Union Forces Eye Papal States

The Government of Turin now ordered its troops to enter the Papal Provinces of Umbria and the Marches.

Continuing Kingdom of Italy Established,
our selection from Italy from 1812 to 1878 by John Webb Probyn published in 1884. The selection is presented in 4.5 easy 5 minute installments. For works benefiting from the latest research see the “More information” section at the bottom of these pages.

Previously in Kingdom of Italy Established.

Time: 1860
Place: Italy

On September 10th. Garibaldi issued a proclamation to his soldiers, headed “Italy and Victor Emmanuel.” In it the General called upon them to aid him in carrying to a successful termination the work so well begun. Nor did he hesitate to declare that Rome must be Italian, and the line of the Alps the frontier of Italy. He addressed another proclamation to the people in which he especially called on them to be united: “The first need of Italy is concord in order to realize the union of the great Italian family; to-day Providence has given us this concord, since all the provinces are unanimous and labor with magnanimous zeal at the national reconstruction. As to unity, Providence has further given us Victor Emmanuel–a model sovereign who will inculcate in his descendants the duties which they should fulfil for the happiness of a people who have chosen him as their chief with enthusiastic homage.” The proclamation went on to speak with kindly warmth of those Italian priests who had sided with the national cause, and declared that such conduct was a sure means of gaining respect for their mission and work. Repeating again the demand for concord, the concluding words justly protested against all foreign interference: “Finally (be it known) we respect the houses of others; but we insist upon being masters in our own whether it please or displease the rulers of the earth.”

Garibaldi united the Neapolitan to the Sardinian fleet, so forming an Italian naval force. He appointed a ministry comprising Liborio Romano (who had served under Francis II), Scialoia, Cosenz, and Pisanelli; he then proceeded to promulgate the Sardinian Constitution throughout the Neapolitan Provinces. But the Bourbon forces were still in possession of Capua and Gaeta. It became necessary, therefore, to undertake military operations against them.

Meanwhile the agitation in the Papal Provinces was increasing. The Pope’s Government had refused to modify its policy or agree to any reduction of its territory. It accepted the protection of France in Rome and its immediate neighborhood, but declined further aid, as it was raising forces of its own under a French general, Lamoricière. These soldiers were men of various European nationalities belonging to that Roman Catholic party which was determined to maintain intact the temporal rule of the Pope as against the wishes of the vast majority of Italians, themselves Roman Catholics, who desired to substitute for that rule the constitutional sovereignty of King Victor Emmanuel. The Italians were willing enough to remain under the spiritual headship of the Roman Pontiff, but they would not have a temporal power upheld by foreign soldiers. The moment was, like many others, a very critical one in the history of Italy. Garibaldi was victorious in Naples. The Papal forces, composed chiefly of Germans and French, under Lamoricière, were holding the inhabitants of Umbria and the Marches who were longing to join the national movement. Indeed, some of the most influential men of those provinces, among others Marquis Filippo Gualterio of Orvieto, had already come to Turin to obtain the intervention of its Government and protection from the Papal troops, whose foreign extraction rendered them odious to the people.

On September 7th. Count Delia Minerva was sent to Rome to demand, on the part of Victor Emmanuel, the disbandment of the foreign troops which the Papal Government had got together under the command of General Lamoricière. The demand was refused. This refusal the Papal Government was quite competent to give, but whether its policy in upholding its temporal power by the aid of foreign mercenaries was wise or not was another matter. It was hardly to be expected that Italians, any more than Frenchmen, Germans, or English, would endure such a state of things if they could prevent it. The Government of Turin now ordered its troops to enter the Papal Provinces of Umbria and the Marches. On September **nth General Fanti crossed the frontier, easily took possession of Perugia with the aid of the inhabitants, and obliged Colonel Schmidt, the Papal commander, to capitulate. The General advanced with equal success against Spoleto, and in a few days was master of all the upper valley of the Tiber. At the same time General Cialdini, operating on the eastern side of the Apennines, marched rapidly to meet General Lamoricière’s forces, which he encountered and defeated completely at Castelfidardo, compelling the French General to fly to Ancona, which he entered in company with only a few horsemen who had escaped with him from the rout of the Papal army. The Italian fleet was off Ancona, before which General Cialdini’s troops now appeared, thus completely preventing the escape of Lamoricière, who was obliged to surrender. In less than three weeks the campaign was over. The Sardinian troops having thus occupied Umbria and the Marches, proceeded to cross into the Neapolitan Provinces and march upon Capua and Gaeta.

Austria, Prussia, and Russia protested against the course thus pursued by the Government of Victor Emmanuel. The Pope excommunicated all who had participated in the invasion of his territory. Francis II protested with no less earnestness. The Emperor of the French withdrew his minister from Turin and blamed the proceedings of Victor Emmanuel’s Government; but in other respects Napoleon remained a passive spectator of all that occurred, and maintained the principle of non-intervention — at least as regarded Umbria and the Marches, Sicily and Naples — excepting at Gaeta, where his fleet prevented for a time any attack being made against that fortress from the sea. He also raised the number of his troops in Rome and the province in which it is situated, called the Patrimony of St. Peter, to twenty-two thousand men. This was now all the territory left to the temporal power of the Pope. Napoleon determined to preserve that much to the Roman See, defending it from the attacks of Garibaldi, and forbidding its annexation to the kingdom of Italy.

Giuseppe Garibaldi began here. John Webb Probyn began here.

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