CARLO FELICE, King of Sardinia. — Born in Turin on 6 Apr. 1765, died there on 27 Apr. 1831. Fourth son of Vittorio Amedeo, who was the third king of that name, and of Maria Antonietta Ferdinanda, daughter of Philip V of Spain. In 1798 he left Turin in the retinue of his brother King Carlo Emanuele IV, to whom the French had extorted the renunciation of the throne. The sovereign, having withdrawn to Sardinia, remained there no longer than six months, then returned to the mainland. On the island CARLO FELICE assumed the office of viceroy (19 Sept. 1799) and retained it even after the abdication of Carlo Emanuele IV (5 June 1802) until the arrival of the new sovereign, his brother Vittorio Emanuele I (18 Feb. 1806).
A rigid guardian of the established order, CARLO FELICE strove to restore calm and tranquillity to the island, which had not been immune to the influence of revolutionary ideas. Upon the arrival of the new sovereign, CARLO FELICE retired from public life, but resumed the office of viceroy in Aug. 1815, after the return of the sovereigns to Turin, and remained nominally in that post until 1821. At the abdication of Vittorio Emanuele I (March 1821), following the disturbances that demanded a constitution and war against Austria, CARLO FELICE was in Modena; he began his reign by ordering his nephew Carlo Alberto, appointed regent, to break off all relations with the revolutionaries and proceed to Novara to join the government army. CARLO FELICE himself, having exhausted and suppressed the disturbances, launched a stern political campaign against all who had compromised themselves in the recent events, displaying on this occasion a severity that was at times excessive. During his reign he took steps to settle the question of ecclesiastical property, left unresolved since the French Revolution, and sent a plenipotentiary to Rome for this purpose. The negotiations met with a happy outcome, and Leo XII in May 1828 approved compensation for ecclesiastical properties confiscated by the State and the new distribution of capital and funds in the dioceses of the kingdom.
