Charles Emmanuel

Charles Emmanuel I (Carlo Emanuele di Savoia; 12 January 1562 – 26 July 1630), known as the Great, was the Duke of Savoy and ruler of the Savoyard states from 30 August 1580 until his death almost 50 years later in 1630.

He was nicknamed Testa d'feu (, in context "the Hot-Headed") for his rashness and military aggression.

Being ambitious and confident, Charles pursued a policy of expansion for his duchy, seeking to expand it into a kingdom.

Charles was born in the Castle of Rivoli in Piedmont, the only child of Emmanuel Philibert, Duke of Savoy and Margaret of France, Duchess of Berry.

He succeeded his father as duke on 30 August 1580.

Well-educated and intelligent, Charles spoke Italian, French, Spanish, as well as Latin.

He proved an able warrior although short and hunchbacked.

In the autumn of 1588, taking advantage of the civil war weakening France, he occupied the Marquisate of Saluzzo, which was under French protection.

The new king, Henry IV, demanded the restitution of that land, but Charles Emmanuel refused, and war ensued.

In 1590 he sent an expedition to Provence in the interests of the Catholic League, and followed it himself later, but the peace of 1593, by which Henry of Navarre was recognized as king of France, put an end to his ambitions.

The conspirators, bearing closely in mind the failures of the 1590 decade, did not want to expose themselves in any action before direct support from the West was forthcoming.

On 1 August 1591, the Duke of Savoy appointed Tomás Fernández de Medrano as his Secretary of State and War, Medrano's expertise in diplomacy and military strategy would have greatly benefited the duchy's political and military endeavours.

The broader conflict involving France and Spain ended with the Peace of Vervins (2 May 1598), which left the current but separate question of Saluzzo unsolved.

After the Duke started talks with Spain, Henry threatened to return to war until, with the Treaty of Lyon (17 January 1601), Saluzzo went to Savoy in exchange for Bresse, Bugey, and Gex.

In 1602 Charles Emmanuel attacked the city of Geneva.

On 11 December that year, he led his troops to the city during the night and they surrounded the city walls by two in the morning.

The Savoyard cuirassiers were ordered to dismount and climb the city walls in full armour as a shock tactic.

However, the alarm was raised by a night watchman and Geneva's militia rose to meet the invaders.

The attempted raid was a disastrous failure, and 54 Savoyards were killed, with many more captured.

Charles Emmanuel's army retreated in a panic and the Savoyard prisoners were executed.

The heavy helmets worn by Charles Emmanuel's troops, with visors made in a stylized imitation of a human face, were known as "Savoyard" helmets after this notorious incident.

A number of these suits of armour were captured by the Swiss and kept as trophies.

The Geneva militia's successful defence of the city's walls is still celebrated as an act of heroism during the annual festival of L'Escalade.

At the 1608 Council of Morača, during a gathering of representatives of the Serb clans and the Serbian Church, Charles was elected King of Serbia and invited to convert to Eastern Orthodoxy (as a precondition for being crowned by Patriarch John) and to vow to protect Orthodox Christianity..

In 1609, Charles Emmanuel came in contact with Albanian mercenaries like Giovanni Renesi, his brother Demetrio Renesi and a relative Don Joanne Renesi, who intended to revolt against the Ottomans at the Convention of Kuçi in 1614.

With the Treaty of Bruzolo (25 April 1610), Charles Emmanuel allied with France against Spain, but the assassination of Henry IV changed the situation, as the treaty was not recognized by Marie de' Medici, who immediately assumed the regency for Henry's son Louis XIII, a minor.

Continuing his intrigues, on the death in 1612 of Duke Francesco IV Gonzaga, Duke of Mantua who was lord of the Duchy of Montferrat, Charles Emmanuel caused the war of the Montferrat Succession by assaulting that district.

This arrayed the Venetians, Tuscany, the Empire and Spain against him, and he was obliged to relinquish his conquest.

Charles Emmanuel obtained the help of French troops to free Alba from the Spaniards, in January 1617, as the new king resumed his father's alliance with Savoy.

Ultimately, the conflict was solved by the treaty of Asti.

His sister Christine Marie was married to Charles Emmanuel's son, Victor Amadeus in 1619.

In the First Genoese-Savoyard War of 1625, Charles Emmanuel tried with the help of France to obtain access to the Mediterranean Sea at the expense of Genoa.

After Spanish intervention, the status-quo was restored in the Treaty of Monçon.

When the French occupied Casale Monferrato during the War of the Mantuan Succession in 1628, Charles Emmanuel allied again with Spain.

However, when Richelieu invaded Piedmont and conquered Susa, the duke changed sides again and returned to an alliance with France.

Then, after Philip IV of Spain sent two invasion forces from Genoa and Como under Ambrogio Spinola, Charles Emmanuel declared himself neutral, and in 1630 Richelieu ordered a French army to march into Savoy to force the duke to comply with the pacts.

The French troops, soon backed by another army, occupied Pinerolo and Avigliana.

The Savoy army under his son Victor Amadeus was defeated in Lower Valsusa.

Thus no broad uprising of the Balkan Christian peoples against the rule of the Ottoman Turks was sparked, as Charles Emmanuel lacked the financial resources to take the crown and restore the Serbian statehood extinguished in the 15th century.

Charles Emmanuel was one of the most wanted candidates for the crown of a restored Serbian kingdom, hypothetically presumed after a Christian crusade against the Ottoman Empire during planning for the Great Conspiracy of the late 16th and early 17th centuries under the auspices of Serbian Patriarch Jovan, Herzegovinian Duke Grdan and other chiefs of the Serb clans..