Stamps of Italy: Victor Emmanuel II 50th Anniversary (1929)

Many of us are familiar with King Victor Emmanuel III because of his relationship with Mussolini. This stamp commemorated the 50th Anniversary of Victor Emmanuel II in 1928.

It was a charity issue an aided the Veterans Fund.

Released January 4, 1929.

Here are some details of the Second Victor Emmanuel:

Victor Emmanuel II
(Victor Emmanuel II of Sardinia, Victor Emmanuel of Italy)
1820–1878

Victor Emmanuel was the first king of unified Italy. He reigned as King of Sardinia from 1849 to 1861, and was proclaimed King of Italy after the Second War of Italian Independence.

Born the eldest son of Charles Albert of Sardinia and Maria Theresa of Tuscany, Victor fought in the First Italian War of Independence before being made King of Piedmont-Sardinia following his father’s abdication. He appointed Camillo di Cavour, a political mastermind, as his Prime Minister, and after the success of the Crimean War Cavour arranged an agreement with the French Emperor: the kingdom of Lombardy-Venetia in exchange for French acquisistion of Nice and Savoy. Napoleon III, however, chose to initate an additional treaty with Austrian leader Franz Joseph I, and as a result France was stripped of its Italian territories and Victor Emmanuel was unable to acquire Venetia. Meanwhile, the Italian king had driven the pope into the Vatican City and was thereafter excommunicated from the Catholic Church, but he managed to save face when Giuseppe Garibaldi obtained for him the territories of Sicily and Naples. The Kingdom of Italy was officially established in 1861, and Victor Emmanuel II was chosen as its king.

Victor Emmanuel II taking the oath of office

Victor obtained additional land during the Third Italian War of Independence, this time allying himself with Prussia. He managed to capture Rome after the French withdrew, and he established the city as the capital of Italy. The remainder of his reign was spent quietly, as he dealt with little more than economic and cultural issues. He passed away in Rome shortly following the reversal of his excommunication by Pope Pius IX and was buried in the Pantheon.