The Risorgimento

The Conte di Cavour was never to see Rome restored as Italy’s capital. He had little opportunity to enjoy his success.Though he was appointed Italy’s first Prime Minister he died of a fever on 6 June, 1861. Garibaldi, meanwhile, had become a global celebrity and superstar. When he visited Britain in 1864, thousands turned out to greet him on the streets, people asked for his autograph, they offered to pay to be photographed alongside him, and he was invited to dine with dignitaries, which he invariably declined. In 1862, he had been offered a command in the Union Army fighting the Civil War in America by Abraham Lincoln but declined it because Lincoln refused to make the abolition of slavery his main war aim. In his later years he was to be elected numerous times to the Italian Parliament but by now he was spending more and more time at his farm on Caprera. He had always had a keen interest in agriculture and now seemed to be enjoying his semi-retirement. On 2 June, 1882, as he lay on his deathbed he asked to be moved to a place where he could gaze upon the sea. Soon after he passed away at the age of 75, the Father of the Italian Nation.

Giuseppe Mazzini, Giuseppe Garibaldi, and the Conte di Cavour. They had formed an unlikely triumvirate, an unholy Trinity of liberation, the Liberal Republican, the Revolutionary who had handed power over to a King, and the Conservative. They had no particular fondness for one another but together they had forged a nation.