Victor Amadeus III of Sardinia

Victor Amadeus III became King of Sardinia on 20 February 1773, inheriting the Savoyard states at forty-six. Though politically conservative by instinct, he pushed through numerous administrative reforms across his territories for nearly two decades. In 1792 he declared war on Revolutionary France — a miscalculation that would shadow his final years. He died on 16 October 1796, leaving three sons who would each, in turn, wear the Sardinian crown as the last of the mainline.