FERDINAND IV. 



FERDINAND IV. 



814 



hi* capital, but did not long enjoy his prosperity ; he died suddenly 

 in 14SW. at the age of 28 year*, regretted by his subject*, who had 

 formed gnat hope* of him from bis amiable qualities and abilities. 

 He was succeeded by his uncle Frederic, who was soon after treach- 

 erously deprived of his kingdom by his pretended ally, Ferdinand of 

 Spain. 



FERDINAND IV. of Naples, afterwards styled Ferdinand I. of the 

 United Klng.lom of the Two Sicilies, born in January 1751, was tbe 

 son of Don Carlos of Bourbon, king of the Two Sicilies, afterwards 

 Charles III. of Spain. The life of Ferdinand is remarkable, not so 

 much on account of his personal character, as from the uncommon 

 length of hi* reign and iu many vicissitudes being closely connected 

 with all the (Treat event* of Europe during the last half century, as 

 well as the singular good fortune which attended him to the end of 

 hU life with little or no exertion on his part. The education of Fer- 

 dinand was gn-stly neglected. He was little more than eight years of 

 age when hi* father Charles, being called to the throne of Spain by the 

 death of his br -thcr Ferdinand VI, made over to him the kingdom of 

 Naples and Sicily, appointing a council of regency, at the head of which 

 he placed the Marquis Tanucci, an able minister, who however does 

 not seem to have been very anxious about the instruction of his 

 young sovereign. In April 1768 Ferdinand, being now of age, married 

 Maria Carolina of Austria, daughter of Maria Theresa, a princess accom- 

 plished, clever, and ambitious, who iu fact ruled under her husband's 

 name till her death, assisted by the various ministers who succeeded 

 each other at the helm of affairs, the king himself being generally 

 passive, and his time being much engrossed by hunting, shooting, and 

 other diversions. Yet Ferdinand was by no means deficient in natural 

 penetration ; he often saw things more clearly than those around him, 

 as is manifest from many of his shrewd though blunt remarks which 

 are still remembered at Naples ; but bis want of instruction, of which 

 he was aware, and his dislike of application, prevented him from exert- 

 ing or enforcing his own judgment The first thirty years of his 

 reign, those of the regency included, were for Naples years of peace 

 and comparative happiness ; many useful reforms were effected by his 

 ministers, and especially by Tanucci, who continued at the head of 

 affairs till 1777. (See Colletta, 'Storia del Rcame di Napoli,' 1831, and 

 also Count Orloff in the second volume of his ' Memoires sur le 

 Royaume de Naples.') Ferdinand was popular with the lower classes ; 

 and 01 be was the first king born at Naples for centuries post, they 

 called him emphatically 'our king.' 



Tanned being dismissed in 1777 for having objected to the queen 

 taking her seat iu the council of state, Caracciolo and others followed 

 for a short time, until John Acton, an Englishman, and a naval officer 

 in the service of Leopold of Tuscany, was sent for to organise the 

 Neapolitan navy and army, which had fallen into decline during a 

 long season of peace. The advancement of Acton was extremely 

 rapid ; he was made general, then captain-general of the kingdom, 

 and lastly premier, or rather sole minister (for the other ministers were 

 merely his creatures), and in this office he remained for many years. 

 His administration was neither so economical nor so wise as that of 

 Tanucci. Things went on however quietly and smoothly for several 

 years. A considerable degree of liberty of speech, and even of the 

 press, prevailed at Naples, and the country was prosperous and the 

 people contented until the breaking out of the French revolution, of 

 which Naples, however remote, felt the shock. The queen being the 

 sister of Marie Antoinette, was indignant at the treatment her relatives 

 of France met with at the hands of tbe revolutionists ; and as many 

 young men at Naples, mostly belonging to tbe higher ranks of society, 

 seemed to approve of the principles of the revolution, the court took 

 alarm, and the men who bad always been averse to reform and improve- 

 ment seized the opportunity to regain the ascendancy. Arrests were 

 made, and a giunta, or state tribunal, was formed to try the real or 

 pretended conspirator*, three or whom were sentenced to death, others 

 to perpetual imprisonment, but the majority (against whom the 

 judges, notwithstanding all tho exertions of the attorney-general, 

 Vanni, could find no evidence), were acquitted after four years' 

 confinement 



Tbe court of Naples had joined the first coalition against France iu 



'02, and had sent some troops to join the Austrians in the North of 

 Italy, and other* with a squadron to the expedition against Toulon. 

 In 1790 however, alarmed by the successes of Napoleon I., a peace 

 was purchased of tho Din ctory by paying a few millions of francs. 

 In 1 7;>*, Hi- Kirnch having occupied the papal state, the court of 

 Naples formed a crret alliance with Austria, England, and Russia, 

 but, int- a-l of waiting for the opening of the campaign in Lombardy, 

 which was to Uke place in th-j following spring, the Neapolitan army, 

 80,000 rtrong, began hontilitirs in November 1798, and marched upon 

 Home, which it occupied only for a few .lays, as the French general*, 

 having collected their force*, attacked and routed several divisions of 

 tbe Neapolitans, and cut off the communication* between the rest; 

 a genual panic spread through the army ; the king, who had accom- 

 panied it as far as Home, fled back to Naples; Mack, who wa* his 

 common ler in chkf, followed his example ; and of tbe various corps 

 that wire left to themselves without any concerted plan or prepara- 

 tions in COM of a reverse, tome were dispersed or made prisoners, and 

 others ma-le good their retreat to their own frontier*, whither the 

 French followed them closely. The greatest confusion prevailed at j 



the court of Naples ; the queen, beset by informers, fancied that tho 

 capital was full of conspirators, and determined to withdraw to Sicily. 

 Ferdinand was easily persuaded to do tho same, and the royal family 

 left Naples on the 21st of December 1793. The French meantime 

 were approaching, and the populace, left without a government and 

 excited by denunciations against the Jacobins, rose, murdered a num- 

 ber of person*, and for three days fought desperately against tho 

 advancing French in the streets of the capital. The events of Naples 

 in 1709 form a romantic but tragical episode in the hUtory <>f tho 

 Continental war, and they have become tbe theme of numerous narra- 

 tives. The reverses of the French in Lombardy in the spring of 1799, 

 obliged them to abandon Naples, leaving only a small garrison iu it. 

 The native republicans, or patriots as they were called, were few, and 

 disliked by the lower classes. Cardinal Huffo landed in Calabria from 

 Sicily, and preached a sort of political and religious crusade against 

 the French and their partisans, and the whole kingdom was recon- 

 quered for Ferdinand in a short time. A dreadful reaction took place, 

 in which thousands lost their lives, either murdered by the royalists, 

 or condemned, by the courts instituted to try all those who were 

 accused of republicanism. 



Ferdinand returned to Naples, and in 1S01 he concluded, tl, 

 the mediation of Russia, a treaty of peace with France. Dut the 

 past events and the proscriptions that had taken place in his name 

 had destroyed all confidence between the government and the more 

 enlightened port of the nation. In 1803 tbe court of Naples com- 

 mitted a second political error, worse than that of 179$. AVhila 

 professing to be at peace with France, it entered secretly into the 

 coalition against that power ; and while Napoleon was defeating the 

 Austrians on the Danube, Hussion and English troops were landed at 

 Naples to join tbe army of that kingdom for tbe avowed purpose of 

 attacking the French in tbe north of Italy. The consequence was, 

 that Napoleon, after his victory at Austerlitz, declared that "tho 

 Bourbon dynasty had ceased to reign at Naples," and he sent a forco 

 under Massena to occupy that kingdom. Ferdinand and his court 

 withdrew to Sicily a second time, where being protected by tlio 

 English forces, they remained till 1315. A desultory but cruel war- 

 fare was carried on for several years in Calabria between the pa 

 of Ferdinand and those of Mural, whom Napoleon had made King of 

 Naple?, the details of which are vividly described by Botta, ' Storia 

 d'ltalia,' twenty-fourth book, towards the end. But even in Sicily 

 the reign of Ferdinand did not run smooth. The court was extrava- 

 gant in its expenditure, the queen was as arbitrary as ever, and great 

 jealousy existed between the Sicilians and tbe Neapolitan courtiers 

 and emigrants. But Sicily bad a parliament consisting of three 

 orders, barons, clergy, and deputies of the towns, and the parliament 

 would not sanction the levying of fresh taxes. The queen then 

 ordered the imprisonment of five of the moat influential barons. 

 Meantime it was suspected that that princess, who had conceived a 

 dislike against the English, whom she considered as a check upon her, 

 entertained secret communications with Napoleon, who iu 1510 had 

 married her grand-niece Maria Louisa. A conspiracy ngiinst tho 

 English was discovered at Messina. All these circumstances obliged 

 the English government to interfere, and in January 1812 Ferdinand 

 resigned his authority into the bauds of his eldest son, Francis. A 

 parliament was assembled, which abolished feudality, and framed a 

 new constitution upon a liberal basis. The queen's influence was 

 now at an end, and after some fruitless intrigues she embarked iu 1813 

 for Constantinople, from whence she went to Vienna, where she died 

 in the following year. For an account of these important Sicilian 

 transactions see Botta, and also a work styled ' De la Sicile et de sea 

 Rapports avec 1'Angleterre a 1'dpoque do la Constitution de 1812,' 

 Paris, 1827. In 1814 Ferdinand resumed the reins of government, 

 and opened in person the Sicilian parliament of that year. In 1815, 

 after the defeat of Joachim Murat by the Austrians, Ferdinand was 

 recalled to the throne of Naples, and in June of that year ho 

 returned to his old capital. In a well-written proclamation to the 

 Neapolitans he promised them peace, a complete forgetfulness of the 

 past, impartial justice, and a steady administration ; and to a great 

 extent he kept his word. The government of Ferdinand at Naples 

 from 1815 till 1820 was comparatively mild, impartial, and orderly. 

 But in Sicily, having dissolved the parliament, ho never convoked it 

 afterwards. By a decree of December 1816, he assumed tho title of 

 Ferdinand I., King of the United Kingdom of the Two Si 

 declaring that Sicily and Naples formed no longer distinct state*, but 

 were both subject to tho fame system of government 



Meantime a secret society, colled Carbonari, were spreading them- 

 selves font through tbe kingdom, especially among the landed prnpri--- 

 tors iu the provinces, and consequently through tbe ranks of the 

 provincial militia. The land-tax, which was more than 20 per cent. 

 on tho rent, made this class of people dissatisfied and ready for change. 

 The origin of this society or sect, for it was religious as well as politi- 

 cal, is somewhat obscure : it seems to have come from Franco into 

 Italy, and was established in the kingdom of Naples under Murat, 

 with his sanction ; but was afterwards proscribed by him, and ji 

 found favour with the court of Sicily. On the 2ud of July 1820, a 

 military revolt, led by two tubalterns, broke out in a regiment of 

 cavalry stationed near Naples ; other troops joined in it, and the Car- 

 bonari of the capital and provinces openly espoused its cause, demand- 



