Victor Emmanuel I of Savoy, King of Sardinia

VICTOR EMMANUEL I OF SAVOY, King of Sardinia. - Born in Turin on 24 July 1759, died at Moncalieri on 10 January 1824. Second son of Vittorio Amedeo duke of Savoy, heir to the throne, and of Maria Antonia of Bourbon-Spain, he received at birth the title of duke of Aosta.

More than to his elder brother Carlo Emanuele, prince of Piedmont, V. E. was bound by temperament and by the education he received to the three younger brothers - Maurizio duke of Monferrato, Carlo Felice duke of Genevois and Giuseppe Benedetto count of Moriana - with whom he had as governor the rigid Casimiro Gabeleone of Salmour, who imparted to the four princes a predominantly military formation, inspired in politics by monarchical absolutism. The Barnabite Giacinto Sigismondo Gerdil, future cardinal and close to ascending the throne in the Conclave of Venice of 1800, directed their religious instruction, making of them fervent Catholics, though without the mysticism of Carlo Emanuele. Yet V. E.'s studies were neither extensive nor profound: which did not prevent him from assuming, while still very young, the rank and functions of captain general of the army. Grown up in the severe morality of the Savoy Court, at thirty he contracted marriage with Maria Teresa of Habsburg-Lorraine (1773-1832), daughter of the archduke Ferdinand, governor of Lombardy, and of Maria Beatrice, the last of the Este. From this marriage were born Carlo Emanuele, who died at barely thirty, and four daughters, Maria Beatrice later duchess of Modena, Maria Anna later empress of Austria, Maria Teresa later duchess of Lucca and the ven. Maria Cristina later queen of Naples, thus removing also from V. E. the possibility of perpetuating the dynasty, which had had no heirs from the firstborn. At the head of his troops V. E. fought with unlucky valour the French invasion beginning in 1792 and sought in vain to oppose the weakness of his father and then of his brother, who ascended the throne in 1796, suggesting measures of desperate energy to ensure the defence of the State. All was in vain: Carlo Emanuele IV allowed himself to be induced to divest himself of Piedmont and Savoy in favour of France and to take the road of exile. While the greater part of the royal family took refuge in Sardinia, V. E. remained on the continent, as guest of friendly Courts, in the hope of a political upheaval that would allow him to set foot again in Turin: which was prevented in 1799 by Austrian jealousy. Only in 1806 - when he had already been king for four years through the abdication of Carlo Emanuele IV - did he reach his family at Cagliari, forced to leave the Neapolitan territory by the Napoleonic advance. From then on he governed the island wisely in expectation of better times, which came in 1814 with the fall of Napoleon. The first Treaty of Paris restored to V. E. his dominions, except Annecy and Chambéry, but with the considerable addition of Genoa and Liguria. A few months later, the zeal with which he organized an army and made it march against France during the Hundred Days also earned him the restitution of the two Savoyard districts.

Welcomed with delirious enthusiasm on his return to Turin, V. E., ill advised by his ministers, committed the irreparable error of fully re-establishing the ordinances of 1789, without taking any account of the changed political conditions. To revive royal absolutism and feudal rights meant failing to understand the times and disappointing the hopes of the people and of the bourgeoisie, who had never fallen short in their fidelity toward the sovereign in exile. But V. E. did not feel the new demands and believed that the reforms bestowed with a paternalistic mentality, or else a firm foreign policy with regard to France and Austria, were enough to make his peoples happy. He had to become aware of his error at the outbreak of the liberal revolts of 1820-21: equally reluctant to grant the requested Constitution as to stifle the insurrection with arms, he preferred to abdicate the throne to his brother Carlo Felice and entrust the regency to the presumptive heir Carlo Alberto of Savoy-Carignano, with the well-known consequences.

Having left the capital on 14 March 1821, he once again took the road of exile; but a few months later the new King wished him to return to his homeland, whereupon he settled at Moncalieri, keeping himself rigorously extraneous to politics so as not to diminish his brother's authority. Of his piety, highly esteemed by the pontiffs, and especially by Pius VII, who held him most dear, a distinguished monument is the grandiose temple of the Gran Madre di Dio, which he had erected in Turin in thanksgiving for the accomplished restoration of 1814.

Renzo U. Montini