Victor Emmanuel II
Victor Emmanuel II was the first king of a united Italy and let cleverer men make it. Born in Turin in 1820, the son of Charles Albert of Sardinia-Piedmont, he was a coarse, plain-spoken soldier who preferred hunting and mistresses to government, and was formidable chiefly in his willingness to be advised. He came to the throne in 1849 after his father abdicated on losing to Austria at Novara. He then refused Austrian terms that would have required abolishing the liberal constitution his father had granted, and kept it — which made Piedmont the one constitutional state in Italy and the natural centre of the national movement. He appointed Cavour prime minister in 1852 and largely let him run the state, though the two quarrelled constantly and the king intrigued behind his back. He sent troops to the Crimea, went to war with Austria alongside France in 1859, and gained Lombardy, then the central duchies and the Romagna by plebiscite, at the price of Savoy and Nice. He handled Garibaldi with skill. When the volunteers took Sicily and Naples in 1860, he marched south, met Garibaldi at Teano, and received the conquest from him without a republican crisis. He was proclaimed King of Italy in March 1861 and kept the numeral II, which annoyed Italians who thought he should have started again. Venice followed in 1866 and Rome in 1870 when the French garrison withdrew. He died in 1878 and is buried in the Pantheon. Italians called him il Re Galantuomo, the gentleman king, largely for having kept the constitution when he need not have.
- Lived: 1820 CE – 1878 CE
- Nationality: Italian
- Roles: king_of_sardinia, king_of_italy
