Summary

Victor Emmanuel II of Savoy (Turin, March 14, 1820 - Rome, January 9, 1878) was the last king of Sardinia (from 1849 to 1861) and the first king of Italy (from 1861 to 1878).

From 1849 to 1861 he was also duke of Savoy, prince of Piedmont, and duke of Genoa. He is also remembered by the appellation of King gallant, because after his accession to the throne he did not withdraw the Albertine Statute promulgated by his father Charles Albert.

Assisted by Prime Minister Camillo Benso, Count of Cavour, he brought the Risorgimento to fruition, culminating in the proclamation of the Kingdom of Italy.

For achieving the Unification of Italy, he is referred to as the Father of the Fatherland, as appears in the inscription on the national monument named after him, Vittoriano, located in Rome's Piazza Venezia.

Childhood and youth

Victor Emmanuel was the eldest son of Charles Albert, King of Sardinia, and Maria Theresa of Tuscany. He was born in Turin in the Palace of the Princes of Carignano and spent his early years in Florence. His father Charles Albert was one of the few male members of the House of Savoy, belonging to the cadet branch of Savoy-Carignano and second in line to the throne. However, the Prince, of liberal sympathies, was involved in the uprisings of 1821, which led to the abdication of Victor Emmanuel I, so Charles Albert was forced to leave with his family for Novara by order of Charles Felix.

However, the new King Charles Felix, who disliked Charles Albert, soon gave him an order to move to Tuscany, completely outside the Kingdom. Thus the departure for Florence, capital of the grand duchy ruled by Victor's maternal grandfather Ferdinand III, took place. In the Tuscan capital he was placed in the care of tutor Giuseppe Dabormida, who educated Charles Albert's sons in military discipline.

Since he was physically quite different from his father, rumors circulated that the real firstborn son, who was said to have died, while still in swaddling clothes, in a fire at his grandfather's residence in Florence, was replaced either by a child of commoner origin whose father was said to be a certain Tuscan butcher Tanaca, who had reported the disappearance of a son in those same days and who was later to become suddenly rich, or by a butcher from Porta Romana, a certain Mazzucca. This reconstruction, categorically denied in the past centuries, has always aroused very strong doubts among historians as to its soundness so much so that it has been confined to the realm of gossip and has been taken up by some modern historians, who dispute the report of the fire drawn up by Corporal Galluzzo believing it not credible that the flames enveloped the nurse, who was present in the room, but left the infant unharmed.

This "legend" about the popular origin of the "King Galantuomo" would be disproved by two elements: the first is the young age of the parents, still capable of procreating, and thus of generating a second heir to the throne, as happened just two years later with the birth of Ferdinand, the future Duke of Genoa, thus making it unnecessary to resort to such a stratagem, extremely risky for the image of the dynasty; the second element is given by a letter that Maria Theresa sent to her father the Grand Duke in which, speaking of little Vittorio and his vivacity, she said, "I really don't know where this boy came from. He does not resemble any of us, and one would say he has come to make us all despair": if the child had not been her son, she would have been very careful not to write such a sentence.

When, in 1831, Charles Albert was called to Turin to succeed Charles Felix of Savoy, Victor Emmanuel followed him to the capital, where he was entrusted to Count Cesare Saluzzo of Monesiglio, flanked by a host of preceptors, including General Ettore De Sonnaz, the theologian Andrea Charvaz, the historian Lorenzo Isnardi, and the jurist Giuseppe Manno. The pedagogical discipline intended for the scions of the House of Savoy had always been Spartan. The preceptors, strict formalists chosen on the basis of attachment to the throne and the altar, imposed barracks hours on them in both summer and winter, with a typical day structured as follows: waking up at 5:30 a.m., three hours of study, an hour of riding, an hour for breakfast, then fencing and gymnastics, then another three hours of study, half an hour for lunch and etiquette visit to his mother, and half an hour of prayers to end the day.

The efforts of the learned preceptors had, however, little effect on Victor Emmanuel's refractoriness to studies, who far preferred to devote himself to horses, hunting and saber rattling, as well as hiking in the mountains (on August 25, 1837, Victor Emmanuel climbed to the summit of Rocciamelone), eschewing grammar, mathematics, history and any other subject that required study or even simple reading. The results were so poor that one day-he was but ten years old-his father summoned him before a notary making him make a solemn commitment, complete with stamped paper, to practice more study. Apparently the only tenderness he received from his mother, his father was incapable of it with anyone, only twice a day giving him his hand to kiss saying, C'est bon. And to test his maturity, he enjoined him to answer in writing such questions as these: "Can a Prince take parties to contracts for buying and selling horses?"

Victor promised and did not deliver. In fact, the results improved only slightly, and this can be seen from the autograph letters he wrote throughout his life, which certainly do not represent a model for syntax and grammar; the only subjects in which he had some profit were calligraphy and military regulations. Conversely, he was so tone-deaf and allergic to any musical sense that he had to make studies on purpose to learn how to give commands.

When at the age of eighteen he was granted the rank of colonel and command of a regiment, he touched the sky with one finger: not only because of the command, thanks to which he could finally give vent to his ambition of a military character, but also because it meant the end of the oppressive regime that had tormented him in a futile attempt to give him a culture.

Wedding

Having obtained the rank of general, he married his cousin Maria Adelaide of Austria in 1842. Despite Maria Adelaide's love for her husband and his sincere affection for her, Victor Emmanuel had several extramarital affairs.

In 1847 he met for the first time the beautiful Rosin, Rosa Vercellana, who would be his lifelong companion. In 1864 Rosina followed the king to Florence, settling in the villa La Petraia. In 1869 the king fell ill and, fearing that he would die, religiously married Rosa Vercellana in San Rossore in a morganatic marriage, that is, without the attribution of the title of queen. The religious rite was held on October 18 of that year, also celebrated with a civil rite on October 7, 1877, in Rome.

Early years of reign

Charles Albert, acclaimed as a reforming ruler, granted the Statuto Albertino on March 4, 1848, and declared war on Austria, meanwhile opened the long period known as the Italian Risorgimento by entering Lombardy with Piedmontese troops and Italian volunteers. Victor Emmanuel Duke of Savoy was at the head of the 7th Reserve Division. The outcomes of the First War of Independence were disastrous for the continuation of the conflict for the Kingdom of Sardinia, which, abandoned by the Allies and defeated on July 25 at Custoza and on August 4 in Milan, negotiated an initial armistice on August 9. Hostilities resumed on March 20, 1849, and on March 23, after a violent battle in the area near Bicocca, Charles Albert sent General Luigi Fecia di Cossato to negotiate a surrender with Austria. The conditions were extremely harsh and included the presence of an Austrian garrison in the strongholds of Alessandria and Novara. Charles Albert, in the presence of Wojciech Chrzanowski, Carlo Emanuele La Marmora, Alessandro La Marmora, Raffaele Cadorna, Victor Emmanuel and his son Ferdinand of Savoy-Genoa, signed his abdication and, with a false passport, repaired to Nice, from where he left for exile in Portugal.

The same night, shortly before midnight, Victor Emmanuel II went to a farmstead in Vignale, where General Radetzky was waiting for him, to once again negotiate the surrender with the Austrians, that is, for his first action as sovereign. Having obtained a relaxation of the conditions contained in the armistice (Radetzky did not want to push the young sovereign into the arms of the democrats), however, Victor Emmanuel II gave assurances that he intended to act with the utmost determination against the democratic party, to which his father had allowed so much freedom and which had led him toward war with Austria. He fully disavowed his father's actions and called the ministers a "bunch of imbeciles," while reiterating to General Radetzky that he still had 50,000 men to throw into the fray, which, however, existed only on paper. However, Victor Emmanuel, despite pressure from Austria, would refuse to revoke the constitution (Statute), the only sovereign in the entire Peninsula to preserve it.

After the defeat of Novara and the abdication of Charles Albert, people began to call Victor Emmanuel II the gentleman king, who, animated by patriotic sentiments and for the defense of constitutional freedoms, fiercely opposed Radetzky's demands to abolish the Albertine Statute.

In fact, the young king declared himself a friend of the Austrians and blamed his father for his weakness in failing to stand up to the democrats, promising a harsh policy against them with the abolition of the statute.

This new version of the ruler's figure emerged with the discovery and publication of Austrian diplomatic documents on talks held at Vignale, in which General Radetzky on March 26 wrote to the government in Vienna:

This depiction of the king as illiberal would be confirmed by what he wrote in a private letter to the apostolic nuncio in November 1849 where the king states:

Charles Adrien His De Butenval, French plenipotentiary in Turin wrote on Oct. 16, 1852, in Paris that Victor Emmanuel is a reactionary who uses the Statute to keep as supporters and allies of himself and his dynasty the restless Italian emigrants and liberals who took refuge in Turin after the events of 1848-49 of whom he poses as protectors because they will be useful to him in justifying a future royal war of conquest.

Opposed to this version of the meeting between the king and General Radetzky reported by Denis Mack Smith is that of General Thaon di Revel, who, a month after the Vignale colloquy, had occasion to meet with Victor Emmanuel II at Stupinigi. "The King," the general writes, "came to speak to me of the motions used by the Marshal in the conference, to induce him to abrogate the Statute; he laughed, hinting at the old man's delusion that he had believed in seducing him with obliging manners and ample promises, even to the point of offering him forty thousand Austrian bayonets if he needed to restore good order in his State."

One explanation for the king's behavior in the armistice of Vignale is attributed to Massimo d'Azeglio who is said to have judged a "misguided liberalism" on the part of the ruler who said, "Better to be king at home, albeit with constitutional limitations, than to be a protégé of Vienna."

A branch of historiography asserts that Victor Emmanuel, although of absolutist sentiments, maintained liberal institutions out of political foresight, understanding their great importance in the administration of the state. Evidence of this also lies in the long collaboration between the King and Prime Minister Camillo Benso, Count of Cavour, who were strongly divided by their different political positions (absolutism and liberalism):

Moreover, another recent reconstruction of the Vignale negotiations claims that:

The over-accessed political foresight, which led him to contradict his own principles, would thus be the origin of the term "gentleman king."

Official meetings between Victor Emmanuel and Field Marshal Josef Radetzky were held from the morning to the afternoon of March 24, also in Vignale, and the agreement was signed on March 26 in Borgomanero. Victor Emmanuel promised to disband the army's volunteer corps and surrendered to the Austrians the fortress of Alexandria and control of the territories between the Po, Sesia and Ticino rivers, in addition to paying back war damages to the astronomical sum of 75 million French francs. These were the armistice agreements that, in deference to Article 5 of the Albertine Statute, had to be ratified by the Chamber in order to be able to sign the Act of Peace.

In the aftermath of the armistice of Vignale, a popular uprising occurred in the city of Genoa, perhaps also driven by ancient republican and independence moods, managing to drive the entire royal garrison out of the city. Some soldiers were lynched by the rioters.

Victor Emmanuel II, in agreement with the government, immediately sent a corps of bersaglieri, supported by numerous artillery pieces and led by General Alfonso La Marmora; in a few days the revolt was quelled. Heavy bombardment and subsequent looting and rape perpetrated by soldiers led to the subjugation of the Ligurian capital, at the cost of 500 deaths among the population.

Pleased with the repression carried out, Victor Emmanuel wrote-in French-a letter of praise to La Marmora in April 1849, calling the rioters a "vile and infected race of scoundrels" and urging him, however, to ensure greater discipline on the part of the soldiers ("try if you can to see to it that the soldiers do not indulge in excesses on the inhabitants, and have them, if necessary, given high pay and much discipline").

On March 29, 1849, the new king appeared before Parliament to take the oath of allegiance, and the next day he dissolved it, calling new elections.

The 30,000 voters who went to the polls on July 15 expressed an overly "democratic" parliament that refused to approve the peace the King had already signed with Austria. Victor Emmanuel, after promulgating the proclamation of Moncalieri, calling on the people to choose representatives aware of the state's tragic hour, dissolved the parliament again, to make sure that the newly elected were of pragmatic ideas. The new Parliament turned out to be composed of two-thirds moderates favorable to the government of Massimo d'Azeglio. On January 9, 1850, the peace treaty with Austria was, finally, ratified.

Already a candidate for Parliament in April 1848, Cavour entered it in June of the same year, maintaining an independent political line, which did not exclude him from criticism but kept him in a situation of anonymity until the proclamation of the Siccardi laws, which provided for the abolition of certain privileges relating to the Church, which had already been repealed in many European states.

Victor Emmanuel was under very heavy pressure from the ecclesiastical hierarchies not to enact those laws; they even went so far as to mobilize Archbishop Charvaz, who, having been the King's tutor, enjoyed a certain influence over his ex-pupil, and even went so far as to insinuate that the misfortunes that had befallen the King's family (the death of his mother and the illness of his wife) were the result of divine punishment for his failure to oppose laws that were considered "sacrilegious." The King, who, while not as bigoted as his father, was very superstitious, at first promised that he would oppose the laws, even writing a rather ungrammatical letter to the Pope in which he renewed his devotion as a Catholic and reiterated his proud opposition to such measures. However, when Parliament passed the laws he said he was sorry, but that the Statute did not allow him to oppose them; proof that although he was allergic to democratic principles, he became a scrupulous observer of the Constitution when it was necessary to get himself out of trouble.

Cavour's active participation in the discussion of laws was worth his public interest, and upon the death of Pietro De Rossi di Santarosa, he became the new minister of agriculture, to which was added the position, from 1851, of minister of finance in the d'Azeglio government.

A promoter of the so-called union, Cavour became President of the Council of the Kingdom on November 4, 1852, despite Victor Emmanuel II's aversion to him. Despite the undisputed political union, great sympathy never ran between the two, indeed Victor Emmanuel several times curtailed his actions, even going so far as to send him up in smoke a variety of political projects, some of them of considerable magnitude. He probably remembered when a still young Cavour had been reported as treacherous and capable of betrayal as a result of his republican and revolutionary utterances during his military service.

According to Chiala, when La Marmora proposed to Vittorio Emanuele the appointment of Cavour as President of the Council, the King allegedly replied in Piedmontese: "Ca guarda, General, che côl lì a j butarà tutii con't le congie a'nt l'aria" ("Look, General, that one there will throw everyone with their legs in the air"). According to Ferdinando Martini, who heard this from Minghetti, the Sovereign's response would have been even more colorful: "E va bin, coma ch'aa veulo lor. Ma ch'aa stago sicur che col lì an poch temp an lo fica an't el prònio a tuti!" ("E va bin, coma ch'aa veulo lor. But let's be sure that the one there in a short time puts it up everyone's ass!"). A version that more closely resembles the character and his vocabulary, but also denotes a certain flair of men.

Unification of Italy

Determined to manifest Italy's problem in the eyes of Europe, Cavour saw the Russo-Turkish war that broke out in June 1853 as a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity: against Nicholas I of Russia, who had occupied Wallachia and Moldavia, then Ottoman Turkish lands, moved the United Kingdom and France, in which Cavour hoped to find allies.

Victor Emmanuel II seemed to favor a conflict, and so expressed himself to the French ambassador:

Having obtained Victor Emmanuel's approval, Cavour began negotiations with the belligerent countries, which went on for a long time due to disagreements between ministers. Finally, on January 7, 1855, the French and British governments imposed an ultimatum on Piedmont: within two days approve or not approve entry into the war. Victor Emmanuel, having read the message, pondered approving the plan he had long had: dissolve Parliament again and impose a pro-war government. He did not have the time: Cavour convened the Council of Ministers the same night and, at nine o'clock in the morning of January 8, after a night that involved the resignation of Dabormida, with satisfaction he was able to affirm Sardinia's participation in the Crimean War.

It was Alfonso La Marmora who captained the expedition that sailed from Genoa to the East: the Piedmontese sent a contingent of 15,000 men. Forced to remain relegated to the rear under British command, La Marmora managed to make his case by captaining the troops himself in the Battle of Cernaia, which turned out to be a triumph. The echo of the victory rehabilitated the Sardinian army, providing Victor Emmanuel II with the opportunity for a trip to London and Paris to sensitize local rulers to the Piedmont question. In particular, it pressed the king to speak with Napoleon III, who seemed to have greater interests than the British on the Peninsula.

In October 1855 rumors of peace began to circulate, which Russia signed in Paris (Congress of Paris). Piedmont, which had made as a condition of its participation in the war an extraordinary session to deal with the issues of Italy, through the voice of Cavour condemned the absolutist government of Ferdinand II of Naples, predicting serious unrest if no one solved a problem now widespread throughout most of the Peninsula: oppression under a foreign government.

This did not please the Austrian government, which felt called into question, and Karl Buol, foreign minister for Franz Joseph of Austria, expressed himself in these terms:

In any case, Sardinia's participation in the Treaties of Paris aroused great joy everywhere. Screws took place between Turin and Vienna as a result of anti-Sabudian and anti-Habsburg propaganda articles, while official apologies were demanded between Buol and Cavour: in the end, on March 16, Buol ordered his diplomats to leave the Sardinian capital, which Cavour also replied on March 23 itself. Diplomatic relations were now broken.

In such a tense international climate, the Italian Felice Orsini made an attempt on Napoleon III's life by detonating three bombs against the imperial carriage, which was unharmed, causing eight deaths and hundreds of injuries. Despite the expectations of Austria, which hoped for Napoleon III's rapprochement with its reactionary policies, the French emperor was cleverly convinced by Cavour that the Italian situation had reached a critical point and needed Savoyard intervention.

Thus it was that the foundations were laid for a Sardinian-French alliance, despite the adversity of some ministers in Paris, especially Alexander Walewski. Thanks also to the intercession of Virginia Oldoini, Countess of Castiglione, and Costantino Nigra, both of whom were properly instructed by Cavour, relations between Napoleon and Victor Emmanuel became increasingly close.

In July 1858, under the pretext of a vacation in Switzerland, Cavour headed to Plombières, France, where he secretly met Napoleon III. The verbal agreements that followed, and their formalization in the Sardinian-French alliance of January 1859, provided for the cession of Savoy and Nice to France in exchange for French military aid, which would occur only in the event of an Austrian attack. Napoleon granted the creation of a Kingdom of Upper Italy, while he wanted central and southern Italy under his influence. At Plombières Cavour and Napoleon also decided on the marriage between the latter's cousin Napoleon Joseph Charles Paul Bonaparte and Marie Clotilde of Savoy, daughter of Victor Emmanuel.

News of the Plombières meeting leaked out despite all precautions. Napoleon III did not help to keep the secret of his intentions if he exited with this sentence to the Austrian ambassador:

Ten days later, on January 10, 1859, Victor Emmanuel II addressed the Sardinian parliament with the famous phrase of the "cry of sorrow," the original text of which is preserved in the castle of Sommariva Perno.

Volunteers rushed to Piedmont immediately, convinced that war was imminent, and the King began massing troops on the Lombard border near the Ticino River. By early May 1859, Turin could have 63,000 men under arms. Victor Emmanuel took command of the army and left control of the citadel of Turin to his cousin Eugene of Savoy-Carignano. Concerned about the Savoyard rearmament, Austria issued an ultimatum to Victor Emmanuel II, at the request also of the governments of London and Petersburg, which was immediately rejected. Thus judged, it seems, Massimo d'Azeglio, the news of the Habsburg ultimatum:

It was war. Franz Joseph ordered the crossing of the Ticino and the targeting of the Piedmontese capital before the French could rush to the rescue.

Having withdrawn the Austrians from Chivasso, the Franco-Piedmontese routed the enemy army corps near Palestro and Magenta, arriving in Milan on June 8, 1859. The Hunters of the Alps, led by Giuseppe Garibaldi, quickly occupied Como, Bergamo, Varese and Brescia: only 3,500 men, badly armed, were now marching toward Trentino. By now the Habsburg forces were retreating from all of Lombardy.

The Battle of Solferino and San Martino was decisive: it seems that just before the clash at San Martino, Victor Emmanuel II thus spoke to the troops, in Piedmontese:

("fare San Martino" from the Piedmontese "fé San Martin" means "to move," "to dislodge.")

Insurrectional movements then broke out almost everywhere in Italy-Massa, Carrara, Modena, Reggio Emilia, Parma, Piacenza. Leopold II of Tuscany, frightened by the turn of events, decided to flee to northern Italy to the camp of Emperor Franz Joseph. Napoleon III, observing a situation that did not follow the plans of Plombières and beginning to doubt that his ally wanted to stop at the conquest of Upper Italy, from July 5 began to draw up an armistice with Austria, which Victor Emmanuel II had to sign, while plebiscites in Emilia, Romagna and Tuscany confirmed the annexation to Piedmont: on October 1 Pope Pius IX broke diplomatic relations with Victor Emmanuel.

The edifice that had been created ran into trouble at the time of the peace of Zurich signed by the Kingdom of Sardinia only on 10

Nevertheless, within a few months opportunities for the unification of the entire Peninsula were being created. At Garibaldi's willingness to leave with volunteers for Sicily, the government seemed very skeptical, not to say hostile. There were, it is true, apparent signs of friendship between Victor Emmanuel II and Garibaldi, who seemed to esteem each other, but Cavour in the first place regarded the Sicilian expedition as reckless and detrimental to the very survival of the Sardinian state.

Garibaldi seems to have repeatedly reiterated, in order to get the expedition agreed to, that:

Despite the King's support, Cavour prevailed, thus depriving Garibaldi's campaign of the necessary means. Whether the King had, in the end, approved the expedition, we cannot know. What is certain is that Garibaldi found supplies of cartridges in Talamone, thus still in the Kingdom of Sardinia. Tough was the diplomatic protest: Cavour and the King had to assure the Prussian ambassador that they were not aware of Garibaldi's ideas.

Arriving in Sicily, Garibaldi assured the island, after defeating the battered Bourbon army, to "Victor Emmanuel King of Italy." Already foreshadowed in those words was the Nicard's design, which would certainly not stop at the Kingdom of the Two Sicilies alone, but would march on Rome. That prospect clashed with Piedmontese plans, which now saw the looming republican and revolutionary danger and, above all, feared the intervention of Napoleon III in Latium. Victor Emmanuel, leading the Piedmontese troops, invaded the Papal States, defeating their army at the Battle of Castelfidardo. Napoleon III could not tolerate the invasion of papal lands, and had repeatedly tried to dissuade Victor Emmanuel II from invading the Marches, informing him on September 9 that:

The meeting with Garibaldi, which passed into history as the Teano meeting, took place on October 26, 1860: the sovereignty of Victor Emmanuel II over all the territories of the former Kingdom of the Two Sicilies was recognized. This led to the ouster of Giuseppe Mazzini's conception of republican Italy and led to the formation of republican, internationalist and anarchist anti-monarchist nuclei that would oppose the crown until the end of Savoyard sovereignty.

"Viva Verdi": this had been the motto of the anti-Austrian uprisings in northern Italy when patriots intended not so much to exalt the figure of the great musician, who had also introduced patriotic meanings in his works, as to propagate the national unity project in the person of Victor Emmanuel II (Viva V.E.R.D.I. = Viva Vittorio Emanuele Re D'Italia).

With Victor Emmanuel's entry into Naples, the proclamation of the Kingdom of Italy became imminent, as soon as Francis II had capitulated with the fortress of Gaeta.

Renewed the parliament, with Cavour as prime minister, its first session, including deputies from all annexed regions (via plebiscite), took place on Feb. 18, 1861.

On March 17, the parliament proclaimed the birth of the Kingdom of Italy, proposing this formula to the Italian parliament:

However, the formula was bitterly contested by the parliamentary left, which would have preferred to bind the royal title to the will of the people alone. In fact, Congressman Angelo Brofferio proposed changing the text of the article to:

removing "divine providence," an expression inspired by the formula of the Statuto Albertino (1848) which read By the Grace of God and Will of the Nation, thus legitimizing the divine right of the kings of the Savoy dynasty.

This is how Francesco Crispi expressed himself for the Left in the parliamentary debate:

The proposal of the Left was not accepted, and the following was approved.

After the proclamation of the kingdom, the numeral "II" was not changed in favor of the title "Victor Emmanuel I of Italy," similarly to Ivan IV of Muscovy, who did not change numeral once he proclaimed himself Tsar of All Russias, and to the British monarchs, who retained the numeral of the Kingdom of England (William IV and Edward VII), thus effectively recognizing the institutional continuity of the kingdom. Differently, however, had Ferdinand IV of Naples and III of Sicily, who decided to name himself Ferdinand I after the cancellation of the Kingdom of Sicily and the Kingdom of Naples as autonomous state entities and the establishment of the Kingdom of the Two Sicilies. The retention of the numeral is remarked upon by some historians, with some of them noting that this decision, in their opinion, would emphasize the character of the extension of the rule of the House of Savoy over the rest of Italy, rather than the birth ex novo of the Kingdom of Italy. In this regard, historian Antonio Desideri comments:

Other historians note that keeping the numbering was in keeping with the tradition of the Savoy dynasty, as was the case, for example, with Victor Amadeus II, who continued to call himself that even after he obtained the royal title (first of Sicily and then of Sardinia).

Rome capital and recent years

The unification of Italy still lacked important territories: the Veneto, Trentino, Friuli, Lazio, Istria and Trieste. The "natural" capital of the newborn kingdom should have been Rome, but this was prevented by the opposition of Napoleon III, who had no intention of renouncing his role as protector of the pope. To show that Victor Emmanuel II was renouncing Rome, and thus to ease the tense situation with the French emperor, it was decided to move the capital to Florence, a city close to the geographic center of the Italian peninsula. Between September 21 and 22, 1864, bloody riots broke out in the streets of Turin, resulting in some thirty dead and over two hundred wounded. Victor Emmanuel would have liked to prepare the citizenry for the news in order to avoid clashes, but the news had somehow leaked out. Discontent was general, and this is how Olindo Guerrini described the situation:

Following fresh news events, which involved the wounding of some foreign delegates and violent stone-throwing, Victor Emmanuel II put the city before a fait accompli by having this announcement published in the Gazette of February 3, 1865:

Victor Emmanuel thus received the honors of the Florentines, while more than 30,000 court officials moved into the city. The population, accustomed to the modest numbers of grand ducal ministers, found itself displaced by the administration of the new kingdom, which meanwhile had signed an alliance with Prussia against Austria.

On June 21, 1866, Victor Emmanuel left Palazzo Pitti bound for the front to conquer Veneto. Defeated at Lissa and Custoza, the Kingdom of Italy nevertheless obtained Venice as a result of the peace treaties that succeeded the Prussian victory.

Rome remained the last territory (with the exception of Venezia Giulia and Trentino-Alto Adige) not yet encompassed by the new kingdom.Napoleon III kept his commitment to defend the Papal States, and his troops were stationed in the papal territories. Victor Emmanuel himself did not want to make an official decision: to attack or not to attack. Urbano Rattazzi, who had become prime minister, hoped for an uprising of the Romans themselves, which did not happen. The defeat suffered at the Battle of Mentana had then cast numerous doubts on the actual success of the enterprise, which could only happen with the fall, in 1870, of Napoleon III. On September 8 the last attempt to obtain Rome by peaceful means failed, and on September 20 General Cadorna opened a breach in the Roman walls. Victor Emmanuel had this to say:

When the excited ministers Lanza and Sella presented him with the result of the plebiscite in Rome and Latium, the King replied to Sella in Piedmontese:

With Rome as the capital, the page of the Risorgimento closed, although the so-called "irredent lands" were still missing from the completion of national unity. Among the various problems the new state had to face, from illiteracy to brigandage, from industrialization to voting rights, there was not only the birth of the famous southern question, but also the "Roman question." Despite the fact that the Pontiff was granted special immunities, the honors of Head of State, an annual income and control over the Vatican and Castel Gandolfo, Pius IX refused to recognize the Italian state because of the annexation of Rome to the Kingdom of Italy that took place with the breach of Porta Pia and reiterated, with the Non expedit provision (1868), the inappropriateness for Italian Catholics to participate in the political elections of the Italian state and, by extension, in political life.

Moreover, the Pontiff inflicted excommunication on the House of Savoy, that is, on both Victor Emmanuel II and his successors, and along with them on anyone who collaborated in the government of the state; this excommunication was withdrawn only at the point of the Sovereign's death. However, Victor Emmanuel, when the matter of Rome was mentioned to him, always showed such ill-concealed annoyance that when they proposed that he make a triumphal entry into Rome and climb the Capitol with the helmet of Scipio he replied that for him that helmet was, "Good only for cooking pasta in it!" In fact, if his father had been extremely religious, Victor Emmanuel was a skeptical but very superstitious man who was greatly influenced by the clergy and the ascendancy of the Pontiff.

In late December of the year 1877 Victor Emmanuel II, a lover of hunting but delicate of lungs, spent a night in the cold by the lake on his Latium hunting estate; the humidity of that environment proved fatal to him. According to other historians, the fevers that led to Victor Emmanuel's death were instead malarial fevers, contracted precisely by hunting in the swampy areas of Latium.

On the evening of January 5, 1878, after sending a telegram to the family of Alfonso La Marmora, who had recently passed away, Victor Emmanuel II felt strong chills of fever. At least initially the doctors did not show much concern: the King was not even fifty-eight years old and had always been of robust fiber, which boded well for his recovery. However, the Sovereign's condition suddenly worsened, so much so that on January 7 the news of the King's serious condition was divulged. Pope Pius IX, when he learned of the sovereign's now imminent demise, wanted to send Monsignor Marinelli to the Quirinal, charged perhaps with receiving a retraction and granting the dying King the sacraments, but the prelate was not received. The King received the last sacraments from the hands of his chaplain, Monsignor d'Anzino, who had refused to introduce Marinelli to his bedside, as it was feared that secret purposes lay behind Pius IX's action.

When the doctor asked him if he wanted to see the confessor, the king had an initial wince, only to say "I understand" and authorize the chaplain's entrance, who stayed with Victor Emmanuel II about 20 minutes and went to the parish of St. Vincent to take the viaticum. The parish priest said he was not authorized to give it to him, and the intervention of the vicar was necessary to remove his resistance. Victor Emmanuel II never lost consciousness and remained conscious to the last, wishing to die as a king: gasping, he let himself be drawn on pillows, threw a gray hunting jacket over his shoulders and let all the court dignitaries parade at the foot of the bed, greeting them one by one with a nod of the head. Finally he asked to be left alone with Princes Umberto and Margherita, but at the last he had Emanuele, the son he had with Bela Rosin, introduced as well, and for the first time he found himself facing his half-brother Umberto, who had never wanted to meet him.

On Jan. 9, at 2:30 p.m., the king died after 28 years and 9 months of his reign, attended by his children but not by his morganatic wife, who was prevented from going to his bedside by the kingdom's ministers. A little more than two months later he would have turned 58.

The commotion that swept the Kingdom was unanimous, and the headlines expressed it by making use of the rhetoric typical of the period; the Piccolo of Naples headlined "The most valiant of the Maccabees is dead, the lion of Israel is dead, Dante's Veltro is dead, the providence of our house is dead. Weep, O hundred cities of Italy! weep with sobs, O citizens!" "Who knew, O great king, to love you so much?" wrote Roman poet Fabio Nannarelli; even Felice Cavallotti, co-founder of the historic Far Left expressed condolences to the new King Umberto I. The entire press, including the foreign press, was unanimous in its condolences (but Austrian newspapers Neue Freie Presse and the Morgen Post did not, predictably, join in the mourning). L'Osservatore Romano wrote, "The king received the Holy Sacraments, declaring that he asked the Pope's forgiveness for the wrongs for which he had been responsible." The Stefani Agency immediately denied it, but the Curia denied the denial: the secular press rose up, going so far as to call Pius IX a "vulture" and accusing him of "infamous speculation on the confessional secret"; what could have been an opportunity for détente thus turned into yet another reason for clashes between clerics and secularists. The English Manchester Guardian devoted three columns out of six on its foreign policy page to Victor Emmanuel's death, a section of which was the main news story that day

Victor Emmanuel II had expressed the desire that his coffin be buried in Piedmont, in the Basilica of Superga, but Umberto I, acceding to the requests of the City of Rome, approved that the body remain in the city, in the Pantheon, in the second chapel to the right of those entering, that is, adjacent to the one with the Annunciation by Melozzo da Forli. His tomb became the pilgrimage destination of hundreds of thousands of Italians, coming from all regions of the Kingdom, to pay homage to the king who had unified Italy. It is estimated that more than 200,000 people attended the state funeral. In drafting the proclamation to the nation, Umberto I (who adopted the numeral I instead of IV, which he should have kept according to Savoy numbering), expressed himself thus:

Edmondo De Amicis had the young characters in his book Cuore (Heart) describe the funeral in this way:

Victorian

To celebrate the "Father of the Fatherland," the City of Rome announced a project for a memorial work, from 1880, at the behest of Umberto I of Savoy. What was built was one of the most daring architectural works in Italy in the nineteenth century: to erect it, a part of the city, still medieval, was destroyed, and the tower of Pope Paul III was also demolished. The building was supposed to be reminiscent of the temple of Athena Nike in Athens, but its bold and complex architectural forms raised doubts about its stylistic characteristics. Today, inside is the tomb of the Unknown Soldier.

Vittorio Emanuele II Gallery in Milan

Designed by Giuseppe Mengoni (who died there), the Galleria Vittorio Emanuele II connects Piazza della Scala to Milan Cathedral, and was built while the King was still alive, starting in 1865. The initial design was intended to emulate the great works of architecture erected in those years in Europe, creating a bourgeois gallery in the heart of the city.

Monuments to Victor Emmanuel

The king disliked court life, preferring to devote himself to hunting and playing billiards rather than to social salons. For his mistress, and later morganatic wife, Rosa Vercellana, he purchased the Turin land now known as Mandria Park and had the residence known as the Royal Apartments of Borgo Castello built there. He later carried out a similar transaction in Rome, having Villa Mirafiori built as Vercellana's residence.

For her children Vittoria and Emanuele di Mirafiori, whom she had, the ruler had the farmsteads "Vittoria" and "Emanuella," the latter now known as Cascina Rubbianetta, built within the Mandria for horse breeding.

The writer Carlo Dossi, in the diary Blue Notes, claimed that the king was virulently "over-endowed," that he lived immoderately in sexual passions and that in his adventures he had fathered a very substantial number of natural children.

He married his cousin Maria Adelaide of Austria at Stupinigi on April 12, 1842, by whom he had eight children:

By his morganatic wife Rosa Vercellana, Countess of Mirafiori and Fontanafredda, the king had two children:

Victor Emmanuel II of Savoy also had other children from extramarital affairs.

1) From the relationship with actress Laura Bon:

2) From his relationship with Baroness Victoria Duplesis, the king had two daughters:

3) From an unknown woman in Mondovi:

4) From the relationship with Virginia Rho in Turin:

5) From the relationship he had with Rosalinda Incoronata De Dominicis (1846-1916):

6) From his relationship with Angela Rosa De Filippo, the king had another illegitimate male child:

In addition to these, the king had many other extramarital affairs, especially after the death of his wife, so that he had a multitude of illegitimate children (about 20), whose names are unknown, but who were given the surname Guerrieri or Guerriero.

Patrilineal ancestry

His Majesty Victor Emmanuel II, by the grace of God and the will of the nation,

Sources

1. Victor Emmanuel II
2. Vittorio Emanuele II di Savoia
3. ^ Monumento a Vittorio Emanuele II (Vittoriano), su turismoroma.it. URL consultato il 20 settembre 2023.
4. Piero Mattigana, Storia del risorgimento d'Italia dalla rotta di Novara dalla proclamazione del regno d'Italia dal 1849 al 1861 con narrazioni aneddotiche relative alla spedizione di Garibaldi nelle due Sicilie: Opera illustrata con incisioni eseguite da valenti artisti, Volume 2,Ed. Legros e Marazzani, 1861, pag.12
5. (it) Otello Pagliai, L'ultimo Giallo in Casa Savoia, janvier 1997 (ISBN 978-88-8015-040-4).
6. ^ a b Victor Emmanuel II, Encyclopædia Britannica Online, accesat în 9 octombrie 2017
7. ^ a b BeWeB, accesat în 12 februarie 2021
8. ^ a b Víctor Manuel II d’Itàlia, Gran Enciclopèdia Catalana