Statuto Albertino

The Statuto Albertino was the constitution granted by King Charles Albert of Sardinia on 4 March 1848, during the revolutionary upheavals of that year, establishing a constitutional monarchy for the Kingdom of Sardinia. It made Roman Catholicism the state religion, created a bicameral parliament made up of an appointed Senate and an elected Chamber of Deputies, restricted the vote at first to wealthy men over twenty five, and left the king substantial powers including command of the armed forces, the negotiation of treaties and the appointment of ministers. When Italian unification was proclaimed in 1861 the Statuto became the fundamental law of the new Kingdom of Italy, and it remained in force for nearly a century, until the Italian republican constitution took effect on 1 January 1948. Its flexible, relatively short text allowed the country's system of government to evolve gradually from a monarchy governed largely by royal prerogative toward full parliamentary rule, and its bicameral structure continued to shape Italian constitutional design after its own replacement. This description is adapted from Wikipedia contributors under CC BY-SA 4.0; changes were made. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/