Intrigue In Milan

Chapter 4

Kingdom of Lombardy-Venetia, 1815

The name of the Kingdom of Lombardy-Venetia was established by the Austrian Empire on 7 April 1815 in the combined areas of Lombardy and Veneto that had been gained in accordance with decisions taken at the Congress of Vienna.

Lombardy and Veneto therefore became two parts of a new bicephalous state; within them, there were still differing aspects of administration due to the historical legacy left by the deep-seated republicanism of Venice and the patrician monarchism of Milan. The kingdom’s new name was conceived by the Austrian chancellor Klemens von Metternich at the dawn of the Restoration period after the collapse of the Napoleonic Empire. It was the result of a long debate amongst the Austrians who did not want to preserve the name Kingdom of Italy as given by Napoleon. Various names had been considered, such as Eastern and Western Italy (Ost- und Westitalien) and even Austrian Italy (Österreichisches Italien), but these were rejected alongside other names deemed too heavily linked to one of the two regions or either of its capitals as neither Milan nor the Venetian lands had been united under one government since the Langobards of the early Middle Ages. No way to define both territories in a single word could be found; therefore, the term Lombardy-Venetia was used to encourage togetherness, and later union, between the peoples in that part of the Empire.

The viceroy’s responsibilities, exercised under Government counsel, included censorship, general management of the census and direct taxation, education, public works, nomination and control of the provincial assemblies, and command of the Imperial army stationed in the kingdom to maintain public order. Lastly, responsibility for revenue was directly transferred from local authorities to the Imperial government, acting via the Chamber of Magistrates, dealing with the Monte di Lombardia institution, the mint, lotteries, the tax office, the manufacture of tobacco and explosives, the state bursar, stamp duty and taxation offices, the royal printing house, the inspectorate for forests, and the agency for salt, alongside the Office of Audit. Policing was under a Directorate General based on Milan’s contrada Santa Margherita.

The task of the new, predominantly Italian forces of order was by no means straightforward: much changed since its benevolence under a “maternal” Maria Theresa, the Austria of the Restoration reduced local administration of the city to mere execution of edicts directly issued from Vienna. The Milanese were discriminated against by the highest echelons of power, penalised economically and fiscally, and being weighed down by prevailing military occupation.

Milan surrendered the prestige it had been given by being capital of the Kingdom of Italy under Napoleon and the initial hardship was exacerbated by the repercussions of the 1815-17 famine, the result of a series of three poor harvests that caused a rise in the price of grain, a staple food of the working classes. This triggered a lengthy spate of disorder, rioting and raids on bakeries that very much resembled those occurring during the plague under Spanish dominion of which Alessandro Manzoni wrote.

After fifteen years of war all over Europe, the peace that had been longed for was being built upon shaky foundations.

It is against this background that my story is set.