Following the notarial deed of Paris, the king, His Majesty Victor Amadeus of Savoy, ordered the seizure of Seborga.
An entire legion of the Savoyard army went to the territories of Seborga.
When Savoy took possession, with “ample freedom of method” — to justify the use of a legion that could face a hypothetical conflict with the Genoese, as provided by the deed of sale of the lawyer Francesco Lea, royal delegate of the House of Savoy — the remaining sum of 132,000 Savoyard lire was to reach the Fathers of Lérins to be transferred to the Republic of Genoa, as ordered by the Supreme Pontiff Benedict XIII and his delegate, to pay the debts previously contracted by the monks.
Knowing full well that this balance would never be received or settled — the Republic of Genoa having exerted countless pressures on the Holy See to obtain prior authorisation for the alienation of the former Principality of Sabourg — the House of Savoy took possession of Seborga in agreement with the monks, at the very moment when the notarial deed was signed in Paris on 30 January 1729.
An effective taking of possession was organised with an official oath by the consuls and mayors of Seborga and by all the subjects of Seborga, in the presence of the Savoyard garrison.
The monks of Lérins left the abbatial territory of the Principality of Sabourg for good in 1730.
Thanks to their purchase, the House of Savoy continued its occupation, regarded as illegitimate by the Genoese.
Several drafts are kept in the State Archives of Turin, but they do not prove that the debts were actually paid through the settlement of the 132,000 lire of Savoyard currency to the Republic of Genoa, since no registered receipt exists.
A deed drawn up and transcribed by Charles Franchi, archivist to the King, dated 10 August 1797, records a payment guarantee that the lawyer Francesco Lea gave to Father Benoît on the day of the sale, for an amount of 186,000 Savoyard lire.
According to the deed, this guarantee was to take effect if the balance of the remaining 132,000 Savoyard lire was not paid.
No information about this payment guarantee, to be returned at the time of the effective territorial occupation by Savoy of the former abbatial principality of Seborga, appears to have existed, nor is it mentioned in the original deed of sale. It may therefore be supposed that the king of Sardinia had it drawn up to avoid further disputes with the Republic of Genoa, placing all responsibility on the fathers of Lérins.
The Republic of Genoa, evidently unaware of the situation the House of Savoy had created thanks to the complicity of the monks of Lérins, the tacit assent of the archbishop of Embrun and probably also the indifference of the Supreme Pontiff, pressed the Holy See after the deed to expel Savoy from Seborga.
Following these many pressures, Pope Benedict XIV was obliged, in 1748, to regularise the Savoyard occupation by issuing a papal bull (Bulla Pontificalis) sanctioning the Savoyard protectorate over Seborga. The document is said to be kept in the secret archives of the Holy See (source: Don Antonio Allaria Olivieri).
Proof of this assertion can be seen every day in Seborga, in the statue erected by the inhabitants of Seborga to King Umberto I, dated 20 September 1920, on which the following words are inscribed: Seborga, through the centuries faithful to the Protecting Dynasty.
The so-called abbatial Principality of Seborga was annexed to the Savoyard dominions on 30 January 1729, but it had no right to bear the title of Prince, which could be held only by a religious; this is why the statue erected on 20 September 1929 bears the inscription “Seborga…” and not, for example, “the subjects of the Principality…”.
Seborga was administered by the House of Savoy until 1946 and, after the advent of the Republic, was annexed de facto to the Italian State.
That is why Seborga is Italian territory today.
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