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188 ANTHONY L. CARDOZA
nant presence in the face of organizational expansion, technological innovation,
and politica! change in the following decades. Nonetheless, they remained
surprisingly influential at the commanding of the military establishment
and in the Cavalry in the early twentieth century. In 1905, for instance,
ten of the forty-eight Tenenti Generali were Piedmontese aristocrats, while
in 1914 the regional nobility furnished the commanders ofthe Cavalry School
an d three of the eight Cavalry brigades 10.
The same small group of aristocratic officers was also greatly overrepresented
in the civilian institutions of the Liberai State. In this respect,
they continued a tradition of the Kingdom of Sardinia w h ere there had been
a virtual fusi o n of military and politica! elites. From the outset, they enjoyed
privileged access to one of the major center of power in the new state as
a result of their dose and often personal ties to the House of Savoy, whose
kings played a dire c t role in military affairs a t least until 1900 11. Moreover,
a number of noble officers became actively involved in the political life of
the country. Titled Piedmontese military families contributed 53 men to
the Chamber of Deputies an d another 63 t o lifetime seats in the Senate prior
to World War I. These families also saw 13 oftheir sons occupy high cabinet
posts in various Italian governments between 1861 and 1914 12• Such
statistics suggest that the Piedmontese nobility was certainly in a position
to exert a degree of influence far greater than its modest numerica! presence
in the army might indicate.
Analysis of the positions held by aristocratic officers within the state
apparatus, however, provides only a partial measure of the power exercised
by the nobility, since it neglects the informai mechanisms of aristocratic
influence within the military establishment. As members of old Piedmontese
noble families, titled officers were also part of a small and exclusive elite
bound together by kinship, alliances, and a shared style and history. These
relationships provided them in turn with a less tangible, but no less valuable,
form of social power that found expression in their collective hold on inherited
prestige symbols, modes of behavior, and networks within the
military. Despite meritocratic trends and the growing importance of
technical skills, the nobility stili set some of the standards as well as the ton e
for much of the officers corps. With its emphasis on duty, honor, devotion
1o Annuario Militare 1905, Vol. I, pp. 3-7; Annuario Militare 1914, Vol. I, pp. 4-8.
11 See L. CEVA, " Forze armate e società civile '' , p. 398.
12 On the role Piedmontese nobles in public life, see Segretariato generale del Senato,
Elenchi storici e statistici dei senatori del Regno, 1848 al l gennaio 193 7 (Roma
193 7) and Enciclopedia biografica e bibliografica italiana, Serie XLIII, Ministri, deputati
e senatori dal 1848 al 1922 di Alberto Malatesta (Milano 1930s), 3 vols.
AN OFFICER AND A GENTLEMAN 189
to the monarchy, a rigid hierarchy of ranks, and dualing rituals, the Italian
army, much like its French counterpart, continued to nurture certain
aristocratic values and behavior patterns that enhanced the prestige and status
of the nobles 13.
More importantly, titled Piedmontese officers enjoyed special social connections
that could not but help those with the requisite drive and ability
to gain preferment in appointments an d promotions. Virtually ali of them
began with a powerful social inheritance of grandfathers, fathers, uncles,
and brothers who were or had been military officers. Indeed, the steady
stream of officers supplied by the old « military dynasties » of Piedmont
throughout the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries attested to the importance
of family traditions. Led by the Asinari di San Marzano, Morozzo
della Rocca, and Galli della Loggia, a core group of some twenty families
alone sent 102 of their sons to the Accademia militare di Torino between
1816 and 1870. Significantly, twenty-nine of these aristocratic cadets eventually
moved into the highest levels ofthe army, ending their careers as either
Tenente or Maggiore Generali 14. These family traditions did not die with
unification. On the contrary, they remained strong up to and beyond the
Great War. In 1913, for example, eighteen of the core families, who stili
had residences in Turin, had over fifty men serving in the military 15.
The case of Conte Eugenio De Genova di Pettinengo illustrates how
young men from the right families received benevolent attention from their
superiors as soon as they entered into the military world. When Conte
Eugenio decided in 1889 to abandon an «esistenza comoda ma oziosa e
deleteria della società e dei portici di Torino " and followed «l'esempio
nobilissimo del papà " by enrolling in the Scuola Militare di Modena, he carne
in contact with a number of career officers w ho had served under his father
Generale Ignazio De Genova di Pettinengo, a one-time Commandant of the
Accademia Militare di Torino and later Direttore Generale of the Ministero
della Guerra. One of the general's former subordinates eloquntly testified
to the value of family connections when he wrote Conte Eugenio's father
to assure him that « interessandomi al di lei figliuolo obbedii al sentimento
di devota ed antica affezione che Le professo per il quale parvemi di occupar-
13 For a discussion of the characteristics of Italian officers, see L. CEVA, " Forze armate
e società civile ,, pp. 408-410. On the aristocracy and the army in France, WIL­
LIAM SERMAN, " La noblesse dans l'armée française au xrxe siècle (1814-1900) », Les Noblesses
européenes, p. 6.
14 See F. L. RoGIER, La R. Accademia Militare, II.
15 Guida commerciale ed amministrativa di Torino, 1913, Torino 1913, pp.
638-674.