Victor Emmanuel II: biography. Victor Emmanuel II - King of Italy Victor Emmanuel 2 biography
Biography
Victor Emmanuel II (Vittorio Emanuele II) was the king of the Kingdom of Sardinia since 1849, from the Savoy dynasty. Born in 1820 and while still crown prince, he showed outstanding courage in the war with Austria in 1848-1849.
After King Charles Albert was defeated at Novara and retired to Spain, his son, Victor Emmanuel II, ascended the throne. After ascending the throne, Victor Emmanuel II was forced to make peace with Austria on rather difficult terms for Italy due to the fact that he did not want to abolish the constitution, because of which he would violate his father’s obligations to the people of Italy. The Austrians received a large indemnity, and their occupation corps remained in Piedmont for a long time. Thanks to the fact that he did not abolish the constitution, Victor Emmanuel earned the confidence of the people and a popularity almost equal to that of Garibaldi. Only by taking advantage of this, Victor Emmanuel II could strain all the country's financial resources, increasing the national debt by 4 times, to reorganize the army, which, through the efforts of the Minister of War, General Lamarmora, was brought to a brilliant state and increased to 100,000 people.
In order for the army to gain combat experience, as well as to strengthen friendly relations with France, Victor Emmanuel II took part in the Eastern War and sent a 15 thousandth corps to Sevastopol under the command of General Mentevecchio. This circumstance made it possible for Sardinia to have its representative at the Paris Congress of 1856, where Cavour, in a brilliant speech directed against Austria, outlined the situation and needs of Italy.
In 1858, the same Cavour, sent by Victor Emmanuel II to Plombières for a meeting with Napoleon III, achieved that the latter undertook to declare war on Austria and cede Piedmont, Lombardy and Venice in exchange for Nice and Savoy. The war began, and after the victories of the French-Italian troops at Palestro, Magenta and Solferino, in which Victor Emmanuel II himself personally took part, the fate of Italy was decided by the Peace of Villafranca as follows: Lombardy went to Victor Emmanuel II, Venice remained with Austria, from the rest of Italy it was planned to form a federation under the chairmanship of Pope Pius IX. The resolutions of the Peace of Villafranca caused terrible indignation throughout Italy, and it turned out to be impossible to implement them; Pius IX refused to make any concessions; Tuscany, Modena, Romagna and Parma did not want to accept their dukes and elected Garibaldi as the head of their union, instructing him to join Piedmont.
Forced by the state of affairs, Napoleon, leaving Savoy and Nice behind him, agreed to the annexation of Tuscany, Parma, Modena and Romagna to Piedmont, and Victor Emmanuel II was recognized as king of these provinces by popular vote (1860) and on March 14, 1861 took the title of king Italy, under the name Victor Emmanuel II.
Although in one of the very first sessions of parliament Rome was called the “capital of Italy,” it was occupied by French troops. Unable to conquer it, since the finances of the state were upset by constant wars and there was an urgent need to take care of internal affairs, Victor Emmanuel II decided to diplomatically achieve the removal of French troops from Rome. After much hesitation, Napoleon agreed to withdraw his troops from Italy within 2 years, but on the condition that Rome would never be its capital and the pope would have his own army. The people, however, did not want to accept these conditions, and a rebellion broke out in Turin, energetically pacified by Victor Emmanuel II.
In 1866, Victor Emmanuel II concluded a defensive and offensive alliance with Prussia against Austria, according to which peace could be concluded only by common consent. For this, Bismarck promised to return Venice to Italy. Then Austria offered Victor Emmanuel II to receive Venice for free, but Victor Emmanuel II did not want to break the agreement with Prussia and sent his troops to support it in the war with Austria that had already begun, but they acted very unsuccessfully. However, Austria lost the war. According to the Vienna Peace Treaty of 1866, the Venetian region ceded to Italy, and at the end of 1866, French troops left Rome, having remained there for 17 years. Garibaldi then moved to conquer Rome, but was defeated by the French in 1867 at Menton, and French troops reoccupied the Papal States. Napoleon suspected Victor Emmanuel II of sympathizing with Garibaldi, and this caused a cooling of relations between France and Italy.
During the Franco-Prussian War of 1870-1871, Italy did not support France, but the Sedan disaster finally freed it from the French. Before taking up arms to acquire Rome, Victor Emmanuel II tried to persuade the pope to renounce temporal power, but, seeing the futility of negotiations, he ordered troops to bombard the capital of Pius IX. Rome quickly surrendered. The papal troops were disbanded.
On October 26, 1871, a parliamentary resolution was passed to move the capital of the kingdom from Florence to Rome.
In 1873, Victor Emmanuel II visited Emperor Wilhelm I and Franz Joseph in Berlin and Vienna and through diplomatic negotiations contributed to the emergence of the so-called. "Triple Alliance".
In people's memory, he remained a great fighter for his country and its unifier.
Victor himself, despite his passion for hunting and numerous love affairs, was a man courageous and sober enough to cope with his royal responsibilities. Not possessing much intelligence, he was rude and laid-back like a soldier, but he had a lot of simple common sense and business insight. Victor understood perfectly well that Piedmont, due to its geographical, economic and political position, could be a center of rallying forces for Italian patriots, and in order to support this, he pursued a liberal course in domestic policy, and in foreign policy he stood resolutely and boldly against Austria. This, in essence, was his contribution to the unification of Italy. Others did the rest for him. The throne was owed to Camillo Cavour, who led the unification of Italy.
King of the Sardinian Kingdom
Biography
Born in 1820, and while still crown prince, he showed outstanding courage in the war with Austria in 1848-1849.
Having ascended the throne of Sardinia after his father, King Charles Albert, defeated at Novara, retired to Spain, Victor Emmanuel II made peace with Austria on rather difficult conditions for the country: the Austrians received a large indemnity, and their occupation corps remained for a long time in Piedmont. Peace could have been concluded on easier terms, but only with the abolition of the constitution, but Victor Emmanuel II did not want to break the obligation given to the people by his father. Thanks to this, he earned the trust of the people and a popularity almost equal to that of Garibaldi. Only by taking advantage of this, Victor Emmanuel II could strain all the country's financial resources, increasing the national debt by 4 times, to reorganize the army, which, through the efforts of the Minister of War, General Lamarmora, was brought to a brilliant state and increased to 100,000 people.
To give her the necessary combat experience and at the same time strengthen friendly relations with France, Victor Emmanuel II took part in the Eastern War and sent a 15 thousandth corps under the command of General Mentevecchio to Sevastopol. This circumstance made it possible for Sardinia to have its representative at the Paris Congress of 1856, where Cavour, in a brilliant speech directed against Austria, outlined the situation and needs of Italy.
In 1858, the same Cavour, sent by Victor Emmanuel II to Plombières for a meeting with Napoleon, achieved that the latter undertook to declare war on Austria and cede Lombardy and Venice to Piedmont in exchange for Nice and Savoy. The war began, and after the victories of the French-Italian troops at Palestro, Magenta and Solferino, in which Victor Emmanuel II himself personally took part, the fate of Italy was decided by the Peace of Villafranca as follows: Lombardy went to Victor Emmanuel II, Venice remained with Austria, from the rest of Italy it was planned to form a federation under the chairmanship of Pope Pius IX. The resolutions of the Peace of Villafranca caused terrible indignation throughout Italy, and it turned out to be impossible to implement them; Pius IX refused to make any concessions; Tuscany, Modena, Romagna and Parma did not want to accept their dukes and elected Garibaldi as the head of their union, instructing him to join Piedmont.
Forced by the state of affairs, Napoleon, leaving Savoy and Nice behind him, agreed to the annexation of Tuscany, Parma, Modena and Romagna to Piedmont, and Victor Emmanuel II was recognized as king of these provinces by popular vote (1860) and on March 14, 1861 took the title of king Italy, under the name Victor Emmanuel II.
Although in one of the very first sessions of parliament Rome was called the “capital of Italy,” it was occupied by French troops. Unable to conquer it, since the finances of the state were upset by constant wars and there was an urgent need to take care of internal affairs, Victor Emmanuel II decided to diplomatically achieve the removal of French troops from Rome. After much hesitation, Napoleon agreed to withdraw his troops from Italy within 2 years, but on the condition that Rome would never be its capital and the pope would have his own army. The people, however, did not want to accept these conditions, and a rebellion broke out in Turin, energetically pacified by Victor Emmanuel II.
In 1866, Victor Emmanuel II concluded a defensive and offensive alliance with Prussia against Austria, according to which peace could be concluded only by common consent. For this, Bismarck promised to return Venice to Italy. Then Austria offered Victor Emmanuel II to receive Venice for free, but Victor Emmanuel II did not want to break the agreement with Prussia and sent his troops to support it in the war with Austria that had already begun, but they acted very unsuccessfully. According to the Vienna Peace Treaty of 1866, the Venetian region ceded to Italy, and at the end of 1866, French troops left Rome, having remained there for 17 years. Garibaldi then moved to conquer Rome, but was defeated by the French in 1867 at Menton, and French troops reoccupied the Papal States. Napoleon suspected Victor Emmanuel II of sympathizing with Garibaldi, and this caused a cooling between France and Italy.
The family of the first king of a united Italy, Victor Emmanuel II, belonged to the ancient Savoy dynasty and was known in Europe since the 11th century. At the beginning of the 19th century, certain parts of the Apennine Peninsula belonged to Austria, France, and Germany. The strong-willed and persistent Victor Emmanuel managed, with the help of the army, with the involvement of the Garibaldi movement, to unite the various kingdoms in the Apennines. In 1861, Victor Emmanuel II "by the grace of God and the will of the people" was proclaimed king of a united Italy.
He came to the throne at a tragic time for Italy. The country consisted of 8 states with monarchical rule. Among them were also kings - representatives of the Austrian Habsburg dynasty. A French garrison had been stationed in Rome since 1849. There was no unified Italian army; one could only dream of creating an integral state. Patriots of Italy demanded to destroy individual monarchies and unite the fragmented Italian kingdoms around Turin - a city in northwestern Italy, fourth in population and importance after Rome, Milan and Naples, ruled by the king of the Sardinian kingdom, a representative of the Savoy dynasty, Charles Albert.
For Victor Emmanuel, Turin was his hometown. His father was King Charles Albert, his mother was Maria Teresa of Tuscany. Victor received an excellent education, in addition to secular, military and religious. He had to take up state affairs in 1849, when his father, after the lost battle of Novara, was forced to renounce the throne.
Victor held peace negotiations with Austria. And this outraged the public, which had high hopes for the new king, for his decisive opposition to the invaders. Members of parliament were outraged, then the king dissolved parliament and called new elections. Moderates came to parliament and supported the king's intentions. Website promotion to the top - Yandex, Google. Promotion of web resources on the Internet. Victor Emmanuel signed a peace treaty with Austria, which allowed Sardinia to maintain its independence as a kingdom. In 1852, Count Camillo Benzodi Cavour became prime minister of the kingdom, he supported the idea of national unification of Italy, as well as the king in an effort to establish military cooperation with France, Austria's rival. But it was only in 1859, after the combined forces of the French and Italians defeated the Austrian army, that the peace so necessary for the king was concluded. This respite made it possible to gather strength to further oust the Austrians from Italian lands. A movement for freedom began in some areas. And already in 1860, Victor Emmanuel annexed the duchies of Parma, Modena and Tuscany. In the same year, the troops of the famous freedom fighter Giuseppe Garibaldi expelled French troops from Sicily, and later from Naples, and all of southern Italy came under the rule of Victor Emmanuel, who the following year, 1861, was proclaimed King of Italy. But in order to unite all of Italy into a single state, Venice had to be taken away from Austria and the French expelled from Rome. But neither the king nor Garibaldi had the strength to do this. I had to enlist the support of Berlin.
In 1862, the Prussians joined the Italian military operations against the Austrian army, defeating the Austrians at the Battle of Sadovaya. As a result, Austria agreed to a truce and ceded Venice first to France, who handed it over to Italy.
In 1870, Rome became the capital of the Kingdom of Italy, and the monarch Victor Emmanuel II soon moved there to rule. He was happy, his dream of uniting Italy had come true. But his health was already undermined; after 8 years of reign, the heart of the unifying king stopped beating. He is buried in the Roman Pantheon. The inscription on the tombstone reads: "PADRE DELLA PATRIA" (Father of the Fatherland).
Born in 1820, and while still crown prince, he showed outstanding courage in the war with Austria in 1848-1849.
Having ascended the throne of Sardinia after his father, King Charles Albert, defeated at Novara, retired to Spain, Victor Emmanuel II made peace with Austria on rather difficult conditions for the country: the Austrians received a large indemnity, and their occupation corps remained for a long time in Piedmont. Peace could have been concluded on easier terms, but only with the abolition of the constitution, but Victor Emmanuel II did not want to break the obligation given to the people by his father. Thanks to this, he earned the trust of the people and popularity, almost equal to the popularity of Garibaldi. Only by taking advantage of this, Victor Emmanuel II could strain all the country's financial resources, increasing the national debt by 4 times, to reorganize the army, which, through the efforts of the Minister of War, General Lamarmora, was brought to a brilliant state and increased to 100,000 people.
To give her the necessary combat experience and at the same time strengthen friendly relations with France, Victor Emmanuel II took part in the Eastern War and sent a 15 thousandth corps under the command of General Mentevecchio to Sevastopol. This circumstance made it possible for Sardinia to have its representative at the Paris Congress of 1856, where Cavour, in a brilliant speech directed against Austria, outlined the situation and needs of Italy.
In 1858, the same Cavour, sent by Victor Emmanuel II to Plombières for a meeting with Napoleon, achieved that the latter undertook to declare war on Austria and cede Lombardy and Venice to Piedmont in exchange for Nice and Savoy. The war began, and after the victories of the French-Italian troops at Palestro, Magenta and Solferino, in which Victor Emmanuel II himself personally took part, the fate of Italy was decided by the Peace of Villafranca as follows: Lombardy went to Victor Emmanuel II, Venice remained with Austria, from the rest of Italy it was planned to form a federation under the chairmanship of Pope Pius IX. The resolutions of the Peace of Villafranca caused terrible indignation throughout Italy, and it turned out to be impossible to implement them; Pius IX refused to make any concessions; Tuscany, Modena, Romagna and Parma did not want to accept their dukes and elected Garibaldi as the head of their union, instructing him to join Piedmont.
Forced by the state of affairs, Napoleon, leaving Savoy and Nice behind him, agreed to the annexation of Tuscany, Parma, Modena and Romagna to Piedmont, and Victor Emmanuel II was recognized as king of these provinces by popular vote (1860) and on March 14, 1861 took the title of king Italy, under the name Victor Emmanuel II.
Although in one of the very first sessions of parliament Rome was called the “capital of Italy,” it was occupied by French troops. Unable to conquer it, since the finances of the state were upset by constant wars and there was an urgent need to take care of internal affairs, Victor Emmanuel II decided to diplomatically achieve the removal of French troops from Rome. After much hesitation, Napoleon agreed to withdraw his troops from Italy within 2 years, but on the condition that Rome would never be its capital and the pope would have his own army. The people, however, did not want to accept these conditions, and a rebellion broke out in Turin, energetically pacified by Victor Emmanuel II.
In 1866, Victor Emmanuel II concluded a defensive and offensive alliance with Prussia against Austria, according to which peace could be concluded only by common consent. For this, Bismarck promised to return Venice to Italy. Then Austria offered Victor Emmanuel II to receive Venice for free, but Victor Emmanuel II did not want to break the agreement with Prussia and sent his troops to support it in the war with Austria that had already begun, but they acted very unsuccessfully. According to the Vienna Peace Treaty of 1866, the Venetian region ceded to Italy, and at the end of 1866, French troops left Rome, having remained there for 17 years. Garibaldi then moved to conquer Rome, but was defeated by the French in 1867 at Menton, and French troops reoccupied the Papal States. Napoleon suspected Victor Emmanuel II of sympathizing with Garibaldi, and this caused a cooling between France and Italy.
During the Franco-Prussian War of 1870-1871, Italy did not support France, but the Sedan disaster finally freed it from the French. Before taking up arms to acquire Rome, Victor Emmanuel II tried to persuade the pope to renounce temporal power, but, seeing the futility of negotiations, he ordered troops to bombard the capital of Pius IX. Rome quickly surrendered. The papal troops were disbanded.
On October 26, 1871, a parliamentary resolution was passed to move the capital of the kingdom from Florence to Rome.
In 1873, Victor Emmanuel II visited Emperor Wilhelm I and Franz Joseph in Berlin and Vienna and through diplomatic negotiations contributed to the emergence of the so-called. "Triple Alliance".
In people's memory, he remained a great fighter for his country and its unifier.
Victor himself, despite his passion for hunting and numerous love affairs, was a man courageous and sober enough to cope with his royal responsibilities. Not possessing much intelligence, he was rude and laid-back like a soldier, but he had a lot of simple common sense and business insight. Victor understood perfectly well that Piedmont, due to its geographical, economic and political position, could be a center of rallying forces for Italian patriots, and in order to support this, he pursued a liberal course in domestic policy, and in foreign policy he stood resolutely and boldly against Austria. This, in essence, was his contribution to the unification of Italy. Others did the rest for him. The throne was owed to Camillo Cavour, who led the unification of Italy.
Monuments have been erected to him in many cities in Italy; the best are in Rome, Milan and San Martino (on the Solferino battlefield)
Family
In 1842 he married his cousin Adelheide of Austria (1822-1855), daughter of the Habsburg Viceroy of Lombardy Rainer Joseph, and they had eight children, of whom five survived:
- Clotilde (1843-1911), married to Prince Napoleon ("Plon-Plon"), cousin of Napoleon III,
- Umberto I (1844-1900) succeeded his father in Italy,
- Amadeus (1845-1890), King of Spain (1871-1873), Duke of Aosta (1845-1890),
- Oddon Eugene (1846-1866),
- Maria Pia (1847-1911), wife of King Luis I of Portugal.
- Karl Albert (1851-1854)
- Victor Emmanuel (1852), died at birth
- Victor Emmanuel (1855), lived 4 months
He was buried in the Roman Pantheon. The inscription on the tombstone in the Pantheon reads: "PADRE DELLA PATRIA" (Father of the Fatherland). The majestic monument to Victor Emmanuel II in Piazza Venezia in Rome is popularly nicknamed “macchina da scrivere” (“Typewriter”). Also famous is the monument in Padua by the sculptor Odoardo Tabacchi.
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This little fat man with a big mustache can be found anywhere in Italy. Often he is on horseback, wearing a hat with feathers, waving a saber. This is their first king, Victor Emmanuel II of Savoy. He is simply the second Victor Emmanuel in his dynasty of Savoy, the Dukes of Piedmont and the kings of Sardinia, before him there was already one Victor Emmanuel in this family. But as king of a united Italy, this Second became the first.
Imagine that, say, Ryazan and Tula in the middle of the 19th century were different states. The population speaks very similar dialects, a common literary language. But they are different, with their own princes or kings. And sometimes they are not friends, or even fight with each other. I can't wrap my head around it. Russia, like other normal European states, centralized a long time ago. On the Apennine Peninsula, real feudal fragmentation took place. Although Germany has a similar history, and also united around the same time. But the Prussians, Bavarians, and Swabians had a common elected emperor, some semblance of an interstate unification. Italy didn't have that either. Strictly speaking, the very phrase “Italy did not have its own state” is meaningless, for what was not a state should not be called Italy; we say this solely for the sake of brevity, so as not to repeat over and over again “Italian states” with their Romans, Tuscans and Sicilians in each of them.
In 1861, representatives of these numerous states agreed to unite. It's like Belovezhskaya Pushcha, only in reverse. There they agreed on disunion, and in Turin in 1866 - on unification.
The population was asked, but how. And everywhere the voice of the people was: it was time to put an end to appanage principalities. The unifying idea took hold of minds. People also spoke out for a constitutional-monarchical structure of a new large homeland. A parliamentary republic under a king, similar to the then Netherlands or Spain. Who should be king was also decided by referendum. Alternative candidates, however, were not nominated, but the fact itself is important - the expression of the people's will. The little fat man became the first monarch of a new big country.
He didn’t even come out tall enough to write an article, what can you do? But I was lucky more than once and on a big scale. What could the 15,000-strong Sardinian corps do near Sevastopol in 1854? But participation in the victorious intervention paved the way for the necessary solution to the Italian question in Europe. I was lucky with the cunning Cavour, a genius of political intrigue and the negotiation process. I was very lucky with Garibaldi, an ardent statesman and monarchist.
But you also need to be able to manage your luck. He did it. A talented commander who has repeatedly shown examples of personal courage. He did not rashly climb into big power; he acted with an eye on parliament and the public. He easily found a common language, sometimes with a street greengrocer, and sometimes with the Emperor of France or, say, the German Kaiser. Not wanting to compromise his principles and his possessions, the pontiff declared from Rome: “You guys, unite, this is a good thing, we will even bless you, but don’t touch our Papal States.” It was not intelligence or any special insight that was then required from the king, but one single quality - determination. We had to shoot a little, but government troops entered Rome in 1870, and only after that the unification of the country could be considered completed. Even his impulsiveness, this ridiculous habit of flaring up for any reason and rolling his eyes funny, was endearing. Moreover, he left immediately. The common people saw him as one of their own.
This is where we get to the main topic.
It may very well be that the common people did not see their king as one of their own, but because this Victor Emmanuel II was truly one of their own. From the simple ones. Wrong boy. The child was replaced in the cradle.
This happened in the summer of 1822 in the vicinity of Florence at the villa of Prince Charles Albert of Savoy. Teresa, the nanny of the prince's 2-year-old son, brought a candle to the cradle to ward off mosquitoes. One careless movement - and the bed laces began to work. The child died, and the nanny soon died from burns.
In the film “Formula of Love,” one character says: “Why do we need a blacksmith? No, we don’t need a blacksmith.” But in this case, the blacksmith turned out to be very necessary. If this is to be expressed figuratively, but if it is closer to the historical truth, then it was not a blacksmith that was needed, but a representative of another courageous profession - a butcher named Tiburtsi. The son of a butcher replaced the tragically deceased child. For what? Then, without male offspring, Charles Albert's chances of gaining the throne of Sardinia became problematic. So there was really a reason for it. The butcher did not have to be especially destitute - the boy was illegitimate. Therefore, his move to the villa went unnoticed.
It was announced to everyone that the nanny, without sparing herself, saved little Victor Emmanuel, which more than atoned for her carelessness, and the little heir recovered. Why was the name of the unfortunate woman banned, and her family did not receive any reward? The parents can be understood, but for this they need to accept another version: through the fault of the nanny, they still lost their own child. Only forty years later, correcting the obvious inconsistency and in view of the ongoing rumors, will a memorial plaque be installed in the villa in honor of Teresa...
Another seemingly inexplicable circumstance is easily explained in the substitution version. The butcher began to quickly and fabulously get rich. He comfortably supported a family of 17 people, and by the end of his life he owned several dozen apartment buildings. You can’t make such a fortune by successfully butchering carcasses.
Why are we arguing? The embalmed remains of this or that boy, who grew up and became a king, are in the Roman Pantheon. You can take genetic material from there, and from its direct offspring - the controversial Savoy, and from others, indisputable, then compare and draw conclusions. Once these were very expensive studies, but now, it seems, they can be done by any criminological laboratory.
But the Italians won’t let this happen for another two hundred years. So there is no direct evidence, only indirect evidence. But there seem to be enough indirect ones.
If a guide educates the public near such a monument, it is immediately clear from the enthusiastic manner of speaking and the interest of the group what he is talking about. This, in my opinion, is somehow indelicate. It's better to hold on to this information and post it on the bus. Although the Italians would have had something to answer if someone had decided to reproach them with a foundling king. It’s like in the bearded joke, when the husband returns home after a very long absence, I don’t know if there was a war or he is a polar explorer, and discovers that there is clearly an extra mouth at the table.
- What is this guy doing here?
“Let him sit and eat,” the wife replies, “Are you sorry, or what?”
This is how they would answer us. Let him sit there eating, waving his saber, you feel sorry for him or something. What difference does it make whose son he is? He did not inherit the thin wrists from the official pope, his hands were the hands of a butcher - what does that matter to you? In addition to numerous children in two marriages, he gave birth to a whole brood of illegitimate children, and who is not a womanizer? Our shortcomings are a continuation of our advantages. A man worthy of the throne was in the right place at the right time. He raised his eldest son, Umberto, correctly. Who knows where the history of Italy would have turned if the scumbag terrorist had not killed this Umberto in Rome in 1900. King Victor Emmanuel was not bad, and that's it.
And it’s true that the king is good. Therefore, he survived all the regimes and proudly towers over the cities and towns of his beloved Italy.
***
In Venice, the monument on the embankment clearly does not fit into the local historical and architectural context. Too pompous, too lion on a pedestal looks like a big angry dog. I suspect that the Venetians do not like the monument for this. They came up with a nickname for him (not the king, but the monument), which can be translated descriptively: “threading pigeons on a saber, like on a skewer.”
There is another delicate point here. With the name of this king and the unification of Italy, the Venetians parted forever with their great-power past. They once stretched from Constantinople to Verona, had interests in the Black and Azov Seas, and traded duty-free in the ports of the Levant, where the Great Silk Road began and ended. Islands of Crete, Cyprus, Corfu. And the thousand-year-old republic is under the nose of the powers that be! If a Venetian treats you with confidence, then on the fifth glass of amarone he will sigh sadly: “But we were once big.” Wow, and how big they are! And now simply Reggione Veneto, one of the 20 lands of a single and indivisible Italy.
But what is it that the lion is holding with his paw, even scratching with his claws? Don't come near, he'll bite. Let’s take the risk of coming up and reading. Yep, referendum results. More than 600 thousand are in favor of joining the Italian parliamentary republic and constitutional monarchy, and only 69 (sixty-nine) people are against.
So there's nothing now. They wanted it themselves.