house of Savoy summary

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Below is the article summary. For the full article, see House of Savoy.

house of Savoy, Historic dynasty of Europe and the ruling house of Italy (1861–1946). Its founder was Umberto I the Whitehanded (d. 1048?), who held the county of Savoy and areas east of the Rhône River and south of Lake Geneva. His medieval successors, including Amadeus VI, added territory in the western Alps where France, Italy, and Switzerland converge. In 1416 the house was raised to ducal status in the Holy Roman Empire, after which it declined until the late 16th century. Although under French domination in the 17th century, the house under Victor Amadeus II acquired territory in northeastern Italy and attained the royal title, first of the kingdom of Sicily (1713), which he exchanged for Sardinia (1720). The house was powerful in the Risorgimento, and under the kings Victor Emmanuel I, Victor Emmanuel II, and Charles Albert it contributed to the 19th-century unification of Italy. It then lost its prominence, and the monarchs Umberto I and Victor Emmanuel III served mainly as figureheads until the vote for a republic in 1946 ended Savoy rule.

Kingdom of Naples Summary

Kingdom of Naples, state covering the southern portion of the Italian Peninsula from the Middle Ages to 1860. It was often united politically with Sicily. By the early 12th century the Normans had carved out a state in southern Italy and Sicily in areas formerly held by the Byzantines, Lombards,

Italy Summary

Italy, country of south-central Europe, occupying a peninsula that juts deep into the Mediterranean Sea. Italy comprises some of the most varied and scenic landscapes on Earth and is often described as a country shaped like a boot. At its broad top stand the Alps, which are among the world’s most

family Summary

Family, a group of persons united by the ties of marriage, blood, or adoption, constituting a single household and interacting with each other in their respective social positions, usually those of spouses, parents, children, and siblings. The family group should be distinguished from a household,