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Victor Amadeus II of Sardinia

 
Britannica Concise Encyclopedia: Victor Amadeus II
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(born May 14, 1666, Turin, Savoy — died Oct. 31, 1732, Moncalieri, near Turin) King of Sicily (1713 – 20) and of Sardinia (1720 – 30). The son of Charles Emmanuel II, he inherited his father's title as duke of Savoy in 1675 and grew up under a regency headed by his mother, who pursued a pro-French policy. In the War of the Spanish Succession he sided with France, but in 1703 he shifted to the Habsburg side. With the French defeat at Turin (1706) he secured his position in Italy. The Treaty of Utrecht (1713) gave him the title of king of Sicily, which he was obliged to exchange for Sardinia in 1720. As the first king of Sardinia, which also included Piedmont and Savoy, he established the foundation for the future Italian national state.

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Biography: Victor Amadeus II
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Victor Amadeus II (1666-1732) was Duke of Savoy, king of Sicily, and king of Sardinia. An enlightened despot, he brought good government, justice, and prosperity to his domain and won for his people freedom from foreign domination.

Victor Amadeus was born on May 14, 1666. He was the son of Charles Emmanuel II, whom he succeeded as Duke of Savoy in 1675 upon the latter's death. Victor Amadeus's mother ruled as regent until 1683, when he declared the regency ended and personally assumed the reins of government. That same year Victor Amadeus married Anna Maria of Orléans, the niece of Louis XIV.

Louis XIV wished to draw Savoy into the French orbit for two reasons. Savoy would be a threat to France if it was occupied by any enemy of France's, and Louis wished to occupy Savoy himself as a first step toward conquering all of Italy. In 1685 Louis forced Victor Amadeus into war. That year, following Louis's revocation of the Edict of Nantes, thousands of French Protestants fled into the Waldensian Valley, an alpine border area between France and Savoy. Louis XIV instructed Victor Amadeus to invade the Savoyard portion of the Waldensian Valley and to root out the Protestants. Victor Amadeus refused until Louis threatened to invade Savoy.

The attack took place in 1686. A stiff Waldensian defense eventually broke down before the forces of Savoy and France, and the military operation developed into a slaughter of Protestants. More than 12, 000 Protestant survivors were imprisoned in various fortresses in Savoy. However, the Waldensian affair had sickened Victor Amadeus. He resolved to defy Louis XIV and to free his duchy of French domination.

Victor Amadeus freed the Waldensian prisoners and financed their journey to Switzerland. In 1690 he opened negotiations for membership in the League of Augsburg, a group composed of the enemies of France. To discourage Savoy from joining the league, Louis XIV dispatched an army that occupied strategic fortresses in Savoy. Undaunted, Victor Amadeus joined the league and declared war on France.

The war lasted six years, but Louis XIV could not conquer the duchy. To entice Victor Amadeus away from the League of Augsburg, Louis XIV offered him generous peace terms. In 1696 both countries signed the Peace of Turin. France returned the captured fortress-cities of Pinerolo and Villafranca and the state of Nice to Savoy. Victor Amadeus then assumed command of a French army to help drive his former allies out of Savoy. The war-weary members of the league signed the Treaty of Ryswick in 1696 and ended hostilities with France.

Peace reigned in Europe until 1701, when the War of the Spanish Succession broke out. Savoy entered the war at first as an ally of France and Spain. But in 1703 Victor Amadeus refused to renew his alliance with Louis XIV. In 1706 a combined Savoyard-Austrian army defeated the attacking French at Turin. Through this victory, Victor Amadeus ended the French domination of Savoy.

In 1713 the Treaty of Utrecht ended the War of the Spanish Succession. As remuneration for his efforts in the war, Victor Amadeus received the kingdom of Sicily and was crowned in September. In 1720 Victor Amadeus ceded his claims to Sicily to Emperor Charles VI in exchange for the island of Sardinia. That year Victor Amadeus was crowned king of Sardinia.

Victor Amadeus brought equitable justice to both Savoy and Sardinia. In 1723 he promulgated the first legal code in Savoy since the Middle Ages. He also brought economic prosperity to Savoy by expanding and investing in the tobacco and wool industries. He standardized weights, measures, and monetary units. The King established a state-supported insane asylum, a secondary school system, and the University of Turin.

In 1730 Victor Amadeus abdicated in favor of his son, Charles Emmanuel III. Victor Amadeus died on Oct. 31, 1732.

Further Reading

A scholarly and enjoyable account of the reign of Victor Amadeus II is by the Marchesa Vitelleschi, The Romance of Savoy (2 vols., 1905).

Additional Sources

Symcox, Geoffrey, Victor Amadeus II: absolutism in the Savoyard State, 1675-1730, Berkeley: University of California Press, 1983.

 
Columbia Encyclopedia: Victor Amadeus II
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Victor Amadeus II (ămədē'əs), 1666-1732, duke of Savoy (1675-1713), king of Sicily (1713-20), king of Sardinia (1720-30). Succeeding his father, Charles Emmanuel II, as duke of Savoy, he overthrew the regency of his mother in 1683. Finding himself caught between France and the house of Hapsburg, he steered an opportunistic course in foreign policy, guided in part by his desire to rid Savoy of French influence, in part by his appetite for territorial aggrandizement. Under French pressure he took (1686) severe measures against the Waldenses, but in 1690 he joined the League of Augsburg (see Augsburg, League of) against the French king Louis XIV and returned to a more tolerant policy at home. Although defeated by the French in the War of the Grand Alliance, he concluded a favorable separate peace in the Treaty of Turin (1696), which restored Pinerolo to Savoy and caused the collapse of the alliance. In the War of the Spanish Succession (1701-13) he at first sided with France, but changed sides once more in 1703. The French occupied Savoy, but were obliged to lift the siege of Turin after Victor Amadeus and his cousin, Eugene of Savoy, had thoroughly defeated them in 1706. The peace (see Utrecht, Peace of) awarded him Sicily with the royal title and gave him additional territory in N Italy, including Alessandria. When the Spanish seized (1718) Sicily, the Quadruple Alliance was formed and humbled Spain. Victor Amadeus in 1720 abandoned his claim to Sicily in exchange for the island of Sardinia and became king of Sardinia. He abdicated in 1730 in favor of his son, Charles Emmanuel III.
Wikipedia: Victor Amadeus II of Sardinia
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Victor Amadeus II.

Victor Amadeus II, Italian Vittorio Amedeo II (14 May 1666 – 31 October 1732) was Duke of Savoy from 1675 to 1730. He also held the titles of marquis of Saluzzo, marquis of Monferrato, prince of Piedmont, count of Aosta, Moriana and Nizza. His mother Marie Jeanne Baptiste de Savoie-Nemours was the regent from 1675 to 1684. He first became king of Sicily (1713-1718), but he was forced to exchange this title and instead became king of Sardinia (1720-1730).

Contents

Biography

Victor Amadeus was born in Turin to Charles Emmanuel II, Duke of Savoy and his second wife Marie Jeanne Baptiste de Savoie-Nemours.

Internal reforms

Victor Amadeus II undertook sweeping administrative reforms within Savoy-Piedmont. In 1696 he established a system of intendents, based on the French model, responsible for collecting taxes and law enforcement. In 1697 he began a land survey which was largely completed by 1711, the Perequazione, to examine the land holdings and privileges of the Church and nobility. In 1717 he reformed the secretariat system in Turin establishing individual secretaries for war, internal affairs and foreign affairs. From the 1670s he also had a new administrative zone built in Turin, around the ducal palace. This zone included a military academy, the ministry of war, a mint, and a customs house. This work was still ongoing upon his death.

Victor Amadeus also undertook a number of military reforms. In 1690 he established a select militia within his territories, he later overhauled the militia system in 1714 and strictly codified it. From 1713 he also began to establish his own navy based on the limited Sicilian naval forces he had been granted.

Foreign policy

Coat of Arms of the Dukes of Savoy after Victor Amadeus I

Under his mother's regency Savoy, despite being a state of the Holy Roman Empire, was closely linked to and heavily dependent upon France, essentially becoming a French satellite. Victor Amadeus II broke this link with France by joining alliances against Savoy's neighbour in both the Nine Years War and the War of the Spanish Succession.

Savoy was considered a valuable ally in both wars due to its geographical position, enabling a second front to be opened against France in the south. Savoy relied heavily on foreign subsidies, particularly from England and the Dutch Republic, in both wars to maintain its armies. During the War of the Spanish Succession, foreign subsidies amounted for almost half of the revenue raised by Savoy to fight the war. In the War of the Spanish Succession, Savoy fared particularly badly against the larger French forces resulting in a siege of Turin in 1706 which was only relieved by the intervention of an army of the Holy Roman Empire under Prince Eugene of Savoy.

Coat of Arms of Kings of Sardinia of House of Savoy after 1720.

As a result of his aid in the War of the Spanish Succession, Victor Amadeus II was made King of Sicily in 1713 under the Treaty of Utrecht which ended the war. Victor Amadeus was forced to exchange Sicily for the less important kingdom of Sardinia in 1720 after objections from an alliance of four nations, including several of his former allies. Yet he retained his new title of King. The rule was that there were no kings within the Empire, but if a ruler subject to the Emperor also possessed a large territory outside the Empire he might claim this title as the Elector of Brandenburg had done, styling himself King in Prussia based on his sovereignty over the Duchy of Prussia.

The Vaudois

Victor Amadeus II began a large scale persecution of the Vaudois (Piedmontese and Savoyard Protestants) in 1685. Due to his alliances with England and the Dutch Republic during the Nine Years War, he was forced to cease this practice from 1688, and in 1694 granted an Edict of Toleration.

HRH Anne Marie d'Orleans

Issue

Children of Victor Amadeus II by:
1. Princess Anne Marie d'Orléans (b. 27 August 27, 1669 – † 26 August 1728), daughter of Philippe I of Orléans and his first wife Henrietta Anne Stuart.

1. Marie Adelaide (b. 1685 – † 1712), married Louis, duc de Bourgogne and was the mother of Louis XV of France
2. Marie Anne (b. 1687 – † 1690)
3. Maria Luisa Gabriella (b. 1688 – † 1714), first wife of Philip V of Spain
4. Victor Amadeus, Prince of Piedmont (b. 1699 – † 1715),
5. Carlo Emanuele III (b. 1701 – † 1773)
6. Emanuele Philibert (b. 1705) Duke of Chablais

2. Anna Teresa Canalis di Cumiana (b. 1679 – † 1769) (morganatic).
3. Jeanne Baptiste d'Albert de Luynes, his mistress (b. 1670 – † 1736)

1. Maria Vittoria Francesca of Savoy (b. 9 February 1690 – † 8 July 1766); Vittoria's granddaughter was Marie-Louise, princesse de Lamballe.
1.1. Donna Caterina di Savoia, (b. 1713 – † 1779), married Conte Giorgio Magro.
2. Donna Maria Vittoria di Savoia, Marchesa di Susa (b. 1690 – † 1766)

External links

Victor Amadeus II of Sardinia
Born: 14 May 1666 Died: 31 October 1732
Regnal titles
Preceded by
Charles Emmanuel II		 Duke of Savoy
1675 – 1730		 Succeeded by
Charles Emmanuel III
Preceded by
Emperor Charles VI		 King of Sardinia
1720 – 1730
Preceded by
Philip V		 King of Sicily
1713 – 1720		 Succeeded by
Charles VI
v • d • e
Kings of Sardinia of the House of Savoy (1720–1861)
Armoiries Sardaigne 1720.png
The Kingdom of Sardinia was awarded to the King of Sicily by the Treaty of Utrecht; The Kings of Sardinia became the Kings of Italy due to the Italian Unification


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