In my neighborhood there is a street called Victor Emmanuel II And because I am curious and I really like the story, I was investigating who was the bearer of that name and why he deserved a street. The fact is that Victor Manuel was the last King of Sardinia and the first king of Italy. He was the son of María Teresa de Habsburgo-Lorena and Carlos Alberto I, the king of Piedmont-Sardinia, and was born on March 14, 1820 in the city of Turin.
His father united the kingdoms of Piedmont and Sardinia and it was his turn to go to war against the Austrians in 1848, then rulers of northern Italy. He lost, but the following year he was crowned king when his father abdicated. Under his rule, the Kingdom of Piedmont grew to almost occupy all of Italy and in this way the long-awaited and longed-for unification in the same state was achieved. Thus, Victor Manuel II went on to become the first king of Italy. Among his government objectives was to diminish the power of the Catholic Church, so he ended up attacking Rome and forcing Pope Pius IX to take refuge in Vatican City. He participated in the Crimean War on the side of France and England and against Russia to obtain the support of both countries and he succeeded, yielding Nice and Savoy to France as long as France supported him to conquer Lombardy and Veneto.
But things never end well and due to those things of politics and secret pacts, Victor Manuel stayed with Lombardy but the Veneto region remained in Austrian hands for a while longer. Italy is unified between 1861 and 1870: the north by Victor Manuel and the south by Garibaldi. In 1871 Rome became the capital and the unification process came to an end. Victor Manuel had four children with his cousin, two girls and two boys. One was Queen of Portugal and another wife of José Napoleón, and of the children one was King of Italy and another King of Spain for three short years.