Kingdom of Italy (Napoleonic)

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Kingdom of Italy (Napoleonic)

The Kingdom of Italy (but also Regno Italico; 17 March 1805–11 April 1814) was founded in Northern Italy

Italy

Italy , officially the Italian Republic , is a country located on the Italian Peninsula in Southern Europe and on the two largest islands in the Mediterranean Sea, Sicily and Sardinia....
by Napoleon

Napoleon I of France

Napoleon Bonaparte later known as Emperor Napoleon I, was a military and political leader of France whose actions shaped European politics in the early 19th century....
, and ended with his defeat and fall. The Kingdom of Italy was born on 17 March 1805 when the Italian Republic
Italian Republic (Napoleonic)

The Italian Republic was a short-lived republic, located in Northern Italy. It was a vassal state of the First French Republic of Napoleon.The Italian Republic was the successor of the Cisalpine Republic, which changed its constitution to allow the French First Consul Napoleon to become its president....
, whose president was Napoleon, became Kingdom of Italy, with Napoleon as King of Italy

King of Italy

King of Italy is a title adopted by many rulers of the Italian peninsula after the fall of the Roman Empire. Until 1870, however, no ?King of Italy? ruled the whole peninsula, though some pretended to such authority....
and Eugène de Beauharnais

Eugène de Beauharnais

Viceroy

A viceroy is a royal official who governs a country or province in the name of and as representative of the monarch. The term derives from the Latin prefix vice-, meaning "in the place of" and the French word roi, meaning king....
.

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The Kingdom of Italy (but also Regno Italico; 17 March 1805–11 April 1814) was founded in Northern Italy

Italy

Napoleon I of France

The Kingdom of Italy was born on 17 March 1805 when the Italian Republic
Italian Republic (Napoleonic)

The Italian Republic was a short-lived republic, located in Northern Italy. It was a vassal state of the First French Republic of Napoleon.The Italian Republic was the successor of the Cisalpine Republic, which changed its constitution to allow the French First Consul Napoleon to become its president....
, whose president was Napoleon, became Kingdom of Italy, with Napoleon as King of Italy

King of Italy

Eugène de Beauharnais

Viceroy

Milan

Milan is the second largest city of Italy, located in the plains of Lombardy. It is the capital in the Province of Milan, as well as the Regions of Italy capital of Lombardy....
’s cathedral

Duomo di Milano

Milan Cathedral is the cathedral church of Milan in Lombardy, northern Italy. It is the seat of the Archbishop of Milan, currently Dionigi Tettamanzi....
, on 26 May 1805, with the Iron Crown of Lombardy

Iron Crown of Lombardy

The Iron Crown of Lombardy is both a relic and one of the most ancient royal insignia of Europe. It is kept in the Monza Cathedral near Milan....
.

The Kingdom consisted of Lombardy

Lombardy

Lombardy is one of the 20 regions of Italy. The capital is Milan. One-sixth of Italy's population lives in Lombardy and about one fifth of Italy's GDP is produced in this region....
, Venetia

Venetia

Venetia is a name used mostly in a historical context for the area of Northeast Italy, corresponding approximately to the present-day Italian administrative regions of the Veneto and Friuli-Venezia Giulia....
, the Duchy of Modena, part of the Papal States

Papal States

The Papal States, State of the Church or Pontifical States were one of the major historical states of Italy from roughly the 6th century until the Italian peninsula was unified in 1861 by the Kingdom of Piedmont-Sardinia ....
(Ancona

Ancona

Ancona is a city and a seaport in the Marche, a region of central Italy, population 101,909 . Ancona is situated on the Adriatic Sea and is the center of the province of Ancona and the capital of the region....
, the remaining part with Rome

Rome

Rome is the capital city of Italy and Lazio, and is Italy's largest and most populous city, with 2,724,347 residents in an urban area of some ....
having been annexed to the French Empire), part of the Kingdom of Sardinia

Kingdom of Sardinia

Kingdom of Sardinia, also known as Piedmont-Sardinia or Sardinia-Piedmont, was the name given to the possessions of the House of Savoy in 1720, when the island of Sardinia was awarded by the Treaty of London to Victor Amadeus II of Sardinia to compensate him for the loss of Sicily to Austrian Empire....
and Trentino-Alto Adige/Südtirol.

From 1805 to 1809 the Napoleonic Kingdom of Italy included even Istria

Istria

File:Istria Croatian Adriatic.pngIstria , formerly Histria , is the largest peninsula in the Adriatic Sea. The peninsula is located at the head of the Adriatic between the Gulf of Trieste and the Bay of Kvarner....
and Dalmatia

Dalmatia

Dalmatia is a region on the eastern coast of the Adriatic Sea, situated mostly in modern Croatia and spreading between the island of Rab in the northwest and the Bay of Kotor in the southeast....
down to Kotor

Kotor

Kotor is a coastal town in Montenegro. It is located in a most secluded part of Gulf of Kotor. The town has a population of 13,510, and is the administrative center of the Kotor municipality....
(the Venetian Cattaro). These Adriatic territories were incorporated into the Illyrian Provinces

Illyrian provinces

The Illyrian Provinces were lands on the north and east coasts of the Adriatic Sea which were nominally part of France during the last years of Napoleon....
after 1809.

In practice, the Kingdom was a dependency of the French Empire, which exploited its resources to enrich France. The Kingdom served as a theater in Napoleon's operations against Austria during the wars of the various coalitions.

When Napoleon abdicated on 11 April 1814, Eugène de Beauharnais

Eugène de Beauharnais

Eug?ne Rose de Beauharnais, Prince Fran?ais, Prince of Venice, Viceroy of the Kingdom of Italy , Hereditary Grand Duke of Frankfurt, 1st Duke of Leuchtenberg and 1st Prince of Eichst?tt ad personam was the first child and only son of the future French emperor Napoleon's first wife, Josephine de Beauharnais and Alexandre, Vicomte de Bea...
(Napoleon’s stepson) attempted to be crowned king, but the opposition of the Senate of the Kingdom and the Milan insurrection (20 April 1814) foiled his plan. Eugène was exiled by the Austrians

Austrian Empire

The Austrian Empire was a periodization successor state empire founded on a remnant of the Holy Roman Empire centered on what is today's Austria that officially lasted from 1804 to 1867....
, who occupied Milan.

Army of the Kingdom of Italy

Infantry:

Line infantry: five regiments from the Italian Republic, with two more later raised, in 1805 and 1808
Light infantry: three regiments from the Italian Republic, plus another one raised in 1811
Royal Guard: two battalions from the Italian Republic (Granatieri and Cacciatori), plus other two (Velites) raised in 1806, plus two battalions of young guard raised in 1810, and another two raised in 1811

Cavalry:

Dragoons: two regiments from the Italian Republic
Cacciatori a Cavallo (light horse): one regiment from the Italian Republic, plus three others, raised in 1808, 1810, and 1811.
Royal Guard: two squadrons of dragoons, five companies of Guards of Honour

The army of the kingdom, inserted into the Grande Armée, took part in all Napoleon's campaigns.

For 17 years, the Italian Republic and the successor Kingdom of Italy army enlisted over 200,000 men and lost about 125,000.

External links

about the army of the Kingdom of Italy under Napoleon