Ciro Menotti was an Italian

Italy

Italy , officially the Italian Republic languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Italy's official name is as follows:;;;;;;;;), is a unitary parliamentary republic in South-Central Europe. To the north it borders France, Switzerland, Austria and...

 patriot.

Biography

Menotti was born in Migliarina, near Carpi, then part of the Duchy of Modena and Reggio

Duchy of Modena and Reggio

The Duchy of Modena and Reggio |Italian]] state that existed from 1452 to 1859, with a break between 1796 and 1814. It was ruled by the noble House of Este, from 1814 Austria-Este.-House of Este:...

.

A member of the Carboneria since 1817, he was a fervent democratic and patriot. From 1820 he held contacts with French intellectuals, with the goal to free Modena from the Austrian

Austrian Empire

The Austrian Empire was a modern era successor empire, which was centered on what is today's Austria and which officially lasted from 1804 to 1867. It was followed by the Empire of Austria-Hungary, whose proclamation was a diplomatic move that elevated Hungary's status within the Austrian Empire...

 hegemony.

Initially, duke Francis IV

Francis IV, Duke of Modena

Francis IV Joseph Charles Ambrose Stanislaus was Duke of Modena, Reggio, and Mirandola , Duke of Massa and Prince of Carrara , Archduke of Austria-Este, Royal Prince of Hungary and Bohemia, Knight of the Order of the Golden Fleece...

 declared favorably for Menotti's claim, probably encouraged at the possibility of becoming its king in a future unified Northern Italy. Menotti organized a revolt in Modena for February 3, 1831 but, in a brusque volte-face

Volte-face

Volte-face is a total change of position, as in policy or opinion; an about-face.The expression comes through French, from Italian voltafaccia and Portuguese volte face, composed of volta and faccia ....

, Francis denied him his support, and even, from his voluntary exile in Mantua

Mantua

Mantua is a city and comune in Lombardy, Italy and capital of the province of the same name. Mantua's historic power and influence under the Gonzaga family, made it one of the main artistic, cultural and notably musical hubs of Northern Italy and the country as a whole...

, called the help of Austria and its allies.

Menotti was arrested and, after a summary process, condemned to death by hanging. The sentence was executed in the Citadel of Modena

Modena

Modena is a city and comune on the south side of the Po Valley, in the Province of Modena in the Emilia-Romagna region of Italy....

.

Afterwards Menotti become the idealized figure of patriotic martyr of the Italian Risorgimento. In 1880 the former Garibaldine

Giuseppe Garibaldi

Giuseppe Garibaldi was an Italian military and political figure. In his twenties, he joined the Carbonari Italian patriot revolutionaries, and fled Italy after a failed insurrection. Garibaldi took part in the War of the Farrapos and the Uruguayan Civil War leading the Italian Legion, and...

 officer Taddeo Grandi wrote a biography of him. A monument in Modena was built to Menotti in 1879, facing the former Grand Dukes palace.

Giuseppe Garibaldi named one of his children Menotti after him.