Garibaldi’s rival for the love of Giuseppina

He spent his last day of life in Siberia, where he had been imprisoned by the Tsarist regime because he had fought against the Russians in the Polish revolt of 1863. The Garibaldian Luigi Caroli was 31 years old, had been hit by a brain infection and yes He was off with great suffering in the night between 7 and 8 June 1865 away from the homeland and affections. With him he had a miniature with the image of the woman he loved, Giuseppina Raimondi. She had been for only one day the wife of Giuseppe Garibaldi, His hero, the general for whom the patriot from Bergamo would have given his life, but that life upset it.

Valorous cavalry officer in the army of Vittorio Emanuele II

Caroli belonged to a rich family, from a young age he had spent on the cause of Italian unification and enlisted in the army of Vittorio Emanuele II. Skilled Cavallerizzo, he served first in the body of the Corazzieri and then as a lieutenant in the Piedmont Royal Regiment Cavalggeri di Saluzzo. He participated in the battles of Magenta and Solferino (4 and 24 June 1859) and distinguished himself by value, so much so that Napoleon III insign him to the commemorative medal of the Italian countryside intended for the French only. From his experience he immediately drew the ideal momentum of allocating substantial family heritage funds to arm the army and provide equipment and medicines for hospitals. The second war of independence closed, He got excited about Giuseppe Garibaldi’s project of an expedition to Sicily to unite southern Italy to the Savoy Kingdom, and therefore asked for expectation from the royal army with or the purpose of being able to join the red shirts of his hero so admired. But fate had decided otherwise.

The love at first sight for the natural daughter of the Marquis Odescalchi

In the Milanese lounges that the beautiful tennte Bergamasco frequented having a certain success between the fairer sex, had known Giuseppina Raimondi, a natural daughter (only subsequently legitimized) of the Marquis Giorgio Raimondi Odescalchi Mantica, Mazziniano. The eighteen year old Giuseppina, who had previously had a relationship with the noble cousin, patriot and colonel Pietro Rovelli, was not insensitive to the charm of Caroli, and therefore they became lovers. In Como it was also located at that time Giuseppe GaribaldiFriend of Raimondi, that June 1859 had accidentally seen Giuseppina he had fallen in love with, despite being already 52 years old. And so Caroli’s idol began to storm the young man of love letters, to whom Giuseppina first replied coldly, then suddenly he agreed to marry him, as soon as possible. Caroli then truncated the relationship.

The wedding with religious rite were celebrated with pomp and with rank guests on January 24, 1860 in the Villa Raimondi, after a couple of postponements imposed by a horse fall of Garibaldi and a disease of the promised bride.

The hero of the two worlds in love with the eighteen year old. Wedding and immediate repudiation

The bomb exploded during lunch. The Marquis Rovelli, cousin of the Neosignora Garibaldi and his former lover, triggered it, who passed to the general a letter in which the love of the love of Giuseppina proved to be the past and he was waiting for a child. We do not know if the letter wrote it Rovelli or Caroli, Out of jealousy, but the fact is that Garibaldi insulted his wife, who put on the narrow he admitted everything, and repudiated her to sit down (but the cancellation would only arrive in 1880). The general returned to Caprera from where he worked on the expedition of the thousand. But the lieutenant Caroli could not be part of those thousands, although he wished him ardently, and not only for the fact that in mid -February he moved with Giuseppina in Switzerland, where he remained until July. Garibaldi answered no to his request to leave with the red shirts And also to enter the southern army, and a third no will come for the Aspromonte company.

Refused by red shirt companies, in Poland to fight and die from freedom

As for Giuseppina, the relationship with Caroli went almost immediately to shatter and the son given to light was born dead. Despite Garibaldi’s ostracism, Caroli became Garibaldino in 1863, with the uprising on January 23 of Warsaw against Russian oppression. The decision to fight together with the Poles was taken together with his friend Francesco Nullo, also Bergamo, a red shirt colonel, one of the thousand, who had vainly tried to shin the hero of the two worlds who had incited the Caprera: ” Do not abandon Poland.

In the unfortunate battle of Krzykawka, near Olkusz, however, Nullo was killed in combat (in Poland he is considered national hero) and Caroli taken prisoner. It was May 5, 1863. Sentenced to death by hanging, he refused to sign the demand for grace and He only asked the honor of being shot in the chest. The Tsarist Authorities switched to the death penalty in 12 years of forced labor and the Life deportation to Siberia. The attempts of Caroli’s brother, who, not even with the corruption and the offer of large sums of money, succeeded in the company to free him, are useless. To reach the prison camp, on the borders with Manchuria, eight months of travel, from July to February 1864. To keep the mind committed Caroli, he committed himself to the study of English, French, Russian, history, philosophy, economy.

His sister Elisa managed to make him have a miniature of Giuseppina. When he died his coffin was brought to his shoulder by four Poles patriots. On the wooden cross that surmounted his tomb dug into the rock, they engraved: “To Luigi Caroli Italiano, the Polish exiles”.