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BARON BETTINO RICASOLI (1809-1880)

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Originally appearing in Volume V23, Page 288 of the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.
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BARON BETTINO See also:RICASOLI (1809-1880)  , See also:Italian statesman, was See also:born at Broglio on the 19th of See also:March 'Soo . See also:Left an See also:orphan at eighteen, with an See also:estate heavily encumbered, he ' was by See also:special See also:decree of the See also:grand See also:duke of See also:Tuscany declared of See also:age. and entrusted with the guardianship of his younger See also:brothers . Interrupting his studies, he withdrew to Broglio, and by careful management disencumbered the See also:family possessions . In 1847 he founded the See also:journal La Patria, and addressed to the grand duke a memorial suggesting remedies for the difficulties of the See also:state . In 1848 he was elected Gonfaloniere of See also:Florence, but resigned on See also:account of the See also:anti-Liberal tendencies of the grand duke . As Tuscan See also:minister of the interior in 1859 he promoted the See also:union of Tuscany with See also:Piedmont, which took See also:place on the 12th of March 186o . Elected Italian See also:deputy in 1861, he succeeded See also:Cavour in the premiership . As premier he admitted the Garibaldian See also:volunteers to the See also:regular See also:army, revoked the decree of See also:exile against Mazzini, and attempted reconciliation with the Vatican; but his efforts were rendered ineffectual by the non possumus of the See also:pope . Disdainful of the intrigues of his See also:rival Rattazzi, he found himself obliged in 1862 to resign See also:office, but returned to See also:power in 1866 . On this occasion he refused See also:Napoleon III.'s offer to cede See also:Venetia to See also:Italy, on See also:condition that Italy should abandon the Prussian See also:alliance, and also refused the Prussian decoration of the See also:Black See also:Eagle because Lamarmora, author of the alliance, was not to receive it . Upon the departure of the See also:French troops from See also:Rome at the end of 1866 he again attempted to conciliate the Vatican with a See also:convention, in virtue of which Italy would have restored to the See also:Church the See also:property of the suppressed religious orders in return for the See also:gradual See also:payment of £24,000,000 . - In See also:order to mollify the Vatican he conceded the See also:exequatur to See also:forty-five bishops inimical to the Italian regime .

The Vatican accepted his proposal, but the Italian Chamber proved refractory, and, though dissolved by See also:

Ricasoli, returned more hostile than before . Without waiting for a See also:vote, Ricasoli resigned office and thenceforward practically disappeared from See also:political See also:life, speaking in the Chamber only upon rare occasions . He died at Broglio on the 23rd of See also:October 1880 . His private life and public career were marked by the utmost integrity, and by a rigid austerity which earned him the,name of the "See also:iron See also:baron." In spite of the failure of his ecclesiastical See also:scheme, he remains one of the most noteworthy figures of the Italian Risorgimento . See Tabarrini and Gotti, Lettere e documenti del barone Bettino Ricasoli, Yo vols . (Florence, 1886–1894) ; Passerini, Genealogia e storia della famiglia Ricasoli (ibid . 1861); Gotti, Vita del barone Bettino Ricasoli (ibid . 1894) . (H . W .

End of Article: BARON BETTINO RICASOLI (1809-1880)
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