House of Savoy-Carignano

The Savoy-Carignano family (Italian: Savoia-Carignano), (French: Savoie-Carignan) was a cadet branch of the House of Savoy. It was founded by Thomas Francis of Savoy, Prince of Carignano 21 December 1596 - 22 January 1656), an Italian military commander. His descendants were accepted as princes étrangers at the court of France, where some held prominent positions, eventually coming to reign as kings of Sardinia from 1831 to 1861 and as kings of Italy from 1861 until the dynasty's deposition in 1946. The Savoy-Carignanos also, briefly, supplied a king each to Spain and to Croatia, as well as queens consort to Bulgaria and Portugal.

Born in Turin, Thomas Francis was the youngest of the five legitimate sons of the sovereign Duke Charles Emmanuel I, Duke of Savoy by his consort Catherine Micaela of Spain, a daughter of King Philip II of Spain and the French princess Elizabeth of Valois. While still a young man, he bore arms in the service of the king of Spain in Italy.

Although in previous reigns, younger sons of Savoy had been granted rich appanages in Switzerland (Genevois, Vaud), Italy (Aosta), or France (Nemours, Bresse), the Savoy dukes found that this inhibited their own aggrandizement while encouraging intra-dynastic strife and regional secession. Not only did Thomas Francis have older brothers, he was but one of the twenty-one acknowledged children of Charles Emmanuel. While only nine of these were legitimate, the others, being the widowed duke's offspring by noble mistresses, appear to have been generously endowed or dowered during their father's lifetime.

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