Charles Emmanuel IV | |||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|
Charles Emmanuel IV, oil portrait by Giovanni Panealbo
|
|||||
King of Sardinia and Duke of Savoy | |||||
Reign | 16 October 1796 – 4 June 1802 | ||||
Predecessor | Victor Amadeus III | ||||
Successor | Victor Emmanuel I | ||||
Born |
Royal Palace of Turin, Turin, Kingdom of Sardinia |
24 May 1751||||
Died | 6 October 1819 Palazzo Colonna, Rome, States of the Church |
(aged 68)||||
Burial | Church of Sant'Andrea al Quirinale | ||||
Spouse | Marie Clotilde of France | ||||
|
|||||
House | House of Savoy | ||||
Father | Victor Amadeus III of Sardinia | ||||
Mother | Maria Antonietta of Spain |
Full name | |
---|---|
Carlo Emanuele Ferdinando Maria di Savoia |
Charles Emmanuel IV (Carlo Emanuele Ferdinando Maria; 24 May 1751 – 6 October 1819) was King of Sardinia from 1796 to 1802. He abdicated in favour of his brother Victor Emmanuel I.
Carlo Emanuele Ferdinando Maria di Savoia was born in Turin, the eldest son of Victor Amadeus III, King of Sardinia and of his wife Infanta Maria Antonia Ferdinanda of Spain. From his birth to his own succession to the throne of Sardinia in 1796, Charles Emmanuel was styled "Prince of Piedmont".
In 1775, Charles Emmanuel married Marie Clotilde of France, the daughter of Louis, Dauphin of France and Princess Marie-Josèphe of Saxony, and sister of King Louis XVI of France. Although the union was arranged for political reasons, Charles Emmanuel and his wife became devoted to each other. Their attempts to have children, however, were unsuccessful.
At the death of his father (14 October 1796), Charles Emmanuel succeeded as King of Sardinia. The kingdom included not only the island of Sardinia, but also significant territories in northwest Italy including all of Piedmont.
At his succession to the throne in 1796, Sardinia had been forced to conclude the disadvantageous Treaty of Paris (1796) with the French Republic, giving the French army free passage through Piedmont. On December 6, 1798, the French under Joubert occupied Turin and forced Charles Emanuel to abdicate all his territories on the Italian mainland and to withdraw to the island of Sardinia, which stayed out of the reach of the French army. The following year he tried unsuccessfully to regain Piedmont. He and his wife lived in Rome and in Naples as guests of the wealthy Colonna family.