Cairoli, Benedetto

Related Category: Italian History: Biographies

(bānādĕt´tō kīrô´lē), 1825–89, Italian patriot and premier. One of five brothers all noted as heroes of the Risorgimento, he was the only brother to survive the wars leading to Italian unification. Benedetto took part in the expedition of Giuseppe Garibaldi to Sicily in 1860 and later became a leftist member of parliament, advocating, with Giuseppe Mazzini, the occupation of Rome. Premier in 1878 and from 1879 to 1881, he resigned his office after failing to prevent the establishment of a French protectorate over Tunisia, which was a blow to Italian colonial policy.