Victor Emajnjel II. (Vittorio Emmanuele Maria Alberto Eugenio Ferdinando Tommaso), king of Italy, formerly king of Sardinia, born in Turin, March 14,1820. He is the eldest son of Charles Albert and Theresa, daughter of the grand duke Ferdinand of Tuscany. He received a careful education, and in 1842, being then duke of Savoy, married the archduchess Adelaide of Austria. "When the war with Austria broke out in 1848, he took command of the brigade of Savoy, and followed his father to the field, participating in the battle of Goito, where he received a ball in the thigh. In his father's second war he won the admiration of the army by his valor at the disastrous battle of Novara, March 23, 1849. Immediately after this defeat Charles Albert abdicated in favor of his son, who thus came to the throne with a peace to make with a victorious enemy and a fierce conflict of faction to appease at home, while his alliance with an Austrian princess was regarded with distrust. The selection of his first cabinet under D'Azeglio tended to reassure the liberals. He soon effected a reorganization of the finances and of the army, signed a peace with Austria, and under the influence of Cavour, who till his death remained the principal adviser of the king, curtailed the privileges of the clergy, secularized the property of the church, and took from the religious associations the monopoly of education.

Excommunicated by the pope on account of these measures, he issued a protest in the form of a memorandum. Within a brief period in 1855 he lost his mother, his wife, his brother, and his youngest child, and himself fell dangerously ill. By a treaty signed April 10, 1855, he joined the Anglo-French alliance in the Crimean war, and the position of Sardinia among the European states was greatly raised, mainly through the influence of Cavour. The marriage of his daughter Clotilda to Prince Napoleon (January, 1859) was followed almost immediately by the war of Italian independence, in which France and Sardinia took the field together against Austria. Victor Emanuel, invested with dictatorial powers, led his troops in person, accompanied by the heir apparent, Prince Humbert, to whom, though he was only 15 years old, he gave the command of a brigade. The king won the name of re gallantuomo by his intrepidity at the battle of Palestro and by his valor on all occasions. After the battle of Magenta he entered Milan with Napoleon III., and on the field of Solferino found himself face to face with the Austrian general Benedek, whom he defeated after a severe fight.

An interview at Villafranca between the French and Austrian emperors (July 11) settled the preliminaries of the treaty of peace, which was signed at Zurich (Nov. 10), and gave Lombardy to Victor Emanuel, excepting the fortresses of Mantua and Peschiera. In March, 1860, Savoy and Nice were ceded to France. In the course of the same year Victor Emanuel annexed Parma, Modena, and Tuscany, the rulers of which had been expelled by insurrections in 1859, a large part of the Papal States, and the Two Sicilies, the latter chiefly through the aid of Garibaldi; and on March 17, 1861, he assumed the title of king of Italy, bestowed on him by the Italian parliament on Feb. 26. In 1866, after a short war against Austria in alliance with Prussia, Venetia was incorporated in his dominions, and in 1870 the residue of the Papal States; and his capital, removed in 1865 from Turin to Florence, was transferred to Rome in 1871, where the king made his official entrance, July 2, taking up his residence at the Quirinal. For a fuller account of the events of his reign, the 25th anniversary of which was celebrated with great, solemnity in March, 1874, see Italy. The king's second daughter, Pia, is the present queen of Portugal; and his second son, Amadeus, was king of Spain from December, 1870, to February, 1873. (See Amadeus I.) Victor Emanuel's morganatic wife is Rosa Vercellana, whom he has made countess de Mirafiore.