Background
Camillo Benso was born on August 10, 1810 in Turin during Napoleonic rule, into a family that had gained a fair amount of land during the French occupation. He was the second of two sons of Michele Giuseppe Francesco Antonio Benso, 4th Marquess of Cavour and Count of Isolabella, Baron of the French Empire and his wife Adélaïde (Adèle) Suzanne, Marchioness of Sellon, herself of French origin. His godparents were Napoleon's sister Pauline, and her husband, Prince Camille Borghese, after whom Camillo was named.
Education
Camillo was initially educated at home. After he was trained at the Turin military academy, graduating in 1826.
Career
He was commissioned a lieutenant, but his unhappy military career terminated as a result of his too freely-expressed sympathy for the French revolution of 1830. His great passion was politics. He visited France and England in 1835 and gained impressions of constitutional government which strengthened his own view of constitutional monarchy as the best middle course between republicanism and absolutism. During the next five years he gained business experience by managing the family estate at Leri. In 1840's he began writing about such problems of the day as the Irish situation, the English corn laws, the Italian railways, and the influence on Italy of the new English commercial policy. In 1847, with the reforms of Charles Albert, King of Sardinia, Cavour founded the newspaper, Il Risorgimento, and urged the king to grant a constitution. He assisted in drafting the suffrage decree-law which accompanied the Statuto. He passionately advocated war against Austria when the first hostilities, lasting from March 23 to August 9, 1848, broke out. However, he was dismayed by Charles Albert's uncertain strategy and dilatory tactics and regarded the direct exercise of command by the king as unsound and contrary to constitutional practice. Cavour was defeated in the first election to the Chamber in April 1848 but won a seat in the supplementary election of June. He was cautious regarding the resumption of hostilities demanded by the Democrats and lost his seat when the chamber was dissolved in January 1849. After the disastrous defeat at Novara on March 23, 1849, he favored making peace with Austria and, on returning to parliament in July of the same year, supported D'Azeglio's policy of ratification of the Treaty of Milan. Cavour entered the D'Azeglio cabinet in 1850 as Minister of Agriculture and in 1851 also held the Ministry of Finance. In 1852, as a result of an arrangement with Urbano Rattazzi, leader of the Left Center, a "connubio" (marriage) was made with the Right Center, giving a parliamentary majority to Cavour, who became prime minister. He was continuously in power from November 3, 1852, to July 12, 1859, and effected a series of extensive reforms in tariffs, finance, the army, and relations with the Church. Constitutional Piedmont prepared for resumption of the struggle against Austria, but Cavour, recognizing the need of French and British support, first brought Piedmont into the Crimean War on their side in 1855. At the Congress of Paris in 1856, which terminated that war, he was unable to secure any territorial changes in Italy, but placed the Italian question on the agenda and publicly denounced Austrian misrule in the peninsula. In 1858, Cavour secretly met Napoleon III at Plombières and the verbal agreement was made for a Franco-Sardinian alliance to drive Austria completely out of Italy. A definite treaty, signed the following January, proposed annexation of Parma, Modena, Lombardy, and Venetia to Piedmont, and promised Italian independence if not unity through the projected Italian federation, dominated by the constitutional Kingdom of North Italy. To make sure of the alliance, Cavour persuaded the King to offer his daughter, Clotilde, in marriage to Prince Jerome Napoleon of France. Cavour guaranteed to provoke Austria to attack and thereby enable Napoleon III to maintain his diplomatic understanding with Alexander II of Russia. Nice and Savoy were promised as compensation to France, which would furnish 200, 000 troops. Through the National Society, Cavour was able to draw many nationalists away from Mazzini to the banner of monarchy. British diplomatic efforts to avert the conflict were an obstacle to Cavour, but an Austrian ultimatum precipitated the war. Napoleon III, however, faltered in his pledged course after the bloody battle of Solferino and on July 11, 1859, arranged the preliminary peace of Villafranca, which left Venetia an Austrian province, proposed restoration of the princes in Modena and Tuscany, and would have made the Austrian emperor a member of an Italian federation. As a result, Cavour burst into a violent rage and resigned. After his successors had marked time for six months, Cavour was called back to power January 20, 1860, somewhat against the wishes of Victor Emmanuel II. He recognized opportunity in the uncertain situation which found Parma, Modena, Tuscany, and the Romagna under provisional governments barring the restoration of the former régimesregimes and demanding union with the House of Savoy. Since Napoleon III did not dare permit a situation which would restore Austrian predominance, Cavour secretly negotiated the treaties of March 1860, which promised the transfer of Nice and Savoy to France. The emperor acquiesced in the annexation of the central states to Piedmont. Plebiscites accompanied all of the changes of sovereignty. Cavour gave little opportunity to the opponents of change on either side of the Alps, with the result that the pro-French vote in Nice was believed suspect and provoked Garibaldi's indignation. When Garibaldi undertook his expedition of "The Thousand Redshirts" against the Kingdom of Naples, Cavour maintained a diplomatic position, secretly giving some encouragement and aid, but ready to disavow the expedition if necessary. After Garibaldi had conquered Sicily and crossed to the mainland, Cavour felt that intervention by the regular army was necessary. Napoleon III was consulted at ChambéryChambery on August 28, 1860, and the royal army was sent south to complete the defeat of Francis II and to occupy Naples. On its way under Cialdini, it shattered the papal army at Castelfidardo, with the result that Umbria and the Marches were annexed along with Sicily and Naples. In March 1861, Cavour saw Victor Emmanuel II proclaimed King of Italy. Only Venetia, still an Austrian province, and Rome, the last remnant of papal territory, remained unredeemed. Cavour, favoring a free church in a free state, attempted to negotiate with the Vatican on that basis but failed. He had Rome almost within his grasp at the time of his death, for Napoleon III had promised the withdrawal of the French garrison at the Vatican. Overwork, illness, and a brief falling-out with Garibaldi hastened Cavour's death. He died at Turin, June 6, 1861.
Views
Quotations:
Cavour recognized that Venice must be an integral part of Italy but refused to take a stance on how to achieve it, saying "Will the deliverance of Venice come by arms or diplomacy? I do not know. It is the secret of Providence. "
Membership
He was a member of the Sardinian Chamber of Deputies.
