Victor Emmanuel II

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Victor Emmanuel II
Portrait by André-Adolphe-Eugène Disdéri, c. 1861
King of Italy (more...)
Reign	17 March 1861 – 9 January 1878
Predecessor	Napoleon (1814)
Successor	Umberto I
Prime ministers	See list Camillo Cavour Bettino Ricasoli Urbano Rattazzi Luigi Carlo Farini Marco Minghetti Alfonso Ferrero la Marmora Luigi Federico Menabrea Giovanni Lanza Agostino Depretis
King of Sardinia[a] Duke of Savoy
Reign	23 March 1849 – 17 March 1861
Predecessor	Charles Albert
Prime ministers	See list Agostino Chiodo Claudio Gabriele de Launay 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)​ Rosa Vercellana (morganatic) ​ ​ (m. 1869)​
Issue see details...	Maria Clotilde, Princess Napoléon Umberto I, King of Italy Amadeo I, King of Spain Prince 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
House	Savoy-Carignano
Father	Charles Albert of Sardinia
Mother	Maria Theresa of Austria
Religion	Catholic Church
Signature

Victor Emmanuel II (Italian: Vittorio Emanuele II; full name: Vittorio Emanuele Maria Alberto Eugenio Ferdinando Tommaso di Savoia; 14 March 1820 – 9 January 1878) was King of Sardinia (also informally known as Piedmont–Sardinia) from 23 March 1849 until 17 March 1861,^[a] when he assumed the title of King of Italy and became the first king of an independent, united Italy since the 6th century, a title he held until his death in 1878. Borrowing from the old Latin title Pater Patriae of the Roman emperors, the Italians gave him the epithet of "Father of the Fatherland" (Italian: Padre della Patria).

Born in Turin as the eldest son of Charles Albert, Prince of Carignano, and Maria Theresa of Austria, Victor Emmanuel fought in the First Italian War of Independence (1848–1849) before being made King of Sardinia following his father's abdication. He appointed Camillo Benso, Count of Cavour, as his Prime Minister, and he consolidated his position by suppressing the republican left. In 1855, he sent an expeditionary corps to side with French and British forces during the Crimean War; the deployment of Italian troops to the Crimea, and the gallantry shown by them in the Battle of the Chernaya (16 August 1855) and in the siege of Sevastopol led the Kingdom of Sardinia to be among the participants at the peace conference at the end of the war, where it could address the issue of the Italian unification to other European powers.^[1] This allowed Victor Emmanuel to ally himself with Napoleon III, Emperor of France. France had supported Sardinia in the Second Italian War of Independence, resulting in liberating Lombardy from Austrian rule.

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 Victor Emmanuel II Monument in Rome, containing the Altare della Patria, was built in his honour.

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