Cesare, Count Balbo

Cesare, Count Balbo (born November 27, 1789, Turin, Piedmont [Italy]—died June 3, 1853, Turin) was a Piedmontese political writer, a liberal but cautious constitutionalist who was influential during the Italian Risorgimento and served as the first prime minister of Sardinia-Piedmont under the constitution of March 5, 1848.

Balbo grew up while Piedmont was annexed to France and began his career by entering the Napoleonic bureaucracy, wherein he acquired a wide knowledge of Italy. When the house of Savoy was restored to the kingdom of Sardinia in 1814, Balbo’s service to Napoleon was held against him; although he had little respect for the regime of Victor Emmanuel I and was friendly with liberals in Turin, he disapproved of revolution and remained loyal to the dynasty. Nevertheless, he fell into official disgrace because of his association with some leaders of the revolution in March 1821 and his attempt to persuade the future king Charles Albert to lead the constitutionalist movement. Balbo left Turin for several years and devoted himself to writing.

Balbo’s most famous book, Delle speranze d’Italia (1844; “The Hopes of Italy”), showed the antirevolutionary nature of his patriotism and liberalism. He wrote that the independence of Italy from Austria was desirable, but Austria should be compensated with territory in the Balkans; that the interests of the papacy should be safeguarded; and that a confederation might be the best political organization for Italy. In Lettere di politica e letteratura edite ed inedite (1847), Balbo called for a specifically moderate Italian party.

Encouraged by Charles Albert’s grant of the constitutional statuto in 1848, Balbo accepted the office of prime minister on March 13. Alarmed by the democratic agitation in Italy, he resigned in July 1848, later served as Piedmontese emissary to Pope Pius IX, and refused the premiership in 1852.