86 The Swiss and Their Neighbours, 1460–1560
circumstances—by the structure and political culture of his duchy and by his
chronic lack of money.
Charles lived through the age of the Italian Wars, during which Savoy and
Piedmont were the main corridor for troops marching southwards. He sought as best
he could to preserve neutrality over against his nephew, King Francis I of France, and
his brother-in-law, Emperor Charles V, until he tilted fatefully towards the emperor
in 1524,146 thereby earning himself the undying enmity of the French monarch.
Internally, Duke Charles sought to grant Piedmont a greater say in Savoyard affairs.
Up to his reign there had been one ducal secretary-in-chief for the entire territory,
and he was invariably a Savoyard, until in 1505 Charles appointed a second chief
secretary for Piedmont itself.147 Although there were three judicial bodies (the ducal
council, and one council each for Savoy and Piedmont), there had been long-standing
complaints over the administration of justice, particularly from the Piedmont Estates
over the safeguarding of their liberties.148 In 1509 Charles promised to address these
abuses, but that only drew forth complaints at the extortion of ducal officials.149
The Savoy Estates had voiced similar protests the previous year.150
Not until 1513 was a reform introduced whereby territoriality was respected:
henceforth Piedmont suits were to be heard by the Council of Turin, and Savoy
disputes by the Council of Chambéry.151 In the early 1520s the number of secretar-
ies in the Savoy chancery was reduced from twelve to eight (in effect a cost-cut-
ting measure), and in 1522 the Chambre des Comptes (the Savoy treasury) was
reorganized.152 It is questionable whether any of these measures tackled the
underlying problem head-on, namely the venality of office.
From the late fourteenth century the rulers of Savoy had raised loans from their
officials by selling administrative posts. Duke Charles continued the practice.
Whether out of financial necessity or from political loyalty Charles placed men
upon whom he could rely in ministries from which they derived personal advantage.
Moreover, the men he appointed, such as Jean Vuillet and Pierre Trolliet, were not
of noble birth, but careerists.153 Only the governors of the Savoy provinces were
146 Lino Marini, Savoiardi e Piemontesi nello Stato Sabaudo (1418–1601), 1: 1418–1536 (Studi di
Storia Moderna e Contemporanea, 2) (Rome, 1962), 364; Thalia Bréro, ‘Recollecting Court Festivals:
Ceremonial Accounts in Sixteenth-Century Savoy’, in Vester (ed.), Sabaudian Studies, 109–26, here at
114; Braun, Eidgenossen, 414.
147 Pierpaolo Merlin, ‘Gli Stati, la giustizia e la politica nel ducato sabaudo della prima metà del
Cinquecento’, Studi Storici, 29 (1988), 503–25, here at 510. On the organization of the court, which
underwent revision under Duke Charles see also Guido Castelnuovo, ‘ “À la court et au service de
nostre prince”: l’hôtel de Savoie et ses métiers à la fin du Moyen Âge’, in Bianchi and Gentile (eds),
L’affermarsi, 23–53.
148 Merlin, ‘Gli Stati’, 506.
149 Tallone, Parlamento Sabaudo, VI: Patria Cismontana (1490–1524) (Bologna, 1932), 234:
Charles declared: bien tracter les bons, pugnyr les excès et mauvais et faire que iustice ait lieu.
150 Tallone, Parlamento Sabaudo, IX, 2: Patria Oltramontana, 2 (1444–1536) (Bologna, 1937),
493: Savoy Estates request: avoir esgard sur le fait de la justice en quoy est bien de besoign remèdier
pour les grans abbuz que s’y font et observant comme il est à chascun notoire; Merlin, ‘Gli Stati’, 507.
151 Merlin, ‘Gli Stati’, 513. 152 Merlin, ‘Gli Stati’, 513.
153 Alessandro Barbero, Il ducato di Savoia. Amministrazione e corte di uno stato franco-italiano
1413–1536 (Quadrante Laterza, 118) (Rome/Bari, 2002), 29, 41.