascendancy of Austria and France had urged Savoy to settle, no matter at what cost, the differences that had long existed with the oldest allies of the house-the Swiss. A new generation had sprung up in those provinces, amongst whom all loyalty to Savoy had died off. The Bernese had introduced the Reformation into the conquered lands; the people had been enriched with the spoils of the Church as well as of the nobility, who had been all but annihilated in the contest. Political freedom went hand in hand with religious innovation; the people entered with eagerness into the new order of things, and were irrevocably committed to it. Geneva was especially the head-quarters of reform; it was proud of the appellation of the "Rome of Calvinism," and its population, as well as that of Lausanne and other Eidgenot or Huguenot cities, was doubled by the immigration of religious refugees. By the treaty of Lausanne (1564), Berne retained Vaud, but Savoy recovered Gex and Chablais. At a later period (1569), Valais gave up its own share of the same Swiss province, but remained in possession of Lower Valais. The same treaties bound Savoy to allow freedom of conscience and worship to those of her subjects who had embraced Protestantism during the Swiss occupation. History tells us how little these treaties were regarded in reference to the Waldenses, who, at a time when all Savoy and half Piedmont were on the verge of reform, reckoned their sectaries at the foot of the Alps at eight hundred thousand.

The restless and ambitious Charles Emmanuel I. was at war with all the powers around him. Elated by the conquest of Saluzzo, this vain prince added insult to injury. He struck a medal, in which he represented a centaur trampling a royal crown under his hoofs, with the motto "Opportunè!" Not many years later, Henry IV. having humbled Savoy, retorted the taunt by another medal, in which the centaur was seen crushed under the club of Hercules, and the no less pithy inscription was "Opportuniùs!" (Costa de Beauregard, Maison de Savoie, ii. 11.) Charles Emmanuel I., at the head of the Catholics of France and Switzerland, was hailed Count of Provence, and even aspired to the crown of France. Under Victor Amadeus I. and the regency of Christina of France, Savoy was once more in alliance with the latter country, and at war with Spain and Italy. Charles Emmanuel II. not only embellished Turin, but he constructed the famous road and tunnel across the pass of

Les Echelles a work only surpassed in modern times by those of a man who disposed of the means not of a duchy but of a vast empire.

It was in vain that the gallant Victor Amadeus exerted himself to emancipate his country from the thraldom of France: successful in one campaign, he was unfortunate in another; victorious in one quarter, he was defeated elsewhere; and after a career full of vicissitudes, he accepted the royalty of Sardinia in London (1718) in return for Sicily, which, with Naples, fell under subjection to Austria. The brave but unfortunate Victor Amadeus, after retiring for a time, directing the councils of his son Charles Emmanuel III. from Chambery, as Charles V. had done at Yuste, and Amadeus VIII. at Ripaille, once more impelled by female ambition, returned to Turin, only to meet with a melancholy death. He was buried at Superga, which henceforth superseded the old family burial-place at the abbey of Hautecombe. The rulers of Savoy now belonged to Italy by their tombs no less than their cradles.

Under Charles Emmanuel III., Sardinia was, as usual, alternately allied with France and Spain against Austria, and then with Austria against France. The result of the many sanguinary contests in which this prince was involved only tended to prove, as Balbo has remarked (Storia d'Italia, p. 333), and as the Italians ought to have long treasured up, that freedom must be the work of a nation's own hands and hearts, that what may be obtained by diplomacy and from the bounty of a foreign power is always liable—indeed, is but too sure-to be speedily lost from the same causes.

Under the same reign the French revolution came to sunder Savoy still further from its princes than even their long neglect and attachment to the soil of Italy had yet effected. Victor attempted to repress the spirit of disaffection which manifested itself at Chambery and other spots, but this only gave an excuse for the interference of the French, who overran Savoy and Nice. There was, subsequent to this invasion, a few days' raving and revelling at Chambery, with patriotic songs, red caps and banners, and trees of liberty, and all that mad gear with which the Revolution decked itself at that strange period. The Savoyards, who, at all times, seem disposed to quarrel with their own name, and style themselves "Savoisiens," resumed at this juncture their classical appellation of "Allobroges;" they called together an assembly and a convention, sent "fraternising" deputations to Paris, rid themselves of monks and nuns, and declared the forfeiture (déchéance) of the dynasty to which they had given name. Finally, they broke into the royal chapel and castle; they attacked the abbey of Hautecombe, violated its sepulchral vaults, and scattered the ashes of the Savoy princes to the winds. Weariness of independence soon, however, overcame them. The Allobrogic tribe merged into the great Gallic nation; Savoy was annexed to France as the department of Mont Blanc (Nov. 27, 1792). On the 7th of December of the same year, Nice, after passing through the same phases, was also incorporated with France as the department of the Maritime Alps.

It was in vain that the Duke of Montferrat descended the valleys of the Arc, the Isère, and the Arve; the French, taken aback for a moment, rallied, and drove the Piedmontese back across the Alps. Nor was the king in person more successful at Nice; he was opposed there by Massena, who was a native of that city, and compelled to retreat to Turin.