Ferdinand II of the Two Sicilies
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Ferdinand II of the Two Sicilies. |
Ferdinand II (
Ferdinando Carlo,
January 12,
1810 –
May 22,
1859) was the
King of the Two Sicilies (
Southern Italy) from
1830 until his death.
Ferdinand was born in
Palermo, the son of
Francis I of the Two Sicilies and his cousin María Isabel of Spain (daughter of
Charles IV).
In his early years he was credited with
Liberal ideas and he was fairly popular, his free and easy manners having endeared him to the
lazzaroni. On succeeding his father in 1830, he published an edict in which he promised to give his most anxious attention to the impartial administration of justice, to reform the finances, and to use every effort to heal the wounds which had afflicted the kingdom for so many years; but these promises seem to have been meant only to lull discontent to sleep, for although he did something for the economic development of the kingdom, the existing burden of taxation was only slightly lightened, corruption continued to flourish in all departments of the administration, and an absolutism was finally established harsher than that of all his predecessors, and supported by even more extensive and arbitrary arrests. Ferdinand was naturally shrewd, but badly educated, grossly superstitious and possessed of inordinate self-esteem. Though he kept the machinery of his kingdom fairly efficient, and was a patriot to the extent of brooking no foreign interference, he made little account of the wishes or welfare of his subjects.
After his marriage to an Austrian princess in
1837, the bonds of despotism were more closely tightened, and the increasing discontent of his subjects was manifested by various abortive attempts at insurrection; in
1837 there was a rising in
Sicily in consequence of the outbreak of
cholera, and in
1843 La Giovine Italia tried to organize a general rising, which, however, only manifested itself in a series of isolated outbreaks. The expedition of the
Bandiera Brothers in
1844, although it had no practical result, aroused great ill-feeling owing to the cruel sentences passed on the rebels.
In January
1848 another rising in Sicily was the signal for revolutions all over
Italy and Europe; it was followed by a movement in
Naples, and the king granted a constitution which he swore to observe. A dispute, however, arose as to the nature of the oath which should be taken by the members of the chamber of deputies, and as neither the king nor the deputies would yield, serious disturbances broke out in the streets of Naples on
May 15; so the king, making these an excuse for withdrawing his promise, dissolved the national parliament on
March 13,
1849.
He retired to
Gaeta to confer with various deposed despots, and when the news of the
Austrian victory at Novara (March 1849) reached him, he determined to return to a reactionary policy. Sicily, whence the Royalists had been expelled, was subjugated by
General Filangieri, and the chief cities were bombarded, an expedient which won for Ferdinand the epithet of
King Bomba.
During the last years of his reign espionage and arbitrary arrests prevented all serious manifestations of discontent among his subjects. In
1851 the political prisoners of Naples were calculated by
Mr Gladstone in his letters to
Lord Aberdeen (1851) to number 15,000 (probably the real figure was nearer 40,000), and so great was the scandal created by the prevailing reign of terror, and the abominable treatment to which the prisoners were subjected, that in
1856 France and
England made diplomatic representations to induce the king to mitigate his rigour and proclaim a general amnesty, but without success.
An attempt was made by a soldier to assassinate Ferdinand in 1856. He died on May 22, 1859, just after the declaration of war by France and
Piedmont against Austria, which was to result in the collapse of his kingdom and his dynasty. He was bigoted, cruel, mean, treacherous, though not without a certain bonhomie; the only excuse that can be made for him is that with his heredity and education a different result could scarcely be expected.
Ferdinand married first
November 21,
1832 Maria Christina of Savoy, daughter of King
Victor Emmanuel I of Savoy. Their only child,
Francesco, succeeded his father as king.
He married second
January 9,
1837 Archduchess Maria Theresa of Austria, daughter of
Archduke Charles of Austria, Duke of Teschen, son the
Leopold II, and his protestant wife
Henrietta of Nassau-Weilburg. They were the parents of twelve children together:
*
Lodovico, Count of Trani (1838-1886). Married
Mathilde, Duchess in Bavaria, sister of
Empress Elisabeth of Austria. Their only daughter,
Princess Maria Teresa of Bourbon-Two Sicilies, married
Wilhelm Fürst von Hohenzollern.
*
Alberto, Count of Castrogiovanni (1839-1844).
*
Alfonso, Count of Caserta (1841-1934). Married his first cousin Princess Antonietta of the Two Sicilies and has issue. The current lines of Bourbon-Sicily descend from him.
*
Maria Annuziata of Bourbon-Two Sicilies (1843-1871). Married
Archduke Karl Ludwig of Austria.
*
Maria Immacolata Clementina of Bourbon-Two Sicilies (1844-1899). Married
Archduke Karl Salvator of Tuscany.
*
Prince Gaetano of Bourbon-Two Sicilies (1846-1871). In 1868, he married
Isabel, Infanta of Spain (eldest daughter of Queen
Isabella II) and was created Infante of Spain.
*
Giuseppe, Count of Lucera (1849-1882).
*
Maria Pia of Bourbon-Two Sicilies (1849-1882). Married
Roberto I Duke of Parma and Piacenza.
*
Vincenzo, Count of Melazzo (1851-1854)
*
Pasquale, Count of Bari (1852-1904). Married morganatically to Blanche Marconnay.
*
Maria Immacolata Luisa of Bourbon-Two Sicilies (1855-1874). Married Enrico Prince of Bourbon-
Parma, Count di
Bardi. May have died in childbirth, while giving birth to a daughter. Little is known about the daughter, if she lived. She may have married into a noble Italian family, who's members may have been soldiers for her grandfather and great grandfather.
*
Gennaro, Count of Caltagirone (1857-1867).
