| Amadeo I | |
| Duke of Aosta | |
| Succession: | King of Spain |
| Reign: | 16 November 1870 |
| Predecessor: | Isabella II as Queen of Spain The 1st Duke of la Torre as Regent of Spain |
| Successor: | Estanislao Figueras as President of the Republic Alfonso XII as King of Spain |
| Birth Date: | 30 May 1845 |
| Birth Place: | Royal Palace, Turin, Kingdom of Sardinia |
| Death Place: | Royal Palace, Turin, Kingdom of Italy |
| Burial Place: | Basilica of Superga, Italy |
| Spouses: | |
| Issue: | |
| House: | Savoy |
| Father: | Victor Emmanuel II of Italy |
| Mother: | Adelaide of Austria |
| Religion: | Catholicism |
| Signature: | Amadeo I of Spain signature.svg |
Amadeo I (Italian: Amedeo Ferdinando Maria di Savoia; 30 May 184518 January 1890), also known as Amadeus, was an Italian prince who reigned as King of Spain from 1870 to 1873. The only king of Spain to come from the House of Savoy, he was the second son of Victor Emmanuel II of Italy and was known for most of his life as the Duke of Aosta, the usual title for a second son in the Savoyard dynasty.
He was elected by the Cortes Generales as Spain's monarch in 1870, following the deposition of Isabel II, and was sworn in the following year. Amadeo's reign was fraught with growing republicanism, Carlist rebellions in the north, and the Cuban independence movement. After three tumultuous years on the throne, he abdicated and returned to Italy in 1873, and the First Spanish Republic was declared as a result.
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 in Italy until 1946, but senior to the branch of the dukes of Genoa.
Prince Amedeo of Savoy was born in Turin, then part of the Kingdom of Sardinia. He was the third child and second son of King Victor Emmanuel II, who would later become the first King of a unified Italy, and of Archduchess Adelaide of Austria. He was granted the hereditary title of Duke of Aosta from birth.
Entering the Royal Sardinian Army as captain in 1859, he fought through the Third Italian War of Independence in 1866 with the rank of major-general. He led his brigade into action at the Battle of Custoza and was wounded at Monte Croce. In 1868, after his marriage, he was created vice admiral of the Italian Royal Navy, but the position ended when he ascended the Spanish throne.
In 1867, his father yielded to the entreaties of the parliamentary deputy Francesco Cassins, and on 30 May of that year, Amedeo was married to Donna Maria Vittoria dal Pozzo. The King initially opposed the match on the grounds that her family was of insufficient rank and that he hoped for his son to marry a German princess.[1] Despite her princely title, Donna Maria Vittoria was not of royal birth and belonged rather to the Piedmontese nobility. She was, however, the sole heir to 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. The wedding day of Prince Amedeo and Donna Maria Vittoria was marred by the death of a station master, who was crushed under the wheels of the honeymoon train.[2]
In March 1870, Maria Vittoria appealed to the King to remonstrate with her husband for marital infidelities, which caused her hurt and embarrassment. However, the King wrote in reply that he understood her feelings, but he considered that she had no right to dictate her husband's behaviour, and her jealousy was unbecoming.
After the Glorious Revolution deposed Isabella II in September 1868, the new Cortes began the task of searching for a suitable liberal-leaning candidate from a new dynasty to replace her. Eventually the Duke of Aosta was taken into consideration. His father was a descendant of King Philip II of Spain through his daughter Infanta Catalina Micaela of Spain and her son Thomas Francis, Prince of Carignano, while his mother was a descendant of King Charles III of Spain through his daughter Infanta Maria Luisa of Spain. The Savoyard prince was elected king as Amadeo I on 16 November 1870 and swore to uphold the Constitution in Madrid on 2 January 1871. While the new king was on his way to Spain, General Juan Prim, his chief supporter, was assassinated and Amadeo took the oath in the presence of Prim's corpse. [3]
Amadeo then had to deal with difficult situations, with unstable Spanish politics, republican conspiracies, Carlist uprisings, a pro-independence war in Cuba, interparty disputes, fugitive governments and assassination attempts. Amadeo could count on the support of only the Progressive Party, whose leaders traded off in the government by its parliamentary majority and electoral fraud. The progressives were divided into monarchists and constitutionalists, which worsened the country's instability, and in 1872 a violent outburst of interparty conflicts hit a peak. There was a Carlist uprising in the Basque and Catalan regions, and republican uprisings later occurred in cities across the country. The artillery corps of the army went on strike, and the government instructed Amadeo to discipline them.
Though warned of a plot against his life on 18 August 1872, he refused to take precautions. While returning from Buen Retiro Park to Madrid in company with the queen, he was repeatedly shot at in Vía Avenal. The royal carriage was struck by several revolver and rifle bullets. The horses were wounded, but its occupants escaped unhurt. A period of calm followed that event.
With the possibility of reigning without popular support, Amadeo issued an order against the artillery corps and then immediately abdicated from the Spanish throne on 11 February 1873. At ten o'clock the same night, the First Spanish Republic was proclaimed, and Amadeo made an appearance before the Cortes and proclaimed the Spanish people to be ungovernable.
Completely disgusted, the ex-monarch left Spain and returned to Italy, where he resumed the title of Duke of Aosta. The First Spanish Republic lasted less than two years, and in November 1874 Alfonso XII, the son of Isabella II, was proclaimed king, with Antonio Cánovas del Castillo, Spanish intermittent prime minister from 1873 until his assassination in 1897, briefly serving as regent.
Amadeo's first wife died in 1876. In 1888 he married his French niece, Princess Maria Letizia Bonaparte, Duchess of Aosta (20 November 186625 October 1926), daughter of his sister Maria Clotilde and of Prince Napoléon Bonaparte, a nephew of Napoleon I. They had one child, Umberto (1889–1918), who died of the Spanish flu during the First World War.
Amadeo remained in Turin, Italy until his death on 18 January 1890. His friend Puccini composed the famous elegy for string quartet Crisantemi in his memory.[4]
The municipality of Amadeo, in the province of Cavite, in the Philippines, which was a colony of Spain, was named after Amadeo I when it was established on 15 July 1872, during his reign.
A large salt lake, Lake Amadeus, and the subsequently-named Amadeus Basin, where it lies in central Australia, is also named after Amadeo I by the explorer Ernest Giles, who was the first European to encounter the lake, in 1872.
: Grand Cross of the Order of Charles III, with Collar, 28 November 1866[7]
Belgium: Grand Cordon of the Order of Leopold (civil), 5 September 1863
Denmark: Knight of the Order of the Elephant, 19 August 1863[9]
Monaco: Grand Cross of the Order of Saint-Charles, 27 April 1875[11]
Sweden-Norway:By Maria Vittoria dal Pozzo:
By Maria Letizia Bonaparte:
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