THE TOMBS OF THE HOUSE OF SAVOY.

Otago Witness, Issue 2429, 3 October 1900, Page 64

THE TOMBS OF THE HOUSE OF SAVOY.

(Speaker. )

The four burial places of tha House of Savoy mark the growth in greatness of a family unique in Europe. Hautecombe, among the mountains of Chamber}*, holds the dust of those mail-clad early Counts and Countesses who fought so stoutly for a "territory that seemed bound soon or late to be absorbed by France. They fought with diplomacy and pluck that kept them always before the eyes of Europe and always with credit to themselves. The wheezy custodian win expound^ to visitors about the Royal tombs of the Supergo, by Turin, used the phrase "molto gueiricro'" yather casually. He applied it the othc-r day to the effigy of Carlo Emun.liole IV of all men ! Since it suited th rest of the family, why be invidious? That was what his apologetic shrug seemed to day when he was called to order by a little historic criticism, There was excuse for lii-n. From Aineder VI, who sold lw j>2nte to tlie gold-

smiths of Venice that he might not be behindhand in slaying Moslems in the Ciusade, to the King just dead, with very few exceptions, all the reigning Princes of the line were doughty in the field.

The tombs in the cathedral of Turin and in the morblo vaults of the famous votive church of the Superga, a few miles out of Turin, mark another progressive stage in the fortunes of vTis family. Valour, honourable craft, and discreet matrimonial alliances extended the Duchy (with inevitable intervals of "squeeze"' which seemed to menace it with extinction), and at length turned it into a kingdom. The fifteenth and sixteenth centuries, which saw so many rank bad royal persons elsewhere in Europe, saw the Dukes of Savoy stiil beloved by their subjects, and still determined to sacrifice themselves for tho aggrandisement and security of their estates. Amedeo VIII, deservedly called the Pacific, could lend 65,000 ducats to a King of France without detriment to" Savoy. As an old man he retired into a monastery, the better to rule Savoy without the actual agitation of Court life. Here he devoted five days of the week to State affairs and two to fasting and prayer. Here too, against his inclination, he accepted the Papacy for the good of the church in its intestine troubles. They called him '"the Solomon of Europe," but on some points he was more respectable than Solomon, and it may be doubted if Solomon himself could have done more for his epoch. He abdicated Dukedom and Papacy when he had' nobly served the turn of both. '

Enianuele Filberto, the tenth Duke, is another glorious name in bavoy's genealogy, lie is the hero in those vast frescoes of the battle of St. Qnintin which d,eok tlie walls of the corridors of itiS Eocorial. When he would nave knelt to Philip II of Spain, after trie battle, the King stopped him with the words : "It is I who ought to kiss the liquids of one who has fought for me so bravely.'' He was as heroic a husband os soldier. His marriage with the sister of the King of France for State reason* was at the outlet a maityrdom. The lady was much his senior, and he was already plighted, in a love match, with a young daughter of the Emperor of Austria. After his cteath they found the rough drjft of a prayer in his own handwriting in which he besought "wisdom to do the best possible for my people." HI? marriage may or may not have been an answer to that prayer. The King of France himself was po anxious to see it celebrated that the ceremony took place in the royal bedchamber, when the King lay dying of that thrust in the brain which he received at a tournament in honour of the occasion. Ducats and territory were the French Princess's dowry ; and both were necessary for Savoy. The poor little Princess of Austria, recognising the sacrifice, went' into a convent raid soon died, and the Duke of Savoy continued to work for his country with a wife whom he saw for the first time at his marriage. Like the late King of Italy, he was a great hunter as well as an early riser. He scarcely sat down except to his meals, and never slept more than six hours out of the 24. Self-indulgence has seldom been a characteristic of the reigning Dukes and Kings of the House of Savoy.