King of Sardinia in the context of "Victor Emmanuel II of Italy"

Victor Emmanuel II (Italian: Vittorio Emanuele II; full name: Vittorio Emanuele Maria Alberto Eugenio Ferdinando Tommaso di Savoia; 14 March 1820 – 9 January 1878) was King of Sardinia (also informally known as Piedmont–Sardinia) from 23 March 1849 until 17 March 1861, when he assumed the title of King of Italy and became the first king of an independent, united Italy since the 6th century, a title he held until his death in 1878. Borrowing from the old Latin title Pater Patriae of the Roman emperors, the Italians gave him the epithet of "Father of the Fatherland" (Italian: Padre della Patria).

Born in Turin as the eldest son of Charles Albert, Prince of Carignano, and Maria Theresa of Austria, Victor Emmanuel fought in the First Italian War of Independence (1848–1849) before being made King of Sardinia following his father's abdication. He appointed Camillo Benso, Count of Cavour, as his Prime Minister, and he consolidated his position by suppressing the republican left. In 1855, he sent an expeditionary corps to side with French and British forces during the Crimean War; the deployment of Italian troops to the Crimea, and the gallantry shown by them in the Battle of the Chernaya (16 August 1855) and in the siege of Sevastopol led the Kingdom of Sardinia to be among the participants at the peace conference at the end of the war, where it could address the issue of the Italian unification to other European powers. This allowed Victor Emmanuel to ally himself with Napoleon III, Emperor of France. France then supported Sardinia in the Second Italian War of Independence, resulting in the liberation of Lombardy from Austrian rule; as payment for the help, Victor Emmanuel ceded Savoy and Nice to France.

Victor Amadeus II (Italian: Vittorio Amedeo Francesco, Arpitan: Victor-Amèdê, French: Victor-Amédée; 14 May 1666 – 31 October 1732) was the head of the House of Savoy and ruler of the Savoyard states from 12 June 1675 until his abdication in 1730. He was the first of his house to acquire a royal crown, ruling first as King of Sicily (1713–1720) and then as King of Sardinia (1720–1730). Among his other titles were Duke of Savoy, Duke of Montferrat, Prince of Piedmont, Marquis of Saluzzo and Duke of Aosta, Maurienne and Nice.

Louis XIV arranged his marriage in order to maintain French influence in Savoy, but Victor Amadeus soon broke away from the influence of France. At his father's death in 1675, his mother, Marie Jeanne Baptiste of Nemours, was regent in the name of her nine-year-old son and would remain in de facto power until 1684 when Victor Amadeus banished her further involvement in the state. Having fought in the War of the Spanish Succession, he was rewarded with the Kingdom of Sicily in 1713, but he was forced to exchange this title for the poorer Kingdom of Sardinia in 1720.

Martin the Humane (29 July 1356 – 31 May 1410), also called the Elder and the Ecclesiastic, was King of Aragon, Valencia, Sardinia and Corsica and Count of Barcelona from 1396 and King of Sicily from 1409 (as Martin II). He failed to secure the accession of his illegitimate grandson, Frederic, Count of Luna, and with him the rule of the House of Barcelona came to an end.

Duke of Aosta (Italian: Duca d'Aosta; French: Duc d'Aoste) was a title in the Italian nobility. It was established in the 13th century when Frederick II, Holy Roman Emperor, made the County of Aosta a duchy. The region was part of the Savoyard state and the title was granted to various princes of the House of Savoy, second sons of the reigning king of Sardinia or king of Italy.

The title was re-created in 1845 for Prince Amadeo, son of Victor Emmanuel II, and thereafter held by him and his descendants until the abolition of the Italian monarchy in 1946. Two holders briefly served as kings of European countries – Prince Amadeo ruled as king of Spain from 1870 to 1873, while his grandson Prince Aimone was titular king of Croatia from 1941 to 1943 during the Italian-backed fascist regime.