Amadeo I (; 30 May 184518 January 1890), also known as Amadeus, was an Italian prince who reigned as King of Spain from 1870 to 1873. The only king of Spain to come from the House of Savoy, he was the second son of Victor Emmanuel II of Italy and was known for most of his life as the Duke of Aosta, the usual title for a second son in the Savoyard dynasty.
He was elected by the Cortes Generales as Spain's monarch in 1870, following the deposition of Isabella II, and was sworn in the following year. Amadeo's reign was fraught with growing republicanism, Carlist rebellions in the north, the assassination of Prime Minister Juan Prim and the Cuban independence movement. After three tumultuous years on the throne, he abdicated and returned to Italy in 1873, and the First Spanish Republic was declared as a result.
He founded the Aosta branch of Italy's royal House of Savoy, which is junior in agnatic descent to the branch descended from King Umberto I that reigned in Italy until 1946, but senior to the branch of the dukes of Genoa.
Early life and first marriage
Prince Amadeo of Savoy was born in Turin, then part of the Kingdom of Sardinia. He was the third child and second son of King Victor Emmanuel II, who would later become the first King of a unified Italy, and of Archduchess Adelaide of Austria. He was granted the hereditary title of Duke of Aosta from birth.
Entering the Royal Sardinian Army as captain in 1859, he fought through the Third Italian War of Independence in 1866 with the rank of major-general. He led his brigade into action at the Battle of Custoza and was wounded at Monte Croce. In 1868, after his marriage, he was made vice admiral of the Italian Royal Navy, but the position ended when he ascended the Spanish throne.
In 1867, his father yielded to the entreaties of the parliamentary deputy Francesco Cassins, and on 30 May of that year, Amedeo was married to Donna Maria Vittoria dal Pozzo. The King initially opposed the match on the grounds that her family was of insufficient rank and that he hoped for his son to marry a German princess. Despite her princely title, Donna Maria Vittoria was not of royal birth and belonged rather to the Piedmontese nobility. She was, however, the sole heir to her father's vast fortune, which subsequent Dukes of Aosta inherited, thereby obtaining wealth independent of their dynastic appanage and allowances from Italy's kings. The wedding day of Prince Amedeo and Donna Maria Vittoria was marred by the death of a station master, who was crushed under the wheels of the honeymoon train.Roger L. Williams, Gaslight and Shadow: The World of Napoleon III, 1851–1870 (NY: Macmillan, 1957), 156–57
In March 1870, Maria Vittoria appealed to the King to remonstrate with her husband for marital infidelities, which caused her hurt and embarrassment. However, the King wrote in reply that he understood her feelings, but he considered that she had no right to dictate her husband's behaviour, and her jealousy was unbecoming.
King of Spain
After the Glorious Revolution deposed Isabella II in September 1868, the new Cortes began the task of searching for a suitable liberal-leaning candidate from a new dynasty to replace her. Eventually the Duke of Aosta was taken into consideration. His father was a descendant of King Philip II of Spain through his daughter, Infanta Catalina Micaela of Spain, and her son, Thomas Francis, Prince of Carignano, while his mother was a descendant of King Charles III of Spain through his daughter, Infanta Maria Luisa of Spain. The Savoyard prince was elected king as Amadeo I on 16 November 1870 and swore to uphold the Constitution in Madrid on 2 January 1871. While the new king was on his way to Spain, General Juan Prim, his chief supporter, was assassinated and Amadeo took the oath in the presence of Prim's corpse.Pio Zabala y Leera, España bajo los Borbones, Biblioteca de Iniciacion Cultural, 1955 (5th edition), p. 421–425.
This event deprived Amadeo I of indispensable support, particularly in the critical early days, and proved decisive considering that the progressive faction ultimately split between Prim's two successors, Práxedes Mateo Sagasta and Manuel Ruiz Zorrilla. The new king entered Madrid on 2 January 1871, and that same day he swore allegiance to the 1869 Constitution before the Cortes. Later, he visited the Church of the , where General Prim's funeral chapel had been set up.
First year
Government of General Serrano: The Failure of "Conciliation" Following Prim's assassination, a "conciliation" government formed at his deathbed request under Admiral Topete, soon transitioning to General Serrano, a Unionist who had served as regent from 1869 until Amadeo's arrival. Amadeo proposed Serrano as President of the Council of Ministers to unify the monarchist-democratic coalition backing his throne. Serrano assembled a diverse cabinet: Progressives Sagasta (Minister of the Interior) and Ruiz Zorrilla (Public Works), monarchist Democrat or "" Cristino Martos (Justice), and Unionist Adelardo López de Ayala (Overseas Territories). This mix aimed to bridge factions supporting the new dynasty.
Serrano's administration, viewed by some as transitional, prioritized the first elections under Amadeo to secure a strong coalition majority. It enacted an electoral law reverting to district-based voting, abandoning the Progressives' provincial constituencies from 1869. This shift enabled the government to exert "moral influence" in rural areas, ensuring a victory of 235 seats—approximately 130 Progressives, over 80 "borderline" or "Aostist" Unionists loyal to Amadeo, and about 20 monarchist Democrats. However, opposition forces—52 Republicans advocating a federal republic, 51 Carlists pushing traditional monarchy, and 18 Moderates—gained significant representation. Dissident Unionists under Ríos Rosas, backing the Duke of Montpensier, and Antonio Cánovas del Castillo, supporting Prince Alfonso of Bourbon, secured 7 and 9 seats, respectively. This opposition's strength magnified the governing coalition's internal fragility.
As Serrano's government and the Cortes tackled the Constitution's democratic principles—such as establishing juries, separation of church and state, abolishing (military conscription), and addressing the war and slavery in Cuba—tensions surfaced. Unionists and Sagasta's Progressives argued that crowning the Constitution with the Savoy dynasty required preserving order, while Ruiz Zorrilla's Progressives and Democrats insisted on immediate social, economic, and political reforms to consolidate the regime. Sagasta, likely echoing Prim's vision, sought conciliation with Serrano's Unionists as a dynastic right (conservative party), positioning himself as leader of the dynastic left (liberal party) and opposing Carlists and Republicans outright. Conversely, Ruiz Zorrilla championed an alliance with Democrats (cimbrios) through a reformist agenda, aiming to integrate Republicans into the monarchy by proving their goals were achievable within it. Sagasta saw this as handing the regime to its enemies, rejecting collaboration with Republicans and distrusting Ruiz Zorrilla's loyalty, thus fracturing the coalition and dooming "conciliation."
Opposition to the Monarchy of Amadeo I The high nobility and ecclesiastical hierarchy refused to recognize Amadeo's monarchy, viewing it as the embodiment of the 1868 Revolution that ended Isabella II's reign, where they held privilege. They feared it would dismantle their status or pave the way for Republicans and "socialists" opposing property and a confessional state. The nobility adopted a stance, claiming to defend "Spanish values" against the "foreign king," boycotting the court and snubbing Amadeo, openly loyal to the Bourbons. A notable incident, the "," described by Father Luis Coloma in , saw aristocratic women parade in lace mantillas and fleur-de-lis—symbols of Restoration—isolating Amadeo and Queen Maria Vittoria in a "court of furrile capes and shopkeepers," as critics sneered.
The Church opposed Amadeo as the son of Italy's Victor Emmanuel II, who had stripped Pope Pius IX of the Papal States, resisting religious freedom and measures toward church-state separation. Influenced by the Syllabus of Errors, the hierarchy wielded significant sway over Catholic middle classes and rural parishes, amplifying rejection of the regime. Amadeo countered by ennobling industrial and financial bourgeois supporters, but defections grew, especially among those tied to Cuban slavery—threatened by radical abolition plans—and Catalan industrialists opposing the 1869 free trade system, which Radicals upheld.
The Carlists, thriving since 1868 beyond their Basque, Catalan, and Valencian strongholds, backed Carlos VII, grandson of Carlos María Isidro, seeking a traditional monarchy. Their neo-Catholic wing, led by , pursued a "legal route," allying with Republicans in 1871 elections to win 51 deputies and 21 senators. Amadeo's election irked them, though Nocedal restrained uprisings until September 1871. Republicans, rejecting monarchy entirely, pushed for a Federal Republic, inspired by France's Second Empire fall. The Federal Republican Party united diverse factions—property defenders, "socialists," and federalists like Francisco Pi y Margall and Nicolás Salmerón—split between legalists open to Radical cooperation and insurrectionists favoring revolt.
First Government of Ruiz Zorrilla: Division of the Progressives
On 15 July 1871, radical ministers—Manuel Ruiz Zorrilla, Cristino Martos, , and Moret—resigned from Serrano's "conciliation" government, aiming to end its broad coalition and force a split between conservatives and radicals. King Amadeo I, still favoring unity, reluctantly appointed Ruiz Zorrilla as president on 24 July, sidelining both Unionists and Sagasta's Progressives in their plan to sustain the coalition amid regime threats. Ruiz Zorrilla sought to include Sagasta's faction, but Sagasta refused, arguing in Congress that an "exclusive party" policy endangered the monarchy.
Ruiz Zorrilla then formed a government of his Progressive faction and Democrats, taking the Interior portfolio himself. The cabinet included Eugenio Montero Ríos (Justice), General Fernando Fernández de Córdova (War), Servando Ruiz Gómez (Finance), (Public Works), Tomás María Mosquera (Overseas), and Vice-Admiral (Navy). Martos declined the State Ministry. Presented to the Cortes on 25 July, the government's motto—"liberty, morality, civility"—signaled a reformist agenda.
Tensions escalated when Democrats maneuvered to replace Salustiano Olózaga as Congress president with their leader Nicolás María Rivero. Sagasta's Progressives countered by nominating Sagasta, fearing Rivero's republican leanings. On 1–2 October, Ruiz Zorrilla and Sagasta met to avert a Progressive split, but Ruiz Zorrilla rejected Sagasta's compromise candidate, prioritizing his radical-Democrat () alliance over party unity. Sagasta warned, "You stay with the cimbrios and break with your long-standing friends; the consequences will be dire." On 3 October, Sagasta defeated Rivero (123–113) for Congress president, a result Ruiz Zorrilla saw as a no-confidence vote, prompting his resignation.
Amadeo, returning from a popularity-boosting tour of eastern Spain—including a visit to General Espartero in Logroño, who pledged loyalty—refused Ruiz Zorrilla's request to dissolve the Cortes, citing no constitutional basis or formal censure. Sagasta confirmed ongoing support for the 25 July program and urged the king to convince Ruiz Zorrilla to stay, highlighting the government's intact majority.
Malcampo Government: The Failure of the Reunification of the Progressives