In spring 1794, after the arrival in Aosta of his brother the Duke of Monferrat, Charles Felix and Giuseppe Placido went to Morgex in order to retake some positions of relative strategic importance, but they did not achieve anything.

[citation needed] Victor Amadeus III died in October of the same year and was succeeded as Prince of Piedmont by Charles Emmanuel IV.

The tool of this regime was the special court of the Viceregal delegation for the investigation of political proceedings, which took action immediately against the "capopolo" (popular leader), Vincenzo Sulis, who was guilty of nothing other than having been more successful than the viceroy in defeating the revolutionary movements.

Furthermore, in the persecution of "state criminals," Charles Felix legitimated the adoption of military procedures and granted every power to the police, from spying to censoring letters and placing bounties on suspects.

[4] In his reorganisation work, however, he displayed notable energy to control the autonomy of the judiciary and the local bureaucracy and managed to correct some abuses of the feudal regime.

Although the marriage to Maria Cristina proved harmonious, she was unable to have children, forcing Victor Emmanuel to consider the succession of Charles Albert, Prince of Carignano, from a collateral line of the House of Savoy.

Following revolts in Cadiz in 1820, King Ferdinand VII of Spain was forced to restore the Spanish Constitution of 1812 and the hope of obtaining similar concessions from their own sovereigns arose in many European states.

The initial indications of the crisis were confirmed on 11 January 1821 when four students were stopped by the police at a theatre performance in Turin because they were wearing red caps with black bows, a symbol of the carboneria.

[11] The goal of the conspirators was not to abolish the House of Savoy, but to induce it to enact political and social reforms and then undertake a war against Austria, which seemed possible in light of the deeply anti-Austrian sentiments of the Victor Emmanuel I.

They planned to raise the army, surround the royal residence at Moncalieri castle and force him to grant a constitution and declare war on Austria.

[15] The abdication of the king, which followed the dismissal of the ministers of state, led to chaos because it created a dynastic crisis which foreign powers would not ignore and because it split the army and bureaucracy, preventing every possibility of maintaining order.

Two days after that, he swore to observe the Spanish Constitution, in a Savoyard version which had been slightly altered according to the requests of Victor Emmanuel's consort, Maria Therese.

On 3 April, he issued a second proclamation which granted a pardon to the soldiers while applying strict sanctions to rebel officials, which ultimately, prevented any form of compromise.

The rebels, realising that no other option remained for them, marched on Novara, where the forces loyal to Charles Felix were gathered under the command of Vittorio Sallier de La Tour.

Having decided to remain at Modena, he appointed Ignazio Thaon di Revel as Lieutenant General of the Kingdom, and placed G. Piccono della Valle and G.C.

[18] In any case, although an oppressive climate was established,[19] accompanied by the habituation to accusations and the diversity of political ideas, offering a pretext for pursuing private vendettas,[20] the royal authority, especially the governor of Genoa, Giorgio Des Geneys, did not prevent people from fleeing.

[21] The suppression of opposition was terminated on 30 September 1821, when Charles Felix issued a pardon of all individuals who had been implicated in the revolt, excluding the leaders, the financiers and those who had been found guilty of homicide or extortion.

Even before he reached Turin, Charles Felix repudiated the Regent's promise and, to help restore order, he called in the Austrians, who stayed in Piedmont till 1823.

In that same year, Charles Albert went to Spain to extinguish by force of arms the last sparks of revolt, making himself an object of hatred as the betrayer of Italian liberalism, but regaining the confidence of the King, who might have chosen another successor.

Charles Felix was a true reactionary, convinced that the world would soon be swept clean of all those - in his view - wicked and sacrilegious innovations introduced by the French Revolution and diffused throughout Europe by Napoleon Bonaparte "the rascal" as he called him.

Charles Felix was rarely present in Turin as king and did not participate in the social life of the capital, since he had never sought the throne and had no particular affection for the Turinese, whom he considered to have proven themselves traitors to the dynasty through their support for Napoleon and the constitutional protests.

His government was characterised by Massimo d'Azeglio as follows: A despotism full of straight and honest intentions but its representatives and arbiters were four old chamberlains, four old maids of honour, with a hive of friars, priests, monks, and jesuits.Nevertheless, the king was not entirely unaware of the need for reform and certainly exerted himself in the defense of the Piedmontese realm from Pontifical and foreign intervention.

He limited the privileges and exemptions of the church, which seemed harmful to the state, almost completely abolished the right of sanctuary in holy places, granted secular courts the right to hear cases against priests, and imposed civic oversight of catechisms, sermons, and religious books.

The proposals, delivered to Pope Leo XII by ambassador-extraordinary Filiberto Avogadro di Collobiano in December 1827, were examined by a council of cardinals, who rejected some financial details and the right of the state to dispose of the property freely.

Charles Felix, like every man of the Restoration, which simultaneously included both reactionaries and reformers, had had a great variety of experiences and appeared to oscillate between the open revival of eighteenth-century despotism, which had come to an end with the Napoleonic state, and historic innovations, which had little luck in Italy, however... On the one hand there was a typical effort to update dynastic absolutism, on the other hand there was substantial adoption of the French system - with exceptions and modifications.In fact, while Victor Emmanuel had implemented a rigid counter-revolution, which uncritically revoked every arrangement made by the French after the abdication of Charles Emmanuel IV, the state could not continue to ignore the will of the majority of its subjects who called for laws in accordance with the ideas and needs of their contemporary world.

[24] Thus, on 27 September 1822, after Charles Felix had re-established the publication of mortgages and codified the military penal law, he promulgated an Edict on the reform of the civil judicial system - excluding Sardinia.

[27] Another important change was the code of civil and criminal law of the Kingdom of Sardinia promulgated on 16 January 1827, mainly as a result of the work of the Count of Cholex.

A large number of public buildings were constructed in the cities: the port of Nice was largely restored, Genoa received a theatre (the Teatro Carlo Felice, named after the king), and Turin benefited from a programme of urban improvement which included the bridge over the Dora, the Piazza Carlo Felice, underground drainage channels, the porticos of the Piazza Castello and various new suburbs.

Towards the end of the month, two frigates (Commercio and Cristina), a corvette (Tritone) and a brig (Nereide) under the command of captain Francesco Sivori, appeared off the coast of Tripoli.

The principal road of the island of Sardinia, the Strada statale 131 Carlo Felice, which connects the towns of Cagliari and Sassari-Porto Torres, constructed in the 19th century, is named for him.