Kingdom of Sardinia

The Kingdom of Sardinia was a state in Europe from the early 14th until the mid-19th century. It was the predecessor state of today's Italy. A small state with weak institutions when it was acquired by the Duke of Savoy in 1720, the Savoyards united their insular and continental domains and built Sardinia—often called Piedmont-Sardinia in this period—into one of the great powers by the time of the Crimean War (1853–56). Its final capital was Turin, the centre of Savoyard power since the Middle Ages.

The kingdom initially consisted of the islands of Corsica and Sardinia, sovereignty over both of which was claimed by the Papacy, which granted them as a fief, the regnum Sardiniae et Corsicae ("kingdom of Sardinia and Corsica"), to King James II of Aragon in 1297. Beginning in 1324, James and his successors conquered the island of Sardinia and established de facto their de jure authority. In 1420 the last competing claim to the island was bought out. After the union of the crowns of Aragon and Castile, Sardinia became a part of the burgeoning Spanish Empire. In 1720 it was ceded by the Habsburg and Bourbon claimants to the Spanish throne to Duke Victor Amadeus II of Savoy. The kingdom of Sardinia came to be progressively identified with the entire domain ruled by the House of Savoy, which included, besides Savoy and Aosta, dynastic possessions since the 11th century, the Principality of Piedmont (a possession built up in the 13th century), and the County of Nice (a possession since 1388). While the traditional capital of the island of Sardinia and seat of its viceroys was Cagliari, the Piedmontese city of Turin was the de facto capital of the House of Savoy.