Editing Massimo d'Azeglio (section)

==Early political career==
[[File:D'AZEGLIO-Vita di lago con barca.jpg|thumb|left|D'Azeglio in ''Life on the Lake with a Boat'']]
He led an abstemious life in Rome, maintaining himself by painting [[Romanticism|Romantic]] landscapes which frequently included historical subjects. He also painted scenes for a self-composed opera.<ref>*{{cite book|first=Michael|last=Bryan|year=1889|title=Dictionary of Painters and Engravers, Biographical and Critical |volume=II L-Z |editor=Walter Armstrong |editor2=Robert Edmund Graves |page=551 |publisher=George Bell and Sons|location=London|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=K2cCAAAAYAAJ}}</ref><ref>[https://books.google.com/books?id=V-lMAQAAMAAJ ''Modern Italian Painters''], article by JM, The Westminster Review, 1841, Volume 35, page 387.</ref> In 1830 he returned to Turin and, after his father's death in 1831, moved to [[Milan]]. He resided in Milan for twelve years, moving in the city's literary and artistic circles and, in 1834, helped to organise the ''Salotto Maffei'' [[salon (gathering)|salon]], hosted by [[Clara Maffei]]. He became an intimate of [[Alessandro Manzoni]] the novelist, whose daughter he married. At that point, literature instead of art became his chief occupation; he produced two historical novels, ''Niccolò dei Lapi'' and ''[[Ettore Fieramosca (novel)|Ettore Fieramosca]]'', in imitation of [[Walter Scott]]. The novels had a strong political context, with d'Azeglio aiming to illustrate the evils of foreign domination in Italy and to reawaken national feeling.{{sfn|Chisholm|1911}}

In 1845, d'Azeglio visited [[Romagna]] as an unauthorized political envoy, to report on its conditions and the troubles which he foresaw would break out on the death of [[Pope Gregory XVI]]. The following year he published his famous pamphlet ''Degli ultimi casi di Romagna'' at [[Florence]]; as a consequence of this he was expelled from [[Grand Duchy of Tuscany|Tuscany]]. He spent the next few months in Rome, sharing the general enthusiasm over the supposed liberalism of the new pope, [[Pope Pius IX|Pius IX]]; like [[Vincenzo Gioberti]] he believed in an Italian confederation under papal auspices and was opposed to the Radical wing of the Liberal party. His political activity increased and he wrote various other pamphlets, among which was ''I lutti di Lombardia'' (1848).{{sfn|Chisholm|1911}}

On the outbreak of the [[First Italian War of Independence]], d'Azeglio donned the Papal uniform and took part under General [[Giovanni Durando]] in the defence of [[Vicenza]], where he was severely wounded. He retired to Florence to recover, but as he opposed the ruling democrats he was expelled from Tuscany a second time. He was now a famous man, and early in 1849 King [[Charles Albert of Sardinia]], invited him to form a cabinet. Realizing how impossible it was to renew the campaign, but "not having the heart to sign, in such wretched internal and external conditions, a treaty of peace with Austria" (''{{lang|fr|Correspondance politique}}'', by E Rendu), he refused.<!-- This last sentence is not clear -->{{sfn|Chisholm|1911}}