FERDINAND V. FERDINAND I. 



167 



1040, did not agree to a peace. Although Ferdinand 

 would not render himself subservient to the interests 

 of Spain and the Jesuits, and though he showed much 

 spirit in the diet, yet lie was unable to accomplish 

 his objects. At last, the preliminaries of Hamburg 

 were concluded (1641), by the articles of which a 

 general congress was assembled at Munster and 

 Osnabruck, for the purpose of negotiating a peace. 

 A long time elapsed before this congress commenced 

 its session, and, in the mean time, as there was no 

 truce, the war continued with various success. In 

 1648, when the Swedes (who, under 'i orstenson, had 

 even threatened Vienna) were on the point of taking 

 possession of the capital of Bohemia, under Wrangel, 

 Ferdinand determined to accede to the peace. (See 

 Westphalia, peace of.) He soon after secured the 

 election of his son, Ferdinand IV., as king of the 

 Romans ; but that prince died the next year. In the 

 diet of 1653 54, some important changes were made 

 in the administration of justice. Shortly before his 

 death (1657), Ferdinand concluded a league with the 

 Poles against the Swedes. 



FERDINAND V., king of Arragon, who received 

 from the pope the title of the Catholicism account of 

 the expulsion of the Moors from Spain, was the son 

 of king John II., and was born in 1453. By his 

 marriage with Isabella, queen of Castile, he laid the 

 foundation for the union of the different Spanish king- 

 doms, which was finally completed forty-two years 

 later. " Ferdinand and Isabella lived together," 

 says an historian, " not like a couple whose united 

 possessions were under the control of the husband, 

 but like two monarchs, closely and voluntarily united 

 by a community of interests." Isabella allowed her 

 husband no other share in the government of Castile 

 than the privilege of affixing his signature to the de- 

 crees, and of uniting his arms with her own. With 

 Ximenes (q. v.) they raised Spain to an eminence 

 which she had never before attained. After a bloody 

 war often years, they conquered Grenada (1491), the 

 only kingdom of which the Moors yet retained pos- 

 session in Spain ; but the most brilliant event of their 

 reign was the discovery of America, for which Isa- 

 bella had furnished the ships, and which made them 

 sovereigns of a new world. (See Columbus.) This 

 politic prince laid the foundation of the Spanish as- 

 cendency in Europe by the acquisition of Naples 

 (1505), by means of his general, Gonzalvo of Cor- 

 dova, and by the conquest of Navarre (1512); but his 

 policy was deceitful and despotic. These stains ob- 

 scure the great qualities which made him the first 

 monarch of his time. His efforts to aggrandize him- 

 self, and confirm his power, and his religious bigotry, 

 led him into great errors. For the purpose of do- 

 mineering over the consciences of his subjects, he 

 instituted the court of the inquisition, in 1480, not 

 perceiving that he thus gave the clergy a power 

 which they would soon use against the monarch him- 

 self. Not less unjust and impolitic was the expulsion 

 of the Jews (1492) and the banishment of the Moors 

 (1501). After the death of his wife Isabella (1504), 

 he married Germaine de Foix, and died (1516) of the 

 dropsy, produced by an aphrodisiac, given him by his 

 second wife. Charles 1. (V.) succeeded him. 



FERDINAND I. (at an earlier period, IV.) of 

 Bourbon, Infant of Spain, king of the Two Sicilies, 

 born, Jan. 12, 1751, was the third son of Charles 

 III., king of Spain, whom he succeeded, in 1759, on 

 the throne of Naples, on the accession of the latter 

 to that of Spain. Ferdinand IV. took the reins of 

 government into his own hands, Jan. 12, 1767. The 

 administration had hitherto been conducted by a 

 council of regency, established by his father, under 

 the presidency of the celebrated marquis Tanucci, 

 previously professor of law at Pisa. His education, 



and that of his elder brother, Charles IV. of Spain, 

 had been conducted by prince Santo Nicandro, a 

 man of honest intentions, but of limited views. Fer- 

 dinand was, therefore, extremely ignorant, and could 

 never be induced, by the important events of the age, 

 to give up hunting, fishing, and similar pleasures, so 

 commonly the occupation of those to whom they 

 should be the least familiar. While a child, Ferdi- 

 nand showed strong inclinations towards the people, 

 often inviting boys in the street to visit him, &c. On 

 feast days, he loved to play with the children of the 

 lazzaroni, and, even in his later days, used to enter 

 into conversation witli these people, who, in their 

 turn, called him by the familiar epithet nasone (long 

 nose), he having the nasal elongation common to the 

 Spanish Bourbons. Ferdinand thus became the fa- 

 vourite of the people. In 1768, he married Maria 

 Caroline, daughter of the empress Maria Theresa. 

 His wife soon acquired a decided influence over Fer- 

 dinand. Tanucci was still prime minister. He 

 abolished, in 1764, the feudal tribute of a white horse, 

 paid annually to the pope ; but having lost the favour 

 of Charles III. of Spain, he gave in his resignation in 

 1777, and was succeeded by the marquis Sambuca. 

 The king was now prevailed upon by his wife to en- 

 gage a little more in the affairs of government ; but 

 he did nothing without her advice. Sambuca there- 

 fore attempted to alienate the king from his wife by 

 means of a beautiful English woman, who had mar- 

 ried a Frenchman (Goudar) at Naples ; but the 

 queen discovered the plot, and M. and Mme. Gou- 

 dar were banished from Naples. This event contri- 

 buted to strengthen the influence of the queen, and a 

 letter of Sambuca's to Madrid, in which he gave an 

 unfavourable account of the queen, having been 

 intercepted, he was obliged to retire to his native 

 city, Palermo, in 1784. Acton (q. v.), who was his 

 successor, followed implicitly the wishes of the 

 queen ; and the cabinet of Madrid now lost all in- 

 fluence in that of Naples, which became more closely 

 united with Austria and Britain. But the French 

 revolution soon involved in its consequences this 

 country, one of the worst governed in Europe. As 

 the cabinet of Naples hesitated to comply with the 

 demand of France to renounce all connexion with 

 Britain, La Touche appeared with a French squad- 

 ron before the capital, and compelled the court to 

 accept the prescribed conditions. But, after the 

 death of Louis XVI. Ferdinand joined the coalition 

 against France, and took part in the general war 

 from 1793 to 1796. After two years of peace, the 

 victory of Nelson at Aboukir again engaged Ferdi- 

 nand against the French, who, on the defeat of the 

 Neapolitans under general Mack, took posses- 

 sion of the whole kingdom (Jan. 23, 1799), and pro- 

 claimed the Parthenopean republic an act which 

 the situation of affairs probably rendered necessary, 

 because it was not possible to establish a new mon- 

 archy. Yet no one acquainted with the character 

 of the Neapolitans, could, for a moment, have ex- 

 pected the duration of the republic. The court, with 

 Acton, had already fled (Dec. 24, 1798) to Palermo. 

 But, June 21, 1799, the capital again fell into the 

 hands of the royalist army, under cardinal Ruffo, and 

 many adherents of the republic were executed. 

 The court did not return to Naples till January, 

 1800, when a treaty was concluded between Spain 

 and the first consul, by which the integrity of the 

 kingdom of the Two Sicilies was guaranteed. Not- 

 withstanding this, by the peace with France (Florence, 

 March 28, 1801), Naples was obliged to cede the 

 Stato dei Presidj, &c., and to receive French troops 

 into the kingdom' a measure necessary for France, 

 on account of the well known insincerity of the Nea- 

 politan cabinet. In the treaty of neutrality between 



