Thomas Francis, Prince of Carignano

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Thomas Francis, Prince of Carignano : biography

21 December 1596 – 22 January 1656

Ancestry

Death

After the 1655 campaign, Thomas returned to Turin where he died the following January; the suggestion in Spanheim that he died at the siege of Pavia is not supported – malaria, a common problem in the marshes of the Po valley, carried him off, as it carried off his successor as allied commander-in-chief, Francesco I d’Este.

Family

Thomas and Marie de Bourbon had seven children who survived infancy (Italian names in parentheses):

Carignano line

  • Princess Cristine Charlotte of Savoy (born and died in 1626)
  • Princess Louise Christine of Savoy (1627–1689), married in 1654 to Ferdinand Maximilian of Baden-Baden (1625–1669)
  • Prince Emmanuel Philibert Amadeus of Savoy (Emanuele Filiberto Amedeo) (1628–1709), 2nd prince de Carignan, lived in Italy, becoming governor of Ivrea in 1644, and of Asti in 1663. In 1684 he married in Racconigi, Princess Angela Catherina d’Este (1656–1722), granddaughter of Cesare I d’Este, Duke of Modena. Because he was deaf-mute, the marriage shocked his mother, infuriated his sister-in-law Olympia Mancini, injured the inheritance prospects of his French nephews and nieces, and so offended Louis XIV that Francis II, Duke of Modena felt obliged to banish from his realm the bride’s kinsman, who had acted as the couple’s intermediary.
  • Prince Amedeo of Savoy (1629 – died young)
  • Prince Joseph-Emmanuel (1631–1656), count of Soissons
  • Prince Ferdinand of Savoy (1637)
  • Prince Eugène Maurice of Savoy (1633–1673), count of Soissons and Dreux, married Olympia Mancini

Background

Born in Turin, Thomas was the youngest of the five legitimate sons of the sovereign Duke Charles Emmanuel I, Duke of Savoy by his consort Catherine Micaela of Spain, a daughter of King Philip II of Spain and the French princess Elizabeth of Valois. His mother died the following year. While still a young man, Thomas bore arms in the service of the king of Spain in Italy.

Although in previous reigns, younger sons had been granted rich appanages in Switzerland (Genevois, Vaud), Italy (Aosta), or France (Nemours, Bresse), the Savoy dukes found that this inhibited their own aggrandizement while encouraging intra-dynastic strife and regional secession. Not only did Thomas have older brothers, he was but one of the twenty-one acknowledged children of Charles Emmanuel. While only nine of these were legitimate, the others, being the widowed duke’s offspring by noble mistresses, appear to have been generously endowed or dowered during their father’s lifetime.

The fief of Carignano had belonged to the Savoys since 1418, and the fact that it was part of Piedmont, only twenty km. south of Turin, meant that it could be a "princedom" for Thomas in name only, being endowed neither with independence nor revenues of substance. Instead of receiving a significant patrimony, Thomas was wed in 1625 to Marie de Bourbon, sister and co-heiress of Louis de Bourbon, comte de Soissons, who would be killed in 1641 while fomenting rebellion against Cardinal Richelieu.