HOUSE OF SAVOY

Wairarapa Times-Age, 19 October 1943, Page 4

HOUSE OF SAVOY

♦ BY NO MEANS GLORIOUS HISTORY. Carl Scorza has rashly stated that “one symbol of the eternal glories of Italy is the House of Savoy,” a writer in the “Manchester Guardian” observer recently. This rather minor family among the rulers of Europe does indeed go back to the eleventh century in the person of Umberto Blancamano, or Humbert of the White Hand, while the first Count of Savoy, Amadeus 111., dates from the twelfth. But “eternal glory” is an extravagant term to apply to a family of whom it has been said that, as Dukes of Savoy, “their geographical position did not permit them to behave like honest men.” Tortuous diplomacy in the eighteenth century added the royal crown of Sardinia to the ducal crowns of Piedmont and Savoy, and they gradually acquired Lombardy, “eating it,” as was said, “like an artichoke, leaf by leaf.” The connection of the House of Savoy with the history of England has been singularly unhappy. Of the uncles of Eleanor, Queen of Henry 111., Peter of Savoy inhabited the palace in the Strand later known as the Savoy. The King made him Earl of Richmond, but he withdrew in face of the hostility he incurred. On the Continent Peter was known as “Charlemagne the Little,” perhaps a measure of his political stature. The Queen’s other uncle, Boniface, was appointed Archbishop of Canterbury by the King. He was, says Matthew Paris, “tall and of a handsome figure, but in knowledge, morals and age totally unfit for his office.” He pillaged the churches of Faversham and Rochester, and, while holding a visitation of the canons of St. Bartholomew ,in Lodnon, smote the aged sub-prior with his fists about the head and heart, knocked the old man against the sedilia of the choir, and all but killed him. In the tumult provoked the Archbishop was found to be wearing a suit of armour under his primatial robes. The King supported the Archbishop, but, owing to the indignation and uproar aroused in the city, BoniI face was compelled to depart overseas.