Amadeo I of Spain

Amadeo I King of Spain Reign November 16, 1870 - February 11, 1873 Predecessor Isabella II Issue Emanuele Filiberto, Vittorio Emanuele, Luigi Amedeo, Umberto House House of Savoy Father Victor Emmanuel II of Italy Mother Mary Adelaide of Austria

Amadeo I of Spain, 1st Duke of Aosta (Italian Amedeo, sometimes Latinized as Amadeus) (May 30, 1845 – January 18, 1890) was the 1st Duke of Aosta and King of Spain

Granted the hereditary title Duke of Aosta in the year of his birth, he founded the Aosta branch of Italy's royal House of Savoy, which is junior in agnatic descent to the branch descended from King Umberto I that reigned until 1946, but senior to the branch of the Dukes of Genoa. The Aosta line flourishes still, and from 2006 its head, Amedeo, 5th Duke of Aosta, has contested the senior branch's claim to the defunct Italian throne. In the 20th century, a prince of Savoy-Aosta was also nominally King of Croatia.

Background

Prince Amedeo of Savoy was born in Turin, Italy. He was the second son of Victor Emmanuel II (King of Piedmont, Savoy, Sardinia and, later, first King of Italy) and of Archduchess Mary Adelaide of Austria.

In 1867 his father yielded to the entreaties of parliamentary deputy Francisco Cassins, and Amedeo was wed to Donna Maria Vittoria dal Pozzo, Princess della Cisterna (b. August 1847, d. November 1876). The king initially opposed the match on the grounds that her family was of insufficient rank, as well as his hopes for his son's marriage to a German princess. Despite her princely title, donna Maria Vittoria was not of royal birth, belonging rather to the Piedmontese nobility. She was, however, the sole heiress of her father's vast fortune, which subsequent Dukes of Aosta inherited, thereby obtaining wealth independent of their dynastic appanage and allowances from Italy's kings.

Maria Vittoria's mother, Countess Louise de Mérode, granddaughter of the Prince de Rubempré and of the Princess van Grimberghe, belonged to one of Belgium's premier noble houses, and had married the Principe della Cisterna in 1846 in a double wedding with her younger sister Antoinette, who married Charles III reigning Prince of Monaco. Amedeo and Maria Vittoria had three children, Emanuele Filiberto, 2nd Duke of Aosta, Vittorio Emanuele, Count of Turin, and Luigi, Duke of Abruzzi. Yet by March or 1870, the Duchess found herself appealing to the King to remonstrate with his son for marital infidelities that caused her hurt and embarrassment. But the King wrote in reply that, while understanding her feelings, he considered that she had no right to dictate her husband's behavior and that her jealousy was unbecoming.

King of Spain

After the Spanish revolution deposed Isabella II, the new Cortes decided to reinstate the monarchy under a new dynasty. The Duke of Aosta was elected King as Amadeus (Amadeo) I on November 16, 1870. He swore to uphold the constitution in Madrid on January 2, 1871.

The election of the new King coincided with the assassination of General Juan Prim, his main backer. After that, Amadeo had to deal with difficult situations, with unstable Spanish politics, republican conspiracies, Carlist uprisings, separatism in Cuba, same-party disputes, fugitive governments and assassination attempts.

He could only count on the support of the progressive party, whose leaders were trading off in the government thanks to parliamentary majority and electoral fraud. The progressives divided into monarchists and constitutionalists, which made the instability worse, and in 1872 a violent outburst of interparty conflicts hit a peak. There was a Carlist uprising in the Basque and Catalan regions, and after that, republican uprisings happened in various cities dispersed across the country. The artillery corps of the army went on strike, and the government instructed the King to discipline them.

With the possibility of reigning with no popular support, Amadeus issued an order against the artillery corps and then immediately abdicated from the Spanish throne on February 11, 1873. At ten o'clock that same night, Spain was proclaimed a republic, at which time Amadeo made an appearance before the Cortes, proclaiming the Spanish people ungovernable.

Post-abdication

Completely disgusted, the ex-monarch left Spain and returned to Italy, where he resumed the title of Duke of Aosta.

After the death of his first wife, he married his French niece, Princess Marie Laetitia Napoléon (20 November 1866 – 25 October 1926). They had one child, Umberto.

Amadeo remained in Turin, Italy until he died on 18 January 1890.

He is the namesake of Lake Amadeus in central Australia.

The first Spanish Republic lasted less than one year, and in 1875 Alfonso XII, the son of Isabella II, was proclaimed king, with Antonio Cánovas del Castillo, Spanish prime minister from 1873 until his assassination in 1893, briefly regent.

Seventy years later, in 1941, Amadeo's grandson, Aimone, 4th Duke of Aosta was proclaimed king of the Independent State of Croatia as Tomislav II. He never actually reigned and held the kingly title for twenty-nine months before abdicating.

Ancestors

Amadeo's ancestors in three generations

Amadeo I of Spain	Father: Victor Emmanuel II of Italy	Paternal Grandfather: Charles Albert of Sardinia	Paternal Great-Grandfather: Charles Emmanuel of Savoy, 6th Prince of Carignano
			Paternal Great-grandmother: Princess Maria Christina of Saxony
		Paternal Grandmother: Maria Theresa of Austria and Tuscany	Paternal Great-Grandfather: Ferdinand III, Grand Duke of Tuscany
			Paternal Great-Grandmother: Luisa of the Two Sicilies
	Mother: Adelaide, Queen of Sardinia	Maternal Grandfather: Archduke Rainer of Austria	Maternal Great-Grandfather: Leopold II, Holy Roman Emperor
			Maternal Great-Grandmother: Maria Luisa of Spain
		Maternal Grandmother: Princess Elisabeth of Savoy-Carignano	Maternal Great-grandfather: Charles Emmanuel of Savoy, 6th Prince of Carignano
			Maternal Great-Grandmother: Princess Maria Christina of Saxony