1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Naples, Kingdom of
NAPLES, KINGDOM OF, the name conventionally given to the kingdom of Sicily on the Italian mainland (Sicily beyond the Pharos), to distinguish it from that of Sicily proper (Sicily on this side of the Pharos, i.e. Messina), the title of “King of Naples” having only actually been borne by Philip II. of Spain in the 16th century (“King of England and Naples”) and by Joseph Bonaparte and Joachim Murat in the 19th. The history of the kingdom of Naples is inextricably interwoven with that of Sicily, with which for long periods it was united as the kingdom of the Two Sicilies.
For the earlier history of Naples and its territory, as a republic and a dukedom, see Naples above, and for the coming of the Normans see Sicily and Normans. It is sufficient here to state that the leaders of the house of Hauteville, Robert Guiscard and Richard of Aversa, in 1059 did homage to Pope Nicholas II. (q.v.) for all conquests they had made both in the island and upon the mainland, and that in 1130 Roger de Hauteville (Roger II. as “great count” of Sicily) assumed the style of king as Roger I. In this way the south of Italy, together with the adjacent island of Sicily, was converted into one political body, which, owing to the peculiar temper of its Norman rulers and their powerful organization, assumed a more feudal character than any other part of the peninsula. The regno, as it was called by the Italians, constituted a state apart, differing in social institutions, foreign relations, and type of home government, from the commonwealths and tyrannies of upper Italy. The indirect right acquired by the popes as lords paramount over this vast section of Italian territory gave occasion to all the most serious disturbances of Italy between the end of the 13th and the beginning of the 16th centuries, by the introduction of the house of Anjou into Naples and the disputed succession of Angevin and Aragonese princes.
Roger I. was succeeded in 1154 by William I. “the Bad,” who died in 1166, being succeeded by his son William II. “the Good,” on whose death in 1189 the crown passed to his illegitimate son Tancred. After the death of Tancred the emperor Henry VI., of the house of Hohenstaufen, who by his marriage with Constance The Hohen-staufens.or Costanza d’Altavilla, daughter of Roger I. (d. 1154), was Tancred’s rival for the kingdoms of Naples and Sicily, descended into Italy in 1194. He easily conquered both the mainland and the island, and Tancred’s only son William III. surrendered the crown to him. But with the excuse of a pretended plot he put a number of the most conspicuous persons in the kingdoms to death, and had William himself blinded. He then returned to Germany, and during his absence an agitation broke out, provoked by the cruelty of his lieutenants and encouraged by his Norman wife. He hurried back to Italy, and repressed the movement with his usual ferocity, but died The emperor Frederick II. in 1197. Costanza then had her son Frederick (b. 1194) proclaimed king, and obtained the support of the Holy See on condition that the kingdom should be once more recognized as a fief of the church. The whole history of the ensuing period of south Italian history turns on the claims of the papacy over the kingdoms of Naples and Sicily, based on the recognition of papal suzerainty in 1053. The Hohenstaufen kings refused to admit this claim; hence the persistent hostility of the popes and the calling in of foreign potentates and armies. Costanza died in 1198, leaving Pope Innocent III. regent and tutor to her son; the pope’s authority was contested by various nobles, but in 1209 Frederick married Costanza, daughter of the king of Aragon, with whose help he succeeded in reducing a large part of Sicily to obedience. Two years later he was elected king of the Romans at the diet of Nuremberg in opposition to Otto IV., and in 1220 he was crowned emperor in Rome by pope Honorius III., but continued to reside in Sicily. He quelled a rising of Sicilian barons and Saracens, and confined 60,000 of the latter at Lucera in Capitanata, where they ended by becoming a most loyal colony. After the death of Frederick’s wife Pope Honorius III. arranged a marriage for him with Yolande, daughter of John of Brienne (1225). But in 1227 Gregory IX. excommunicated him because he delayed the crusade which he had promised to undertake; and although he sailed the following year, and concluded a treaty with the sultan of Egypt whereby the kingdom of Jerusalem was re-established, the pope was not satisfied and sent an army into Neapolitan territory. On his return Frederick defeated the pontificals, and in 1230 peace was made at San Germano and the excommunication withdrawn. In 1231 he issued the celebrated Constitutions of the Sicilian kingdom at the parliament of Melfi. He had further quarrels with successive pontiffs, and was excommunicated more than once. In 1246 a number of his own barons and officials of the mainland conspired against his rule, but were crushed with great ferocity, and even his faithful secretary, Pietro della Vigna, fell a victim to the emperor’s suspicions. Frederick’s last years were embittered by the hostilities following on the crusade which the pope proclaimed against him and by rebellions in Naples and Sicily. He died in 1250. His policy was anti-feudal and tended to concentrate power into his own hands; hence the frequent risings of the barons. His court at Palermo had been one of the most brilliant in Europe, and attracted learned men from all over the then known world; his somewhat pagan philosophy was afterwards regarded as marking the beginnings of modern rationalism. He opened schools and universities, and he himself wrote poetry in Sicilian dialect.
His son Conrad IV. succeeded to the empire, while to his illegitimate son Manfred he left the principality of Taranto and the regency of the southern kingdom, to be held in Conrad’s name. By his political sagacity and moderation Manfred won a strong party to his side and helped Conrad to subjugate the rebellious barons. The emperor died in Manfred. 1254, leaving an infant son, Conradin (b. 1252), and Manfred was appointed vicar-general during the latter’s minority. Manfred, too, encountered the hostility of the popes, against whom he had to wage war, generally with success, and of some of the barons whom the papacy encouraged to rebel; and in 1258, on a rumour of Conradin’s death, he was offered and accepted the crown of Naples and Sicily. The rumour proved false, but he retained the crown, promising to leave the kingdom to Conradin at his death and to defend his rights. He now became head of the Ghibellines or Imperialists of Italy, and his position was strengthened by the marriage of his daughter Costanza to Peter, son of King James of Aragon. But he met with opposition from the turbulent nobility and the clergy, who had been deprived of many privileges, and he failed to conciliate the communes, which were oppressed by taxes and beginning to aspire to autonomy. Innocent IV., in his determination to crush the Hohenstaufens, offered the kingdom in turn to Richard, earl of Cornwall, to Edward, son of Henry III. of England, and to Charles of Anjou, brother of Louis IX. of France. After long negotiations with successive popes, Charles was finally induced by Clement IV. to come to Italy in 1265, agreeing to accept the kingdom of the Two Sicilies as a fief of the church, and in 1266 he marched southward with the privileges of Charles I. a Crusader (see Charles I., king of Naples and Sicily). The defection of many cities and nobles facilitated his task, and Manfred was forced to retire on Benevento, where, on the 26th of February, owing to the treachery of a part of his troops, he was defeated and killed. As a result of this victory Charles was soon master of almost the whole kingdom, and he entered Naples, which now became the capital instead of Palermo. He persecuted the nobles who had sided with Manfred, and established a military despotism which proved more oppressive than that of the Hohenstaufens had ever been. Old laws, customs and immunities were ruthlessly swept away, the people were ground down with taxes, and the highest positions and finest estates conferred on French and Provençal nobles. Although the southern Italians had long been ruled by foreigners, it was the Angevin domination which thoroughly denationalized them, and initiated that long period of corruption, decadence and foreign slavery which only ended in the 19th century.
Invited by Sicilian malcontents and Ghibellines, Conradin (Ital. Corradino), the last surviving Hohenstaufen, descended into Italy in 1267 at the head of a small army collected in Germany, and he found many supporters; but King Charles on hearing of his arrival abandoned the siege of Lucera and came to intercept him. A battle took place Conradin. at Tagliacozzo (August 23rd, 1268), in which the Imperialists were defeated, and Conradin himself was subsequently caught and handed over to Charles, who had him tried for high treason and beheaded (see Conradin). All who had assisted the unfortunate youth were cruelly persecuted, and the inhabitants of Agosta put to the sword. Thus ended the power of the Hohenstaufens. Although the picturesque figures of Manfred and Conradin awakened sympathy among the people of the kingdom, their authority was never really consolidated and their German knights were hated; which facts rendered the enterprise of another foreigner like the Angevin comparatively easy.
In Sicily, however, Charles’s government soon made itself odious by its exactions, the insolence and cruelty of the king’s French officials and favourites, the depreciation of the currency, and the oppressive personal services, while the nobles were incensed at the violation of their feudal constitution. Just as Charles was contemplating The Sicilian Vespers. an expedition to the East, the Sicilians rose in revolt, massacring the French throughout the island. The malcontents were led by the Salernitan noble Giovanni da Procida, a friend of the emperor Frederick and of Manfred, who had taken refuge at the court of Peter III. of Aragon, husband of Manfred’s daughter Costanza. He had induced Peter to make good his somewhat shadowy claims to the crown of Sicily, but while preparations were being made for the expedition, the popular rising known as the Sicilian Vespers, which resulted in the massacre of nearly all the French in the island, broke out at Palermo on Easter Day 1282. Peter reached Palermo in September, and by the following month had captured Messina, the last French stronghold. Pope Martin IV. now proclaimed a crusade against the Aragonese, and the War continued for many years. The Sicilian fleet under Ruggiero di Lauria defeated that of the Angevins at Malta in 1283, and 1284 in the Bay of Naples, where the king’s son, Charles the Lame, was captured. Charles I. died in 1286, and, his heir being a prisoner, his grandson, Charles Martel (d. 1295), assumed the regency. Peter died the same year, leaving Aragon to his son Alphonso III. and Sicily to his son James, who was consecrated king in spite of the interdict. The war went on uninterruptedly, for the popes prevented all attempts to arrive at an understanding, as they were determined that the rights of the church should be fully recognized. Charles Charles II.the Lame, who had been liberated in 1288, having renounced his rights on Sicily, was absolved from his oath by Pope Nicholas IV., who crowned him king of the Two Sicilies and excommunicated Alphonso. The latter’s successor James made peace with Boniface VIII. by renouncing Sicily (in exchange for Sardinia and Corsica and the hand of Charles’s daughter) and promising to help the Angevins to reconquer the island. But the Sicilians, led by James’s brother, Frederick III.,[1] who had been governor of the island Frederick III. and was now proclaimed king, determined to resist. The war went on with varying success, until Charles of Valois, summoned by the pope to conduct the campaign, landed in Sicily and, his army being decimated by disease, made peace with Frederick at Caltabellotta (1302). The Angevins renounced Sicily in favour of Frederick, who was recognized as king of Trinacria (a name adopted so as not to mention that of Sicily), and he was to marry Leonora, daughter of Charles of Valois, at his death the island would revert to the Angevins, but his children would receive compensation elsewhere. In 1303 the pope unwillingly ratified the treaty. (See Charles II., king of Naples and Sicily, and Frederick III., king of Sicily.)
Charles II. died in 1309 and was succeeded by his second son Robert. (His eldest son had predeceased him, leaving a son, Charles Robert, or Caroberto, at this time king of Hungary.) Robert now became leader of the Guelphs in Italy, and war between Naples and Sicily broke out once more, when Frederick allied himself with the emperor Henry VII. Robert. on his descent into Italy, and proclaimed his own son Peter heir to the throne. Robert led or sent many devastating expeditions into Sicily, and hostilities continued under King Peter even after Frederick’s death in 1337. Peter died in 1342, leaving an infant son Louis; but just as Robert was preparing for another expedition he too died in the same year. Robert had been a capable ruler, a scholar and a friend of Petrarch, but he lost influence as a Guelph leader owing to the rise of other powerful princes and republics, while in Naples itself his authority was limited by the rights of a turbulent and rebellious baronage (see Robert, king of Naples). His son Charles had died in 1328 and he was succeeded by his granddaughter Joanna, Joanna I. wife of Andrew of Hungary, but the princes of the blood and the barons stirred up trouble, and in 1345 Andrew was assassinated by order of Catherine, widow of Philip, son of Charles II., and of several nobles, not without suspicion of Joanna’s complicity.
Andrew’s brother Louis, king of Hungary, now came to Italy
to make good his claims on Naples and avenge the murder of
Andrew. With the help of some of the barons he drove Joanna
and her second husband, Louis of Taranto, from the kingdom,
and murdered Charles of Durazzo; but as Pope Clement refused
to recognize his claims he went back to Hungary in 1348, and
the fickle barons recalled Joanna, who returned and carried on
desultory warfare with the partisans of Louis of Hungary.
Louis of Taranto and Joanna were crowned at Naples by the
pope’s legate in 1352, but Niccolo Acciaiuoli, the seneschal,
became the real master of the kingdom. In 1374 Joanna made
peace with Frederick of Sicily, recognizing him as king of
Trinacria on condition that he paid her tribute and recognized
the pope’s suzerainty. She nominated Louis of Anjou her
heir, but while the latter was recognized by the antipope
Clement VII, , Pope Urban VI. declared Charles of Durazzo
(great-grandson of Charles II.) king of Sicily al di qua del
Faro (i.e. of Naples). Charles conquered the kingdom and took
Joanna prisoner in 1381, and had her murdered the following
year. Louis, although assisted by Amadeus VI. of Savoy, failed
to drive out Charles, and died in 1384. Charles III. died two
Charles III.
Ladislas.
years later and the kingdom was plunged into anarchy
once more, part of the barons siding with his seven-year-old
son Ladislas, and part with Louis II. of
Anjou. The latter was crowned by the antipope Clement,
while Urban regarded both him and his rival as usurpers. On
Urban’s death in 1389 Boniface IX. crowned Ladislas
king of Naples, who by the year 1400 had expelled
Louis and made himself master of the kingdom. In 1407 he
occupied Rome, which Gregory XII. could not hold. But
Alexander V., elected pope by the council of Pisa, turned against
Ladislas and recognized Louis. Ladislas was defeated in 1411
and driven from Rome, but reoccupied the city on Louis’s
return to France. He died in 1414, and was succeeded by his
sister Joanna II. (q.v.), during whose reign the kingdom
sank to the lowest depths of degradation. In 1415
Joanna II.
Joanna married James of Bourbon, who kept his wife in a state
of semi-confinement, murdered her lover, Pandolfo Alopo, and
imprisoned her chief captain, Sforza; but his arrogance drove
the barons to rebellion, and they made him renounce the royal
dignity and abandon the kingdom. The history of the next
few years is a maze of intrigues between Joanna, Sforza, Giovanni
Caracciolo, the queen’s new lover, Alphonso of Aragon, whom
she adopted as her heir, and Louis III. of Anjou, whom we find
pitted against each other in every possible combination. Louis
died in 1434 and Joanna in 1435 (see Joanna II., queen of Naples).
The succession was disputed by René of Anjou and Alphonso,
but the former eventually renounced his claims and Alphonso
was recognized as king of Naples by Pope Eugenius IV. in 1443.
Under Alphonso, surnamed “the Magnanimous,” Sicily was once more united to Naples and a new era was inaugurated, for the king was at once a brilliant ruler, a scholar and a patron of letters. He died in 1458, leaving Naples to his illegitimate son Ferdinand I. (Don Ferrante), and Sicily, Sardinia and Aragon to his brother John. Alphonso the Magnanimous. Ferdinand found, however, that Alphonso had not really consolidated his power, and he had practically to reconquer the whole country. By 1464 he was master of the situation, in spite of the attempt of Pope Calixtus III., to enforce the claims of the papacy, and that of John of Anjou to enter into the heritage of his ancestors. In alliance with Pope Sixtus IV. and the Milanese he waged war on Lorenzo de’ Medici in 1479; but that astute ruler, by visiting Ferdinand in person, obtained peace on favourable terms (1479). In 1485 the disaffection of the barons, due to Ferdinand I. the king’s harshness and the arrogance and cruelty of his son, found vent in a revolt led by Roberto Sanseverino and Francesco Coppola, which was crushed by means of craft and treachery. Ferdinand died in 1494 full of forebodings as to the probable effects of the invasion of Charles VIII. of France, and was succeeded by Alphonso (see Ferdinand I., king of Naples). The Invasion of Charles VIII.The French king entered Italy in September 1495, and conquered the Neapolitan kingdom without much difficulty. Alphonso abdicated, his son Ferrandino and his brother Frederick withdrew to Ischia, and only a few towns in Apulia still held out for the Aragonese. But when the pope, the emperor, Spain and Venice, alarmed at Charles’s progress, formed a defensive league against him, he quitted Naples, and Ferrandino, with the help of Ferdinand II. of Spain, was able to reoccupy his dominions. He died much. regretted in 1496 and was succeeded by Frederick. The country was torn by civil war and brigandage, and the French continued to press their claims; and although Louis XII. (who had succeeded Charles VIII.) concluded a treaty with Ferdinand of Spain for the partition of Naples, France and Spain fell out in 1502 over the division of the spoils, and with Gonzalo de Cordoba’s victory on the Garigliano in December 1502, the whole kingdom was in Spanish hands.
On the death of Ferdinand in 1516, the Habsburg Charles became king of Spain, and three years later was elected emperor as Charles V.; in 1522 he appointed John de Lannoy viceroy of Naples, which became henceforth an integral part of the Spanish dominions. The old divisions of nobility, clergy and people were maintained and their mutual rivalry encouraged; the Naples a Spanish possession. nobles were won over by titles and by the splendour of the viceregal court, but many persons of low birth who showed talent were raised to high positions. The viceroy was assisted by the Collateral Council and the Sacred College of Santa Chiara, composed of Spanish and Italian members, and there was an armed force of the two nationalities. Spanish rule on the whole was oppressive and tyrannical, and based solely on the idea that the dependencies must pay tribute to the dominant kingdom. During the rule of Don Pedro de Toledo (one of the best viceroys) Naples became the centre of a Protestant movement which spread to the rest of Italy, but was ultimately crushed by the Inquisition. In Sicily Spanish rule was less absolute, for the island had not been conquered, but had given itself over voluntarily to the Aragonese; and the parliament, formed by the three bracci or orders (the militare consisting of the nobility, the ecclesiastico, of the clergy, and the demaniale, of the communes), imposed certain limitations on the viceroy, who had to play off the three bracci against each other. But the oppressive character of the government provoked several rebellions. In 1598 an insurrection, headedRevolutions. by the philosopher Tommaso Campanella, broke out in Calabria, and was crushed with great severity. In 1647, during the viceroyalty of the marquis de Los Leres in Sicily, bread riots in Palermo became a veritable revolution, and the people, led by the goldsmith Giovanni d’ Alessio, drove the viceroy from the city; but the nobles, fearing for their privileges, took the viceroy’s part and turned the people against d’ Alessio, who was murdered, and Los Leres returned. On the 7th of July 1647, tumults occurred at Naples in consequence of a new fruit tax, and the viceroy, Count d’ Arcos, was forced to take refuge in the Castelnuovo. The populace, led by an Amalfi fisherman, known as Masaniello (q.v.)., obtained Masaniello. arms, erected barricades, and, while professing loyalty to the king of Spain, demanded the removal of the oppressive taxes and murdered many of the nobles. D’ Arcos came to terms with Masaniello, but in spite of this, and of the assassination of Masaniello, whose arrogance and ferocity had made him unpopular, the disturbances continued, and again the viceroy had to retire to Castelnuovo and make concessions. Even the arrival of reinforcements from Spain failed to restore order, and the new popular leader, Gennaro Annese, now sought assistance from the French, and invited the duke of Guise to come to Naples. The duke came with some soldiers and ships, but failed to effect anything; and after the recall of d’ Arcos the new viceroy, Count d’Ognate, having come to an arrangement with Annese and got Guise out of the city, proceeded to punish all who had taken part in the disturbances, and had Annese and a number of others beheaded.
In 1670 disorders broke out at Messina. They began with a
riot between the nobles and the burghers, but ended in an anti-Spanish
movement; and while the inhabitants called
in the French, the Spaniards, who could not crush the
rising, called in the Dutch. Louis XIV. sent a fleet
under the duc de Vivonne to Sicily, which defeatedThe revolution
at Messina.
the Dutch under de Ruyter in 1676. But at the peace of
Nijmwegen (1679) Louis treacherously abandoned the Messinese,
who suffered cruel persecution at the hands of the Spaniards
and lost all their privileges. An anti-Spanish conspiracy of
Neapolitan nobles, led by Macchia, with the object of proclaiming
the archduke Charles of Austria king of Naples, was discovered;
but in 1707 an Austrian army conquered the kingdom, and
Spanish rule came to an end after 203 years, during which it had
succeeded in thoroughly demoralizing the people.
In Sicily the Spaniards held their own until the peace of Utrecht in 1713, when the island was given over to Duke Victor of Savoy, who assumed the title of king. In 1718 he had to hand back his new possession to Spain, who, in 1720, surrendered it to Austria and gave Sardinia to Victor Amadeus. In 1733 the treaty of the EscurialSicily under Savoy. between France, Spain and Savoy against Austria was signed. Don Carlos of Bourbon, son of Philip V. of Spain, easily conquered both Naples and Sicily, and in 1738 he was recognized as king of the Two Sicilies, Spain renouncing all her claims.” charles Charles was well received, for the country now was an independent kingdom once more. With the Tuscan Bernardo Tanucci as his minister, he introduced many useful reforms, improved the army, which was thus able to repel an Austrian invasion in 1744, embellished the city of Naples andCharles III. built roads. In 1759 Charles III., having succeeded to the Spanish crown, abdicated that of the Two Sicilies in favour of his son Ferdinand, who became Ferdinand IV. of Naples and III. of Sicily. Being only eight years old, a regency under Tanucci was appointed, and the young king’s education was purposely neglected by the minister, who wished toFerdinand IV. dominate him completely. The regency ended in 1767, and the following year Ferdinand married the masterful and ambitious Maria Carolina, daughter of the empress Maria Theresa. She had Tanucci dismissed and set herself to the task of making Naples a great power. With the help of John Acton, an Englishman whom she made minister in the place of Tanucci, she freed Naples from Spanish influence and secured a rapprochement with England and Austria.
On the outbreak of the French Revolution the king and queen were not at first hostile to the new movement; but after the fall of the French monarchy they became violently opposed to it, and in 1793 joined the first coalition against France, instituting severe persecutions against all who were remotely suspected of French sympathies. Republicanism, however, gained ground, especially among the aristocracy. In 1796 peace with France was concluded, but in 1798, during Napoleon’s absence in Egypt and after Nelson’s victory at Aboukir, Maria Carolina induced Ferdinand to go to war with France once more. Nelson arrived in Naples in September, where he was enthusiastically received. The king, after a somewhat farcical occupation of Rome, which had been evacuated by the French, hurried back to Naples as soon as the French attacked his troops, and although the lazzaroni (the lowest class of the people) were devoted to the dynasty and ready to defend it, he fled with the court to Palermo in a panic on board Nelson’s ships. The wildest confusion prevailed, and the lazzaroni massacred numbers of persons suspected of republican sympathies, while the nobility and the educated classes, finding themselves abandoned by their king in this cowardly manner, began to contemplate a republic under French auspices as their only means of salvation from anarchy. InThe French in Naples and the Partheno-paean republic. January 1799 the French under Championnet reached Naples, but the lazzaroni, ill-armed and ill-disciplined as they were, resisted the enemy with desperate courage, and it was not until the 20th that the invaders were masters of the city. On the 23rd the Parthenopaean republic was proclaimed. The Republicans were men of culture and high character, but doctrinaire and unpractical, and they knew very little of the lower classes of their own country. The government soon found itself in financial difficulties, owing to Championnet’s demands for money; it failed to organize the army, and met with scant success in its attempts to “democratize” the provinces. Meanwhile the court at Palermo sent Cardinal Fabrizio Ruffo, a wealthy and influential prelate, to Calabria, to organize a counter-revolution. He succeeded beyond expectation, and with his “Christian army of the Holy Faith” (Esercito Cristiano della Santa Fede), consisting of brigands, convicts, peasants and some soldiers, marched throughCardinal Ruffo and the Sanfedisti. the kingdom plundering, burning and massacring. An English squadron approached Naples and occupied the island of Procida, but after a few engagements with the Republican fleet commanded by Caracciolo, an ex-officer in the Bourbon navy, it was recalled to Palermo, as the Franco-Spanish fleet was expected. Ruffo, with the addition of some Russian and Turkish allies, now marched on the capital, whence the French, save for a small force under Méjean, withdrew. The scattered Republican detachments were defeated, only Naples and Pescara holding out. On the 13th of June Ruffo and his hordes reached Naples, and after a desperate battle at the Ponte della Maddalena, entered the city. For weeks the Calabresi and lazzaroni continued to pillage and massacre, and Ruffo was unable, even if willing, to restrain them. But the Royalists were not masters of the city, for the French in Castel Sant’ Elmo and the Republicans in Castelnuovo and Castel dell’ Uovo still held out and bombarded the streets, while the Franco-Spanish fleet might arrive at any moment. Consequently Ruffo was desperately anxious to come to terms with the Republicans for the evacuation of the castles, in spite of the queen’s orders to make no terms with the rebels. After some negotiation an armistice was concluded and a capitulation agreed upon, whereby the castles were to be evacuated, the hostages liberated and the garrisons free to remain in Naples unmolested or to sail for Toulon.
While the vessels were being prepared for the voyage to Toulon all the hostages in the castles were liberated save four; but on the 24th of June Nelson arrived with his fleet, and on hearing of the capitulation he refused to recognize it save in so far as it concerned the French. Ruffo indignantly declared that once the treaty was signed, Nelson at Naples. not only by himself but by the Russian and Turkish commandants and by the British captain Foote, it must be respected, and on Nelson’s refusal he said that he would not help him to capture the castles. On the 26th Nelson changed his attitude and authorized Sir William Hamilton, the British minister, to inform the cardinal that he (Nelson) would do nothing to break the armistice; while Captains Bell and Troubridge wrote that they had Nelson’s authority to state that the latter would not oppose the embarcation of the Republicans. Although these expressions were equivocal, the Republicans were satisfied and embarked on the vessels prepared for them. But on the 28th Nelson received despatches from the court (in reply to his own). in consequence of which he had the vessels brought under the guns of his ships, and many of the Republicans were arrested. Caracciolo, who had been caught whilst attempting to escape from Naples, was tried by a court-martial of Royalist officers under Nelson’s auspices on board the admiral’s flagship, condemned to death and hanged at the yard arm. For the part played by Nelson in these transactions see the articles Caracciolo and Nelson.
On the 8th of July, King Ferdinand arrived from Palermo, and the state trials, conducted in the most arbitrary fashion, resulted in wholesale butchery; hundreds of persons were executed, including some of the best men in the country, such as the philosopher Mario Pagano, the scientist Cirillo, Manthonè, the minister of war under the republic, Bourbon vengeance. Massa, the defender of Castel dell’ Uovo, and Ettore Caraffa, the defender of Pescara, who had been captured by treachery, while thousands of others were immured in horrible dungeons or exiled.
War with France continued until March 1801, when peace was made, and after the peace of Amiens in 1802 the court returned to Naples, where it was well received. But when the European war broke out again in the following year, Napoleon (then first consul) became very exacting in his demands on King Ferdinand, who consequently played a double game, appearing to accede to these demands while negotiating with England. After Austerlitz Napoleon revenged himself by declaring that “the Bourbon dynasty had ceased to reign,” and sent an army under his brother Joseph to occupy the kingdom.
Ferdinand and Maria Carolina fled to Palermo in January 1805; in February 1806 Joseph Bonaparte entered Naples as king. A cultivated, well-meaning, not very intelligent man he introduced many useful reforms on basis of benevolent despotism, abolished feudalism and built roads, but the taxes and forced contributions which Joseph Bonaparte. he levied proved very burdensome. Joseph’s authority did not exist throughout a large part of the kingdom, where royalist risings, led by brigand chiefs, maintained a state of anarchy, and a British force under Sir John Stuart, which landed in Calabria from Sicily, defeated the French at Maida (July 6th, 1806). Both the French and the royalists committed atrocities, and many conspirators in Naples were tried by the French state courts and shot.
In 1808 Napoleon conferred the crown of Spain on Joseph, and appointed Joachim Murat king of Naples. Murat continued Joseph’s reforms, swept away many old abuses and reorganized the army; and although he introduced the French codes and conferred many appointments and estates on Frenchmen, his administration was more or less Joachim Murat. native, and he favoured the abler Neapolitans. His attempts to attack the English in Sicily ended disastrously, but he succeeded in crushing brigandage in Calabria by means of General Manhès, who, however, had to resort to methods of ferocity in order to do so. The king, owing to his charm of manner, his handsome face, and his brilliant personality, gained many sympathies, and began to aspire to absolute independence. He gradually became estranged from Napoleon, and although he followed him to Russia and afterwards took part in the German campaign, he secretly opened negotiations with Austria and Great Britain. In January 1814 he signed a treaty with Austria, each power guaranteeing the dominions of the other, while Sicily was to be left to Ferdinand. The following month he proclaimed his separation from Napoleon and marched against Eugene Beauharnais, the French viceroy of Lombardy. But no important engagements took place, and when Napoleon escaped from Elba, Murat suddenly returned to the allegiance of his old chief. He marched at the head of 35,000 men into northern Italy, and from Rimini issued his famous proclamation in favour of Italian independence, which at the time fell on deaf ears (March 30th, 1815). He was subsequently defeated by the, Austrians several times and forced to retreat, and on the 18th of May he sailed from Naples for France (see Murat, Joachim). Generals Guglielmo Pepe and Carrascosa now concluded a treaty with the Austrians at Casalanza on favourable terms, and on the 23rd the Austrians entered Naples to restore Bourbon rule.
Ferdinand and Maria Carolina had continued to reign in Sicily,
where the extravagance of the court and the odious Neapolitan
system of police espionage rendered their presence
a burden instead of a blessing to the island. The king
obtained a subsidy from Great Britain and allowed
British troops to occupy Messina and Agosta, so that
The Bourbons
in Sicily.
The English constitution.}}
they might operate against the French on the mainland. A
bitter conflict broke out between the court and the parliament,
and the British minister, Lord William Bentinck, favoured the
opposition, forced Ferdinand to resign his authority and appoint
his son regent and introduced many valuable reforms. The
queen perpetually intrigued against Bentinck, and
even negotiated with the French, but in 1812 a more
liberal constitution on British lines was introduced, and
a Liberal ministry under the princes of Castelnuovo
and Belmonte appointed, while the queen was exiled in the
following year. But after the fall of Napoleon Sicily ceased to
have any importance for Great Britain, and Bentinck, whose
memory is still cherished in the island, departed in 1814.
Ferdinand succeeded in getting a reactionary ministry appointed,
and dissolved parliament in May 1815, after concluding a treaty
with Austria—now freed by Murat’s defection from her engagements
with him—for the recovery of his mainland dominions
by means of an Austrian army paid for by himself. On the
9th of June Ferdinand re-entered Naples and bound
himself in a second treaty with Austria not to introduce
constitutional government[2]
but at first he abstained
from persecution and received many of Murat’s old
officers into his army in accordance with the treaty of Casalanza.
The restorat-ion in Naples.
In October 1815 Murat, believing that he still had a strong
party in the kingdom, landed with a few companions at Pizzo
di Calabria, but was immediately captured by the police and the
peasantry, court-martialled and shot.
Ferdinand to some extent maintained French legislation,
but otherwise reorganized the state with Metternich’s approval
on Bourbon lines; he proclaimed himself king of the Two Sicilies
at the congress of Vienna, incorporating Naples and Sicily into
one state, and abolished the Sicilian constitution (December
1816). In 1818 he concluded a Concordat with the Church,
by which the latter renounced its suzerainty over the kingdom,
but was given control over education, the censorship and many
other privileges. But there was much disaffection throughout
the country, and the Carbonarist lodges, founded in
Murat’s time with the object of freeing the country
The revolution
of 1820.
from foreign rule and obtaining a constitution, had
made much progress (see Carbonari). The army
indeed was honeycombed with Carbonari, and General Pepe,
himself a member of the society, organized them on a military
basis. In July 1820 a military mutiny broke out at Caserta,
led by two officers and a priest, the mutineers demanding a
constitution although professing loyalty to the king. Ferdinand,
feeling himself helpless to resist, acceded to the demand, appointed
a ministry composed of Murat’s old adherents, and entrusted
his authority to his son. The ultra-democratic single-chamber
Spanish constitution of 1812 was introduced, but proved utterly
unworkable. The new government’s first difficulty was Sicily,
where the people had risen in rebellion demanding their own
charter of 1812, and although the Neapolitan troops quelled
the outbreak with much bloodshed the division proved fatal
to the prospects of liberty.
The outbreak of the military rising in Naples, following so shortly on that in Spain, seriously alarmed the powers responsible for the preservation of the peace in Europe. The position was complicated by the somewhat enigmatic attitude of Russia; for the Neapolitan Liberals, with many of whom Count Capo d’Istria, the Russian minister of foreign affairs, had been on friendly terms, proclaimed that they had the “moral support” of the tsar. This idea, above all, it was necessary for Austria to destroy once for all. The diplomatic negotiations are discussed in the article on the history of Europe (q.v.). Here it suffices to say that these issued in the congress of Troppau (October 1820) and the proclamation of the famous Troppau protocol affirming the right of collective “Europe” to interfere to crush dangerous internal revolutions. Both France and Great Britain protested against the general principle laid down in this instrument; but neither of them approved of the Neapolitan revolution, and neither of them was opposed to an intervention in Naples, provided this were carried out, not on the ground of a supposed right of Europe to interfere, but by Austria for Austrian ends. By general consent King Ferdinand was invited to attend the adjourned congress, fixed to meet at Laibach in the spring of the following year. Under the new constitution, the permission of parliament was necessary before the king could leave Neapolitan territory; but this was weakly granted, after Ferdinand had sworn the most solemn oaths to maintain the constitution. He was scarcely beyond the frontiers, however, before he repudiated his engagements, as exacted by force, A cynicism so unblushing shocked even the seasoned diplomats of the congress, who would have preferred that the king should have made a decent show of yielding to force. The result was, however, that the powers authorized Austria to march an army into Naples to restore the autocratic monarchy. This decision was notified to the Neapolitan government by Russia, Prussia and Austria—Great Britain and France maintaining a strict neutrality. Meanwhile the regent, in spite of his declaration that he would lead the Neapolitan army against the invader, was secretly undermining the position of the government, and there were divisions of opinion in the ranks of the Liberals themselves. General Pepe was sent to the frontier at the head of 8000 men, but The Austrians in Naples. was completely defeated by the Austrians at Rieti on the 7th of March. On the 23rd the Austrians entered Naples, followed soon afterwards by the king; every vestige of freedom was suppressed, the reactionary Medici ministry appointed, and the inevitable state trials instituted with the usual harvest of executions and imprisonment. Pepe saved himself by flight. (See Ferdinand IV., king of Naples.)
Ferdinand died in 1825, and his son and successor, Francis I., an unbridled libertine, at once threw off the mask of Liberalism; the corruption of the administration under Medici assumed unheard-of proportions, and every office was openly sold. The Austrian occupation lasted until 1827, having cost the state 310,000,000 lire; but in the meanwhile the Francis I. Swiss Guard had been established as a further protection for autocracy, and the revolutionary outbreak at Bosco on the Cilento was suppressed with the usual cruelty. (See Francis I., king of the Two Sicilies.)
Francis died in 1830 and was succeeded by his son, Ferdinand
II., who at first awoke hopes that the conditions of the country
would be improved. He was not devoid of good
qualities, and took an interest in the material welfare
of the country, but he was narrow-minded, ignorant
and bigoted; he made the administration more efficient, and reorganized
Ferdinand II.
the army which became purged of Carbonarism, and
such Carbonarist plots as there were in the 'thirties were not
severely punished. Ferdinand was impatient of Austrian influence,
but on the death of his first wife, Cristina of Savoy, he
married Maria Theresa of Austria, who encouraged him in his
reactionary tendencies and brought him closer to Austria. An
outbreak of cholera in 1837 led to disorders in Sicily, which,
having assumed a political character, were repressed by Del
Caretto with great severity. The government tended to become
more and more autocratic and to rely wholly on the all-powerful
police, the spies and the priests; and, although the king showed
some independence in foreign affairs, his popularity waned; the
desire for a constitution was by no means dead, and the survivors
of the old Carbonari gathered round Carlo Poerio, while the
Giovane Italia society (independent of Mazzini), led by Benedetto
Musolino, took as its motto “Unity, Liberty and Independence.”
But as yet the idea of unity made but little headway, for southern
Italy was too widely separated by geographical conditions,
history, tradition and custom from the rest of the peninsula,
and the majority of the Liberals—themselves a minority of the
population—merely aspired to a constitutional Neapolitan
monarchy, possibly forming part of a confederation of Italian
states. The attempt of the Giovane Italia to bring about a
general revolution in 1843 only resulted in a few sporadic outbreaks
easily crushed. The following year the Venetian brothers
Bandiera, acting in concert with Mazzini, landed in
Calabria, believing the whole country to be in a state
of revolt; they met with little local support and were
The Bandiera attempt.
quickly captured and shot, but their death aroused
much sympathy, and the whole episode was highly significant
as being the first attempt made by north Italians to promote
revolution in the south. In 1847 a pamphlet by L. Settembrini,
entitled “A Protest of the People of the Two Sicilies,” appeared
anonymously and created a deep impression as a most scathing
indictment of the government; and at the same time the
election of Pius IX., a pope who was believed to be a Liberal,
caused widespread excitement throughout Italy. Conspiracy
was now rife both in Naples and Sicily, but as yet there was no
idea of deposing the king. Many persons were arrested, including
Carlo Poerio, who, however, continued to direct the agitation.
On the 12th of January 1848 a revolution under the leadership
of Ruggiero Settimo broke out at Palermo to the cry of “independence
or the 1812 constitution,” and by the end
of February the whole island, with the exception of
Messina, wasin the hands of the revolutionists. These
The revolution
in Sicily.
events were followed by demonstrations at Naples;
the king summoned a meeting of generals and members of his
family on the 27th of January, and on the advice of Filangieri
(q.v.), who said that the army was not to be relied upon, he
dismissed the Pietracatella ministry and Del Caretto, and
summoned the duke of Serracapriola to form another' administration.
On the 28th he granted the constitution, and the Liberals
Bozzelli and Carlo Poerio afterwards joined the cabinet. The
popular demand was now that Naples should assist the Lombards
in their revolt against Austria, for a feeling of Italian solidarity
was growing up. The ministry of Carlo Troya succeeded
The constitution of 1848.
to that of Serracapriola, and after the parliamentary
elections, in which many extreme Radicals
were elected, Ferdinand declared war against Austria.
(April 7th, 1848). After considerable delay a Neapolitan army
under General Pepe marched towards Lombardy in May, while
the fleet sailed for Venice. But a dispute between the king and
the parliament concerning the form of the royal oath having
arisen, a group of demagogues with criminal folly provoked
disturbances and erected barricades (May 14th). The king
refused to open parliament unless the barricades were removed,
and while the moderate elements attempted to bring about
conciliation, the ministry acted with great weakness. A few
shots were fired—it is not known who fired first—on
the 15th, the Swiss regiments stormed the barricades
and street fighting lasted all day. By the evening the
Swiss and the royalists were masters of the situation. A new
ministry under Prince Cariati was appointed. Parliament was
dissolved, the National Guard disbanded and the army recalled
from the Po. Fresh elections were held and the new parliament
met on the 15th of July, but it had the king, the army and the
mob against it, and anti-constitutionalist demonstrations became
frequent. After a brief session it was prorogued to the 1st of
February 1849, and when it met on that date a deadlock between
king and parliament occurred. The Austrian victories in Lombardy
had strengthened the court party, or Camarilla as it was
called, and on the 13th of March the assembly was again dissolved,
and never summoned again. The king was at Gaeta, whither
the grand-duke of Tuscany and Pius IX. had also repaired to
escape from their rebellious subjects, and the city became the
headquarters of Italian reaction.
In Sicily the revolutionists were purely insular in their aspirations and bitterly hostile to the Neapolitans, and the attempts at conciliation, although favoured by Lord Minto, failed, for Naples wanted one constitution and one parliament, whereas Sicily wanted two, with only the king in common. The Sicilian assembly met in March 1848, and SettimoSicily. in his inaugural speech declared that the Bourbon dynasty had ceased to reign, that the throne was vacant and that Sicily united her destinies to those of Italy. Settimo was elected president of the government, but the administration was lacking in statesmanship, the treasury was empty, and nothing was done to raise an army. After the Austrian victories King Ferdinand sent a Neapolitan army of 20,000 men under Filangieri to subjugate the island. The troops landed at Messina, of which the citadel had been held by the royalists throughout, and after three days desperate fighting the city itself was captured and sacked. The British and French admirals imposed a truce with a view to conciliation, and the king offered the Sicilians the Neapolitan constitution and a separate parliament, which they refused. Sicilian troops were now levied throughout the island and the chief command given to the Pole Mieroslawski, but it was too late. Filangieri marched forward taking town after town, and committing many atrocities. In April he reached Palermo while the fleet appeared in the bay; tumults having broken out within the city, the government surrendered on terms which granted amnesty for all except Settimo and forty-two others.
For a few months after the dissolution of the Neapolitan parliament the government abstained from persecution, but with the crushing of the Sicilian revolution its hands were free; and when the commission on the affair of the 15th of May had completed its labours the state trials and arrests began. The arrest of S. FaucitanoThe Neapolitan prisons. for a demonstration at Gaeta led to the discovery of the Unità Italiana society, whose object was to free Italy from domestic tyranny and foreign domination. Thousands of respectable citizens were thrown into prison, such as L. Settembrini, Carlo Poerio and Silvio Spaventa. The trials were conducted with the most scandalous contempt of justice, and moral and physical torture was applied to extort confessions. The abominable conditions of the prisons in which the best men of the kingdom were immured, linked to the vilest common criminals, was made known to 'the world by the famous letters of W. E. Gladstone, which branded the Bourbon regime as “the negation of God erected into a system of government.” The merest suspicion of unorthodox opinions, the possession of foreign newspapers, the wearing of a beard or an anonymous denunciation, sufficed for the arrest and condemnation of a man to years of imprisonment, while the attendibili, or persons under police surveillance liable to imprisonment without trial at any moment, numbered 50,000. The remonstrances of Great Britain and France met with no success. Ferdinand strongly resented foreign interference, and even rejected the Austrian proposal for a league of the Italian despots for mutual defence against external attacks and internal disorder. In 1856 his life was unsuccessfully attempted by a soldier, and the same year Baron Bentivegna organized a revolt near Palermo, which was quickly suppressed. In 1857 Carlo Pisacane, an ex-Neapolitan officer who had taken part in the defence of Rome, fitted out an expedition, withPisacane’s attempt. Mazzini’s approval, from Genoa, and landed at Sapri in Calabria, where he hoped to raise the flag of revolution; but the local police assisted by the peasantry attacked the band, killing many, including Pisacane himself, and capturing most of the rest. The following year, at the instance of Great Britain and France, Ferdinand commuted the sentences of some of the political prisoners to exile. (See Ferdinand II., king of the Two Sicilies).
In May 1859 Ferdinand died, and was succeeded by his son, Francis II., who came to the throne just as the Franco-Sardinian victories in Lombardy were sounding the death-knell of Austrian, predominance and domestic despotism in Italy (see Italy: History). But although there was much activity and plotting among the Liberals, there was as yet noFrancis II. revolution; Victor Emmanuel, king of Sardinia, wrote to the new king proposing an alliance for the division of Italy, but Francis refused. In June part of the Swiss Guard mutinied because the Bernese government not having renewed the convention with Naples the troops were deprived of their cantonal flag. The mutinous regiments, however, were surrounded by loyal troops and shot down; and this affair resulted in the disbanding of the whole force—the last support of the autocracy. Political amnesties were now decreed, and in September 1859 Filangieri was made prime minister. The latter favoured the Sardinian alliance and the granting of the constitution, and so did the king’s uncle, Leopold, count of Syracuse. But Francis rejected both proposals and Filangieri resigned and was succeeded by A. Statella. In April 1860 Victor Emmanuel again proposed an alliance whereby Naples, in return for help in expelling the Austrians from Venetia, was to receive the Marche, while Sardinia would annex all the rest of Italy except Rome. But Francis again refused, and in fact was negotiating with Austria and the pope for a simultaneous invasion of Modena, Lombardy and Romagna.
In the meantime, however, events in Sicily were reaching a
crisis destined to subvert the Bourbon dynasty. The Sicilians,
unlike the Neapolitans, were thoroughly alienated from
the Bourbons, whom they detested, and after the
peace of Villafranca (July 1859) Mazzini’s emissaries,
F. Crispi and R. Pilo, had been trying to organize aGaribaldi
and the Thousand.
rising in favour of Italian unity; and although they merely
succeeded in raising a few squadre, or armed bands, in the
mountainous districts, they persuaded Garibaldi (q.v.), without
the magic of whose personal prestige they knew nothing important
could be achieved, that the revolution which he knew
to be imminent had broken out. The authorities at Palermo,
learning of a projected rising, attacked the convent of La Gangia,
the headquarters of the rebels, and killed most of the inmates;
but in the meanwhile Garibaldi, whose hesitation had been
overcome, embarked on the 5th of May 1860, at Quarto, near
Genoa, with 1000 picked followers on board two steamers, and
sailed for Sicily. On the 11th the expedition reached Marsala
and landed without opposition. Garibaldi was somewhat coldly
received by the astonished population: but he set forth at once for
Salemi, whence he issued a proclamation assuming the dictatorship
of Sicily in the name of Victor Emmanuel, with Crispi as
secretary of state. He continued his march towards Palermo,
where the bulk of the 30,000 Bourbon troops were concentrated,
gathering numerous followers on the way. On the 15th he
attacked and defeated 3000 of the enemy under General Landi
at Calatafimi; the news of this brilliant victory revived the
revolutionary agitation throughout the island, and Garibaldi
was joined by Pilo and his bands, By a cleverly devised ruse he
avoided General Colonna’s force, which expected him on the
Palermo.Monreale road, and entering Palermo from Misilmeri
received an enthusiastic welcome. The Bourbonists
although they bombarded the city from the citadel and the
warships in the harbour, gradually lost ground, and after three
days’ street fighting their commander, General Lanza, not
knowing that the Garibaldians had scarcely a cartridge left,
asked for and obtained a twenty-four hours' armistice (May 30th).
Garibaldi went on board the British flagship to confer with the
Neapolitan generals Letizia and Chrétien; Letizia’s proposal
that the municipality should make a humble petition to the
king was indignantly rejected by Garibaldi, who merely agreed
to the extension of the armistice until next day. Then he
informed the citizens by means of a proclamation of what he had
done, and declared that, knowing them to be ready to die in the
ruins of their city, he would renew hostilities on the expiration
of the armistice. Although unarmed, the people rallied to him
as one man, and Lanza became so alarmed that he asked for
an unconditional extension of the armistice, which Garibaldi
granted. The dictator now had time to collect ammunition, and
the Neapolitan government having given Lanza full powers to
treat with him, 15,000 Bourbon troops embarked for Naples on
the 7th of June, leaving the revolutionists masters of the situation.
The Sardinian Admiral Persano’s salute of nineteen guns on the
occasion of Garibaldi’s official call constituted a practical recognition
of his dictatorship by the Sardinian (Piedmontese) government.
In July further reinforcements of volunteers under Cosenz
and Medici, assisted by Cavour, arrived at Palermo with a good
supply of arms furnished by subscription in northern Italy. Garibaldi’s
forces were now raised to 12,000 men, besides the Sicilian
squadre. Cavour’s attempt to bring about the annexation of
Sicily to Sardinia failed, for Garibaldi wished to use the island as
a basis for an invasion of the mainland. Most of the island had
now been evacuated by the Bourbonists, but Messina and a few
other points still held out, and when the Garibaldians advanced
eastward they encountered a force of 4000 of the enemy under
Colonel Bosco at Milazzo; on the 20th of July a desperate
battle took place resulting in a hard-won Garibaldian victory.
The Neapolitan government then decided on the evacuation of
the whole of Sicily except the citadel of Messina, which did not
surrender until the following year.
The news of Garibaldi’s astonishing successes entirely changed the situation in the capital, and on the 25th of June 1860 the king, after consulting the ministers and the royal family, granted a constitution, and appointed A. Spinelli prime minister. Disorders having taken place between Liberals and reactionaries, Liberio The Neapolitan constitution. Romano was made minister of police in the place of Aiossa. Sicily being lost, the king directed all his efforts to save Naples; he appealed to Great Britain and France to prevent Garibaldi from crossing the Straits of Messina, and only just failed (for this episode see under Lacaita, G.). Victor Emmanuel himself wrote to, Garibaldi urging him to abstain from an attack on Naples, but Garibaldi refused to obey, and on the 19th of August he crossed with 4500 men and took Reggio by storm. He was soon joined by the rest of his troops, 15,000 in all, and although the Neapolitan government had 30,000 men in Calabria alone, the army collapsed before Garibaldi’s advance, and the people rose in his favour almost everywhere. Francis offered Garibaldi a large sum of money if he would abstain from advancing farther, and 50,000 men to Garibaldi on the mainland. fight the Austrians and the pope; but it was too late, and on the 6th of September the king and queen sailed for Gaeta. The 40,000 Bourbon troops between Salerno and Avellino fell back panic-stricken, and on the 7th Garibaldi entered Naples alone, although the city was still full of soldiers, and was received with delirious enthusiasm. On the 11th a part of the royalists capitulated and the rest retired on Capua. Cavour now decided that Sardinia must take part in the liberation of southern Italy, for he feared that Garibaldi’s followers might induce him to proclaim the republic and attack Rome, which would have provoked French hostility; consequently a Piedmontese army occupied the Marche and Umbria, and entered Neapolitan territory with Victor Emmanuel at its head. On the 1st and 2nd of October 1860 a battle was fought on the Volturno between 20,000 Garibaldians, many of them rawVictor Emmanuel and Garabaldi. levies, and 35,000 Bourbon troops, and although at first a Garibaldian division under Türr was repulsed, Garibaldi himself arrived in time to turn defeat into victory. On the 26th he met Victor Emmanuel at Teano and hailed him king of Italy, and subsequently handed over his conquests to him. On the 3rd of November a plebiscite was taken, which resulted in an overwhelming majority in favour of union with Sardinia under Victor Emmanuel. Garibaldi departed for his island home at Caprera, while L. C. Farini was appointed viceroy of Naples and M. Cordero viceroy of Sicily. The last remnant of the Bourbon army was concentrated at Gaeta, the siege of which was begun by Cialdini on the 5th of November, on the 10th of January 1861 the French fleet, which Napoleon III. had sent to Gaeta. to delay the inevitable fall of the dynasty, was withdrawn at the instance of Great Britain; and although the garrison fought bravely and the king and queen showed considerable courage, the fortress surrendered on the 13th of February and the royal family departed by sea. (See Francis II., King of the Two Sicilies.) The citadel of Messina The fall of Gaeta. capitulated a month later, and Civitella del Tronto on the 21st of March. On the 18th of February the first Italian parliament met at Turin and proclaimed Victor Emmanuel king of Italy. Thus Naples and Sicily ceased to be a separate political entity and were absorbed into the united Italian kingdom.
Bibliography.—General works: F. Carta, Storia del regno delle Due Sicilie (Naples, 1848); F. Pagano, Istoria del regno di Napoli (Naples and Palermo, 1832, &c.); J. Albini, De gestis regum Neapolit. ab Aragonia (Naples, 1588); several chapters in the Storia politica d’ Italia (Milan, 1875–1882); F. Lanzani, Storia dei comuni Italiani . . . fino al 1313; C. Cipolla, Storia delle signorie Italiane dal 1313 al 1530; Cosci, L’ Italia durante le preponderanze straniere, 1530–1789; A. Franchetti, Storia d’ Italia dal 1789 al 1799; G. de Castro, Storia d’ Italia dal 1799 al 1814; F. Bertolini, Storia d’ Italia dal 1814 al 1878. For the more recent history P. Colletta’s Storia del reame di Napoli (Florence, 1848) will be found very useful, though not without bias, and G. Pepe’s Memorie (Paris, 1847) are also important, both authors having played an important part in the events of 1809–1815 and 1820–1821; N. Nisco, Gli ultimi 36 anni del reame di Napoli (Naples, 1889). On the subject of the revolution of 1799 and the Nelson episode there is quite a library. The documents are mostly to be found in Nelson and the Neapolitan Jacobins (Navy Records Society, London, 1903), edited by H. C. Gutteridge, with an introduction, where Nelson’s action is defended, and a bibliography. A. T. Mahan in his Life of Nelson (2nd ed., London, 1899), and in the English Historical Review for July 1899 and October 1900, takes the same view; for the other side see C. Giglioli, Naples in 1799 (London, 1903), which is impartial and well written; F. P. Badham, Nelson at Naples (London, 1900); P. Villari, “Nelson, Caracciolo e la Repubblica Napolitana” (Nuova Antologia, February 16, 1899); A. Maresca, Gli avvenimenti di Napoli dal 13 giugno al 12 luglio, 1799 (Naples, 1900); B. Croce, Studii storici sulla rivoluzione Napoletana del 1799 (Rome, 1897); Freiherr von Helfert has attempted the impossible task of whitewashing Queen Mary Caroline in his Königin Karolina von Neapel and Sicilien (Vienna, 1878) and Maria Karolina von Österreich (Vienna, 1884), while in his Fabrizio Ruffo (Italian edition, Florence, 1885) he gives a rose-coloured portrait of that prelate and his brigand bands; see also H. Hüffer’s Die neapolitanische Republik des Jahres 1799 (Leipzig, 1884). For a general account of the French period see C. Auriol, La France, l’Angleterre, et Naples (Paris, 1906) and R. M. Johnston, The Napoleonic Empire in South Italy (London, 1904). both based on documents. For the latest period see N. Nisco, Gli ultimi 36 anni del reame di Napoli (Naples, 1889); H. R. Whitehouse, The Collapse of the Kingdom of Naples (New York, 1899), and R. de Cesare, La Fine d’ un regno (Città di Castello, 1900), which contains much information but is not always accurate. For the British occupation of Sicily see G. Bianco, La Sicilia durante l’ occupazione Inglese (Palermo, 1902); and for Sicily from 1830 to 1861, Francesco Guardione’s Il Dominio dei Borboni in Sicilia (Turin, 1908) will be found useful. The best account of Garibaldi’s expedition is G. Trevelyan’s Garibaldi and the Thousand (London, 1909). (L. V.*)
- ↑ He was the second king of that name in Sicily, but was known as Frederick III. because he was the third son of King Peter.
- ↑ The secret article of the treaty of June 12, 1815, runs as follows: “H.M. the King of the Two Sicilies, in re-establishing the government of the kingdom, will not agree to any changes irreconcilable either with the ancient institutions of the monarchy or with the principles adopted by H.I. and R. Austrian Majesty for the internal regime of his Italian provinces.” It is to be noted that this did not involve the obligation of interfering with the ancient constitution of Sicily, which Metternich desired to see remain undisturbed.