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Victor Emmanuel II Of Italy

Victor Emmanuel II (Vittorio Emanuele II; 14 March 1820 – 9 January 1878) was the King of Piedmont, Savoy, and Sardinia from 1849 to 1861. On 18 February 1861, he assumed the title King of Italy to become the first king of a united Italy, a title he held until his death in 1878. The Italians gave him the epithet ''Father of the Fatherland'' (Padre della Patria).


Victor Emmanuel was born in Turin, the eldest son of Charles Albert of Sardinia and Maria Theresa of Austria and Tuscany. His father was King of Piedmont-Sardinia. He lived for some years of his youth in Florence, and showed an early interest in politics, the military, and sports.

He took part in the First Italian War of Independence under his father, fighting in the front line at the battles of Pastrengo, Santa Lucia, Goito and Custoza.

He became King of Piedmont-Sardinia in 1849 when his father had abdicated the throne after a humiliating military defeat by the Austrians at Novara. Victor Emmanuel was immediately able to obtain a rather favourable armistice at Vignale by the Austrian commander, Radetzky. The treaty, however, was not ratified by the Piedmontese chamber, and Victor Emmanuel retaliated by firing Prime Minister Claudio Gabriele de Launay, replacing him with Massimo D'Azeglio. After new elections, the peace with Austria was accepted by the new Chamber of Deputies. In 1849 he also fiercely suppressed the revolt in Genoa, defining the rebels as a "vile and infected race of canailles".

In 1852, Victor Emmanuel II gave Count Camillo di Cavour the title of Prime Minister. This turned out to be a wise choice because Cavour was a political mastermind and was a major player in Italian unification in his own right. Victor Emmanuel II soon became the symbol of the Italian Risorgimento, the Italian unification movement. He was especially popular in the Kingdom of Sardinia because of his respect for the new constitution and his liberal reforms.

Crimean War

Following Victor Emmanuel's advice, Cavour joined Britain and France in the Crimean War against Russia. Cavour was cautious to go to war due to the power of Russia at the time and the expense of doing so. Victor Emmanuel, however was convinced of the rewards which would be gained from the alliance which would be created between Britain and more importantly with France. After successfully seeking British support and ingratiating himself with France and Napoleon III at the Congress of Paris in 1856, following the end of the war, Count Cavour arranged a secret meeting with the French emperor. In 1858, they met at Plombières-les-Bains (in the Lorraine), where they agreed that if the French were to help Piedmont combat Austria, still occupying the Kingdom of Lombardy-Venetia in northern Italy, France would be awarded Nice and Savoy.

At the time Victor Emmanuel had become a universal symbol of the Italian Risorgimento, the movement pushing towards the unification of Italy.

Wars of Italian Unification

The Italo-French campaign against Austria in 1859 started successfully. However, scared by the serious casualties for France, Napoleon III secretly made a treaty with Franz Joseph of Austria at Villafranca whereby Piedmont gained only Lombardy. France did not as a result receive the promised Nice and Savoy, Austria however did keep Venetia, a major setback for the Piedmontese, also because the treaty had been prepared without their knowledge. After several quarrels for the outcome of the war, Cavour resigned, and the king had to find other advisors. France indeed only gained Nice and Savoy after The Treaty of Turin in March 1860 upon Cavour being reinstalled as Prime Minister and him striking a deal with the French for plebicites to take place in the Central Italian Duchies.

Later that same year,Victor Emmanuel II sent his forces to fight the papal army at Castelfidardo and drove the Pope into Vatican City. Victor Emmanuel II’s success at these goals got him excommunicated from the Catholic Church. Then, plebiscites in Naples and Sicily called for union with Sardinia-Piedmont and Italy grew even larger. On 18 February 1861 the Kingdom of Italy was officially established and Victor Emmanuel II became its king. Later, in 1866, Italy was given Venetia as part of the peace settlement after the Seven Weeks War. Five years after that (1871), the Papal States, protected by Napoleon III (an action motivated by his need to please Catholics in France), fell to Italian troops and Rome became the capital city.

Victor Emmanuel supported Giuseppe Garibaldi's Expedition of Thousand (1860-1861), which resulted in the quick fall of the Kingdom of the Two Sicilies in southern Italy. However, the King halted Garibaldi when he appeared ready to attack Rome, still under the Papal States, as it was under French protection. In 1860, through local plebiscites, Tuscany, Modena, Parma and Romagna decided to side with Sardinia-Piedmont. Victor Emmanuel then marched victoriously in the Marche and Umbria after the victorious battle of Castelfidardo (1860) over the Papal forces, after which he gained a Papal excommunication.

The King subsequently met with Garibaldi at Teano, receiving from him the control of southern Italy. Another series of plebiscites in the occupied lands resulted in the proclamation of Victor Emmanuel as the first King of Italy by the new Parliament of unified Italy, on 17 March 1861. Turin became the capital of the new state. Only Rome, Veneto and Trentino remained to be conquered.

Completion of the unification

In 1866 Victor Emmanuel allied with Prussia in the Third Italian War of Independence. Although not victorious in the Italian theater, he managed anyway to receive Veneto after the Austrian defeat in Germany. In 1871, after two failed attempts by Garibaldi, he also took advantage of the Prussian victory over France in the Franco-Prussian War to capture Rome after the French withdrew. He entered Rome on 20 September 1871, setting there the new capital on 2 July 1871, (after the momentary move to Florence in 1864). The new Royal residence was the Quirinal Palace.

The rest of Victor Emmanuel II’s reign was much quieter. After the Kingdom of Italy was established he decided to continue on as King Victor Emmanuel II instead of Victor Emmanuel I of Italy. This was a terrible move as far as public relations went as it was not indicative of the fresh start that the Italian people wanted and suggested that Sardinia-Piedmont had taken over the Italian Peninsula, rather than unifying it. Despite this mishap, the remainder of Victor Emmanuel II’s reign was consumed by wrapping up loose ends and dealing with economical and cultural issues.

Victor Emmanuel died in Rome in 1878, just after the reversal of excommunication by Pope Pius IX's envoys. He was buried in the Pantheon. His successor was his son Umberto I.

Family and children

In 1842 he married his cousin Maria Adelaide of Habsburg (1822-1855). By her he had eight children:
*Maria Clotilde (1843-1911), who married Napoléon Joseph (''the Prince Napoléon''). Their grandson Prince Louis Napoléon was the Bonapartist pretender to the French imperial throne.
*Umberto (1844-1900), later King of Italy.
*Amedeo (1845-1890), later King of Spain.
*Oddone Eugenio Maria (1846-1866), Duke of Montferrat.
*Maria Pia (1847-1911), who married Louis of Portugal.
* Carlo Alberto (1851-1854), Duke of Chablais.
* Vittorio Emanuele (6 July 1852–6 July 1852).
* Vittorio Emanuele (18 January 1855–17 May 1855), Count of Genoa.

In 1869 he married morganatically his principal mistress Rosa Vercellana (3 June 1833–26 December 1885). Popularly known in Piedmontese as “Bela Rosin”, she was born a commoner but made Countess of Mirafiori and Fontanafredda in 1858. Their offspring were:
* Vittoria Guerrieri (2 December 1848-1905), married three times and had issue.
* Emanuele Alberto Guerrieri (16 March 1851-1894), Count of Mirafiori and Fontanafredda, married and had issue.

Further offspring from other mistresses included:

Laura Bon at Stupinigi:

* Stillborn son (1852).
* Emanuela Maria Alberta Vittoria di Roverbella (6 September 1853-1880/1890).

Virginia Rho at Turin:

* Vittorio di Rho (1861-Turin, 10 October 1913). He became a notable photographer.
* Maria Pia di Rho (25 February 1866-Vienna, 19 April 1947).

Unknown Mistress at Mondovì:

* Donato Etna (15 June 1858- Turin, 11 December 1938). He became a much decorated soldier.

Baroness Vittoria Duplessis:

* A daughter, perhaps named Savoiarda. She died as an infant.


Source: Wikipedia