Victor Emmanuel I of Sardinia

Victor Emmanuel I (Vittorio Emanuele; 24 July 1759 – 10 January 1824) was the Duke of Savoy and King of Sardinia (1802–1821).

Biography

Victor Emmanuel was the second son of King Victor Amadeus III of Sardinia and Maria Antonia Ferdinanda of Spain, daughter of King Philip V of Spain and Elisabeth Farnese.

Victor Emmanuel was known from birth as the Duke of Aosta. From 1792 to 1796, Aosta's father had taken an active part in the struggle of the old powers against the revolutionary forces in France but was defeated and forced to make peace. The old king died shortly thereafter, and in December 1798, his eldest son and successor, Charles Emmanuel IV, was faced with a French occupation and eventually annexation, of his mainland territories.

Charles Emmanuel and his family were forced to withdraw to Sardinia, which was the only part of his domains not conquered by the French. Charles Emmanuel himself took little interest in the rule of Sardinia, living with his wife on the mainland in Naples and Rome until his wife's death in 1802, which led the childless Charles Emmanuel to abdicate the throne for of his younger brother. Aosta took the throne on 4 June 1802 as Victor Emmanuel I. He ruled Sardinia from Cagliari for the next twelve years, during which time he constituted the Carabinieri, a Gendarmerie corps, still existing as one of the main branches of the military of Italy.

Victor Emmanuel could return to Turin only in 1814, his realm reconstituted by the Congress of Vienna, with the addition of the territories of the former Republic of Genoa. The latter became the seat of the Sardinian Navy. Victor Emmanuel abolished all the freedoms granted by the Napoleonic Codices and restored a fiercely oppressive rule: he refused any concession of a constitution, entrusted the instruction to the Church and reintroduced the persecutions against Jews and Waldensians.

After the outbreak of the liberal revolution in his lands in 1821, he abdicated in favor of his brother, Charles Felix. Victor Emanuel died in the Castle of Moncalieri and is buried in the Basilica of Superga.

Family and children

On 21 April 1789, he married Archduchess Maria Teresa of Austria-Este, daughter of Ferdinand, Duke of Modena (who was the son of Francis I, Holy Roman Emperor).

They had six daughters and one son who died very young:

1. Maria Beatrice Victoria Josepha of Savoy (1792–1840), married her uncle Francis IV, Archduke of Austria and Duke of Modena
2. Maria Adelaide Clothilde Xaveria Borbonia of Savoy (1794–1802)
3. Charles Emanuel (1796–1799) died of smallpox.
4. A daughter (1800–1801)
5. Maria Teresa Fernanda Felicitas Gaetana Pia of Savoy (1803–1879), married Charles II, Duke of Parma (1799–1883)
6. Maria Anna Ricarda Carlotta Margherita Pia of Savoy (1803–1884), married Ferdinand I of Austria
7. Maria Cristina Carlotta Giuseppina Gaetana Elise of Savoy (1812–1836), married Ferdinand II of the Two Sicilies

Ancestry