Then it was
called back to defend France against the Prussians, and
Rome became the capital of Italy. In the north, Milan and
Venice rose against their Austrian masters. They were supported
by king Albert of Sardinia, but a strong Austrian army
under old Radetzky marched into the valley of the Po, defeated
the Sardinians near Custozza and Novara and forced
Albert to abdicate in favour of his son, Victor Emanuel, who
a few years later was to be the first king of a united Italy.
In Germany the unrest of the year 1848 took the form of a
great national demonstration in favour of political unity and a
representative form of government. In Bavaria, the king who
had wasted his time and money upon an Irish lady who posed as
a Spanish dancer--(she was called Lola Montez and lies buried
in New York's Potter's Field)--was driven away by the enraged
students of the university. In Prussia, the king was
forced to stand with uncovered head before the coffins of those
who had been killed during the street fighting and to promise a
constitutional form of government. And in March of the year
1849, a German parliament, consisting of 550 delegates from
all parts of the country came together in Frankfort and proposed
that king Frederick William of Prussia should be the
Emperor of a United Germany.
Then, however, the tide began to turn. Incompetent Ferdinand
had abdicated in favour of his nephew Francis Joseph.
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