Giovanni Maria Angioy

Giovanni Maria Angioy

Giovanni Maria Angioy (Bono, 21 October 1751 - Paris, February 22, 1808) was a Sardinian politician and patriot and to this day he is considered a national hero in Sardinia.

Angioy guided the Sardinian revolutionary (1794-1796) against the feudal privileges still existing on the island of Sardinia, facing government repression from the house of Savoy, who ruled Sardinia at the time. Angioy was not only a politician, but also also a university lecturer, judge at the Royal Audience, entrepreneur and banker.

Giovanni Maria Angioy is considered one of the greatest Sardinian patriots, as his political activity was eventually aimed at creating a Sardinian republic, free and independent, having eliminated the feudal yoke on the island.

Youth Training

His parents belonged to the Sardinian rural middle class. During his childhood both his parents died though, first his mother, at the age of 30, and successively his father.

A maternal uncle, Father Thaddeus Arras, took care of Angioy's education. His uncle Thaddeus was his first teacher,but he was also taught by the Fathers Mercedari, a monastic order. Successively, Angioy was educated under the supervision of Canon Giovanni Antonio Arras in Sassari. Angioy continued his studies at the Jesuit fathers' school, and at 21 years he had already become a university lecturer. Despite his young age he also become a deputy lawyer. Finally, at 39 he became a High-Court Judge, which used to be a very high honour.

The Ideas of the French Revolution

On the façade of the City Hall of Bono, Sardinia, an inscription says:"To Giovanni Maria Angioy, who inspired by the 1789 Revolution started the Sardinian crusade against the feudal yoke."Sardinia, like other regions at the borders of Europe (e.g. Scotland) was not less influenced by ideas that developed in the heart of Europe. The ideas of the French Revolution reached Sardinia and had an influence on many intellectuals, despite limited means of communication (press had a limited diffusion in Sardinia compared to other European countries). Giovanni Maria Angioy had read many French texts, and this was probably a catalyst for sparking his revolutionary views.

The evils of Feudalism

Vittorio Amedeo II of Savoy had received the Kingdom of Sardinia in exchange for Sicily, with the Treaty of London in 1718: he thus became the 17th King of Sardinia. Vittorio Amedeo II then sent his lieutenant, Baron de Saint-Rémy, to assume the role of viceroy of Sardinia. The new viceroy asked the Sardinia parliament, the "Stamenti", to swear to observe the laws and privileges of the nobility that were granted by the previous Spanish governments, as set out in the international agreements. This meant the continuation of the feudal system that was introduced by the Spanish with the conquest of Sardinia in the 15th Century. This was particularly controversial because in many other regions of Europe feudalism had disappeared long ago.

Feudalism was the great evil of Sardinia.It penalised the only source of income, agriculture. At that time, in fact, the island was divided into fiefdoms,except for 7 cities (Castelsardo, Sassari, Alghero, Bosa, Oristano, Iglesias and Cagliari, who were exempted since Spanish period from paying feudal duties). Taxes were very high, and annuities due to the archbishops of Cagliari and Oristano, as well as those due to the major landowners like the Marquis Alagon of Villasor, the Marquis of Thiesi and many others.

Town and cities were sparsely inhabited at the time, while most of the population lived in rural areas where they were hassled with harsh feudal taxation: farmers were paid a fifth of what other workers were paid. For vassals, taxes were innumerable: every head of the family, in addition to other charges, was to pay a fine.

Anti-Feudal Motions

After the French Revolution, French armies moved war to different countries in Europe, trying to spread their revolutionary ideas. In 1793, a French fleet carrying soldiers moved toward the Gulf of Cagliari. After bombing the town from the sea, the French divisions landed on the beach of Quartu, near Cagliari, and from there, moved toward the town on foot. The house of Savoy, kings of the Sardinia, were unable at the time to provide for the defence of Sardinia, being involved in other wars against the French in mainland Europe, so the Sardinians organised their own defence against the invading French divisions. Eventually the French were defeated and repelled (although some historians claim that the French defeat was mainly caused by errors and "friendly fire").

In return for the defence of Sardinia, the Sardinian parliament, the Stamenti, issued five requests to the Savoy ruler, known as the "five requests", namely:

* They asked the an assembly of Sardinians (Corti Generali) to meet every ten years (the House of Savoy had not summoned this assembly since 1720);
* Ratification of the privileges, laws and customs of Sardinia;
* They asked all public offices and roles to be given to native Sardinians;
* Establishment of a Ministry of Sardinian Affairs in the capital Turin (although the Kindom was Sardinian by name, the House of Savoy ruled from the territories they held in mainland Italy and made Turin, in Piedmont, the capital of the kingdom);
* Establishment of a Council of State, with the role to give advice and guidance to the King in important decisions for the Kingdom.

The House of Savoy rejected all of these requests. This caused dissatisfaction in all Sardinian classes. They felt that their requests were far from revolutionary and that they had not been rewarded for defending the kingdom alone against the French revolutionary menace. The dissatisfaction mounted into open hostility that caused the assassination of two officials of Piedmont in Cagliari on the 28th of April 1794, probably organised by the Sardinian aristochracy: this episode in turn sparked an open rebellion by the whole population of the city. During this revolt, the mob chased and killed The General Inendant Jerome Pitzolo (July 6) and the General Gavino Paliaccio, Marquis of Planargia (July 22). These are the days of "s'acciappa" ("the chase" referring to the fact that all Piedmontese were hunted and chased across the city). Eventually, all 514 Piedmontese and Italian officials were rounded up, including Viceroy Balbiano Vincent, and expelled from Cagliari on a boat. The example was followed by other cities and the revolt spread throughout Sardinia. The island was governed by a provisional Royal Audience during this revolutionary period.

The Post of "Alternos"

The new viceroy Piedmont, Filippo Vivalda of Castellino, returned to Cagliari on September 6, but the revolts and riots not placcarono. Approffitando of unrest, logudoresi lords and the nobility sassarese, asked the king greater autonomy from the viceroy and asked also viceregio off by the government and depend directly by the Crown.

These requests angered that the Cagliari fomentarono even more the uprising and 28 December 1795, a great mass of rebels from all over Logudoro Sassari demonstrated against the feudal system, intoning the famous song of Francis Ignatius Mannu: procurad'è moderade, Barones knows tirrannia. A revolt that was attended by all social classes: bourgeoisie, nobility and people and was at that time that found themselves united to demand the independence of the Kingdom.

In the motion Logudoro antifeudali developed in 1795. In this region feudal rights were not well paid but specified by barbaric extortion. They rebelled vassals dell'Anglona: Sedini, Nulvi, Osilo it refused to pay the feudal rights. Later the motion is a propagarono Ittiri, Uri, Thiesi, Pozzomaggiore and Bonorva in Ozieri and Uri peasants s'impossessarono granaries of the feudal lords.

In support of the motion Cagliari, which nobles and notables Sassari wanted to distinguish themselves, in many countries tightened pacts in agreement not to recognize the more feudal and ask for ransom.

So that occurred on Christmas Day 1795, many people on foot and horseback surrounded Sassari. In early blows artillery Duke dell'Asinara and some landowners fled and the city was occupied by the revolutionaries, the leaders of assedianti were Gioachino Mundula and Francesco Cillocco. Be prisoners Santuccio the governor and the archbishop Della Torre, the rebels are started to Cagliari.

In order to quell the riots, the viceroy Philip Vivalda - February 13, 1796 - along with representatives of Stamenti, decided to send in Sassari Giovanni Maria Angioy, then magistrate of the Royal Audience. He was given the powers Alternos That could exercise the power viceroy.

With little spare departed from Cagliari forward in the heart of Sardinia. During the trip, in the various countries that crossed, was greeted with expressions of sympathy were exposed while all the hardships and social needs of the people.

Appeared to everyone as a liberator and heated in the minds many hopes. He realised the actual conditions of the island, with agriculture backward and feudal oppression, with the hardships of farmers and the deep poverty of the villages.

Each country wanted him homage of a stock and when men arrived at the gates of Sassari his entourage was impressive. The reception was triumphant: great crowd noticed and the canons of the capital intonarono "TE Deum." In large fresco that Joseph Sciuti painted at the end of the nineteenth century in a hall for meetings of the Palace of the Province, can be seen entering Giommaria Angioy in Sassari by trionfatore. For the people was not only 'Alternos namely Deputy Vice President; was not only a senior magistrate, but was liberating.


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