Victor Emmanuel I of Sardinia

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Victor Emmanuel I

Victor Emmanuel I (July 24, 1759–January 10, 1824) was the Duke of Savoy, Piedmont, and Aosta, and King of Sardinia from 1802 to 1821.

The second son of King Victor Amadeus III of Sardinia, Victor Emmanuel was known from birth as the Duke of Aosta. He succeeded his brother, Charles Emmanuel IV, as King of Sardinia upon the latter's abdication in 1802. Until 1814, when he was able to return to Turin, he was forced to live in Sardinia, which was the only part of his domains that had not been conquered by the French.

Coat of Arms of the Kings of Sardinia of the House of Savoy after 1815.

On April 21, 1789, he married Maria Theresa of Austria-Este (b.1773-d.1832), daughter of Ferdinand, Duke of Modena (who was son of Francis I, Holy Roman Emperor) and had seven children including:

1. Maria Beatrice Victoria (1792–1840), married Francis IV, Archduke of Austria and Duke of Modena
2. Maria Adelaide (b.1794-d.1802)
3. Charles Emmanuel (1796–1799) died of smallpox.
4. A daughter (1800-1801)
5. Maria Anna (1803–1884), married Ferdinand I of Austria
6. Maria Teresa (b.1803-d.1879), married Duke Carlo II of Parma (b.1799-d.1883)
7. Maria Christina (1812–1836), married Ferdinand II of the Two Sicilies

After the death of his brother in 1819, he also became the Jacobite pretender to the British thrones (as Victor I), although he, like his brother, did not make any public or private claims to this effect.

In 1814 he returned to a reconstituted realm in Piedmont and Savoy, to which had been added the territories of the former Republic of Genoa. He abdicated in 1821 in favor of his brother, Charles Felix.