The son of Charles Emmanuel II, Victor Amadeus II, was kept under the regency of his mother, the French born Marie Jeanne Baptiste of Savoy-Nemours. In the early years of the reign, his energetic mother attempted to unite the crown of Savoy with the Portuguese, and thus risked compromising the very survival of the duchy (Savoy would be reduced like other Italian states to a foreign power). Under the determined hand of the regent Victor Amadeus II, Savoy entered into bad relations with France, which led to the invasion of the duchy by French forces. Savoy defeated the French army in the Siege of Cuneo, but was dramatically defeated in the battles of Staffarda and Marsaglia. Victor Amadeus II married Anne Marie d'Orléans, niece of Louis XIV.