The Kingdom of Sicily was ruled by the House of Savoy from 1713 until 1720, although they lost control of it in 1718 and did not relinquish their title to it until 1723. The only king of Sicily from the House of Savoy was Victor Amadeus II. Throughout this period Sicily remained a distinct realm in personal union with the other Savoyard states, but ultimately it secured for the House of Savoy a royal title and a future of expansion in Italy rather than in France.[1] During this period, the Savoyard monarch used his new title to affirm his sovereign independence.
Victor Amadeus's policy towards Sicily was to bring it more in line with his mainland possessions, but to this end he progressed little in the short span of time he had.[2] His own domain was weakened by the addition of Sicily, becoming more fragmented and extended (geographically), and more composite (legally and socially).[3] He was finally forced to renounce Sicily in exchange for Sardinia.
- ^ Symcox, 190 ("Under Victor Amadeus Sicily and Sardinia remained separate realms") and 195 ("The department of internal affairs was divided regionally: [the third] under-secretary and his staff ... looked after Sicily"); Storrs, 5 ("[After 1713] the Savoyard state would see its future in Italy") and 313 ("Victor Amadeus secured royal status, founded upon possession of the island realm of Sicily, and later Sardinia")
- ^ Storrs, 205 n. 173 ("the policy [Victor Amadeus] had pursued in Sicily ... had alienated the Sicilians").
- ^ Storrs, 315 ("the acquisition of Sicily ... made the Savoyard state even more of a 'composite state' ... whose different territories had little in common apart from a duke and dynasty which provided the vital glue").