Kingdom of Sicily under Savoy
Throughout this period Sicily remained a distinct realm in personal union with the other Savoyard states, but ultimately it secured for the House of Savoy a royal title and a future of expansion in Italy rather than in France.
When peace negotiations began in 1709, the British argued, partly in their own interests as well as those of Savoy, for giving the Savoyards the thrones of Sicily and Naples.
In 1710 at Geertruydenberg, the Dutch pensionary Anthonie Heinsius and the Imperial envoy Karl von Zinzendorf mooted proposals for the Savoyard acquisition of Milan or Sicily.
[6] As historian Geoffrey Symcox noted, Victor Amadeus "would be bound by the Anglo-French agreement not to dispose of the island or exchange it for other territory, which showed that he had been installed there not in full sovereignty but as guardian of British interests, at Britain's pleasure.
[10] In October 1713, Victor Amadeus and his wife, Anne Marie d'Orléans, travelled with a British squadron from Nice to Palermo to take personal possession of their new kingdom.
[13] Among the first things the new king did was improve the defences of the island in light of the threat of the Kingdom of Naples, now ruled by the Habsburgs, who did not recognise the treaty of Utrecht.
[11] Although it received Piedmontese aid to meet its budget, Sicily was found to have surpluses of grain, olive oil and raw silk, and Palermo was a centre of manufacturing and a thriving port.
[12] At the advice of parliament, Victor Amadeus raised a small volunteer army, consisting of two regiments and a bodyguard, and, on a visit in June 1714, restored to Messina its privileges, lost in the revolt of 1674–76, and declared it a free port.
[8] When he laid the foundation stone of the Basilica of Superga in Turin on 20 July 1717, it read: At Victor Amadeus' leaving, many problems with the government of Sicily remained.
The viceroy Maffei was left with little power to effect reform, but with 10,000 Piedmontese troops stationed on the island by 1718 he had the resources to suppress the endemic brigandage.
The Roman Curia issued a declaration denying the Tribunal's power to lift ecclesiastical sanctions, which was published early in 1712 by several Sicilian bishops.
Counter-measures duly followed from the Spanish viceroy and the Tribunal, so that by the time Victor Amadeus reached Sicily the Archbishop of Messina and the bishops of Agrigento and Catania had followed their colleague into exile, the last two leaving their sees under interdict.
[15] Pro-papal clergy, who formed a large majority in the diocese of Agrigento, were imprisoned or exiled (most travelling o Rome), and when the Savoyard government published an anti-papal tract written by two clergyment it ignited a pamphlet war.
[15] In February 1716, the British minister James Stanhope and the Savoyard ambassador Franceco Giuseppe Wicardel de Triviè met to discuss a "southern peace plan".
Stanhope later claimed that Victor Amadeus had been willing to cede Sicily to the Emperor Charles VI, head of the Habsburgs, in exchange for Sardinia and recognition of his royal title.
This was not the case, however, as Trivié had asked for British assistance in defending the island from the Ottoman Empire, then engaged in the Second Morean War against the Republic of Venice.
When John Dalrymple and Carlo Filippo Perrone di San Marino, respectively British and Savoyard ambassadors at Paris, discussed the question of a final agreement between Savoy and the Emperor, Sicily was ignored, as Victor Amadeus had no intention of ceding it.
When George I and Louis XV of France signed the Treaty of Hanover in November, it contained a secret provision for the cession of Sicily to the emperor.
[18] In January 1718 the Conte Filippo d'Ussolo was sent to Vienna to negotiate an alliance with the emperor, but he exceeded his mandate by broaching the cession of Sicily, and was replaced at the end of April by Gian Giacomo Fontana.
On 17 February 1720 the Treaty of the Hague brought an end to the war by forcing Spain (and Savoy, which was not asked to sign) to accept the terms of the Quadruple Alliance.
