Battle of Mentana
1867 military engagement, part of the Unification of Italy
The Battle of Mentana was fought on November 3, 1867, near the village of Mentana, located north-east of Rome (then in the Papal States, now modern Lazio), between French-Papal troops and the Italian volunteers led by Giuseppe Garibaldi. Garibaldi's troops tried to capture Rome, which was at that time the main Italian city not yet incorporated into the newly unified Kingdom of Italy. The battle ended in victory for the French-Papal troops, maintaining the independence of the Papal States until 1870.
Background
When the first Parliament of the Kingdom of Italy met in Turin, Victor Emmanuel II of Savoy was proclaimed King of Italy on March 17, 1861, and Rome was declared capital of Italy on March 27, 1861. However, the Italian government could not take its seat in Rome because Emperor Napoleon III maintained a French garrison there to prop up Pope Pius IX. This created an unstable political situation that led to much strife, both internal and external. In 1862 Giuseppe Garibaldi organized an expedition from Sicily, under the slogan Roma o Morte (Rome or Death) that attempted to take Rome. However, after crossing the Straits of Messina, the expedition was stopped at Aspromonte (known as the Aspromonte incident of 1862) by Italian troops. Garibaldi was wounded, taken prisoner, but subsequently released. Opposition to the expedition was forced on the Italian government by Napoleon III, who threatened military intervention if Garibaldi were not stopped.
On September 15, 1864, the September Convention was signed by the Italian government and Napoleon III. The Italian government agreed to protect the Papal States against external menaces and agreed to move the capital of Italy from Turin to Florence.
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Named sources, stable identifiers and responsible institutions provide the strongest route from overview to verifiable evidence. The source revision retrieved here is dated Sep 22, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q2530200. The Library of Congress control number is sh85083718. 1 of 1 selected statements include explicit references; 1 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1867, 1870, 1861 and 1862.
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This entry incorporates text from “Battle of Mentana” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.