168 



FERDINAND III. 



the same powers, in 1805, Ferdinand was also ob- 

 liged to promise not to permit the landing of the 

 troops of the belligerent powers in Naples. In No- 

 vember, 1805, an Anglo-Russian fleet appeared 

 before Naples, and 12,000 Russians were landed. 

 Napoleon, in consequence, sent French troops into 

 the Neapolitan territory, to punish the king for this 

 breach of the treaty. Ferdinand again fled to Sicily, 

 in 1806, where he maintained himself by the assist- 

 ance of the British ; but the queen becoming dis- 

 satisfied with the latter, Ferdinand, who had always 

 governed merely nominally, placed the administra- 

 tion in the hands of his son Francis. The imbecility 

 of the king, whose chief occupation was hunting 

 wild boars, and distributing the best pieces among 

 liis favourites, in a format way, the wretched state 

 of the numerous nobility, and the deplorable situa- 

 tion of the court, appear from all the documents of 

 tliat time relating to Sicily. See, for instance, lord 

 Collingwood's (q. v.) Life, and Hackert's Biogra- 

 phicaf Sketch, published by Goethe (Tubingen, 1811). 

 Hackert was painter to his Sicilian majesty. Queen 

 Caroline was obliged to leave Sicily in December, 

 181 1, and went, by way of Constantinople, to Vienna, 

 in the neighbourhood of which she died, Sept. 8, 

 1814. The British then prevailed upon the king 

 to take the reins of government again into his own 

 hands. The congress of Vienna finally re-established 

 Ferdinand IV. in all his rights as king of the Two 

 Sicilies, in 1814. (See Murat, and Joseph Bona- 

 parte.) The royal family once more entered Naples, 

 June 17, 1815, and Ferdinand, Dec. 12, 1816, 

 united all his possessions " on this side the Faro " 

 (q. v.)and "on the other side the Faro" into the 

 kingdom of the Two Sicilies, and assumed the title 

 of Ferdinand I. Nov. 27, 1814, Ferdinand married 

 the widowed princess of Partana, since 1815 duchess 

 of Florida, Feb. 16, 1818, he concluded a concor- 

 dat* with the pope, by which the long disputes be- 

 tween Naples and Rome were finally settled. After 

 the Austrian troops, who had re-established him, had 

 left Naples, the Austrian general Nugent remained 

 as commander-in-chief of the army. He abolished 

 the French organization of the troops, by which he 

 rendered himself extremely odious. Almost all the 

 good regulations which Joseph and Murat had estab- 

 lished for the promotion of agriculture, education, 

 the civilization of the lazzaroni, &c. , were abolished. 

 In the peace with Algiers, concluded under the 

 mediation of Britain, Ferdinand obliged himself to 

 pay 25,000 piasters annually. Medici (q. v.) was then 

 the soul of his administration. In 1820, Ferdinand 

 was obliged to swear to support the constitution, mo- 

 delled after the Spanish. (See Naples, Revolution of; 

 and Sicilies, the Two.) The Austrian arms, however, 

 enabled him to disregard his oath and solemn pro- 

 mises. They re-established him (after he had been 

 obliged again to leave Naples) in the possession of 

 absolute power, in 1821. He died, Jan. 4, 1825, 

 and was succeeded by his son, Francis I. The 

 duchess of Plorida died at Naples, April 25, 1826. 

 Though we have seen Ferdinand three times obliged 

 to leave his capital, and, throughout his whole life, sup- 

 ported entirely by foreigners, yet the inscription on 

 nis statue in the studj, in Naples, calls him the most 

 invincible. As to Ferdinand's personal character, all 

 agree that he was good-natured. For the sufferings 

 of his subjects he felt strong sympathy. He estab- 

 lished several charitable institutions ; among others, 

 the colony of St Leucio (1773), of which he wrote a 

 description himself. The abbe Clemaron translated 

 it into French, under the title Origine de la Popula- 

 tion de S. Leucio et sea Progres, avec les Lois pour 

 ea bonne Police, par Ferdinand IV. 



FERDINAND III., JOSEPH JOHN BAPTIST, bro- 



ther of the emperor Francis I., grand duke of Tus- 

 cany, archduke of Austria, &c., born May 6, 1769, 

 succeeded his father, the emperor Leopold II., as 

 grand duke of Tuscany, July 2, 1790. This prince, 

 whose character was at once mild and firm, governed 

 his country in the spirit of his father. As a friend 

 of peace and of the arts, he preserved a strict 

 neutrality in the war with France, and was the first 

 sovereign who acknowledged the French republic 

 (Jan. 16, 1792), and entered into diplomatic con- 

 nexions with it. This policy offended the courts of 

 London and St Petersburg, and the British govern- 

 ment, in September, 1793, required the grand duke 

 to dismiss the ambassador of the republic, and break 

 off all commercial intercourse with France. As this 

 demand was not complied with, the British ambassa- 

 dor, lord Hervey (Oct. 8), threatened the bombard- 

 ment of Leghorn, and a descent from the fleet of 

 admiral Hood, who showed himself off the harbour, 

 if the grand duke did not renounce his neutrality 

 within 12 hours. Tuscany was thus obliged to ac- 

 cede to the coalition. Ferdinand, however, still 

 avoided all offensive regulations, and would not 

 allow the fabrication of false assignats in his states. 

 When the French army afterwards took possession of 

 Piedmont, Ferdinand was the first sovereign who 

 seceded from the coalition. He sent count Carlek- 

 ti to Paris, who concluded a treaty, Feb. 9, 1795. 

 The British, however, violated the neutrality of 

 Tuscany, which was recognised by France, on 

 which account Bonaparte took possession of Leg- 

 horn, June, 1796, and seized the British property 

 there. By way of reprisal, a British fleet (July 10), 

 took possession of Porto Ferraio, in Elba. The 

 French directory wished to unite Tuscany with the 

 Cisalpine republic, but the grand duke, by a treaty 

 concluded, February, 1797, between Manfredini and 

 general Bonaparte, re-established the neutrality of 

 his states, whereupon the British abandoned Porto 

 Ferraio, and the French Leghorn. Ferdinand paid 

 a sum of money to the French government, and sent 

 some masterpieces of art, among which was the Venus 

 de' Medici, from the Florentine gallery, to the Paris 

 museum. The intrigues of the revolutionary party 

 having rendered it necessary for him to arrest many 

 of his own subjects, and to banish those foreigners 

 who fomented these disturbances, he conducted in 

 this affair with the greatest moderation ; but the 

 political condition of Italy compelled him to treat 

 with the court of Vienna, where he sent Manfredini 

 to conduct the negotiations. The French directory, 

 therefore, demanded of him, in the beginning ot 

 1798, a definitive declaration of war or alliance. The 

 troops of the king of Naples then took possession of 

 Leghorn, in December, and it was only by the pay- 

 ment of large sums of money, that the grand duke 

 could procure their removal, when the French troops, 

 under Serrnrier, also evacuated Tuscany. In conse- 

 quence of the violation of the treaty of Campo-For- 

 mio, France declared war against Austria and Tus- 

 cany, in March, 1799, and again occupied the grand 

 duchy. Ferdinand retired to Vienna. By the treaty 

 of Luneville (1801), he surrendered Tuscany (see 

 Etruria, and Tuscany), receiving as an indemnity, by 

 the treaty of Paris (Dec. 26, 1802), the duchy of 

 Saltzburg, with the dignity of elector, Berchtesga- 

 den, three quarters of Eichstadt, and half of Passau, 

 the united revenue of which amounted to only half of 

 that of Tuscany. By the peace of Presburg (1805) 

 he was obliged to surrender his electorate to Austria 

 and Bavaria, receiving in return Wurtzburg. By his 

 accession to the confederation of the Rhine (Sept. 

 25, 1807), he lost his dignity of elector, and was 

 made grand- duke of Wurtzburg. Napoleon distin- 

 guished this prince in various ways. He announced 



