THAON DI REVEL, OTTAVIO. - Statesman, b. in Turin on 26 June 1803, d. there on 9 Feb. 1868.
Son of Count Ignazio, who—viceroy of Sardinia, lieutenant-general to Charles Felix at the beginning of his reign, marshal of Savoy, Knight of the Annunciation—was one of the most distinguished figures of the Savoyard state during the Restoration, Ottavio inherited from his father a deep religious piety and absolute devotion to the sovereign. Entering the administration at a very young age, at twenty-eight he was vice-general intendant (minister) of Finance and
a few years later secretary of the Council of the Conference of Ministers, then directly presided over by the King. Particularly dear to Charles Albert, he sought to dissuade him from granting the Statute, only to change his mind and urge the King to grant the constitutional Charter when he learned that the King of Naples had embarked on the path of reform. He sat in the first parliamentary ministry of Sardinia, holding the portfolio of Finance throughout the duration of the 1848 campaign, and then went on to form a government himself (the Alfieri-Revel ministry) after the Salasco armistice, with the programme of delaying the resumption of hostilities with Austria and defending the prerogatives of the crown: a programme that was fiercely attacked by the democrats under the leadership of Gioberti. From 1847 onwards Thaon di Revel had negotiated with the Holy See to conclude the Italian customs league proposed by Pius IX; in Rome he worked to secure the dispatch of papal troops to Lombardy upon denunciation of the armistice, according to Rosmini’s plan, while postponing until the end of the war the projected Italian league and the conclusion of a concordat. The negotiations failed, first because of the opposition of Pellegrino Rossi, and then because of the fall of the Alfieri-Revel ministry.
From that point on he was one of the leading exponents of Catholic opposition to the successive governments in Piedmont both before and after Novara. In the debate on the Siccardi laws (1850) he demanded that the ministry withdraw the measure, which he felt would divide the country spiritually; in 1852 he firmly opposed the legislation on civil marriage, and when the d’Azeglio ministry fell he was considered as a possible candidate to form a new government, together with Cesare Balbo. Instead, Cavour came to power, and Thaon di Revel resumed his noble battle, resolutely opposing the bill on the sequestration of ecclesiastical property and the suppression of religious orders. Still in 1852 he negotiated on behalf of the state a loan with the Hambro bank in London. In 1857, after the general elections of that year had yielded results favourable to Catholics, he was again designated to the presidency of the Council; in 1860, though accepting the office of senator, he voted against the proclamation of Rome as capital of Italy, which he considered prejudicial to the rights of the Holy See, and later against the transfer of the capital to Florence. In the Senate too he raised his voice against the laicisation of the institution of marriage (1865) and every other measure aimed at secularising the state, while granting his support to the financial and economic policy of the new Kingdom.
Alongside his political activity, he devoted himself with competence and zeal to the municipal and provincial administration of Turin, and presided over numerous charitable institutions, to whose needs he generously provided from his own resources.
His brother Genova (1817–1910), a valiant soldier and equally fervent Catholic, who served as minister of war under Rattazzi in 1867, found in him the most affectionate and enlightened counsellor during the difficult period in which the crisis of Mentana was being prepared. From his third marriage (to Carolina Clermont de Vars) was born in 1859 the future great admiral Paolo, Duke of the Sea (d. 1948).