Annibale Santorre di Rossi de Pomarolo , Count of Santarosa Santorre Annibale De Rossi di Pomerolo , Count of Santa Rosa ( November 18 , 1783 , Savigliano – May 8 , 1825 ) was an Italian insurgent and leader in the revival ( " Risorgimento " ) of Italy . Biography . He was born at Savigliano , near Cuneo and then part of the Kingdom of Sardinia , the son of a general officer in the Sardinian ( Piedmontese ) army who was killed at the battle of Mondovì in 1796 . The family had been recently ennobled and was not rich . Santarosa entered the service of Napoleon during the annexation of Piedmont to France , and was sub - prefect of La Spezia from 1812 to 1814 . He remained , however , loyal in sentiment to the house of Savoy , and , after the restoration of the king of Sardinia in 1814 , he continued in the public service . During the brief campaign of the Sardinian army on the south - eastern frontier of France in 1815 he served as captain of grenadier s , and was afterwards employed in the ministry of war . The revolutionary and imperial epoch had seen a great development of Italian patriotism , and Santarosa was aggrieved by the great extension given to the Austrian power in Italy in 1815 , which reduced his own country to a position of inferiority . The revolutionary outbreak of 1820 , which extended from Spain to Naples , seemed to afford the patriots an opportunity to secure the independence of Italy . When in 1821 the Austrian army was moved south to coerce the Neapolitans , Santarosa entered into a conspiracy to obtain the intervention of the Piedmontese in favor of the Neapolitans by an attack on the Austrian lines of communication . The conspirators endeavoured to obtain the co - operation of the prince of Carignano , afterwards King Charles Albert , who was known to share their patriotic aspirations . On March 6 , 1821 Santarosa and three associates had an interview with the prince , and on March 10 they carried out the military pronunciamiento which proclaimed the Spanish constitution . The movement had no real popular support , and very soon collapsed . During the brief predominance of his party Santarosa showed great decision of character . He was arrested and would have died on the scaffold if sympathisers had not rescued him . He fled to France , and lived for a time in Paris under the name of Conti . Here be wrote in French and published in 1822 his " La Revolution Piemontaise " , which attracted the notice of Victor Cousin , by whom he was aided and concealed . The French government discovered his hiding - place , and he was imprisoned and expelled from Paris . After a short stay first at Alençon and then in Bourges , he passed over to England , where he found refuge in London with the poet Ugo Foscolo , and made a few English friends . He went to Nottingham , in the hope of being able to support himself by teaching French and Italian . The miseries of exile rather than any hope of advantage led him to accompany his countryman Giacinto Collegno to Greece in November 1824 . The Italians were ill - treated by the Greeks and were not well looked on by the Philhellene committees , who thought that their presence would offend the powers . Santarosa was killed , apparently because he was too miserable and desperate to care to save his life , when the Turkish troops attacked the island of Sphacteria , near Navarino , on May 8 , 1825 .