343 



VICTOR-AMADEUS III. 



VICTOR, CLAUDE PERRIN. 



311 



bis army in Flanders, and lastly to give up to him the citadel of 

 Turin. Victor- Amadous in June 1690 entered into a treaty with Spain 

 and Austria against France, restored the Valdenses to their homes 

 and their privileges, summoned round him the nobles of Piedmont, 

 and declared war. Being joined by an Austrian force, he disputed 

 every inch of ground against the French. The war lasted till 1695, 

 when Louis XIV., by fair promises, succeeded in detaching the duke 

 of Savoy from the emperor. The peace of Ryswick restored peace 

 to Italy, and the French evacuated all the territories of the Duke, 

 including Pinerolo, which they had possessed for about a century. 

 In the war of the Spanish succession, Victor-Amadeus sided first 

 with the French, but afterwards joined the emperor, because he con- 

 sidered it extremely dangerous for his dominions to allow the house 

 of Bourbon to become possessed of the Milanese and the other 

 Spanish territories in Italy. The consequence was that the French 

 nnnies again overran and devastated Piedmont, and in 1706 besieged 

 Turin, which made a noble defence. Victor-Amadeus, being joined by 

 the Austrian army under his relative Prince Eugene of Savoy, defeated 

 the French besieging army on the 7th September 1706, and delivered 

 Turin. By the peace of Utrecht, 1713, he obtained the Valsesia, the 

 territory of Lomellina, the remainder of Moutferrato, and other 

 districts, and above all the island of Sicily with the title of king, and 

 he was crowned at Palermo, in December 1713. By the subsequent 

 treaty of London, Victor-Amadeus gave up Sicily to the emperor, 

 and received in exchange the inland of Sardinia with the title of a 

 kingdom. Thus through his gallantry and perseverance the house 

 of Savoy became numbered among the royal houses of Europe. 

 Victor-Amadeus employed the peaceful period which followed to 

 improve the administration, to recruit his finances, and to encourage 

 agriculture and industry. Through his care the cultivation of the 

 mulberry-tree and the rearing of silkworms attained in Piedmont 

 that perfection which they still maintain. He also reformed the 

 university of Turin, founded several colleges, and built the palace of 

 the Superga. On September 2, 1730, Victor-Amadeus abdicated in 

 favour of his son Carlo-Emmanuel III. and retired to the villa of Monca- 

 lieri. In 1731, having made an attempt to remount his throne, he was 

 arrested and confined for some time, but at length remitted to his 

 residence at Moncalieri, where he died in 1732. He was distinguished 

 both as a general and a statesman, and was well worthy of being 

 the first king of his dynasty. King Victor-Arnadeus was married 

 to Anne Marie of Orleans, daughter of Philip, duke of Orleans, 

 brother of Louis XIV., and of Henrietta Maria, daughter of Charles I. 

 of England. This alliance is the origin of the connection between the 

 house of Savoy and the royal family of Great Britain. 



VICTOH-AMADEUS III., son of Carlo-Emmanuel III., was born 

 on June 26, 1726, and succeeded his father in February 1773. He 

 early displayed a fondness for military parade and exercises, and he 

 increased his army in time of profound peace. The finances became 

 exhausted, the public debt increased, and fresh taxes were laid on 

 the people. The king greatly favoured the nobles, giving to them 

 almost exclusively the public offices, civil, military, and ecclesiastical. 

 At the same time Victor-Amadeus encouraged useful studies ; he 

 re-organised the public colleges and schools after the expulsion of 

 the Jesuits ; and he appointed fit professors to the chairs of the 

 university of Turin. The storms of the French revolution rendered 

 the end of his reign calamitous; he lost Savoy and Nice in 1792, 

 Oneglia in 1794, and after two years more of a desultory but sangui- 

 nary warfare along the line of the Alps, in which the Piedmontese 

 troops displayed their accustomed valour and discipline, the line of 

 defence formed by the Alps was turned by the French passing through 

 the Liguriau Apennines, and the revolutionary torrent poured down 

 into the plains of the Po. [BONAPARTE, NAPOLEON.] King Victor- 

 Amadeus was induced to conclude a hasty peace, which left his 

 dominions at the mercy of the French. He died soon after, on 

 October 16, 1796, and was succeeded by his son Carlo-Emmanuel IV. 



VICTOR, CLAUDE PERRIN, Duke of Belluno and Marshal of 

 France, was born at La Marche, in the department of the Vosges, on 

 the 7th of December 1764. He was seventeen years of age when, on 

 the 16th of December 1781 he enlisted as a private soldier in the 4th 

 regiment of artillery, at that time in garrison at Auxonne. He had 

 obtained his discharge when the first events of the Revolution of 1789 

 occurred ; but, animated with the warlike spirit which then pervaded 

 the French nation, he again eagerly sought for military employment, 

 and entered as a volunteer the third battalion of the department of 

 the Drdme. A few months sufficed for this young and intrepid soldier 

 to raise himself from the lowest rank to that of adjutant-major and 

 chef de bataillon. With the battalion under his command he distin- 

 guished himself at Coarara, by foiling the attack of three thousand 

 Piedmontese and a regiment of emigrants. At the head of the same 

 battalion he obtained considerable success, in 1793, at the siege of 

 Toulon ; under the orders of General Lapoye, he gained the important 

 heights of Pharon, and afterwards, with similar good fortune attacked 

 the fort L'Aiguillette, the capture of which greatly contributed to the 

 favourable issue of the siege. These brilliant actions, in which he was 

 twice wounded, were rewarded by his promotion to the rank of adju- 

 tant-general. Transferred to the army of the Eastern Pyrenees, with 

 the rank of general of brigade, he rendered himself conspicuous for 

 his skill and bravery at the sieges of Collioura (June 5, 1794) and 



Rosas (January 2, 1795). .After the termination of the war between 

 France and Spain by the treaty of peace signed on the 22nd of July 

 1795, Victor joined the army of Italy. The courage which he dis- 

 played in the several battles of that campaign, and particularly in the 

 action at Borghetto (May 30, 1796), brought him under the favourable 

 notice of Bonaparte, who gave him every opportunity for further dis- 

 tinction by entrusting him with the management of manoeuvres as 

 honourable as they were perilous. His conduct during the sanguinary 

 engagements which took place at Cossaria and Mondovi (April 5 and 

 16, 1796), justified the high estimation in which he was held by his 

 chief, and were recognised by the government at Paris in a flattering 

 letter which they sent him. The following year, by a series of skilful 

 manoeuvres, he greatly contributed to the success obtained by Masse'na 

 [MASSENA, MARSHAL] over the Austrian general Wurmser at Corona 

 (August 11, 1797). It was on account of his successes during this 

 campaign, of which we have enumerated a very small portion, that he 

 was raised to the rank of general of division. In this capacity he 

 powerfully seconded the operations directed by General Lannes against 

 the Papal States [LANNES]. After defeating the Roman troops on the 

 river Serio, he occupied with the troops under his command the towns 

 of Faenza and Cesena ; he afterwards marched against Ancona with a 

 detachment of twelve hundred men, and captured it without a shot 

 being fired, though it was defended by one hundred and twenty pieces 

 of cannon, and a garrison of five thousand degenerate Romans. 

 General Victor," says Napoleon, " crossed the Po at Borgo Forte, at 

 the head of four thousand infantry and six hundred horse, and formed 

 a junction at Bologna with the Italian division of four thousand men, 

 under General Lahoz. These nine thousand men were quite sufficient 

 to conquer the States of the Church." (Montholon, ' History of the 

 Captivity of Napoleon at St. Helena,' vol. ii., p. 56.) 



After the peace of Campo Formio, General Victor was appointed to 

 the difficult command of the province of La Vendde. By his skilful 

 dispositions, and by his conciliatory but firm and decisive conduct, he 

 maintained the tranquillity of that country. Being recalled in 1798 

 to the army of Italy, he was placed at the head of a division. In the 

 following year he acquired fresh renown at the engagement of Santa 

 Lucia (March 30, 1799). Shortly after this battle he received orders 

 to cross the Apennines, and to facilitate the retreat of the French 

 army of Naples through the valley of the Bormida ; in effecting this 

 movement bis division was attacked by a large body of Piedmontese 

 insurgents in the narrow and difficult passes of those mountains ; hie 

 troops however bravely repelled this attack at the point of the bayonet, 

 and, after surmounting great dangers, he was enabled to effect a 

 junction with the army under the commarfd of General Macdonald. 

 [MACDONALD, MARSHAL.] Victor bore a distinguished part in the 

 engagement on the banks of the Trebbia, which proved disastrous to 

 the French. He was afterwards sent to Pari^ by General Moreau, to 

 solicit from the Directory reinforcements for the army in Italy. On 

 the failure of his mission, he returned to Italy, and resumed the com- 

 mand of his division, which acquired fresh laurels at the battle of 

 Bassano, where it formed part of the centre under the command of 

 General Championet. 



At the memorable battle of Marengo, the division of Victor formed 

 part of the advanced guard ; to the bravery and perseverance which 

 he displayed on this occasion may in a great measure be ascribed the 

 favourable issue of this long-disputed engagement. His services were 

 rewarded by the presentation of a sabre of honour, on which was 

 inscribed a flattering testimonial to his merit. He was afterwards 

 transferred to the Batavian army, with the rank of second in command ; 

 his conduct in that campaign, though unmarked by any brilliant 

 exploit, was such as to maintain the high reputation he had acquired. 



After the peace of Amiens he was sent to the court of Denmark as 

 ambassador from the First Consul. He held this office till 1806, when, 

 on the breaking out of the war with Prussia, he was appointed to the 

 command of the tenth corps of the grand army. A wound, which he 

 received at the battle of Jena, did not prevent him from directing in 

 person the operations of the corps under his command during this 

 short but brilliant campaign ; and he powerfully contributed to the 

 victory obtained over the combined forces of the Prussians and 

 Russians at Pulatuck (December 26, 1806). In this campaign he was 

 taken prisoner by a body of partisans, but by means of an exchange he 

 speedily recovered his liberty. The following year was marked by the 

 great battle of Friedland (June 14), in which Victor, at the head of the 

 first corps of the grand army, so greatly distinguished himself, that 

 Napoleon, on the field of battle, raised him to the dignity of marshal 

 of the empire. 



After the treaty of Tilsit (July 6-9, 1807), Marshal Victor was 

 appointed governor of Berlin, a government including the greater part 

 of Prussia. This office, which he held for fifteen months, was one 

 which afforded many temptations to an abuse of power, but he appears 

 to have exercised his authority with dignity and moderation. 



In 1808 he was intrusted by Napoleon with the command of the 

 first corps of the French army in Spain. Shortly after his arrival in 

 that country he obtained important advantages over the Spaniards in the 

 engagements of Epinosa (November 10 and 11, 1808), Sommo Sierra 

 (November 30), and Madrid (December 4). On the 13th of January 

 1809 he routed the remnants of the Spanish army which had been 

 defeated at Tudela, but which, reinforced by fresh levies from the 



