Crowned in Palermo as King of Sicily, Victor Amadeus remained on the island for about a year, during which time he tried to enact a program of reforms capable of shaking the Sicilian system from the numbness that had swept over it for centuries. In 1714 the king returned to Turin, leaving a Piedmontese viceroy, Annibale Maffei, unwelcome to the Sicilian aristocratic society that lived on squandering and indebtedness, and rigidly tied to its privileges. AC, 346.