SARDINIA

also called Piedmont-sardinia, or Sardinia-piedmont, kingdom of the house of Savoy from 1720, which was centred on the lands of Piedmont (in northwestern Italy) and Sardinia. In 1718, by the Treaty of London among the great powers, Victor Amadeus II, duke of Savoy and sovereign of Piedmont, was forced to yield Sicily to the Austrian Habsburgs and in exchange received Sardinia (until then a Spanish possession). Two years later, on Aug. 24, 1720, he formally took possession; from that time until 1861 he and his successors were known as kings of Sardinia, though the seat of their power and wealth and their customary residence was in Piedmont. In March 1848 King Charles Albert promulgated a new constitution for Piedmont-Sardinia, the Statuto Albertino (q.v.), which became the basis of the constitution of the new kingdom of Italy proclaimed by the first Italian parliament on March 17, 1861. Charles Albert's son, Victor Emmanuel II, became the first king of unified Italy. See also Savoy, house of. Italian Sardegna island and regione of Italy, second in size only to Sicily among the islands of the western Mediterranean. It lies 120 miles (200 km) west of the mainland of Italy, 7.5 miles (12 km) south of the neighbouring French island of Corsica, and 120 miles (200 km) north of the coast of Africa. The capital is Cagliari.