VICTOR AMADEUS II, Duke of Savoy and King of Sardinia. - Son of Charles Emmanuel and of Giovanna Battista of Savoy-Nemours, b. in Turin on 14 May 1666, d. in the Castle of Moncalieri on 31 Oct. 1732. The death of his father in 1675 left the young prince under the guardianship and regency of his mother officially until 1680, in fact until 1684, the year in which V. A. abruptly assumed the government of the State.
In the solitude in which he had lived, he had drawn up tumultuous plans for reforming the government, pursuing a program of economies that would increase the military capacities of the State. V. A. was full of anxieties about relations with the great European powers, above all because of the heavy preponderance that Louis XIV exercised over Piedmont, master of Pinerolo since the Treaty of Cherasco and then, by sudden violence, also of Casale (1680). V. A. could not refuse the marriage with Anne of Orléans imposed on him by the Great King, but he was impatient of the French yoke and awaited the propitious moment to recover independence. The conclusion of the League of Augsburg (1686) allowed him the first negotiations with the enemies of France; the Grand Alliance of 1689 gave the Duke of Savoy the opportunity to sign agreements in 1690 with the various coalition powers. Then Piedmont was at war. The obstinacy of the French generals against Turin was bitter, but the victories of Staffarda and of Marsiglia did not make it possible to crush the resistance of V. A. The Great King resigned himself to offering the Duke of Savoy the restitution of Pinerolo and the abandonment of Casale: the secret Treaty of Pinerolo (27 June 1696) and the subsequent one of Turin (29 Aug. 1696) led to the Agreement of Vigevano for the neutralization of Italy, and the Peace of Ryswick of the following year recognized the fall of French predominance in the peninsula thanks to V. A. But the latter, who had had to give his daughter Adelaide in marriage to the Duke of Burgundy, had once again re-entered the wake of France and found himself in a bad political situation when the question of the succession of Spain was about to open. The Duke of Savoy in fact entered the war as an ally of Louis XIV, but with the intention of detaching himself from it as soon as possible in order to prevent his State from becoming an object of bargaining among the great powers. To the secret Savoyard-imperial negotiations, Louis XIV responded by having the Piedmontese troops disarmed, but V. A. on 8 Nov. 1703 signed the Treaty of alliance with the Emperor which promised him Monferrato and a part of the Duchy of Milan with Alessandria, and the Valsesia. From 1704 to 1706 there was again hard fighting around Turin between the French and the Austro-Piedmontese, a war that culminated in the battle of Turin won by V. A. and by his cousin Eugene of Savoy (7 Sept. 1706). The basilica of Superga was erected to commemorate the Savoyard victory and the expulsion of the French from Italy.
The negotiations for the Peace at Utrecht gave V. A. the opportunity to carry out skillfully his policy aimed at obtaining: from the Empire the concessions promised in 1703, from France the lands it occupied on the eastern flank of the Cottian Alps, and from the European concert an indemnity for the renunciation of the rights to the crown of Spain that came to him from the inheritance of his ancestress Catherine, consort of Charles Emmanuel I. Thus Louis XIV abandoned to the duke Pragelato, Fenestrelle, Exilles, Oulx, Cesana, Bardonecchia, Castel Delfino, obtaining in exchange the valley of Barcellonetta; the Empire gave him Monferrato, Alessandria, the Lomellina, the Valsesia; for the Spanish inheritance, instead of the Duchy of Milan, the island of Sicily was assigned to the Duke with the title of King. V. A. thus emerged from the great crisis triumphant both militarily and diplomatically. Having however lost English support in the following years, in the Austro-
Spanish conflict kindled by Card. Alberoni he was forced to abandon Sicily to Austria, receiving in exchange the Kingdom of Sardinia (8 Nov. 1718).
Once the wars were over, V. A. attended to his first great dream, the restoration of the State. Thus began a great period of reforms. His policy aimed at the creation of an absolute monarchy in which all class and corporate privileges would disappear. To V. A. belongs the merit of having created that regular, rigid and honest Piedmontese administration which was to serve in the 19th century as a model for the organization of the unified Italian State. Interesting are the relations of V. A. with the Church. A believer, deeply religious, he desired that his subjects should have his simple religion, without meditations, without discussions. The faith of the carbonaro, he used to say. But on the other hand he was a harsh defender of the claims of the State against what were called ecclesiastical interferences and usurpations. He therefore had long disputes with the Holy See and indeed came to a veritable rupture. Many episcopal sees in Piedmont remained vacant for years. Only in 1724 Benedict XIII offered to enter into negotiations; the minister Ormea went to Rome to negotiate.
In the reforming policy of V. A. great importance was had by the reconstitution of the University of Turin; in the renewal of studies the advisers of V. A. were two Sicilian jurists, Niccolò Pensabene and Francesco d'Aguirre. Thus the legislative reform represents the crowning of the State's work of renewal. In 1725 the new Constitutions were published, but then V. A. took them up again for examination and only in 1729 did there come to light the new and definitive edition of the Victorine Constitutions which in 1837 gave way to the Albertine Code. In 1730 V. A., weary after so long a reign and so full of activity, abdicated in favor of his son Charles Emmanuel III and retired to Chambéry to private life. Since he had already lost his consort, he now married Anna Teresa Canalis of Ciumana, widow of the count Novarina of S. Sebastiano, whom he made marchioness of Spigno. But in private life he did not find the peace he sought and, discontented with the policy followed by the new King, he returned to Piedmont to resume power. To avoid a civil war, the old King was arrested and shut up in the castle of Moncalieri where he died. He was buried at Superga.