page_title: Charles Albert of Sardinia
section_title: Spanish Expedition
hierarchical_section_title: Charles Albert of Sardinia / Reactionary period (1821–1831) / Spanish Expedition
caption_attribution_description: English: Carlo Alberto of Savoy as a hero of the Battle of Trocadero (1823-08-31). Italiano: Carlo Alberto quale eroe della battaglia del Trocadero (31 agosto 1823).
context_page_description: Charles Albert was the King of Sardinia from 27 April 1831 to 23 March 1849. His name is bound up with the first Italian constitution, the Albertine Statute, and with the First Italian War of Independence.
  During the Napoleonic period, he resided in France, where he received a liberal education. As Prince of Carignano in 1821, he granted and then withdrew his support for a rebellion which sought to force Victor Emmanuel I to institute a constitutional monarchy. He became a conservative and participated in the legitimist expedition against the Spanish liberals in 1823.
  He became king of Sardinia in 1831 on the death of his distant cousin Charles Felix, who had no heir. As king, after an initial conservative period during which he supported various European legitimist movements, he adopted the idea of a federal Italy, led by the Pope and freed from the House of Habsburg in 1848. In the same year he granted the Albertine Statute, the first Italian constitution, which remained in force until 1947.
context_section_description: At the beginning of 1823, Duke Louis Antoine, Duke of Angoulême assumed command of the French expeditionary force which the European powers had entrusted with the task of suppressing the liberal revolution there and restoring King Ferdinand VII to the Spanish throne, after he had been captured by Spanish revolutionaries in Cadiz. Charles Albert wished to demonstrate his penitence and therefore asked to be part of the contingent. He wrote to Charles Felix on this subject for the first time on 20 February 1823, but only received permission to depart on 26 April.
  On 2 May, Charles Albert embarked on the Sardinian frigate Commercio at Livorno, which arrived in Marseilles on 7 May. The next day, Charles Albert set out, arriving in Boceguillas on the 18th. By the time he arrived there, he had been assigned to the division of the French General Étienne de Bordesoulle. on the 24th, he arrived at Madrid, where he remained until 2 June, and then he set out for the south. At a clash with the enemy during the crossing of the Sierra Morena, he demonstrated courage and the French made him a member of the Legion of Honour. He proceeded to Córdoba, Utrera, Jerez de los Caballeros and El Puerto de Santa María, where he waited for the order to attack the fortress of Cadiz, the Trocadero, which was the last remaining refuge of the Spanish constitutional government.
  At the end of August 1823, with the French fleet aiding from the sea, the troops launched an assault on the Trocadero. Charles Albert fought at the head of the troops crossing the canal - the sole point of entry to the fortress. He plunged into the water holding the flag of the 6th regiment of the royal guards, forded the canal and leapt into the enemy trenches. He sought to prevent the enemy prisoners being killed, and the French soldiers gave him the epaulettes of an officer killed in the assault, so that he might be distinguished from a regular grenadier.
  He remained at his post until nightfall and the next day he was among the first to break into Trocadero. King Ferdinand VII and queen Maria Josepha, his cousin, were freed and embraced him in joy at seeing him. On 2 September there was a grand military parade, after which the Duc d'Angoulême decorated Charles Albert with the Cross of the Order of Saint Louis.
caption: Charles Albert as a hero of the Battle of Trocadero
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