Kingdom of Sardinia (1324–1720)

The Kingdom of Sardinia was a feudal state in Southern Europe created in the early 14th century and a possession of the Crown of Aragon first and then of the Spanish Empire until 1708, then of the Habsburgs until 1717, and then of the Spanish Empire again until 1720.

The kingdom was a part of the Crown of Aragon and initially consisted of the islands of Sardinia and a claim to the island of Corsica, sovereignty over both of which was claimed by the papacy, which granted them as a fief, the Regnum Sardiniae et Corsicae (Kingdom of Sardinia and Corsica), to King James II of Aragon in 1297. Beginning in 1324, James and his successors conquered the island of Sardinia and established de facto their de jure authority. In 1420, after the Sardinian–Aragonese war, the last competing claim to the island was bought out. After the union of the crowns of Aragon and Castile, Sardinia became a part of the burgeoning Spanish Empire.

In 1720, the island was ceded by the Habsburg and Bourbon claimants to the Spanish throne to the Duke of Savoy, Victor Amadeus II of Savoy. Sardinia retained its autonomous institutions according to the treaty of cession until 1847, when King Charles Albert enacted the Perfect Fusion, which expanded to the island the centralized administrative system which was adopted by the mainland Savoyard state during the Napoleonic era.