Rule of Pisa.
Meanwhile the south remained under the sway of the counts of Cinarca,
while in the north feudal barons maintained their independence in the
promontory of Cape Corso. Internal feuds continued; William, marquis of
Massa, of the family known later as the Malaspina, was called in by the
communes (1020), drove out the count of Cinarca, reduced the barons to
order, and in harmony with the communes established a dominion which he
was able to hand on to his son. Towards the end of the 11th century,
however, the popes laid claim to the island in virtue of the donation of
Charlemagne, though the Frankish conqueror had promised at most the
reversion of the lands of the Church. The Corsican clergy supported the
claim, and in 1077 the Corsicans declared themselves subjects of the
Holy See in the presence of the apostolic legate Landolfo, bishop of
Pisa. Pope Gregory VII. thereupon invested the bishop and his successors
with the island, an investiture confirmed by Urban II. in 1190 and
extended into a concession of the full sovereignty. The Pisans now took
solemn possession of the island and their "grand judges" (_judices_)
took the place of the papal legates. Corsica, valued by the Pisans as by
the Vandals as an inexhaustible storehouse of materials for their fleet,
flourished exceedingly under the enlightened rule of the great
commercial republic. Causes of dissension remained, however, abundant.
The Corsican bishops repented their subjection to the Pisan archbishop;
the Genoese intrigued at Rome to obtain a reversal of the papal gift to
the rivals with whom they were disputing the supremacy of the seas.
Successive popes followed conflicting policies in this respect; until in
1138 Innocent II., by way of compromise, divided the ecclesiastical
jurisdiction of the island between the archbishops of Pisa and Genoa.
This gave the Genoese great influence in Corsica, and the contest
between the Pisans and Genoese began to distract the island. It was not,
however, till 1195 that the Genoese, by capturing Bonifacio--a nest of
pirates preying on the commerce of both republics--actually gained a
footing in the country. For twenty years the Pisans fought to recover
the fortress for themselves, until in 1217 the pope settled the matter
by taking it into his own hands.
Throughout the 13th century the struggle between Pisans and Genoese
continued, reproducing in the island the feud of Ghibellines and Guelphs
that was desolating Italy. In order to put a stop to the ruinous anarchy
the chiefs of the Terra di Comune called in the marquis Isnard
Malaspina; the Pisans set up the count of Cinarca once more; and the war
between the marquis, the Pisans and Genoese dragged on with varying
fortunes, neither succeeding in gaining the mastery. Then, in 1298, Pope
Boniface VIII. added to the complication by investing King James of
Aragon with the sovereignty of Corsica and of Sardinia. In 1325, after
long delay, the Aragonese attacked and reduced Sardinia, with the result
that the Pisans, their sea-power shattered, were unable to hold their
own in Corsica. A fresh period of anarchy followed until, in 1347, a
great assembly of _caporali_ and barons decided to offer the sovereignty
of the island to Genoa. A regular tribute was to be paid to the
republic; the Corsicans were to preserve their laws and customs, under
the council of Twelve in the north and a council of Six in the south;
Corsican interests were to be represented at Genoa by an _orator_.
Genoese domination.
The Genoese domination, which began under evil auspices--for the Black
Death killed off some two-thirds of the population--was not destined to
bring peace to the island. The feudal barons of the south and the
hereditary _caporali_ of the north alike resisted the authority of the
Genoese governors; and King Peter of Aragon took advantage of their
feuds to reassert his claims. In 1372 Arrigo, count of La Rocca, with
the assistance of Aragonese troops, made himself master of the island;
but his very success stirred up against him the barons of Cape Corso,
who once more appealed to Genoa. The republic, busied with other
affairs, hit upon the luckless expedient of investing with the
governorship of the island a sort of chartered company, consisting of
five persons, known as the _Maona_. They attempted to restore order by
taking Arrigo della Rocca into partnership, with disastrous results. In
1380 four of the "governors of the Maona" resigned their rights to the
Genoese republic, and Leonello Lomellino was left as sole governor. It
was he who, in 1383, built Bastia on the north coast, which became the
bulwark of the Genoese power in the island. It was not till 1401, after
the death of Count Arrigo, that the Genoese domination was temporarily
re-established.
Meanwhile Genoa itself had fallen into the hands of the French, and in
1407 Leonello Lomellino returned as governor with the title of count of
Corsica bestowed on him by Charles VI. of France. But Vincentello d'
Istria, who had gained distinction in the service of the king of Aragon,
had captured Cinarca, rallied round him all the communes of the Terra di
Comune, proclaimed himself count of Corsica at Biguglia and even seized
Bastia. Lomellino was unable to make headway against him, and by 1410
all Corsica, with the exception of Bonifacio and Calvi, was lost to
Genoa, now once more independent of France. A feud of Vincentello with
the bishop of Mariana, however, led to the loss of his authority in the
Terra di Comune; he was compelled to go to Spain in search of
assistance, and in his absence the Genoese reconquered the island. Not,
however, for long. The Great Schism was too obvious an opportunity for
quarrelling for the Corsicans to neglect; and the Corsican bishops and
clergy were more ready with the carnal than with spiritual weapons. The
suffragans of Genoa fought for Benedict XIII., those of Pisa for John
XXIII.; and when Vincentello returned with an Aragonese force he was
able to fish profitably in troubled waters. He easily captured Cinarca
and Ajaccio, came to terms with the Pisan bishops, mastered the Terra di
Comune and built a strong castle at Corte; by 1419 the Genoese
possessions in Corsica were again reduced to Calvi and Bonifacio.
Aragonese intervention.
At this juncture Alphonso of Aragon arrived, with a large fleet, to take
possession of the island. Calvi fell to him; but Bonifacio held out, and
its resistance gave time for the Corsicans, aroused by the tyranny and
exactions of the Aragonese, to organize revolt. In the end the siege of
Bonifacio was raised, and the town, confirmed in its privileges, became
practically an independent republic under Genoese protection. As for
Vincentello he managed to hold his own for a while; but ultimately the
country rose against him, and in 1435 he was executed as a rebel by the
Genoese, who had captured him by surprise in the port of Bastia.
The anarchy continued, while rival factions, nominal adherents of the
Aragonese and Genoese, contended for the mastery. Profiting by the
disturbed situation, the Genoese doge, Janus da Fregoso, succeeded in
reducing the island, his artillery securing him an easy victory over the
forces of Count Paolo della Rocca (1441). To secure his authority he
built and fortified the new city of San Fiorenzo, near the ruins of
Nebbio. But again the Aragonese intervened, and the anarchy reached its
height. An appeal to Pope Eugenius IV. resulted in the despatch of a
pontifical army of 14,000 men (1444), which was destroyed in detail by a
league of some of the _caporali_ and most of the barons under the bold
leadership of Rinuccio da Leca. A second expedition was more fortunate,
and Rinuccio was killed before Biguglia. In 1447 Eugenius was succeeded
on the papal throne by Nicholas V., a Genoese, who promptly made over
his rights in Corsica, with all the strong places held by his troops, to
Genoa. The island was now, in effect, divided between the Genoese
republic; the lords of Cinarca, who held their lands in the south under
the nominal suzerainty of Aragon; and Galeazzo da Campo Fregoso, who was
supreme in the Terra di Comune.
The Bank of San Giorgio.
Milanese intervention.
An assembly of the chiefs of the Terra di Comune now decided to offer
the government of the island to the Company or Bank of San Giorgio, a
powerful commercial corporation established at Genoa in the 14th
century.[1] The bank accepted; the Spaniards were driven from the
country; and a government was organized. But the bank soon fell foul of
the barons, and began a war of extermination against them. Their
resistance was finally broken in 1460, when the survivors took refuge in
Tuscany. But order had scarcely been established when the Genoese
Tommasinoda Campo Fregoso, whose mother was a Corsican, revived the
claims of his family and succeeded in mastering the interior of the
island (1462). Two years later the duke of Milan, Francesco Sforza,
overthrew the power of the Fregoso family at Genoa, and promptly
proceeded to lay claim to Corsica. His lieutenant had no difficulty in
making the island accept the overlordship of the duke of Milan; but
when, in 1466, Francesco Sforza died, a quarrel broke out, and Milanese
suzerainty became purely nominal save in the coast towns. Finally, in
1484, Tommasino da Campo Fregoso persuaded the duke to grant him the
government of the island. The strong places were handed over to him; he
entered into marriage relations with Gian Paolo da Leca, the most
powerful of the barons, and was soon supreme in the island.
Within three years the Corsicans were up in arms again. A descendant of
the Malaspinas who had once ruled in Corsica, Jacopo IV. (d'Appiano),
was now prince of Piombino, and to him the malcontents applied. His
brother Gherardo, count of Montagnano, accepted the call, proclaimed
himself count of Corsica, and, landing in the island, captured Biguglia
and San Fiorenzo; whereupon Tommasino da Campo Fregoso discreetly sold
his rights to the bank of San Giorgio. No sooner, however, had the
bank--with the assistance of the count of Leca--beaten Count Gherardo
than the Fregoso family tried to repudiate their bargain. Their claims
were supported by the count of Leca, and it cost the agents of the bank
some hard fighting before the turbulent baron was beaten and exiled to
Sardinia. Twice he returned, and he was not finally expelled from the
country till 1501; it was not till 1511 that the other barons were
crushed and that the bank could consider itself in secure possession of
the island.
If the character of the Corsicans has been distinguished in modern times
for a certain wild intractableness and ferocity, the cause lies in their
unhappy past, and not least in the character of the rule established by
the bank of San Giorgio. The power which the bank had won by ruthless
cruelty, it exercised in the spirit of the narrowest and most
short-sighted selfishness. Only a shadow of the native institutions was
suffered to survive, and no adequate system of administration was set up
in the place of that which had been suppressed. In the absence of
justice the blood-feud or _vendetta_ grew and took root in Corsica just
at the time when, elsewhere in Europe, the progress of civilization was
making an end of private war. The agents of the bank, so far from
discouraging these internecine quarrels, looked on them as the surest
means for preventing a general rising. Concerned, moreover, only with
squeezing taxes out of a recalcitrant population, they neglected the
defence of the coast, along which the Barbary pirates harried and looted
at will; and to all these woes were added, in the 16th century,
pestilences and disastrous floods, which tended still further to
impoverish and barbarize the country.
First French Intervention, 1553.
In these circumstances King Henry II. of France conceived the project of
conquering the island. From Corsican mercenaries in French service, men
embittered by wrongs suffered at the hands of the Genoese, he obtained
all the necessary information; by a treaty of alliance concluded at
Constantinople (February 1, 1553) with Sultan Suleiman the Magnificent
he secured the co-operation of the Turkish fleet. The combined forces
attacked the island the same year; the citadel of Bastia fell almost
without a blow, and siege was at once laid simultaneously to all the
other fortresses. The capitulation of Bonifacio to the Turks, after an
obstinate resistance, was followed by the treacherous massacre of the
garrison; soon, of all the strong places, the Genoese held Calvi alone.
At this juncture the emperor Charles V. intervened; a strong force of
imperial troops and Genoese was poured into the island, and the tide of
war turned. The details of the struggle that followed, in which the
Corsican national hero Sampiero da Bastelica gained his first laurels,
are of little general importance. Fortresses were captured and
recaptured; and for three years French, Germans, Spaniards, Genoese and
Corsicans indulged in a carnival of mutual slaughter and outrage. The
outcome of all this was a futile reversion to the _status quo_. In 1556,
indeed, the conclusion of a truce left Corsica--with the exception of
Bastia--in the hands of the French, who proceeded to set up a tolerable
government; but in 1559, by the treaty of Cateau-Cambresis, the island
was restored to the bank of San Giorgio, from which it was at once taken
over by the Genoese republic.
Sampiero da Bastelica.
Trouble at once began again. The Genoese attempted to levy a tax which
the Corsicans refused to pay; in violation of the terms of the treaty,
which had stipulated for a universal amnesty, they confiscated the
property of Sampiero da Bastelica. Hereupon Sampiero again put himself
at the head of the national movement. The suzerainty of the Turk seemed
preferable to that of Genoa, and, armed with letters from the king of
France, he went to Constantinople to ask the aid of a fleet for the
purpose of reducing Corsica to the status of an Ottoman province.[2] All
his efforts to secure foreign help were, however, vain; he determined to
act alone, and in June 1564 landed at Valinco with only fifty followers.
His success was at first extraordinary, and he was soon at the head of
8000 men; but ultimate victory was rendered impossible by the
indiscipline among the Corsicans and by the internecine feuds of which
the Genoese well knew how to take advantage. For over two years a war
was waged in which quarter was given on neither side; but after the
assassination of Sampiero in 1567 the spirit of the insurgents was
broken. In 1568 an honourable peace, including a general amnesty, was
arranged with the Genoese commander Giorgio Doria by Sampiero's son
Alphonso d'Ornano, who with 300 of his friends emigrated to France,
where he rose to be a marshal under Henry IV.
From this time until 1729 Corsica remained at peace under the government
of Genoa. It was, however, a peace due to lassitude and despair rather
than contentment. The settlement of 1568 had reserved a large measure of
autonomy to the Corsicans; during the years that followed this was
withdrawn piecemeal, until, disarmed and powerless, they were excluded
from every office in the administration. Nor did the Genoese substitute
any efficient system for that which they had destroyed. In the absence
of an effective judiciary the _vendetta_ increased; in the absence of
effective protection the sea-board was exposed to the ravages of the
Barbary pirates, so that the coast villages and towns were abandoned and
the inhabitants withdrew into the interior, leaving the most fertile
part of the country to fall into the condition of a malarious waste. To
add to all this, in 1576 the population had been decimated by a
pestilence. Emigration _en masse_ continued, and an attempt to remedy
this by introducing a colony of Greeks in 1688 only added one more
element of discord to the luckless island. To the Genoese Corsica
continued to be merely an area to be exploited for their profit; they
monopolized its trade; they taxed it up to and beyond its capacity; they
made the issue of licences to carry firearms a source of revenue, and
studiously avoided interfering with the custom of the _vendetta_ which
made their fiscal expedient so profitable.[3]
Revolt of 1729.
King Theodore of Corsica.
In 1729 the Corsicans, irritated by a new hearth-tax known as the _due
seini_, rose in revolt, their leaders being Andrea Colonna Ceccaldi and
Luigi Giafferi. As usual, the Genoese were soon confined to a few coast
towns; but the intervention of the emperor Charles VI. and the despatch
of a large force of German mercenaries turned the tide of war, and in
1732 the authority of Genoa was re-established. Two years later,
however, Giacinto Paoli once more raised the standard of revolt; and in
1735 an assembly at Corte proclaimed the independence of Corsica, set up
a constitution, and entrusted the supreme leadership to Giafferi, Paoli
and Ceccaldi. Though the Genoese were again driven into the fortresses,
lack of arms and provisions made any decisive success of the insurgents
impossible, and when, on the 12th of March 1736, the German adventurer
Baron Theodor von Neuhof arrived with a shipload of muskets and stores
and the assurance of further help to come, leaders and people were glad
to accept his aid on his own conditions, namely that he should be
acknowledged as king of Corsica. On the 15th of April, at Alesani, an
assembly of clergy and of representatives of the communes, solemnly
proclaimed Corsica an independent kingdom under the sovereignty of
Theodore "I." and his heirs. The new king's reign was not fated to last
long. The _opera bouffe_ nature of his entry on the stage--he was clad
in a scarlet caftan, Turkish trousers and a Spanish hat and feather, and
girt with a scimitar--did not, indeed, offend the unsophisticated
islanders; they were even ready to take seriously his lavish bestowal of
titles and his knightly order "della Liberazione"; they appreciated his
personal bravery; and the fact that the Genoese government denounced him
as an impostor and set a price on his head could only confirm him in
their affection. But it was otherwise when the European help that he had
promised failed to arrive, and, still worse, the governments with which
he had boasted his influence disclaimed him. In November he thought it
expedient to proceed to the continent, ostensibly in search of aid,
leaving Giafferi, Paoli and Luca d'Ornano as regents. In spite of
several attempts, he never succeeded in returning to the island. The
Corsicans, weary of the war, opened negotiations with the Genoese; but
the refusal of the latter to regard the islanders as other than rebels
made a mutual agreement impossible. Finally the republic decided to seek
the aid of France, and in July 1737 a treaty was signed by which the
French king bound himself to reduce the Corsicans to order.
Intervention of France, 1738.
The object of the French in assisting the Genoese was not the
acquisition of the island for themselves so much as to obviate the
danger, of which they had long been aware, of its falling into the hands
of another power, notably Great Britain. The Corsicans, on the other
hand, though ready enough to come to terms with the French king, refused
to acknowledge the sovereignty of Genoa even when backed by the power of
France. A powerful French force, under the comte de Boissieux, arrived
in the spring of 1738, and for some months negotiations proceeded. But
the effect of the French guarantee of Corsican liberties was nullified
by the demand that the islanders should surrender their arms, and the
attempt of Boissieux to enforce the order for disarmament was followed,
in the winter of 1738-39, by his defeat at the hands of the Corsicans
and by the cutting up of several isolated French detachments. In
February 1739 Boissieux died. His successor, the marquis de Maillebois,
arrived in March with strong reinforcements, and by a combination of
severity and conciliation soon reduced the island to order. Its
maintenance, however, depended on the presence of the French troops, and
in October 1740 the death of the emperor Charles VI. and the outbreak of
the War of the Austrian Succession necessitated their withdrawal.
Genoese and Corsicans were once more left face to face, and the
perennial struggle began anew.
Sardinian and British Intervention, 1746.
Renewed French Intervention.
In 1743 "King Theodore," supported by a British squadron, made a descent
on the island, but finding that he no longer possessed a following,
departed never to return. The Corsicans, assembled in diet at Casinca,
now elected Giampietro Gaffori and Alerio Matra as generals and
"protectors of the fatherland" (_protettori della patria_), and began a
vigorous onslaught on the Genoese strongholds. They were helped now by
the sympathy and active aid of European powers, and in 1746 Count
Domenico Rivarola, a Corsican in Sardinian service, succeeded in
capturing Bastia and San Fiorenzo with the aid of a British squadron and
Sardinian troops. The factious spirit of the Corsicans themselves was,
however, their worst enemy. The British commander judged it inexpedient
to intervene in the affairs of a country of which the leaders were at
loggerheads; Rivarola, left to himself, was unable to hold Bastia--a
place of Genoese sympathies--and in spite of the collapse of Genoa
itself, now in Austrian hands, the Genoese governor succeeded in
maintaining himself in the island. By the time of the signature of the
peace of Aix-la-Chapelle, in 1748, the situation of the island had again
changed. Rivarola and Matra had departed, and Gaffori was left nominally
supreme over a people torn by intestine feuds. Genoa, too, had expelled
the Austrians with French aid, and, owing to a report that the king of
Sardinia was meditating a fresh attempt to conquer the island, a strong
French expedition under the marquis de Cursay had, at the request of the
republic, occupied Calvi, Bonifacio, Ajaccio and Bastia. By the terms of
the treaty of Aix-la-Chapelle, Corsica was once more assigned to Genoa,
but the French garrison remained, pending a settlement between the
republic and the islanders. In view of the intractable temper of the two
parties no agreement could be reached; but Cursay's personal popularity
served to preserve the peace for a while. His withdrawal in 1752,
however, was the signal for a general rising, and once more, at a diet
held at Orezza, Gaffori was elected general and protector. In October of
the following year, however, he fell victim to a _vendetta_ and the
nation was once more leaderless. His place was taken for a while by
Clemente Paoli, son of Giacinto, who for a year or two succeeded, with
the aid of other lieutenants of Gaffori, in holding the Genoese at bay.
He was, however, by temperament unfitted to lead a turbulent and
undisciplined people in time of stress, and in 1755, at his suggestion,
his brother Pasquale was invited to come from Naples and assume the
command.
Pasquale Paoli.
The first task of Pasquale Paoli, elected general in April at an
assembly at San Antonio della Casabianca, was to suppress the rival
faction led by Emanuele Matra, son of Gaffori's former colleague. By the
spring of 1756 this was done, and the Corsicans were able to turn a
united front against the Genoese. At this juncture the French, alarmed
by a supposed understanding between Paoli and the British, once more
intervened, and occupied Calvi, Ajaccio and San Fiorenzo until 1757,
when their forces were once more called away by the wars on the
continent. In 1758 Paoli renewed the attack on the Genoese, founding the
new port of Isola Rossa as a centre whence the Corsican ships could
attack the trading vessels of Genoa. The republic, indeed, was now too
weak to attempt seriously to reassert its sway over the island, which,
with the exception of the coast towns, Paoli ruled with absolute
authority and with conspicuous wisdom. In the intervals of fighting he
was occupied in reducing Corsican anarchy into some sort of civilized
order. The vendetta was put down, partly by religious influence, partly
with a stern hand; the surviving oppressive rights of the feudal
_signori_ were abolished; and the traditional institutions of the Terra
di Comune were made the basis of a democratic constitution for the whole
island.
Corsica sold to France.
As regarded the relations of Corsica all now depended on the attitude of
France to which both Paoli and the republic made overtures. In 1764 a
French expedition under the comte de Marbeuf arrived, and, by agreement
with Genoa, garrisoned three of the Genoese fortresses. Though Genoese
sovereignty had been expressly recognized in the agreement authorizing
this, it was in effect non-existent. French and Corsicans remained on
amicable terms, and the inhabitants of the nominally Genoese towns
actually sent representatives to the national _consulta_ or parliament.
The climax came early in 1767 when the Corsicans captured the Genoese
island of Capraja, and occupied Ajaccio and other places, evacuated by
the French as a protest against the asylum given to the Jesuits exiled
from France. Genoa now recognized that she had been worsted in the long
contest, and on the 15th of May 1768 signed a treaty selling the
sovereignty of the island to France.
French conquest.
The Corsicans, intent on independence, were now faced with a more
formidable enemy than the decrepit republic of Genoa. A section of the
people indeed, were in favour of submission; but Paoli himself declared
for resistance; and among those who supported him at the _consulta_
summoned to discuss the question was his secretary Carlo Buonaparte,
father of Napoleon Bonaparte, the future emperor of the French. Into the
details of the war that followed, it is impossible to enter here; in the
absence of the hoped-for help from Great Britain its issue could not be
doubtful; and, though the task of the French was a hard one, by the
summer of 1769 they were masters of the island. On the 16th of June
Pasquale and Clemente Paoli, with some 400 of their followers, embarked
on a British ship for Leghorn. On the 15th of September 1770, a general
assembly of the Corsicans was summoned and the deputies swore allegiance
to King Louis XV.
Corsica and the revolution of 1789.
Revolt under Paoli.
For twenty years Corsica, while preserving many of its old institutions,
remained a dependency of the French crown. Then came the Revolution, and
the island, conformed to the new model, was incorporated in France as a
separate department (see Renucci, ii. p. 271 seq.). Paoli, recalled from
exile by the National Assembly on the motion of Mirabeau, after a visit
to Paris, where he was acclaimed as "the hero and martyr of liberty" by
the National Assembly and the Jacobin Club, returned in 1790 to Corsica,
where he was received with immense enthusiasm and acclaimed as "father
of the country." With the new order in the island, however, he was
little in sympathy. In the towns branches of the Jacobin Club had been
established, and these tended, as elsewhere, to usurp the functions of
the regular organs of government and to introduce a new element of
discord into a country which it had been Paoli's life's work to unify.
Suspicions of his loyalty to revolutionary principles had already been
spread at Paris by Bartolomeo Arena, a Corsican deputy and ardent
Jacobin, so early as 1791; yet in 1792, after the fall of the monarchy,
the French government, in its anxiety to secure Corsica, was rash enough
to appoint him lieutenant-general of the forces and governor (_capo
comandante_) of the island. Paoli accepted an office which he had
refused two years before at the hands of Louis XVI. With the men and
methods of the Terror, however, he was wholly out of sympathy. Suspected
of throwing obstacles in the way of the expedition despatched in 1793
against Sardinia, he was summoned, with the procurator-general Pozzo di
Borgo, to the bar of the Convention. Paoli now openly defied the
Convention by summoning the representatives of the communes to meet in
diet at Corte on the 27th of May. To the remonstrances of Saliceti, who
attended the meeting, he replied that he was rebelling, not against
France, but against the dominant faction of whose actions the majority
of Frenchmen disapproved. Saliceti thereupon hurried to Paris, and on
his motion Paoli and his sympathizers were declared by the Convention
_hors la loi_ (June 26).
British occupation, 1794-1796.
Paoli had already made up his mind to raise the standard of revolt
against France. But though the _consulta_ at Corte elected him
president, Corsican opinion was by no means united. Napoleon Bonaparte,
whom Paoli had expected to win over to his views, indignantly rejected
the idea of a breach with France, and the Bonapartes were henceforth
ranked with his enemies. Paoli now appealed for assistance to the
British government, which despatched a considerable force. By the summer
of 1794, after hard fighting, the island was reduced, and in June the
Corsican assembly formally offered the sovereignty to King George III.
The British occupation lasted two years, the island being administered
by Sir Gilbert Elliot. Paoli, whose presence was considered inexpedient,
was invited to return to England, where he remained till his death. In
1796 Bonaparte, after his victorious Italian campaign, sent an
expedition against Corsica. The British, weary of a somewhat thankless
task, made no great resistance, and in October the island was once more
in French hands. It was again occupied by Great Britain for a short time
in 1814, but in the settlement of 1815 was restored to the French crown.
Its history henceforth is part of that of France.
See F. Girolami-Cortona, _Geographie generale de la Corse_ (Ajaccio,
1893); A. Andrei, _A travers la Corse_ (Paris, 1893); Forcioli-Conti,
_Notre Corse_ (Ajaccio, 1897); R. Le Joindre, _La Corse et les Corses_
(Paris, 1904); F. O. Renucci, _Storia di Corsica_ (2 vols., Bastia,
1833), fervidly Corsican, but useful; Antonio Pietro Filippini,
_Istoria di Corsica_ (1st ed., 1594; 2nd ed., corrected and
illustrated with unpublished documents by G. C. Gregori, 5 vols.,
Pisa, 1827-1832); J. M. Jacobi, _Hist. gen. de la Corse_, 2 vols.,
(Paris, 1833-1835), with many unpublished documents; L. H. Caird,
_History of Corsica_ (London, 1899). Further works and references to
articles in reviews, &c., are given in Ulysse Chevalier's _Repertoire
des sources_, &c., _Topo-bibliographie_, t. ii. s.v.