Ferdinand I of the Two Sicilies

Ferdinand I
(IV / III)

Portrait by Angelica Kauffman, c. 1782
King of the Two Sicilies
Reign 12 December 1816 – 4 January 1825
Successor Francis I
King of Naples and Sicily[lower-alpha 1]
Reign 6 October 1759 – 12 December 1816
Predecessor Charles VII & V
Born (1751-01-12)12 January 1751
Royal Palace of Naples, Naples, Kingdom of Naples
Died 4 January 1825(1825-01-04) (aged 73)
Naples, Kingdom of the Two Sicilies
Burial Basilica of Santa Chiara, Naples
Spouse
Issue
see details...
Full name
Italian: Ferdinand Antonio Pasquale Giovanni Nepomuceno Serafino Gennaro Benedetto
House Bourbon-Two Sicilies
Father Charles III of Spain
Mother Maria Amalia of Saxony
Religion Roman Catholicism

Ferdinand I (12 January 1751 – 4 January 1825), was the King of the Two Sicilies from 1816, after his restoration following victory in the Napoleonic Wars. Before that he had been, since 1759, Ferdinand IV of the Kingdom of Naples and Ferdinand III of the Kingdom of Sicily. He was deposed twice from the throne of Naples: once by the revolutionary Parthenopean Republic for six months in 1799 and again by Napoleon Bonaparte in 1805.

Ferdinand was the third son of King Charles III of Spain, Naples and Sicily by his wife, Maria Amalia of Saxony. On 10 August 1759, Charles succeeded his elder brother, Ferdinand VI, but treaty provisions made Charles ineligible to hold all three crowns. On 6 October, he abdicated his Neapolitan and Sicilian titles in favour of his third son, because his eldest son, Philip had been excluded from succession and his second son, Charles, was heir to the Spanish throne. Ferdinand was the founder of the cadet House of Bourbon-Two Sicilies.

Styles

Ferdinand was styled both Ferdinand III of Sicily (6 October 1759 – 12 December 1816) and Ferdinand IV of Naples (6 October 1759 – 23 January 1799; 13 June 1799 – 30 March 1806; 22 May 1815 – 12 December 1816).

On 21 January 1799,[1] the Kingdom of Naples was abolished and replaced by the Parthenopaean Republic which lasted until 13 June 1799. Ferdinand was restored to the throne for a while. On 26 December 1805, Napoleon I of France declared Ferdinand deposed again and replaced him with his own brother Joseph Bonaparte on 30 March 1806.

Ferdinand was restored for the second time following the Austrian victory at the Battle of Tolentino (3 March 1815) over rival monarch King Joachim I. On 8 March 1816 he merged the thrones of Sicily and Naples into the throne of the Two Sicilies. He continued to rule until his death on 4 January 1825.

Childhood

Ferdinand was born in Naples and grew up amidst many of the monuments erected there by his father which can be seen today; the Palaces of Portici, Caserta and Capodimonte.

Ferdinand was his parents' third son, his elder brother Charles was expected to inherit Naples and Sicily. When his father ascended the Spanish throne in 1759 he abdicated Naples in Ferdinand's favor in accordance with the treaties forbidding the union of the two crowns. A regency council presided over by the Tuscan Bernardo Tanucci was set up. The latter, an able, ambitious man, wishing to keep the government as much as possible in his own hands, purposely neglected the young king's education, and encouraged him in his love of pleasure, his idleness and his excessive devotion to outdoor sports.[2]

Reign

Ferdinand in 1760, at age nine.
Ferdinand I King of the Two Sicilies depicted on a Duchy of Parma 8 Doppie coin (1791)
Ferdinand I King of the Two Sicilies depicted on a Duchy of Parma 8 Doppie coin (1791)

Ferdinand's minority ended in 1767, and his first act was the expulsion of the Jesuits. The following year he married Archduchess Maria Carolina, daughter of Empress Maria Theresa. By the marriage contract the queen was to have a voice in the council of state after the birth of her first son, and she was not slow to avail herself of this means of political influence.

Tanucci, who attempted to thwart her, was dismissed in 1777. The Englishman Sir John Acton, who in 1779 was appointed director of marine, won Maria Carolina's favour by supporting her scheme to free Naples from Spanish influence, securing rapprochement with Austria and Great Britain. He became practically and afterward actually prime minister. Although not a mere grasping adventurer, he was largely responsible for reducing the internal administration of the country to a system of espionage, corruption and cruelty.

French occupation and Parthenopaean Republic

Although peace was made with France in 1798, the demands of the French Directory, whose troops occupied Rome, alarmed the king once more, and at his wife's instigation he took advantage of Napoleon's absence in Egypt and of Nelson's victories to go to war. He marched with his army against the French and entered Rome (29 November), but on the defeat of some of his columns he hurried back to Naples, and on the approach of the French, fled aboard Nelson's ship the HMS Vanguard to Sicily, leaving his capital in a state of anarchy.[1]

The French entered the city in spite of the fierce resistance of the lazzaroni, and with the aid of the nobles and bourgeoisie established the Parthenopaean Republic (January 1799). When, a few weeks later the French troops were recalled to northern Italy, Ferdinand sent a hastily assembled force, under Cardinal Ruffo, to reconquer the mainland kingdom. Ruffo, with the support of British artillery, the Church, and the pro-Bourbon aristocracy, succeeded, reaching Naples in May 1800, and the Parthenopaean Republic collapsed. After some months King Ferdinand returned to the throne.

The king, and above all the queen, were particularly anxious that no mercy should be shown to the rebels, and Maria Carolina (a sister of the executed Antoinette) made use of Lady Hamilton, Nelson's mistress, to induce Nelson to carry out her vengeance.

Third Coalition

The king returned to Naples soon afterwards, and ordered a few hundred who had collaborated with the French executed. This stopped only when the French successes forced him to agree to a treaty which included amnesty for members of the French party. When war broke out between France and Austria in 1805, Ferdinand signed a treaty of neutrality with the former, but a few days later he allied himself with Austria and allowed an Anglo-Russian force to land at Naples (see Third Coalition).

Piastra of Ferdinand IV of Naples, dated 1805.

The French victory at the Battle of Austerlitz on 2 December enabled Napoleon to dispatch an army to southern Italy. Ferdinand fled to Palermo (23 January 1806), followed soon after by his wife and son, and on 14 February 1806 the French again entered Naples. Napoleon declared that the Bourbon dynasty had forfeited the crown, and proclaimed his brother Joseph King of Naples and Sicily. But Ferdinand continued to reign over the latter kingdom (becoming the first King of Sicily in centuries to actually reside there) under British protection.

Parliamentary institutions of a feudal type had long existed in the island, and Lord William Bentinck, the British minister, insisted on a reform of the constitution on English and French lines. The king indeed practically abdicated his power, appointing his son Francis as regent, and the queen, at Bentinck's insistence, was exiled to Austria, where she died in 1814.

Church of San Francesco da Paola, Naples, in a ponderous academic neoclassical style, completed in 1816 as Ferdinand's ex voto for his return

Restoration

After the fall of Napoleon, Joachim Murat, who had succeeded Joseph Bonaparte as king of Naples in 1808, was dethroned in the Neapolitan War, and Ferdinand returned to Naples. By a secret treaty he had bound himself not to advance further in a constitutional direction than Austria should at any time approve; but, though on the whole he acted in accordance with Metternich's policy of preserving the status quo, and maintained with but slight change Murat's laws and administrative system, he took advantage of the situation to abolish the Sicilian constitution, in violation of his oath, and to proclaim the union of the two states into the kingdom of the Two Sicilies (12 December 1816).

Ferdinand was now completely subservient to Austria, an Austrian, Count Nugent, being even made commander-in-chief of the army. For the next four years he reigned as an absolute monarch within his domain, granting no constitutional reforms.

1820 revolution

Palermo insurrection of 1820

The suppression of liberal opinion caused an alarming spread of the influence and activity of the secret society of the Carbonari, which in time affected a large part of the army. In July 1820 a military revolt broke out under General Guglielmo Pepe, and Ferdinand was terrorised into signing a constitution on the model of the Spanish Constitution of 1812. On the other hand, a revolt in Sicily, in favour of the recovery of its independence, was suppressed by Neapolitan troops.

The success of the military revolution at Naples seriously alarmed the powers of the Holy Alliance, who feared that it might spread to other Italian states and so lead to a general European conflagration. The Troppau Protocol of 1820 was signed by Austria, Prussia and Russia, although an invitation to Ferdinand to attend the adjourned Congress of Laibach (1821) was issued at which he failed to distinguish himself. He had twice sworn to maintain the new constitution but was hardly out of Naples before he repudiated his oaths and, in letters addressed to all the sovereigns of Europe, declared his acts to have been null and void. Metternich had no difficulty in persuading the king to allow an Austrian army to march into Naples "to restore order".

The Neapolitans, commanded by General Pepe, made no attempt to defend the difficult defiles of the Abruzzi, and were defeated at Rieti (7 March 1821). The Austrians entered Naples.

Later years

Following the Austrian victory, the Parliament was dismissed and Ferdinand suppressed the Liberals and Carbonari. The victory was used by Austria to force its grasp over Naples' domestic and foreign policies. Count Charles-Louis de Ficquelmont was appointed as the Austrian ambassador to Naples, practically administrating the country as well as managing the occupation and strengthening Austrian influence over Neapolitan elites.

Ferdinand died in Naples in January 1825. He was the last surviving child of Charles III.

Ferdinand I in cinema

Issue

Ancestry

Titles, styles and honours

Royal styles of
Ferdinand I of the Two Sicilies
Reference style His Majesty
Spoken style Your Majesty
Alternative style Sir

Titles and styles

Honours

Heraldry

References

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Ferdinand I of the Two Sicilies.

 This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). "Ferdinand IV. of Naples". Encyclopædia Britannica. 10 (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. pp. 264–265. 

  1. ↑ De facto King of Naples during three periods:
    • 6 October 1759 – 23 January 1799; interrupted by the proclamation of the brief Parthenopaean Republic;
    • 13 June 1799 – 30 March 1806; interrupted by his dethronement by Napoleon and subsequent replacement by Joseph Bonaparte;
    • 22 May 1815 – 12 December 1816; following Napoleon's final defeat, kept the Crown until its merger with the Crown of Sicily.
  1. 1 2 Davis, John (2006). Naples and Napoleon: Southern Italy and the European Revolutions, 1780-1860. Oxford University Press. ISBN 9780198207559.
  2. ↑ Acton, Harold (1957). The Bourbons of Naples (1731-1825) (2009 ed.). London: Faber and Faber. p. 150. ISBN 9780571249015.
  3. 1 2 3 "Le origini dello stemma delle Due Sicilie, Ferdinando IV, poi I". Storia e Documenti (in Italian). Real Casa di Borbone delle Due Sicilie. Retrieved 24 March 2013.
Ferdinand I of the Two Sicilies
Cadet branch of the House of Bourbon
Born: 12 January 1751 Died: 4 January 1825
Regnal titles
Preceded by
Charles VII & V		 King of Naples
(as Ferdinand IV)
6 October 1759 – 23 January 1799 		Parthenopaean Republic
King of Sicily
(as Ferdinand III)
6 October 1759 – 12 December 1816 		Union of the crowns
Preceded by
Joachim Murat		 King of Naples
(as Ferdinand IV)
22 May 1815 – 12 December 1816
Parthenopaean Republic King of Naples
(as Ferdinand IV)
13 June 1799 – 30 March 1806 		Succeeded by
Joseph Bonaparte
Union of the crowns King of the Two Sicilies
(as Ferdinand I)
12 December 1816 – 4 January 1825 		Succeeded by
Francis I
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