Thomas Francis, Prince of Carignano - AbsoluteAstronomy.com

Thomas Francis of Savoy (Italian

Italian language

Italian is a Romance language spoken mainly in Europe: Italy, Switzerland, San Marino, Vatican City, by minorities in Malta, Monaco, Croatia, Slovenia, France, Libya, Eritrea, and Somalia, and by immigrant communities in the Americas and Australia...

Tommaso Francesco di Savoia, Principe di Carignano, French

French language

French is a Romance language spoken as a first language in France, the Romandy region in Switzerland, Wallonia and Brussels in Belgium, Monaco, the regions of Quebec and Acadia in Canada, and by various communities elsewhere. Second-language speakers of French are distributed throughout many parts...

Thomas François de Savoie, Prince de Carignan; 21 December 1596 – 22 January 1656) was an Italian military commander, the founder of the Savoy-Carignano branch of the House of Savoy

House of Savoy

The House of Savoy was formed in the early 11th century in the historical Savoy region. Through gradual expansion, it grew from ruling a small county in that region to eventually rule the Kingdom of Italy from 1861 until the end of World War II, king of Croatia and King of Armenia...

which reigned as kings of Sardinia from 1831 to 1861, and as kings of Italy from 1861 until the dynasty's deposition in 1946.

Background

Born in Turin

Turin

Turin is a city and major business and cultural centre in northern Italy, capital of the Piedmont region, located mainly on the left bank of the Po River and surrounded by the Alpine arch. The population of the city proper is 909,193 while the population of the urban area is estimated by Eurostat...

, Thomas was the youngest of the five legitimate sons of the sovereign Duke Charles Emmanuel I, Duke of Savoy

Charles Emmanuel I, Duke of Savoy

Charles Emmanuel I , known as the Great, was the Duke of Savoy from 1580 to 1630...

by his consort Catherine Micaela of Spain, a daughter of King Philip II of Spain

Philip II of Spain

Philip II was King of Spain, Portugal, Naples, Sicily, and, while married to Mary I, King of England and Ireland. He was lord of the Seventeen Provinces from 1556 until 1581, holding various titles for the individual territories such as duke or count....

and the French princess Elizabeth of Valois. His mother died the following year. While still a young man, Thomas bore arms in the service of the king of Spain in Italy.

Although in previous reigns, younger sons had been granted rich appanage

Appanage

An apanage or appanage or is the grant of an estate, titles, offices, or other things of value to the younger male children of a sovereign, who would otherwise have no inheritance under the system of primogeniture...

s in Switzerland (Genevois

Genevois

Genevois is the name used in Geneva used for the dialect of Arpitan used in the canton of Geneva. The title « Cé qu'è lainô » of the anthem of Geneva is in Genevois....

, Vaud

Vaud

Vaud is one of the 26 cantons of Switzerland and is located in Romandy, the French-speaking southwestern part of the country. The capital is Lausanne. The name of the Canton in Switzerland's other languages are Vaud in Italian , Waadt in German , and Vad in Romansh.-History:Along the lakes,...

), Italy (Aosta

Aosta

Aosta is the principal city of the bilingual Aosta Valley in the Italian Alps, north-northwest of Turin. It is situated near the Italian entrance of the Mont Blanc Tunnel, at the confluence of the Buthier and the Dora Baltea, and at the junction of the Great and Little St. Bernard routes...

), or France (Nemours

Nemours

Nemours is a commune in the Seine-et-Marne department in the Île-de-France region in north-central France.-Geography:Nemours is located on the Loing and its canal, c...

, Bresse

Bresse

Bresse is a former French province. It is located in the regions of Rhône-Alpes, Bourgogne, and Franche-Comté of eastern France. The geographical term Bresse has two meanings: Bresse bourguignonne , which is situated in the east of the department of Saône-et-Loire, and Bresse, which is located...

), the Savoy dukes found that this inhibited their own aggrandizement while encouraging intra-dynastic

Dynasty

A dynasty is a sequence of rulers considered members of the same family. Historians traditionally consider many sovereign states' history within a framework of successive dynasties, e.g., China, Ancient Egypt and the Persian Empire...

strife and regional secession

Secession

Secession is the act of withdrawing from an organization, union, or especially a political entity. Threats of secession also can be a strategy for achieving more limited goals.-Secession theory:...

. Not only did Thomas 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

Nobility

Nobility is a social class which possesses more acknowledged privileges or eminence than members of most other classes in a society, membership therein typically being hereditary. The privileges associated with nobility may constitute substantial advantages over or relative to non-nobles, or may be...

mistresses, appear to have been generously endowed

Financial endowment

A financial endowment is a transfer of money or property donated to an institution. The total value of an institution's investments is often referred to as the institution's endowment and is typically organized as a public charity, private foundation, or trust....

or dowered

Dowry

A dowry is the money, goods, or estate that a woman brings forth to the marriage. It contrasts with bride price, which is paid to the bride's parents, and dower, which is property settled on the bride herself by the groom at the time of marriage. The same culture may simultaneously practice both...

during their father's lifetime.

The fief of Carignano had belonged to the Savoys since 1418, and the fact that it was part of Piedmont

Piedmont

Piedmont is one of the 20 regions of Italy. It has an area of 25,402 square kilometres and a population of about 4.4 million. The capital of Piedmont is Turin. The main local language is Piedmontese. Occitan is also spoken by a minority in the Occitan Valleys situated in the Provinces of...

, only twenty km. south of Turin, meant that it could be a "princedom" for Thomas in name only, being endowed neither with independence nor revenues of substance. Instead of receiving a significant patrimony

Property

Property is any physical or intangible entity that is owned by a person or jointly by a group of people or a legal entity like a corporation...

, Thomas was wed in 1625 to Marie de Bourbon

Marie de Bourbon, Countess of Soissons

Marie de Bourbon, Countess of Soissons was the wife of Thomas Francis, Prince of Carignano.-Biography:Marie Marguerite de Bourbon was born at the Hôtel de Soissons in Paris, was the second daughter and youngest child of Charles de Bourbon, comte de Soissons and his wife Anne de Montafié...

, sister and co-heiress of Louis de Bourbon, comte de Soissons

Louis de Bourbon, comte de Soissons

Louis de Bourbon, Count of Soissons , was a French nobleman, the son of Charles de Bourbon, Count of Soissons and Anne de Montafié...

, who would be killed in 1641 while fomenting

Incitement

In English criminal law, incitement was an anticipatory common law offence and was the act of persuading, encouraging, instigating, pressuring, or threatening so as to cause another to commit a crime....

rebellion against Cardinal Richelieu.

France

In anticipation of this inheritance Thomas and Marie did not establish themselves at his brother's capital, Turin, but dwelt in Paris

Paris

Paris is the capital and largest city in France, situated on the river Seine, in northern France, at the heart of the Île-de-France region...

, where Marie enjoyed the exalted rank of a princesse du sang
Prince du Sang
A prince of the blood was a person who was legitimately descended in the male line from the monarch of a country. In France, the rank of prince du sang was the highest held at court after the immediate family of the king during the ancien régime and the Bourbon Restoration...

, being a second cousin of King Louis XIII

Louis XIII of France

Louis XIII was a Bourbon monarch who ruled as King of France and of Navarre from 1610 to 1643.Louis was only eight years old when he succeeded his father. His mother, Marie de Medici, acted as regent during Louis' minority...

. It was arranged that Thomas, as son of a reigning monarch, would hold the rank of first among the princes étrangers
Foreign Prince
Foreign Prince is the English translation of prince étranger, a high, though somewhat ambiguous, rank at the French royal court of the ancien régime.-Terminology:...

at the French court—taking precedence even before the formerly all-powerful House of Guise

House of Guise

The House of Guise was a French ducal family, partly responsible for the French Wars of Religion.The Guises were Catholic, and Henry Guise wanted to end growing Calvinist influence...

, whose kinship to the sovereign Duke of Lorraine was more remote. He was appointed Grand Maître
Grand Master of France
The Grand Master of France was, during the Ancien Régime and Bourbon Restoration in France, one of the Great Officers of the Crown of France and head of the "Maison du Roi", the king's royal household...

of the king's household, briefly replacing the traitorous Grand Condé
Louis II de Bourbon, Prince de Condé
Louis de Bourbon, Prince of Condé was a French general and the most famous representative of the Condé branch of the House of Bourbon. Prior to his father's death in 1646, he was styled the Duc d'Enghien...

. He engaged the services of the distinguished grammarian and courtier Claude Favre de Vaugelas

Claude Favre de Vaugelas

Claude Favre de Vaugelas was a French grammarian and man of letters. Although a life-long courtier, Claude Favre was widely known by the name of one of the landed estates he owned as seigneur of Vaugelas and baron of Peroges.Born at Meximieux, in the Ain département of France, he became...

as tutor for his children.

The prospect of Marie's eventual succession to the Swiss principality of Neuchâtel, near Savoy, was foiled in 1643 by the king's decision to legitimate Louis Henri de Bourbon, chevalier
Knight
A knight was a member of a class of lower nobility in the High Middle Ages.By the Late Middle Ages, the rank had become associated with the ideals of chivalry, a code of conduct for the perfect courtly Christian warrior....

de Soissons (1640–1703), a son of Marie's late brother. This prevented the substitution of Savoyard for French influence in that region, but left Thomas with little more than the empty title of "prince de Carignano". Marie did eventually inherit her brother's main holding in France, the county of Soissons, but this would be established as a secundogeniture

Appanage

for the French branch of the family. After Thomas, the senior branch of his descendants repatriated

Repatriation

Repatriation is the process of returning a person back to one's place of origin or citizenship. This includes the process of returning refugees or soldiers to their place of origin following a war...

to Savoy, alternately marrying French, Italian and German princesses.

Early actions and service with Spain

Thomas' first recorded service is as a commander in the Piedmontese army under his father in the war against France in 1630 (see War of the Mantuan Succession

War of the Mantuan Succession

The War of the Mantuan Succession was a peripheral part of the Thirty Years' War. Its casus belli was the extinction of the direct male line of the House of Gonzaga in December 1627. Brothers Francesco IV , Ferdinando and Vincenzo II , the last three dukes of Gonzaga, had all died leaving no...

). It was probably around this time that he first encountered Mazarin, who (though his public position was quite complex) was during 1630-32 in effect a French agent at the Piedmontese court. When the new Duke Victor Amadeus I was forced to accept a French occupation of Pinerolo

Pinerolo

Pinerolo is a town and comune in north-western Italy, 40 kilometres southwest of Turin on the river Chisone.-History:In the Middle Ages, the town of Pinerolo was one of the main crossroads in Italy, and was therefore one of the principal fortresses of the dukes of Savoy. Its military importance...

(Peace of Cherasco, 26 April 1631, and associated secret agreements, implemented 1632), there was widespread dissatisfaction in Piedmont, and Thomas, with his brother Maurice, went to join the Spanish, at which Victor Amadeus confiscated their revenues. (The exact date of the move is unstated, but was probably 1632, certainly no later than 1634.) Though welcomed by the Spanish given that he was related to both the French and Spanish royal families, Thomas was not entirely trusted by them, and had to send his wife and children to Madrid as hostages.

Spain, during the burst of confidence after its unexpected great victory at Nordlingen

Battle of Nördlingen (1634)

The Battle of Nördlingen was fought on 27 August or 6 September , 1634 during the Thirty Years' War. The Roman Catholic Imperial army, bolstered by 18,000 Spanish and Italian soldiers, won a crushing victory over the combined Protestant armies of Sweden and their German-Protestant allies .After...

in 1634, made plans for major operations in Germany to end the war against the Protestants there and in the Netherlands; these plans included Thomas leading an army in Westphalia, under the overall command of the Cardinal-Infante Ferdinand

Cardinal-Infante Ferdinand

Cardinal-Infante Ferdinand was Governor of the Spanish Netherlands, Cardinal of the Holy Roman Church, Infante of Spain, Archduke of Austria, Archbishop of Toledo , and military...

, brother of Philip IV. Nothing came of this, but in 1635, when France declared war on Spain (Franco-Spanish war of 1635-59), Thomas served under Ferdinand in the Spanish Netherlands: he was given command of a small army (variously given as 8,500 or 13,000) sent against French forces that had advanced into Luxemburg, his orders either to observe them or to prevent them from joining up with a Dutch army. On 22 May 1635 at Les Avins

Battle of Les Avins

The Battle of Les Avins or Battle of Avein was fought on May 20, 1635 during the Thirty Years' War between a French and a Spanish army.The battle was fought in the Belgian village of Les Avins, south of Huy, in what was then the bishopric of Liège...

, south of Huy, in what was then the bishopric of Liège, he was completely defeated and his army entirely killed, captured or scattered - the first in an unbroken career of military defeat. He managed to rally the remnants at Namur, then retreated before the numerically-superior French and Dutch forces; and he probably served the rest of the campaign with Ferdinand. Late in the year, the refugee Charles IV, Duke of Lorraine

Charles IV, Duke of Lorraine

Charles IV was Duke of Lorraine from 1624 to 1634, when he abdicated under French pressure in favor of his younger brother, and again from 1661 until 1675.- Biography :...

arrived in Brussels and met Thomas; they may have formed a joint court, and Thomas certainly participated in jousts organised by the Duke. (In this Franco-Spanish war, Piedmont was reluctantly dragged into the fighting alongside the French, though initially it avoided a full declaration of war; consequently, Thomas was technically fighting against his own homeland.)

In 1636, the Cardinal-Infante Ferdinand

Cardinal-Infante Ferdinand

Cardinal-Infante Ferdinand was Governor of the Spanish Netherlands, Cardinal of the Holy Roman Church, Infante of Spain, Archduke of Austria, Archbishop of Toledo , and military...

organised a joint Spanish-Imperialist army for a major invasion of France from the Spanish Netherlands

Southern Netherlands

Southern Netherlands were a part of the Low Countries controlled by Spain , Austria and annexed by France...

, and Thomas was initially in charge, though Ferdinand soon took over supreme command. The invasion was initially very successful, and seemed capable of reaching Paris, where there was a great panic; if Ferdinand and Thomas had pushed on, they might have ended the war at this point, but they both felt that continuing to Paris was too risky, so they stopped the advance. Later in the campaign, Thomas had problems with the Imperialist general Ottavio Piccolomini, who refused to accept orders from the Prince as a Spanish commander, arguing that his Imperialist troops were an independent force. Military action for Thomas is not recorded in 1637, but in this year, when his brother-in-law Soissons

Louis de Bourbon, comte de Soissons

Louis de Bourbon, Count of Soissons , was a French nobleman, the son of Charles de Bourbon, Count of Soissons and Anne de Montafié...

fled from France after his failed conspiracy against Cardinal Richelieu, he acted as intermediary between Soissons and the Spanish in negotiations which led to a formal alliance between the count and Philip IV of Spain

Philip IV of Spain

Philip IV was King of Spain between 1621 and 1665, sovereign of the Spanish Netherlands, and King of Portugal until 1640...

concluded 28 June 1637 - although within a month Soissons had reconciled with France! In 1638, Thomas served in Spanish Flanders, helping to defend the fortress-city of Saint-Omer

Saint-Omer

Saint-Omer , a commune and sub-prefecture of the Pas-de-Calais department west-northwest of Lille on the railway to Calais. The town is named after Saint Audomar, who brought Christianity to the area....

against a French siege; in mid-June, he managed to get reinforcements into the place, then with the rest of his small army entrenched about 15 km. to the north-west at Ruminghem

Ruminghem

Ruminghem is a commune in the Pas-de-Calais department in the Nord-Pas-de-Calais region of France.-Geography:Ruminghem is located about 10 miles north of Saint-Omer on the D217 road.-Population:-References:* *-External links:* *...

, opposite the French army under Jacques-Nompar de Caumont, duc de la Force

Jacques-Nompar de Caumont, duc de la Force

Jacques-Nompar de Caumont, duc de la Force was a marshal of France and peer of France.He was born in La Force, the son of Francois de Caumont and Philippes de Beaupoil....

at Zouafques

Zouafques

Zouafques is a commune in the Pas-de-Calais department in the Nord-Pas-de-Calais region of France.-Geography:Zouafques is located 11 miles northwest of Saint-Omer, at the D217 road junction with the A26 autoroute, in the valley of the small river Hem.-Population:-Places of interest:* The church of...

; after being joined by Imperialist reinforcements under Ottavio Piccolomini, he marched to attack La Force, and was defeated with the loss of 2,000 men killed or captured (action at Zouafques, exact date unknown but around 21 June). However, he then marched back with his remaining troops to the continuing French siege of Saint-Omer, where he put in more reinforcements and then entrenched himself so securely in the vicinity that the French found it impossible to continue the siege and gave up. Thomas and Piccolimini subsequently stuck so close to La Force that the French were unable to undertake any serious operations.

Piedmontese Civil War

After seeking Spanish support late in 1638 for action against Regent Christine Marie, Madame Royale

Christine Marie of France

Christine of France was the sister of Louis XIII and the Duchess of Savoy by marriage. At the death of her husband Victor Amadeus I in 1637, she acted as regent of Savoy between 1637 and 1648....

, Thomas went to Spanish Milan

Milan

Milan is the second-largest city in Italy and the capital city of the region of Lombardy and of the province of Milan. The city proper has a population of about 1.3 million, while its urban area, roughly coinciding with its administrative province and the bordering Province of Monza and Brianza ,...

early in 1639, and alongside Spanish forces invaded Piedmont, where many towns welcomed him. He took Turin by trickery, but the French continued to control its citadel. In 1640, he held the city in the multi-layered siege of Turin

Siege of Turin (1640)

The 1640 siege of Turin was a major action in two distinct wars: the Franco-Spanish War and the Piedmontese Civil War. Thomas of Savoy and his supporters had seized the city of Turin in 1639, but French troops supporting the Regent Christine continued to hold the citadel...

. After repeated bouts of negotiations with the Regent and the French, Thomas made peace with both in the first half of 1642, and unblushingly changed sides and started fighting with the French against the Spaniards.

Service with France

For the rest of 1642 and part of the 1643 campaigns, Thomas commanded Piedmontese forces fighting alongside the French under Henri II d'Orléans, duc de Longueville

Henri II d'Orléans, duc de Longueville

Henri II d'Orléans, duc de Longueville or Henri de Valois-Longueville , a legitimated prince of France and peer of France, was a major figure in the civil war of France, the Fronde, and served as governor of Picardy, then of Normandy.Longueville headed the French delegation in the talks that led...

against the Spanish, generally along the Piedmont/Milan border; when Longueville was recalled home, Thomas succeeded him as allied commander-in-chief, with Turenne

Henri de la Tour d'Auvergne, Vicomte de Turenne

Henri de la Tour d'Auvergne, Vicomte de Turenne,often called simply Turenne was the most illustrious member of the La Tour d'Auvergne family. He achieved military fame and became a Marshal of France...

as his second-in-command. (Thomas was given the supreme command only because of his birth; another French general, Du Plessis Praslin, noted a few years later that French marshals would only serve under someone who was superior to them in social rank, and Thomas, with his blood relationship to the French and Spanish royal families, was the only candidate.) By late summer, both Thomas and Turenne were seriously ill and Du Plessis Praslin

Caesar, duc de Choiseul

César, duc de Choiseul, comte du Plessis-Praslin was a Marshal of France and French diplomat, generally known for the best part of his life as the maréchal du Plessis-Praslin....

was in temporary command. Thomas led the joint armies again in 1644, taking Santya and Asti; he also tried to take Finale Ligure

Finale Ligure

Finale Ligure is a comune on the Gulf of Genoa in the Province of Savona in Liguria, Italy. It is considered part of the Italian Riviera.-Geography:...

, but gave up the attempt, apparently because he feared this valuable port would end up in French control rather than Piedmontese. In 1645, now commanding with Du Plessis Praslin, he took Vigevano, and repulsed a Spanish attempt to block his withdrawal at the River Mora, the nearest he ever came to a success in the field. In 1646, Thomas was put in command of the French expedition sent south to take the Tuscan forts

Fortification

Fortifications are military constructions and buildings designed for defence in warfare and military bases. Humans have constructed defensive works for many thousands of years, in a variety of increasingly complex designs...

, after which he was to advance further south to Naples, drive out the Spanish and put himself on the throne of the kingdom; but the expedition set off late, and when he besieged Orbetello, the supporting French fleet was defeated by the Spanish and he was forced to raise the siege and conduct a difficult retreat, which he performed so poorly that Cardinal Mazarin subsequently despised his command ability, viewed him as incompetent, and declined to appoint him to the expedition that France sent to support the Naples revolt

Neapolitan Republic (1647)

The Neapolitan Republic was a Republic created in Naples, which lasted from 22 October 1647 to 5 April 1648. It began after the revolt led by Masaniello and Giulio Genoino against the Spanish viceroys....

late in 1647 (this did not stop Mazarin from considering him as a potential candidate for a French-backed King of Naples, though Paris was so slow to move on this that Henry II, Duke of Guise

Henry II, Duke of Guise

Henry II de Lorraine, 5th Duke of Guise was the second son of Charles, Duke of Guise and Henriette Catherine de Joyeuse.-Life:...

was adopted by the Neapolitans instead). In the 1647 campaign, Thomas is mentioned as commanding alongside the French general in the forces sent across north Italy to work with the Duke of Modena Francesco I d'Este

Francesco I d'Este

Francesco I d'Este was Duke of Modena and Reggio from 1629 until his death. The eldest son of Alfonso III d'Este, he became reigning duke after his father's abdication.-Biography:...

who had just allied with France and opened up a 'second front' against the Spaniards in Milan

Duchy of Milan

The Duchy of Milan , was created on the 1st of may 1395, when Gian Galeazzo Visconti, Lord of Milan, purchased a diploma for 100,000 Florins from King Wenceslaus. It was this diploma that installed, Gian Galeazzo as Duke of Milan and Count of Pavia...

, though Mazarin confessed that he had appointed Thomas only because he feared that, if left behind in Piedmont, the Prince's restless spirit would make more trouble. By spring of 1648 however he was back in Piedmont, fighting on the Piedmont-Milan border to distract the Spanish from their pressure on Modena; in the summer, he was put in charge of an army sent on a fleet to Naples - the Naples revolt had already collapsed by then, so the expedition found no support when it landed and after some pointless actions it re-embarked, a complete failure (some details in Naples revolt

Neapolitan Republic (1647)

). On his return with the French fleet, Thomas was delayed in Provence and unable to join the great siege of Cremona

Cremona

Cremona is a city and comune in northern Italy, situated in Lombardy, on the left bank of the Po River in the middle of the Pianura Padana . It is the capital of the province of Cremona and the seat of the local City and Province governments...

where he was expected.

During his absence, Regent Christine

Christine Marie of France

Christine of France was the sister of Louis XIII and the Duchess of Savoy by marriage. At the death of her husband Victor Amadeus I in 1637, she acted as regent of Savoy between 1637 and 1648....

had gained control of the fortresses granted to Thomas as part of the settlement of the Piedmontese Civil War

Piedmontese Civil War

The Piedmontese Civil War was a conflict in northern Italy, connected with the Franco-Spanish War of 1635-59.-Background:From 1635, Piedmont had been forced to join France in its war against Spain, fighting principally against Spanish-controlled former Duchy of Milan, though its ruler, Victor...

(legally, these reverted to ducal control when the Duke came of age, which under Piedmontese law Charles Emmanuel

Charles Emmanuel II, Duke of Savoy

Charles Emmanuel II was the Duke of Savoy from 1638 to 1675 and under regency of his mother Christine Marie of France until 1663. He was also Marquis of Saluzzo, Count of Aosta, Geneva, Moriana and Nice, as well as claimant king of Cyprus and Jerusalem...

did in 1648, though his mother remained in control of the government; Christine, accompanied by her son and part of the ducal army, entered Ivrea and dismissed Thomas' personal garrison; she appointed Thomas instead as governor or Asti and Alba, positions which sweetened the blow but were entirely under ducal control, not guaranteed by treaty. When he returned to Piedmont, Thomas had no choice but to accept the fait accompli, and soon after this he went to live in Paris.

During the Fronde

Fronde

The Fronde was a civil war in France, occurring in the midst of the Franco-Spanish War, which had begun in 1635. The word fronde means sling, which Parisian mobs used to smash the windows of supporters of Cardinal Mazarin....

, Thomas linked himself closely with Cardinal Mazarin, who, although effectively prime minister of France, was like him an Italian outsider at the French court. In the early 1650s, Thomas was seen as an important member of Mazarin's party, closely linked to the Cardinal, regularly seen in conference with him, and active in his support. In 1651 when Mazarin had been forced into exile, the Prince was for a time brought onto the conseil du roi, and an (admittedly very hostile) contemporary the duchesse de Nemours described him as a 'prime minister without being aware of it'; there were suggestions that Mazarin's opponents within the court had raised him up as a rival to the cardinal with the Queen, but this is unlikely, especially since Mazarin himself urged the Queen to follow Thomas' advice, and it is more probable that Mazarin backed the Prince as someone who would keep other rivals from gaining control in his absence but who would never have the status within France to set himself up as a permanent replacement for the Cardinal. By the time Mazarin returned from his second and last exile in February 1653, Thomas, who accompanied the court to St Denis to welcome the Cardinal home, was insignificant again - an analysis of Mazarin's close colleagues at this time by the later historian Chéruel

Pierre Adolphe Chéruel

Pierre Adolphe Chéruel was a French historian.He was born at Rouen and educated at the École Normale Supérieure, becoming a fellow in 1830. His early studies were concerned with local history...

made no mention of him. In January 1654, when the last of the ceremonial offices formerly belonging to the rebel leader Louis II de Bourbon, Prince de Condé

Louis II de Bourbon, Prince de Condé

Louis de Bourbon, Prince of Condé was a French general and the most famous representative of the Condé branch of the House of Bourbon. Prior to his father's death in 1646, he was styled the Duc d'Enghien...

were disposed of, Prince Thomas was made Grand Maitre

Grand Master of France

The Grand Master of France was, during the Ancien Régime and Bourbon Restoration in France, one of the Great Officers of the Crown of France and head of the "Maison du Roi", the king's royal household...

.

The Franco-Spanish war had been continuing in north Italy, and late in 1654, increasing Piedmontese hostility to the current French commander Grancey led to a search for a new allied commander-in-chief; the French would have preferred to send the Duke of York

James II of England

James II & VII was King of England and King of Ireland as James II and King of Scotland as James VII, from 6 February 1685. He was the last Catholic monarch to reign over the Kingdoms of England, Scotland, and Ireland...

(later King James II), but he too was unacceptable to Turin, so Thomas was appointed as joint commander - though his wife was held in France almost as a hostage for his good behaviour. On 16 December 1654 he arrived in Turin, to a ceremonial welcome by the French troops and an unexpectedly friendly reception by Charles Emmanuel

Charles Emmanuel II, Duke of Savoy

. On April 4, 1655, Thomas Francis commanded the Waldensians

Waldensians

Waldensians, Waldenses or Vaudois are names for a Christian movement of the later Middle Ages, descendants of which still exist in various regions, primarily in North-Western Italy. There is considerable uncertainty about the earlier history of the Waldenses because of a lack of extant source...

to attend Mass or remove to the upper valleys, giving them twenty days in which to sell their lands. The Duke of Savoy sent an army and on April 24, at 4 a.m., the signal was given for a general massacre so brutal, that it aroused indignation throughout Europe. Oliver Cromwell began petitioning on behalf of the Vaudois, and John Milton wrote his famous poem about this, "On the Late Massacre in Piedmont

On the Late Massacre in Piedmont

On the Late Massacre in Piedmont is a sonnet by the English poet John Milton inspired by the massacre of Waldensians in Piedmont by the Charles Emmanuel II, Duke of Savoy in April 1655.-The sonnet:Avenge, O Lord, thy slaughtered saints, whose bones...

." In the 1655 campaign, he led an invasion of the Duchy of Milan

Duchy of Milan

, though already ill with malaria, and besieged Pavia

Pavia

Pavia , the ancient Ticinum, is a town and comune of south-western Lombardy, northern Italy, 35 km south of Milan on the lower Ticino river near its confluence with the Po. It is the capital of the province of Pavia. It has a population of c. 71,000...

, where the attack went so badly that he was forced to leave his sick-bed to take direct control of the siege, and even then it had to be raised after nearly two months of fruitless effort.

Death

After the 1655 campaign, Thomas returned to Turin where he died the following January; the suggestion in Spanheim that he died at the siege of Pavia is not supported - malaria, a common problem in the marshes of the Po valley, carried him off, as it carried off his successor as allied commander-in-chief, Francesco I d'Este

Francesco I d'Este

Francesco I d'Este was Duke of Modena and Reggio from 1629 until his death. The eldest son of Alfonso III d'Este, he became reigning duke after his father's abdication.-Biography:...

Family

Thomas and Marie had seven children who survived infancy (Italian names in parentheses):

Carignano line

Princess Cristine Charlotte of Savoy (born and died in 1626)
Princess Louise Christine of Savoy (1627–1689), married in 1654 to Ferdinand Maximilian of Baden-Baden
Ferdinand Maximilian of Baden-Baden
Ferdinand Maximilian of Baden-Baden, Hereditary Prince of Baden-Baden was the father of the famous general Louis William, Margrave of Baden-Baden....

(1625–1669)
Prince Emmanuel Philibert Amadeus of Savoy (Emanuele Filiberto Amedeo) (1628–1709), 2nd prince de Carignan, lived in Italy, becoming governor of Ivrea
Ivrea
Ivrea is a town and comune of the province of Turin in the Piedmont region of northwestern Italy. Situated on the road leading to the Aosta Valley , it straddles the Dora Baltea and is regarded as the centre of the Canavese area. Ivrea lies in a basin that, in prehistoric times, formed a great lake...

in 1644, and of Asti
Asti
Asti is a city and comune of about 75,000 inhabitants located in the Piedmont region of northwestern Italy, about 55 kilometres east of Turin in the plain of the Tanaro River...

in 1663. In 1684 he married in Racconigi
Racconigi
Racconigi is a town and comune in Piedmont, Italy. It is located in the province of Cuneo, south of Turin, and north of Cuneo by rail.The economy is mostly based on agriculture, production of milk and meat, and industrial working of metal sheets....

, Princess Angela Catherina d'Este (1656–1722), granddaughter of Cesare I d'Este, Duke of Modena
Cesare d'Este
Cesare d'Este was Duke of Modena and Reggio from 1597 until his death. During his reign, in 1598, the House of Este lost the Duchy of Ferrara.-Biography:...

. Because he was deaf-mute
Deaf-mute
For "deafness", see hearing impairment. For "Deaf" as a cultural term, see Deaf culture. For "inability to speak", see muteness.Deaf-mute is a term which was used historically to identify a person who was both deaf and could not speak...

, the marriage shocked his mother, infuriated his sister-in-law Olympia Mancini, injured the inheritance prospects of his French nephews and nieces, and so offended Louis XIV that Francis II, Duke of Modena
Francesco II d'Este
Francesco II d'Este was Duke of Modena and Reggio from 1662 to 1694.He was born in Modena to Alfonso IV d'Este, duke of Modena, and Laura Martinozzi, niece of Cardinal Mazarin. His sister, Mary of Modena, married the future James II of England in 1673 and became queen of England in 1685.He became...

felt obliged to banish from his realm the bride's kinsman, who had acted as the couple's intermediary.
Prince Amedeo of Savoy (1629 – died young)
Prince Joseph-Emmanuel (1631–1656), count of Soissons
Prince Ferdinand of Savoy (1637)
Prince Eugène Maurice of Savoy
Prince Eugène-Maurice of Savoy-Carignan
Eugene Maurice of Savoy was count of Soissons, a French general and father of Eugene of Savoy.- Biography :...

(1633–1673), count of Soissons and Dreux
Dreux
Dreux is a commune in the Eure-et-Loir department in northern France.-History:Dreux was known in ancient times as Durocassium, the capital of the Durocasses Celtic tribe. Despite the legend, its name was not related with Druids. The Romans established here a fortified camp known as Castrum...

, married Olympia Mancini

Background

France

Early actions and service with Spain

Piedmontese Civil War

Service with France

Death

Family

Further reading