Crema, Lombardy
By the 1859 Treaty of Zurich which ended the Austro-Sardinian War, Austria ceded Lombardy, including Crema, to France, who then immediately ceded it to Sardinia. This formed part of the "Risorgimento", which saw Sardinia become the Kingdom of Italy in 1861. In 1946, the Kingdom became the modern Italian Republic.
History of Sardinia
From the mid-11th century the Judicates ("held by judges") appeared. The title of "Judex" (judge, "judike" in Sardinian) was an heir of that of the Byzantine governor after the creation of the Exarchate of Africa in 582 ("Prases" or "Judex Provinciae"). In the 8th and 9th centuries the four "partes" depending from Caralis grew increasingly independent, after that Byzantium was totally cut off from the Tyrrhenian Sea by the Muslim conquest of Sicily in 827. A letter from Pope Nicholas I in 864 mentions for the first time the Sardinian judges, and their autonomy is clear in a later letter by Pope John VIII, which defined them as "Princes". A letter by Mieszko I to Pope John XV proves that the Judicates were known even in Poland, and that they played a prestigious role in Medieval Europe.