Victor Emmanuel II(1820 — 1878)
Victor Emmanuel II
royaume d'Italie
9 min read
King of Sardinia and then first King of unified Italy (1861), Victor Emmanuel II was the monarch who, allied with Cavour and Garibaldi, brought the Risorgimento to completion. He reigned until his death in 1878, embodying Italian national unity.
Famous Quotes
« Italy is made; now we must make Italians. »
Key Facts
- 1820: born in Turin into the House of Savoy
- 1849: becomes King of Sardinia following the abdication of his father Charles Albert
- 1855–1856: commits Piedmont to the Crimean War alongside France in order to win allies
- 1861: proclaimed first King of unified Italy on 17 March
- 1878: dies in Rome, capital of the Kingdom of Italy
Works & Achievements
By refusing to abolish the constitution after the defeat at Novara, despite Austrian pressure, Victor Emmanuel II preserved the Piedmontese liberal model that later served as the constitutional foundation of unified Italy.
The secret Plombières Agreement with Napoleon III triggered the Second War of Independence, resulting in the annexation of Lombardy and the central Italian duchies through popular plebiscite.
The founding act of unified Italy, voted by the Parliament of Turin, which made Victor Emmanuel II the first king of a united Italy for the first time since Roman Antiquity.
Through an alliance with Bismarck's Prussia during the Austro-Prussian War, Italy gained Venetia despite its military defeats at Custoza and Lissa, significantly expanding the national territory.
The breach of Porta Pia allowed Italian troops to enter Rome, ending the Pope's temporal power and completing unification. Rome became the capital of the Kingdom of Italy in 1871.
Together with Cavour, Victor Emmanuel II transformed Piedmont into a modern state equipped with a railway network, a reformed army, and liberal institutions that were extended across all of Italy after unification.
Anecdotes
In October 1860, Victor Emmanuel II met Garibaldi near the village of Teano, in Campania. The hero of the Thousand, who had just conquered the Kingdom of the Two Sicilies, greeted the king with a simple “I salute you, first King of Italy!” and handed over the conquered territories, refusing any personal honours. This handshake between the king and the revolutionary symbolised the reconciliation of the two forces that had brought about Italian unification.
Victor Emmanuel II was nicknamed “il Re galantuomo,” the “gentleman king,” because he refused to repudiate the Statuto Albertino after the defeat at Novara in 1849. Austria pressured both his abdicating father and the young king himself to abolish constitutional liberties as the price of peace, but he held firm, thereby preserving Piedmont’s liberal institutions and his reputation among Italian patriots.
The king was so passionate about hunting that his ministers struggled to reach him whenever he slipped away to his mountain estates. Cavour himself sometimes had to dispatch urgent couriers all the way to the forests of the Val d’Aoste to obtain the royal signature on treaties of the utmost diplomatic importance.
In July 1859, Napoleon III signed the Armistice of Villafranca with Austria without informing Victor Emmanuel II, abandoning Venetia halfway through the campaign. The king, furious at this betrayal, reportedly declared that Italy could clearly count only on itself. This episode led him to pursue unification without placing too much faith in French promises.
Victor Emmanuel II maintained a long-standing relationship with Rosa Vercellana, nicknamed “la Bella Rosina,” the daughter of a Piedmontese non-commissioned officer. After the death of his official wife in 1855, he married her in a morganatic union in 1869. This marriage, scandalous at court, illustrates the king’s unpretentious character — he felt far more at ease among soldiers and hunters than amid the formalities of palace life.
Primary Sources
Abbiamo risoluto di accordare e di sanzionare il presente Statuto fondamentale della Monarchia [...] per essere una legge fondamentale perpetua ed irrevocabile della Monarchia.
We proclaim to have taken the title of King of Italy [...] In proclaiming at this hour Italy constituted as a State, we fulfill the wish of twenty-five generations.
His Majesty the King of Sardinia consents to the territories of Savoy and the district of Nice being united to France, on the express condition that the populations shall be consulted.
Piedmont, in upholding its constitutional institutions, offers Italy the model of a free and orderly government, respectful of the rights of all and guarantor of public order.
I owe it to my peoples and to myself not to conceal how deeply painful this unexpected armistice is to me; Venetia remains under the Austrian yoke and the work of national unification remains unfinished.
Key Places
Capital of Piedmont-Sardinia and birthplace of the Risorgimento, Turin was home to the Parliament that proclaimed Italian unification in 1861. Victor Emmanuel II resided there until the capital was moved to Florence and then Rome.
After the capture of Rome in 1870, Victor Emmanuel II took up residence at the Quirinal, the former papal palace that became the royal residence. It was there that he died in January 1878, with the unification of Italy complete.
It was near this village, on 26 October 1860, that Victor Emmanuel II met Garibaldi, who handed over to him the territories of the Mezzogiorno he had just liberated. This scene came to symbolise the union of the two great forces of the Risorgimento.
Site of the decisive battle of 24 June 1859 against Austria, in which Victor Emmanuel II fought in person. The horrors of this battlefield inspired Henry Dunant and led to the founding of the International Red Cross.
The ancient Roman monument became the mausoleum of the Italian monarchy. Victor Emmanuel II is buried there, and his tomb remains to this day a site of patriotic pilgrimage for Italian monarchists.