Victor Emmanuel II

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Victor Emmanuel II
Victor Emmanuel, c. 1861
King of Italy (more...)
Reign	17 March 1861 – 9 January 1878
Predecessor	Napoleon (1814)
Successor	Umberto I
Prime ministers	See list Alfonso Ferrero la Marmora Luigi Federico Menabrea Giovanni Lanza Agostino Depretis
Prime ministers		See list Massimo D'Azeglio Camillo Cavour Alfonso Ferrero La Marmora
Born	14 March 1820 Palazzo Carignano, Turin, Kingdom of Sardinia
Died	9 January 1878(1878-01-09) (aged 57) Quirinal Palace, Rome, Kingdom of Italy
Burial	Pantheon, Rome
Spouse	Adelaide of Austria ​ ​ (m. 1842; died 1855)​ morganatic ) ​ ​ (m. 1869)​
Issue see details...	Maria Clotilde, Princess Napoléon Umberto I of Italy Amadeo I of Spain Oddone, Duke of Montferrat Maria Pia, Queen of Portugal
Names Italian: Vittorio Emanuele Maria Alberto Eugenio Ferdinando Tommaso English: Victor Emmanuel Maria Albert Eugene Ferdinand Thomas
Roman Catholicism
Signature

Victor Emmanuel II (

Victor Emmanuel supported the Expedition of the Thousand (1860–1861) led by Giuseppe Garibaldi, which resulted in the rapid fall of the Kingdom of the Two Sicilies in southern Italy. However, Victor Emmanuel halted Garibaldi when he appeared ready to attack Rome, still under the Papal States, as it was under French protection. In 1860, Tuscany, Modena, Parma and Romagna decided to side with Sardinia, and Victor Emmanuel then marched victoriously in the Marche and Umbria after the victorious Battle of Castelfidardo over the Papal forces. This led to his excommunication from the Catholic Church until 1878, just before his death in the same year. He subsequently met Garibaldi at Teano, receiving from him the control of southern Italy and becoming the first King of Italy on 17 March 1861.

In 1866, the Third Italian War of Independence allowed Italy to annex Veneto. In 1870, Victor Emmanuel also took advantage of the Prussian victory over France in the Franco-Prussian War to conquer the Papal States after the French withdrew. He entered Rome on 20 September 1870 and set up the new capital there on 2 July 1871. He died in Rome in 1878, and was buried in the Pantheon.

The Italian national

Biography

Victor Emmanuel was born as the eldest son of

He took part in the

Crimean War

Following Victor Emmanuel's advice, Cavour joined Britain and France in the Crimean War against Russia. Cavour was reluctant 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 to be gained from the alliance created with Britain and, more importantly, France.

After successfully seeking British support and ingratiating himself with France and Napoleon III at the

The Italo-French campaign against Austria in 1859 started successfully. However, sickened by the casualties of the war and worried about the mobilisation of Prussian troops, Napoleon III secretly made a treaty with

Victor Emmanuel supported Giuseppe Garibaldi's Expedition of the Thousand (1860–1861), which resulted in the rapid 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 Piedmont-Sardinia. Victor Emmanuel then marched victoriously in the Marche and Umbria after the victorious battle of Castelfidardo (1860) over the Papal forces.

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. He did not renumber himself after assuming the new royal title, however. Turin became the capital of the new state. Only Lazio, Veneto, and Trentino remained to be conquered.

Completion of the unification

In 1866 Victor Emmanuel allied himself with Prussia in the Third Italian War of Independence. Although not victorious in the Italian theatre, he managed to receive Veneto after the Austrian defeat in Germany. The British Foreign Secretary, Lord Clarendon, visited Florence in December 1867 and reported to London after talking to various Italian politicians: "There is universal agreement that Victor Emmanuel is an imbecile; he is a dishonest man who tells lies to everyone; at this rate, he will end up losing his crown and ruining both Italy and his dynasty."^[3] In 1870, 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 1870 and set up the new capital there on 2 July 1871, after a temporary 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 Piedmont-Sardinia 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 economic and cultural issues. His role in day-to-day governing gradually dwindled, as it became increasingly apparent that a king could no longer keep a government in office against the will of Parliament. As a result, while the wording of the Statuto Albertino stipulating that ministers were solely responsible to the crown remained unchanged, in practice they were now responsible to Parliament.

Victor Emmanuel died in Rome in 1878, after meeting with the envoys of

In 1842 he married his paternal first cousin (aunt's daughter) Adelaide of Austria (1822–1855). With her, he had eight children:^[5]

• Prince Louis Napoléon
  was the Bonapartist pretender to the French imperial throne.

• Umberto (1844–1900), later King of Italy. He married his first cousin Margherita of Savoy.
• Maria Letizia Bonaparte
  .
• Oddone Eugenio Maria (1846–1866), Duke of Montferrat.
• Louis of Portugal
  .
• Carlo Alberto (2 June 1851 – 28 June 1854), Duke of Chablais.
• Vittorio Emanuele (6 July 1852 – 6 July 1852).
• Vittorio Emanuele (18 January 1855 – 17 May 1855), Count of Geneva.

In 1869 he married

In addition to his morganatic second wife, Victor Emmanuel II had several other mistresses:

1) Laura Bon at Stupinigi, who bore him two children:

• Stillborn child (1852-1852).
• Emanuela of Roverbella (6 September 1853 – 1896).

2) Baroness Vittoria Duplesis who bore him another daughter:

• Maria Savoiarda Projetti (1854–1885/1888).

3) Unknown mistress at Mondovì, mother of:

• Donato Etna (1858–1938) who became a soldier during the First World War.

4) Virginia Rho at Turin, mother of two children:

• Vittorio di Rho (1861 – Turin, 10 October 1913). He became a notable photographer.
• Maria Pia di Rho (25 February 1866 – Vienna, 19 April 1947). Married to count Alessandro Montecuccoli.

5) Rosalinda Incoronata De Domenicis (1846–1916), mother of one daughter:

• Vittoria De Domenicis (1869–1935) who married doctor Alberto Benedetti (1870–1920), with issue.

6) Angela Rosa De Filippo, mother of:

• Actor Domenico Scarpetta (1876–1952)

Honours and arms

Italian

• Knight of the Order of the Annunciation, 23 December 1836;^[6] Grand Master, 23 March 1849
• Grand Cross of the Order of Saints Maurice and Lazarus, 1836; Grand Master, 23 March 1849
• Grand Master of the
  Military Order of Savoy
• Grand Master of the Order of the Crown of Italy
• Grand Master of the Civil Order of Savoy
• Gold Medal of Military Valour
• Silver Medal of Military Valour
• Medal of the Liberation of Rome (1849–1870)
• Commemorative Medal of Campaigns of Independence Wars
• Commemorative Medal of the Unity of Italy
• Tuscan Grand Ducal family: Grand Cross of the Order of St. Joseph^[7]

Foreign

•  Austrian Empire:
  • Knight of the Order of the Golden Fleece, 1841^[8]
  • Grand Cross of the
    Order of St. Stephen, 1869^[9]
•  Baden:^[10]
  • Knight of the House Order of Fidelity, 1864
  • Grand Cross of the Order of the Zähringer Lion, 1864
•  
  Order of St. Hubert, 1869^[11]
•  Belgium: Grand Cordon of the Order of Leopold, 25 July 1855^[12]
•  Denmark: Knight of the Order of the Elephant, 2 September 1861^[13]
• French Empire:
  • Médaille militaire
  • Commemorative medal of the 1859 Italian Campaign
•  Kingdom of Hawaii: Grand Cross of the Order of Kamehameha I, 1865^[14]
• Mexican Empire: Grand Cross of the Order of the Mexican Eagle, with Collar, 1865^[15]
• Kingdom of Prussia:^[16]
  • Knight of the Order of the Black Eagle, 12 January 1866; with Collar, 1875
  • Pour le Mérite (military), 29 May 1872
•  Kingdom of Saxony: Knight of the Order of the Rue Crown, 1850^[17]
• Order of the Seraphim, 30 August 1861^[18]
• Beylik of Tunis: Husainid Family Order^[19]
•  United Kingdom: Stranger Knight of the Order of the Garter, 5 December 1855^[20]

Arms

Arms as knight of the Golden Fleece	Coat of arms as King of Sardinia (1849–1861)	Greater coat of arms as King of Italy (1861–1878)

Ancestry

See also

• Unification of Italy
• Camillo Benso, Count of Cavour
• Giuseppe Garibaldi
• Victor Emmanuel II Monument
• Rome
• Kingdom of Italy
• Italian Islands of the Aegean
• Italian Libya
• Italian East Africa
• Italian Ethiopia
• Emperor of Ethiopia
• Pietro Badoglio

Notes

References

Sources

• Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). "Victor Emmanuel II." . Encyclopædia Britannica. Vol. 28 (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press.
• Mack Smith, Denis, 1920-2017. (1972). [Victor Emanuel, Cavour and the Risorgimento.] Vittorio Emanuele II. (Traduzione ... di Jole Bertolazzi.). Laterza.
  OCLC 504679452.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link) CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link
  )
• Thayer, William Roscoe (1911). The Life and Times of Cavour vol 1. old interpretations but useful on details; vol 1 goes to 1859]; volume 2 online covers 1859–62

In Italian

• Del Boca, Lorenzo (1998). Maledetti Savoia. Casale Monferrato: Piemme.
• Gasparetto, Pier Francesco (1984). Vittorio Emanuele II. Milan: Rusconi.
• Mack Smith, Denis (1995). Vittorio Emanuele II. Milan: Mondadori.
• Pinto, Paolo (1997). Vittorio Emanuele II: il re avventuriero. Milan: Mondadori.
• Rocca, Gianni (1993). Avanti, Savoia!: miti e disfatte che fecero l'Italia, 1848–1866. Milan: Mondadori.

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Vittorio Emanuele II.

• Works by or about Victor Emmanuel II at Internet Archive
• External link: Genealogy of recent members of the House of Savoy
• View of Venezia Square Victor Emmanuel II monument (archived 1 July 2006)

Victor Emmanuel II House of Savoy Born: 14 March 1820 Died: 9 January 1878
Regnal titles
Preceded by Charles Albert	King of Sardinia 23 March 1849 – 17 March 1861	Succeeded by Himself as King of Italy
Preceded by Charles Albert	Duke of Savoy 23 March 1849 – 9 January 1878	Succeeded by Umberto I
Vacant Title last held by Napoleon I	King of Italy 17 March 1861 – 9 January 1878	Succeeded by Umberto I