Giovanni Maria Angioy

Notwithstanding the maladministration, the sparse population and all the impediments which stand in the way of agricultural, trade and industrial development, Sardinia is well provided with everything necessary for the nourishment and sustenance of its own inhabitants.

If Sardinia, even in a state of neglect, without a government and industry of its own, and after all these centuries of misfortunes, has still so many resources, one may conclude that, if it were well managed, it would be one of the most prosperous states of Europe, and that the ancients were not wrong to paint it as a country renowned for its size, for its population, and for the copiousness of its manifacture.Giovanni Maria Angioy (pronounced [dʒoˈvanni maˈriːa anˈdʒɔi]; Sardinian: Juanne Maria Angioy [juˈanːɛ maˈɾi.a anˈdʒo.i]; 21 October 1751, Bono – 23 February 1808, Paris) was a Sardinian politician and patriot and is considered to be a national hero by Sardinian nationalists.

[5] On the façade of the City Hall of Bono, Sardinia, an inscription says: "To Giovanni Maria Angioy, who inspired by the 1789 Revolution started the Sardinian crusade against the feudal yoke."

The new viceroy asked the Sardinian parliament, the "Stamenti", to swear to observe the laws and privileges of the nobility that had been granted by the Spanish governments that ruled the Kingdom of Sardinia before the Savoy.

The acceptance of long-standing laws and privileges by the Sardinian parliament also implied the continuation of the feudal system that had been introduced by the Spanish with the conquest of Sardinia in the 15th century.

Only seven cities (Castelsardo, Sassari, Alghero, Bosa, Oristano, Iglesias and Cagliari) were exempted from paying feudal duties (a tradition established by the Spaniards, who granted these towns to be ruled directly by the King and not by the nobility).

For vassals (farmers that worked the land of the landowner), taxes were innumerable: every head of the family, in addition to other charges, was to pay a fine.

In 1793, following this failed French invasion of Sardinia, local insurgents urged relief from feudal law and excessive aristocratic control.

Because of the requests, the Savoyard ruling class distrusted the Sardinia nobles and had commenced persecution of the most prominent Sardinians that had participated in the Stamenti.

Eventually, all 514 Piedmontese and Italian officials were rounded up, including Viceroy Balbiano Vincent, and expelled from Cagliari on a boat.

Trying to use the unrest to their profit, the nobility from the north-east of Sardinia (Logudoro and Sassari), asked the king greater autonomy from the viceroy and to depend directly by the Crown.

On 13 February 1796, in order to stop the riots, the viceroy Philip Vivalda along with representatives of the Stamenti, decided to send Giovanni Maria Angioy to Sassari.

After placating the revolt [clarification needed] in Sassari and Logudoro, Angioy demanded the viceroy to free the villages and lands from the feudal system.

With his powers, he tried to establish some reform by promulgating laws to promote collaboration between landowners and farmers, but his efforts were systemically boycotted by both the viceroy and the nobility in Cagliari.

Because of the difficulties in legally implementing any kind of reform, the support Angioy enjoyed was fading little by little: some of his collaborators deserted him, while the popular revolt that Angioy hoped could topple the status-quo in Sardinia, never took place because significant portions of the population were suspicious of revolutionary ideas akin to those of the French Revolution.

However, when in 1795 France signed in Cherasco a peace deal with the Savoy king, Vittorio Amedeo III, any plan of supporting a Sardinian revolt led by Angioy was abandoned.

Angioy then faced persecution by the House of Savoy: he was stripped of his Alternos role and an arrest warrant was issued on him as well as a reward for whoever helped capture or kill him.

Juanne Maria Angioy
Plaque on the wall in Sassari commemorating Giovanni Maria Angioy's revolutionary zeal in supporting liberty and equality for the island's people.