Victor Emmanuel II.

Victor Emmanuel II., the first king of a united Italy, was the son of Charles Albert (q.v.) of Sardinia, and was born March 14, 1820. (For Victor Emmanuel I., king of Sardinia, see SAVOY.) He early showed military ardour, and in command of the brigade of Savoy in the campaign of 1848-49 displayed great gallantry at Goito and Novara. On the evening of the latter battle his father, unwilling to bow to the onerous conditions offered by Radetzky, abdicated in favour of Victor Emmanuel, who, being the husband of the Austrian Archduchess Adelaide, and uncommitted to the views of the Italian Ultra-democrats, might hope to obtain more favourable terms from the victor. Victor Emmanuel thus ascended the throne of Sardinia, March 23, 1849. The events of his reign, his policy and that of his ministers, Azeglio, Cavour, and others, issuing in the reconstitution of the kingdom of Italy under the Sardinian dynasty, is already treated at ITALY, Vol. VI. pp. 251, 252. The king had the wisdom to leave statecraft mainly in the hands of the able men who advised him, reigned as a strictly constitutional monarch, and retained to the last the simple tastes of a hardy (but not ascetic) mountaineer and huntsman. The 'Re Galantuomo,' as his people fondly called him, died January 9, 1878, and was buried in the Pantheon. He was succeeded by his son Humbert. His daughter Clotilde was, for the sake of the French alliance, but rather against the king's will, married to Prince Napoleon (see BONAPARTE).