Victor Emmanuele II of Italy (1820-78, the King of Piedmont, Savoy, and Sardinia from 1849 to 1861. On 17 March 1861, he assumed the title King of Italy to become the first king of a united Italy, a title he held until his death in 1878. The Italians gave him the epithet Father of the Fatherland (Italian: Padre della Patria)), nice signature ‘Vittorio Emanuele’ on a section cut from an 1869 document