Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 24.djvu/234

Rh 214 VICTOR at the siege of Toulon in 1793 he was raised to the rank of brigadier-general. He afterwards served for some time with the army of the eastern Pyrenees, and in the Italian campaign of 1795-97 he so acquitted himself at Mondovi, Roveredo, Porto Legnago, and many other places that he was promoted to be general of a division. After the peace of Campo Formio he for some time commanded the forces in the department of La Vendee; but in 1798 he was again in Italy and in the battle of Marengo especially took a very important part. In 1803 he became commander-in- chief of the Batavian army, and after the peace of Amiens he acted for eighteen months as French plenipotentiary at Copenhagen. On the outbreak of hostilities with Prussia he joined the fifth army corps as chief of the general staff; at the battle of Friedland he commanded the first corps in such a manner that Napoleon made him marshal of the empire on the field. After the peace of Tilsit he became governor of Prussia, and in 1808 he was created duke of Belluno. In the same year he was sent to Spain, where he took a prominent part in military affairs, until his ap pointment in 1812 to command the ninth army corps destined to operate in Russia. Here his most important service was in protecting the retreating army at the cross ing of the Berezina. He took an active part in the wars of 1813-14, till in February of the latter year he had the misfortune to arrive too late at Montereau-sur-Yonne. The result was a scene of violent recrimination and his depriva tion by the emperor, who transferred his command to Gerard. Thus wounded in his amour propre, Victor now transferred his allegiance to the Bourbon dynasty, and in December 1814 received from Louis XVIII. the command of the second military division. In 1815 he accompanied the king to Ghent, and on the second restoration he was made a peer of France and major-general of the royal guard. In 1821 he was appointed war minister and held this office for two years. After the revolution of 1830 he retired altogether into private life. His death took place at Paris on 3d March 1841. VICTOR, SEXTUS ATJRELIUS. A person of this name was made prefect of Pannonia by Julian about 360 (Amm. Marc., xxi. 10), and may be identical with the man who was consul along with Valentinian in 373 and with the prefect of the city of the same name who is mentioned in an inscription of the time of Theodosius. Four small historical works have been ascribed to him on more or less doubtful grounds (1) Origo Gentis Romani, (2) De Viri- lus Illustribus Romse, (3) De C&saribus, (4) De Vita et Moribus Imperatorum Romanorum excerpta ex Libris Sex. Aur, Victoris. The four have generally been published together under the name Historia Romana, but the fourth piece is a rechauffe of the third ; and, though all are late, there is no sufficient reason to think that they are by one hand. The second was first printed at Naples about 1472, in 4to, under the name of Pliny (the younger), and the fourth at Strasburg in 1505. The first edition of all four was that of A. Schottus (8vo, Antwerp, 1579). The De Csesaribus, which goes from Augustus to Constantius, and claims to be by a man of mean origin who rose to distinction through letters, may be the work of the Sextus Aurelius Victor known to history. VICTOR AMADEUS, the name of three dukes of Savoy. See SAVOY. VICTOR EMMANUEL (1820-1878), king of Italy, born at Turin on 14th March 1820, was the son of Charles Albert, prince of Carignano, who in 1831 became king of Sardinia. He was brought up with some severity and as a strict Catholic ; but it was not found possible to interest him in study or intellectual pursuits. In 1842 he was married to Adelaide, daughter of the Austrian grand-duke Kainer, his father at that time desiring to improve his relations with Austria. The young man took no part in politics, but showed from the first the characteristics of an energetic soldier. After the Austrian occupation of Ferrara in 1847 he was among those who pressed for an immediate declaration of war; and, when a year later hostilities broke out, he threw himself into the struggle heart and soul. At Goito, where he was wounded, his reckless bravery turned the tide of battle ; and in every encounter he was to be seen in the thickest of the fight. During the armistice that followed the defeat of Custozza (25th July) he was engaged in the reorganization of the Sardinian army. The abdication of his father on the evening of the battle of Novara (23d March 1849) made him king of a ruined state. From Radetzky he obtained some mitigation of the hard terms at first demanded by the conqueror, especially in the withdrawal of the Austrian claim that the Sardinian constitution should be abolished. It was the maintenance of this constitution, at a time when reaction swept away every other vestige of repre sentative government in Italy, that gained for Victor Emmanuel the title of the honest king (re galantuomo) and won for him the confidence of the Italian nation, and ultimately the Italian crown. In the bitter days that followed Novara, the king, calumniated, misunderstood, and charged like his father with treachery, showed a noble forbearance and a self-mastery that could hardly have been expected from his passionate uncultured nature. Though in D Azeglio and Balbo he had excellent friends and advisers, it was not till 1852 that the accession of CAVOTJR (q.v.) to power gave him a man of great political genius for his guide. From that time the career of Victor Emmanuel became what Cavour made it. While ecclesi astical reforms, which brought upon the king and minister the execration of the church, laid the foundation for all future social and economical advance, the alliance of Sar dinia with England and France in the Crimean War secured for Italy the interest of the Western powers, which Austria by its inaction and its half-measures had forfeited. Meanwhile his mother, his wife, and his brother died within four weeks of each other ; and the clericals exulted in this manifestation of an offended Providence. At the end of 1855, while the allied troops were still in the East, Victor Emmanuel visited Paris and London. In 1859 Cavour s object was attained and France united with Sar dinia against Austria, the king, sorely against his will, giving his daughter Clotilda in marriage to Jerome Napoleon. Victor Emmanuel met Napoleon III. at Genoa on 13th May, and on the 30th fought at the head of a body of Sardinians and Zouaves at the battle of Palestro. After the victory of Magenta (4th June) the allied monarchs entered Milan, where Victor Emmanuel for the first time saw Garibaldi. In the crowning victory of 24th June, while the French were engaged at Solferino, the king with his Italians carried the village of San Martino. The peace of Villafranca left Venetia and the Quadrilateral to Austria. The extraordinary events of the next year united all Italy, with the exception of Rome and of what still remained to Austria, under the patriot king, who was now excommuni cated by the pope (see ITALY, vol. xiii. p. 490). A scene of great violence had passed between the king and Cavour when the peace of Villafranca was accepted by the former ; but their old friendship was soon restored, and the death of Cavour in 1861 plunged Victor Emmanuel in the deepest grief. The Prussian alliance of 1866 incorporated Venetia with Italy. The personal desire of the king to assist Napoleon III. in the war of 1870 gave way before the wiser counsels of his ministers ; and the entry of his troops into Rome after the disasters of the French army and the withdrawal of the French garrison completed Victor Emmanuel s task and the union of Italy. He lived