Savoy

The House of Savoy was founded around 1003 in the Alpine county of Sabaudia, then part of the Kingdom of Burgundy, by Humbert I, called Biancamano. Its rise began when Humbert's son Otto married Adelaide, heiress of Turin and Susa, in the mid-eleventh century, bringing Turin and western Piedmont to the family. From Chambéry and Chillon the counts held the key Alpine passes and enlarged their lands.

Count Aymon ruled in 1337, and in 1416 Amadeus VIII was made Duke of Savoy by the Holy Roman Emperor. French armies overran most of the duchy in 1536, but Emmanuel Philibert, serving the Habsburgs, won Saint-Quentin in 1557 and recovered his lands under the Peace of Cateau-Cambrésis in 1559, moving the capital from Chambéry to Turin in 1563.

Victor Amadeus II gained the Kingdom of Sicily in 1713 and exchanged it in 1720 for the Kingdom of Sardinia, ruling thereafter as Piedmont-Sardinia, to which Genoa was added in 1815.