User blog comment:John Breasly/Getting a "Little" Mad/@comment-3112181-20120826153756/@comment-3112181-20120826155528

Wow, okay, I did a little more research, and as it turns out, "Savoy" is an independent ruling house, of which Sardinia becomes apart of. Taken from wikipedia:

"In 1479, as a result of the marriage of Ferdinand II of Aragon and Isabel of Castile, the 'Kingdom of Sardinia' (which was separated from Corsica) became Spanish, with the state symbol of the Four Moors. Following the failure of the military ventures against the Muslims of Tunis (1535) and Algiers (1541), Charles V of Spain, in order to defend his Mediterranean territories from pirate raids by the African Berbers, fortified the Sardinian shores with a system of coastal lookout towers.

The Kingdom of Sardinia remained Spanish for approximately 400 years, from 1323 to 1720, assimilating a number of Spanish traditions, customs and linguistic expressions, nowadays vividly portrayed in the folklore parades of Saint Efisio in Cagliari (May 1), the Cavalcade on Sassari (last but one Sunday in May), and the Redeemer in Nuoro (August 28).

In 1708, as a consequence of the Spanish War of Succession, the rule of the Kingdom of Sardinia passed into the hands of the Austrians who occupied the island. In 1717 Cardinal Giulio Alberoni, minister of Philip V of Spain, reoccupied Sardinia. In 1718, with the Treaty of London, Sardinia was handed over to the House of Savoy."