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 VICTOR AMADEUS II. the head of an investigating committee, he showed great severity toward those of his for- mer comrades who had gone over to Napoleon. He was minister of war from 1821 to 1823, when he accompanied the duke of Angouleme as major general to Spain, but was recalled on account of frauds for which he was partly held responsible. He was appointed ambassador to Austria, but that government declined to rec- ognize him as duke of Belluno, and he spent the rest of his life in retirement. VICTOR AMADECS II., duke of Savoy and afterward king of Sardinia, born May 14, 1666, died Oct. 31, 1732. In 1675 he succeeded his father Charles Emanuel II., under the regency of his mother, against whose wishes he mar- ried in 1684 a niece of Louis XIV., who re- garded Savoy as a vassal state. At that mon- arch's request he persecuted the Waldenses, and sent auxiliary troops to the French army in Flanders ; but as Louis insisted upon his control of the whole army of Victor Amadeus, he joined in 1690 the Augsburg league against France. This contest, in which he displayed great valor, was nearly fatal to him; but he obtained in a treaty with Louis XIV. (1696) the restoration of important territories occu- pied by the French, and a large indemnity in money, and joined the French army with his troops. His defection contributed to the ter- mination of the war of the Augsburg league, through the treaty of Eyswick of 1697. After the outbreak of the war of the Spanish suc- cession, as Louis XIV. refused to purchase feis alliance by a cession of territory, he again turned against him, and, defeating the French, who had oyerrun Savoy and Piedmont, with the aid of Prince Eugene, he recovered all his possessions, and in 1713, by the treaty of Utrecht, received additionally a part of the duchy of Milan and the kingdom of Sicily, and on Dec. 24 was crowned at Palermo. In 1720 he exchanged Sicily for the island of Sardinia, which was then held by Austria, and assumed the title of king of Sardinia. On Sept. 3, 1730, he abdicated in favor of his son Charles Eman- uel III. A short time before he had secretly married his mistress, the countess of San Se- bastiano, whom he made marchioness of Spi- gno. At her instigation he made in 1731 re- peated but futile attempts to regain his throne. He was imprisoned in September by order of his son, who was goaded on to this step by his courtiers and chiefly by the archbishop of Turin. He was dragged from his bed and con- fined for several days at the Eivoli palace, and then conveyed to Moncalieri, where he ended his life in captivity. His wife, who was per- mitted to join him, retired on his death to a convent in Turin, where she died in 1733. VICTOR ENAMEL I., king of Sardinia, born in 1759, died at Moncalieri, near Turin, Jan. 10, 1824. He was the second son of Vic- tor Amadeus III., and succeeded his brother Charles Emanuel IV., who abdicated in his favor in June, 1802. The French were then VICTOR EMANUEL II. 343 masters of the continental parts of his king- dom, and Victor Emamuel, after a residence of four years in Naples, in the vain hope of re- covering his possessions, resided in the island of Sardinia under the protection of Great Brit- ain till 1814, when he was reinstated on the throne. By the treaties of Vienna he ceded several districts to Geneva, and obtained the ter- ritory of Genoa. His extreme reactionary pol- icy resulted in his overthrow by an insurrec- tion in 1821, when he was obliged to abdicate, March 13, in favor of his brother Charles Felix. VICTOR KMAM KL II. (ViTTORio EMMANUELE MARIA ALBERTO EUGENIO FERDINAJJDO TOMMA- so), king of Italy, formerly king of Sardinia, born in Turin, March 14, 1820. He is the eld- est son of Charles Albert and Theresa, daugh- ter of the grand duke Ferdinand of Tuscany. He received a careful education, and in 1842, being then duke of Savoy, married the arch- duchess Adelaide of Austria. When the war with Austria broke out in 1848, he took com- mand of the brigade of Savoy, and followed his father to the field, participating in the bat- tle 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 fac- tion 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 lib- erals. He soon effected a reorganization of the finances and of the army, signed a peace with Austria, and under the influence of Ca- vour, who till his death remained the princi- pal adviser of the king, curtailed the privi- leges of the clergy, secularized the property of the church, and took from the religious associations the monopoly of education. Ex- communicated 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 dangerous- ly ill. By a treaty signed April 10, 1855, he joined the Anglo-French alliance in the Cri- mean war, and the position of Sardinia among the European states was greatly raised, mainly through the influence of Cavour. The mar- riage of his daughter Clotilda to Prince Napo- leon (January, 1859) was followed almost im- mediately by the war of Italian independence, in which France and Sardinia took the field together against Austria. Victor Emanuel, in- vested 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 bri- gade. The king won the name of re gallantuo- mo by his intrepidity at the battle of Palestro and by his valor on all occasions. After the