EMMANUEL PHILIBERT, Duke of Savoy. - B. at Chambéry on 19 Oct. 1528, d. at Turin on 30 Aug. 1580. After the death of his elder brothers, he abandoned the ecclesiastical career for which he had been destined; in 1553, on the death of his father Charles II, he obtained the duchy.
This, however, had been invaded and occupied in 1536 by Francis I, and few cities remained to the duke. E. F., after having wandered with his father to Vercelli and then to Nice, set out in 1545 for the court of Charles V, in whose support he hoped for the reconquest of the State. In the imperial army he fought at Ingolstadt and at Mühlberg, then became supreme commander of the Spanish army in Flanders and on 10 Aug. 1557 won the famous victory of St. Quentin. France was satisfied by the peace of Cateau-Cambrésis (1559) and restored to E. F. his States. The reoccupation, however, was not easy: in 1559 E. F. was able to reoccupy Vercelli, and only in 1563 did he enter Turin. E. F.'s policy after the reconquest of the State was necessarily peaceful. Between the French monarchy and the Austro-Spanish bloc it was not easy to preserve the right balance, and here all of E. F.'s skill was displayed.
E. F.'s greatest work, however, and the most glorious, is that of the reconstruction of the Savoyard-Piedmontese State after the depredations of the foreign occupation. Having permanently transferred the capital to Turin, E. F. directed his efforts toward making his State an Italian power. He took great care over its unification, eliminating municipalism and regionalism in legislative life, in administration and in finances. Prudently he began the organization of a standing army for the defense of the country's independence. As early as 1560 he decreed the abolition of serfdom; against the natural tendencies of the population he strove to create an industry in Piedmont in order to redeem the country from its ties with abroad; he reorganized the finances.
In the religious sphere, while conducting himself as a Catholic prince, he escaped the pressures of the Roman Curia and of the governments of Madrid and Paris, which would have wanted a policy of persecution of heretics. On several occasions he seemed about to set himself to it, but always held back, although he greatly desired to recover Calvinist Geneva. To the Waldensians he assured religious freedom in their valleys by the agreement of Cavour (1561). - See plate XXI.
Bibliography3 works
Francesco Cognasso