County of Savoy in the context of "Duchy of Savoy"

The House of Savoy (Italian: Casa Savoia, French: Maison de Savoie) is a royal house (formally a dynasty) of Franco-Italian origin that was established in 1003 in the historical region of Savoy, which was originally part of the Kingdom of Burgundy and now lies mostly within southeastern France. Through gradual expansions, the family grew in power, first ruling the County of Savoy, a small Alpine county northwest of Italy, and later gaining absolute rule of the Kingdom of Sicily. During the years 1713 to 1720, they were handed the Kingdom of Sardinia and would exercise direct rule from then onward as Piedmont–Sardinia, which was the legal predecessor state of the Kingdom of Italy and the Italian Empire, which in turn are the predecessors of the present-day Italian Republic.

From rule of a region on the French–Italian border, by the time of the abolition of monarchy in Italy, the dynasty's realm grew to include nearly all of the Italian peninsula. Through its junior branch of Savoy-Carignano, the House of Savoy led the Italian unification in 1861, and ruled the Kingdom of Italy until 1946. They also briefly ruled the Kingdom of Spain during the 19th century. The Savoyard kings of Italy were Victor Emmanuel II, Umberto I, Victor Emmanuel III, and Umberto II. Umberto II reigned for only a few weeks, as the last king of Italy, before being deposed following the 1946 Italian institutional referendum, after which the Italian Republic was proclaimed.

Savoy (/səˈvɔɪ/; Arpitan: Savouè [saˈvwɛ]) is a cultural-historical region in the Western Alps. Situated on the cultural boundary between Occitania and Piedmont, the area extends from Lake Geneva in the north to the Dauphiné in the south and west and to the Aosta Valley in the east.

Savoy, formerly a part of the Kingdom of Burgundy, emerged as the feudal County of Savoy ruled by the House of Savoy during the 11th to 14th centuries.The original territory, also known as "ducal Savoy" or "Savoy proper", is largely co-terminous with the modern French Savoie and Haute-Savoie départements in the region of Rhône-Alpes, but the historical expansion of Savoyard territories, as the Duchy of Savoy (1416–1860), included parts of what is now western Italy and southwestern Switzerland. The current border between France and Italy is due to the Plombières Agreement of 1858, which in preparation for the unification of Italy ceded western Savoy to France, while the eastern territories in Piedmont and Liguria were retained by the House of Savoy, which was to become the ruling dynasty of Italy.

The lordship of Piedmont, later the principality of Piedmont (Italian: Piemonte), was originally an appanage of the County of Savoy, and as such its lords were members of the Achaea branch of the House of Savoy. The title was inherited by the elder branch of the dynasty in 1418, at about which time Savoy was elevated to ducal status and Piedmont to princely status. When the House of Savoy was given the Kingdom of Sardinia, the Savoyards used the style of Prince of Piedmont (Italian: Principe di Piemonte) for their heir apparent. This first came into use by Prince Victor Amadeus of Savoy.

The usage was retained when Victor Emmanuel II became King of Italy, "Prince of Piedmont" becoming roughly equivalent to the British "Prince of Wales", the title bestowed to the Crown prince.

The titles of the count of Savoy, and then duke of Savoy, are titles of nobility attached to the historical territory of Savoy. Since its creation, in the 11th century, the House of Savoy held the county, the ruler of which was originally styled "count," then later as "duke"; several of these rulers were called "king" at one point in history or another.

The County of Savoy was elevated to a duchy at the beginning of the 15th century, bringing together all the territories of the Savoyard state under Amadeus VIII, Duke of Savoy. In the 18th century, Victor Amadeus II annexed the Kingdom of Sardinia to the historical possessions of the Duchy, and from then on, the Savoyard dukes also held the title of Kings of Sardinia. The House of Savoy later went on to rule the Kingdom of Italy from 1861 to 1946 when the monarchy was abolished.

The County of Maurienne (Latin: Comitatus Maurianensis; Arpitan: Comtât de Moryèna; French: Comté de Maurienne; Italian: Contea di Moriana) was a county in the Maurienne Valley of Upper Burgundy during the Middle Ages. Its seat was Saint-Jean-de-Maurienne.

In the 6th century, King Guntram raised the church of Maurienne into an episcopal see. In 753, Grifo was defeated by the forces of Pepin the Short in the valley on his way to Italy. The county was bestowed upon Humbert the White-Handed in 1032 for his assistance in Conrad the Salian's Italian campaigns against Aribert, archbishop of Milan. He was buried in Saint-Jean's cathedral. Along with Savoy proper (Sapaudia), this formed the nucleus of the county of Savoy which developed into the kingdoms of Sardinia and Italy under Humbert's dynasty. Maurienne continued to be noted in the formal titles of the Sardinian and Italian kings. During the unification of Italy, however, the Maurienne Valley itself was ceded to Napoleon III's France, where it now forms the commune of Saint-Jean-de-Maurienne.

Humbert I (Italian: Umberto I; c. 980 – 1047), better known as Humbert the White-Handed (French: Humbert aux blanches-mains) or Humbert Whitehand (Italian: Umberto Biancamano), was the count of Savoy from 1032 until his death and the founder of the House of Savoy.

Of obscure origins, his service to the Holy Roman Emperors Henry II and Conrad II was rewarded with the counties of Maurienne and Aosta and lands in Valais, all at the expense of local bishops and archbishops; the territory came to be known as the county of Savoy.