Francis of Austria-Este

Francis IV is the son of Maria Beatrice d'Este and Archduke Ferdinando of Austria, governor of Lombardy.
With the intention of organizing an anti-French conspiracy using the support of Vittorio Emanuele I, he arrived on the island in 1811, where he intended to marry his cousin Maria Beatrice Vittoria di Savoia for dynastic reasons: in the absence of heirs, he hopes to acquire the rights of succession, but those of Carlo Alberto of the Carignano branch will prevail.
During his short stay on the island, he keeps a diary, the result of daily notes and therefore very rich in notations on the life of the ancient regime of the Savoy court, at the time of his stay in Cagliari, during the Napoleonic fifteen years. Those notes will be the information base for the main work, the “Description of Sardinia” published more than a century later by Giorgio Bardanzellu. Educated by the Jesuits, he writes like a bureaucrat and a military man. The need to highlight the strategic importance of the island in the Mediterranean chessboard, however, leads him to paint a very precise picture of the Sardinia of his time, a cross-section of the ways of life of the islanders, particularly rooted in their traditions - to which he dedicates not a few pages - and to their land, but at the same time good-natured and equipped with a very strong sense of hospitality.
The work is divided into forty-six chapters, ranging from descriptions of society (customs, traditions, foods, music, dances) to political commentaries. Francis IV seems to come alive and give color to his pages when he discusses the problems of the island and Cagliari, for which, however, he proposes vague and impractical solutions. The future duke is an atypical traveler, being also a court man, and like the court, he was not integrated with the rest of the island, especially at a time of critical economic situation such as the years between 1811 and 1813.

Update

25/6/2026 - 13:25