Savoy, formerly a province of the kingdom of Sardinia, was transferred to France in 1860, and divided into the two departments of Savoie and
Haute-Savoie. It is an alpine region, having the Graian Alps on the eastern frontier, as the boundary next Piedmont. On that side it runs up to 15,782 feet in Mont Blanc, and to 11,792 in Mont Cenis; thence it falls away gradually to the Rhone (950 feet), which separates it on the west from the French department of Ain. The northern boundary passes through the Lake of Geneva; and on the south-west lies the French department of Isère. The area is 3889 sq. m. (2223 in Savoie and 1666 in Haute-Savoie); the total population (1881) 540,525; (1891) 531,564, of whom 263,297 were in Savoie and 268,267 in Haute-Savoie. The rivers are mostly mountain-torrents, as the Isère, Drance, Arve, and Fier, all tributaries of the Rhone, though the Drance falls into the Lake of Geneva. A large part of the surface is covered with forests (29 per cent.) of pine, fir, larch, beech, oak, elm, ash, hazel, walnut, and chestnut, and with pastures (14 per cent.), on which many cattle, sheep, and goats are kept. The vine is extensively grown, some million gallons of wine being produced annually. Only 23 per cent. of the surface is cultivated. Potatoes, oats, rye, and wheat, with hemp, beet-root, tobacco, colza-seed, and maize, are the principal crops; much honey is made; butter and cheese are exported in large quantities; silkworms are bred; and chestnuts form an article of commerce. Building-stone of various kinds, iron ore, and anthracite are the most valuable of the mineral products. Mineral baths are found at Aix-les-Bains, Evian, Challes, and other places. There is considerable manufacturing industry, especially in the making of cottons, silk stuffs, gauze, woollens, iron, clocks, leather, paper, flour, &c. The peasant women make rough woollen stuffs for home wear. The people are poor, thrifty, and industrious; large numbers leave home every year to fill the lower grades of domestic service in Paris and other large towns; but nearly all return home when they have made a little money. The dept. of Savoie has the four arrondissements of Albertville, Chambéry, Moûtiers, St Jean-de-Maurienne; capital, Chambéry. Haute-Savoie has the four arrondissements of Annecy, Bonneville, St-Julien, Thonon; capital, Annecy.
HOUSE OF SAVOY.—The territory of Savoy formed a part of ancient Gaul. After the decline of the Roman empire it was occupied by the Burgundians (437), and from them passed to the Franks in the next century. Subsequently it formed part of the Burgundian kingdom of Arles, and towards the middle of the 11th century became a fief of the empire. The counts of Maurienne, the ancestors of the Savoy counts and dukes, are sometimes stated to have been descended from Wittekind, last king of the Saxons; it is more probable that they had a local or Provençal origin. The emperor, Conrad II., invested Humbert I. (d. 1048), Count of Maurienne, with the counties of Chablais and Lower Valais. For some centuries the chief features in the history of the house are the successive additions of territory that were made to this early nucleus, until, in the beginning of the 15th century, the dominion of the Savoy rulers extended from Lake Geneva southwards to the Gulf of Genoa, and from the river Saône south-eastwards to Lago Maggiore, and Vercelli and Alessandria in Piedmont. Otto (1048-60) acquired by marriage the marquisate of Susa and the counties of Val d'Aosta and Turin. The province of Bugey and the lordship of Tarentaise were added by the next two counts. Amadeus III. (1103-49) called himself margrave of Turin and Count of Savoy, being the first to use the latter title. Amadens IV. (1233-53), following the traditions of the family, gave his support to the emperor, Frederick II., against the pope, and was rewarded by being created Duke of Chablais and Aosta. Peter (1263-68) before succeeding to power had spent some time in England, where he built in London the palace afterwards called the Savoy; two of his nieces married Englishmen, King Henry III. and Richard Earl of Cornwall. Amadeus V. (1285-1323), surnamed the Great, extended his territories considerably in the north-west (Geneva, Faucigny, Bresse, &c.), acquired the county of Asti in Piedmont, and was made a prince of the empire. The protectorate over Nice, Ventimiglia, Villafranca, and Barcelonette was acquired by Amadeus VII. (1383-91). The Emperor Sigismund made the eighth Amadeus (1391-1433) Duke of Savoy and of Piedmont (1416), and afterwards invested him with the county of Vercelli. But this prince resigned the title and retired to a monastery. In 1439 the Council of Basel deposed Pope Eugenius IV. and elected Amadeus of Savoy pope in his stead; he took the name of Felix V., but resigned the papal dignity in 1448, and died a cardinal in 1451.
The reign of Charles III. (1504-53) was one long train of misfortunes, occasioned by the fact that he sided with the Emperor Charles V. in his great duel with Francis I. of France: Geneva and Valais put themselves (1533) under the protection of the Swiss Confederation; Berne in 1536 seized Chablais, Gex, and Vaud; and by the treaty of Nice France kept possession of Savoy (which she had seized) and the emperor garrisoned the cities of Piedmont, so that Nice only was left to the duke. Emmanuel Philibert, his son, the next duke (1553-80), obtained great renown as an imperial general in the Netherlands, where he won the great victory of St Quentin (1557); this gained him the recovery of his hereditary dominions (except Pignerol, Savigliano, and Saluzzo) in 1559, 1560, and 1564. Ten years later he received again Pignerol and Savigliano, and subsequently acquired the principality of Oneglia and the county of Tenda. His son, Charles Emmanuel (1580-1630), waged war against Henry IV. and Louis XIII. of France, and was deprived of large slices of territory and several fortresses. The succeeding dukes vacillated between the empire and France. Victor Amadeus II. (1675-1730) was at last saved from the clutches of France by the military genius of the celebrated Prince Eugene of Savoy, a distant cousin, who routed the French before Turin in 1706. By the treaty of Utrecht (1713) the Duke of Savoy gained the principality of Montferrat, the kingdom of Sicily, and the recognition of his claim to the crown of Spain should the Bourbon family become extinct. Seven years later the emperor of Austria forced him to exchange the crown of Sicily for that of Sardinia. Henceforward, for 140 years, the sovereignty was known as the kingdom of Sardinia.
The principal immediate aim of the new kings was to get possession of Milan and its territory—i.e. virtually Lombardy. (Turin had been the capital of Savoy since the reign of Emmanuel Philibert.) Charles Emmanuel III. (1730-73) aided France against Austria in two long wars, and thereby gained accessions of territory on his eastern frontier, but he did not get Milan. Under his son and successor, Victor Amadeus III. (1773-96), Savoy, having put herself at the head of the Italian princes in opposing the French Republic and Napoleon, was along with Nice annexed to France. The next duke, who succeeded whilst the French were masters of his continental territories, took refuge in Sardinia (1798), and in 1802 Piedmont was incorporated with France. Victor Emmanuel I. (1802-21) returned to Turin in 1814, not only receiving back his patrimony, but becoming master also of Genoa. This prince left the government to his wife, an Austrian princess, and his father confessor; their efforts were directed to the extirpation of the elements of liberal sentiment and politics implanted by the French during their occupation. This policy provoked a rising of the liberal-minded in 1821, whereupon the king abdicated in favour of his brother Charles Felix (1821-31), who brought in an Austrian army and continued the oppressive and reactionary policy dictated by Austria. He was the last of the elder branch of the family; and on his death the crown passed to Charles Albert (1831-49), the head of the branch Savoy-Carignano, that had been founded by a younger son of Charles Emmanuel in the 17th century. He abdicated in favour of his son Victor Emmanuel II. during the fever of the revolution of 1848-49. From the time of the French Revolution the Sardinian monarch was one of the most influential potentates in Italy, and from the reign of Charles Felix he was singled out by Italian patriots as the man to effect the future unity of Italy. The history of the monarchy from the accession of Charles Albert has been already sufficiently told under Italy (q.v.).
See Histories of Savoy by Cibrario (Turin, 3 vols. 1840-47), Frézet (3 vols. 1826-28), Bertolotti (2 vols. 1830), St-Genis (3 vols. 1869); and of Piedmont by Bianchi (4 vols. 1877-84) and Ricotti (6 vols. 1861-69). For the Stuart connection with the House of Savoy, see STEWART.