Conclusion

Summary

The years between 1690 and 1720 were ones of remarkable achievement for the Savoyard state and its prince, Victor Amadeus II. Their success can be charted in a number of spheres which, taken together, represent a substantial stage in the process of state formation: territorial enlargement and the achievement of a new, more defensible alpine frontier with France; the creation of a larger army, able to enforce the will of Victor Amadeus and his ministers; the expansion of government revenues, raised both from an enlarged territorial base and from existing territories which were increasingly expected to pay more; the development of tighter administrative structures linking centre and periphery; and the greater integration of individual provinces and communities, and of powerful social groups. The experience of these decades may also have helped create a new Savoyard ‘national’ identity, though one which was perhaps strongest in Piedmont, and which contributed to a growing divide between Piedmont and Savoy. Last, but by no means least, Victor Amadeus secured royal status, founded upon possession of the island realm of Sicily, and later Sardinia. Indeed, the culmination of the rise of the Savoyard state from 1690 through the crucible of war and diplomacy was its emergence in the new guise, in 1720, of the Kingdom of Sardinia after the Sicilian war (1718–20). Many of these achievements were intimately associated with a successful assertion by the Savoyard state and its prince of their independence on the international stage, particularly vis-à-vis Louis XIV's France.