585 ITALY. 



Tuscany, which the French afterwards gave under the title of the 

 kingdom of Etruraa, to tne sun of the duke of Parma. As an indem- 

 nification the grand-aukv received the electorate of Salzburg. 



>io country has undergone greater vicissitudes of government than 

 Naples or Sicily, chiefly owing to the inconstancy of the natives. 

 Christians and Saracens by turns conquered it. The Normans under 

 Tancred drove out the Saracens, and, by their connexions with the 

 Greeks, established there, while the rest of Europe was plunged in 

 monkish ignorance, a most respectable monarchy, flourishing in arts 

 and arms. About the year 1166, the popes being then all-powerful 

 in Europe, their intrigues broke into the succession of the line of 

 Tancred, and Naples and Sicily at last came into the possession of 

 the French ; and the house of Anjou, with some interruptions and 

 tragical revolutions, held it till the Spaniards arove them out in 1504 } 

 ivhen it was annexed to the crown of Spain. 



The government of the Spaniards under the Austrian line was so 

 oppressive, that it gave rise to the famous revoit, headed by Mas- 

 saniello, a young fisherman, in the year 1647. His success was so 

 surprising, that he obliged the haughty Spaniards to abolish the 

 oppressive taxes, and to confirm the liberties of the people. Before 

 these could be re-established perfectly, he became delirious, through 

 his continual agitations of body and mind, and he was put to death at 

 the head of his own mob. Naples and Sicily continued with the Spa- 

 niards till the year 17u0, when the extinction of the Austrian line 

 opened a new scene of litigation. In 1706, the archduke Charles, 

 afterwards emperor, took possession of the kingdom. By virtue of 

 various treaties, which had introduced Don Carlos, the king of Spain's 

 son, to the possession of Parma and Placentia, a new war broke out 

 in 1733, between the houses of Austria and Bourbon, about the pos- 

 session of Naples ; and Don Carlos was received into the capital, 

 where he was proclaimed king of both Sicilies : this was followed by 

 a very bloody campaign ; but the farther effusion of blood was stopt 

 by a peace between France and the emperor, to which the courts of 

 Madrid and Naples at first demurred, but afterwards acceded in 

 1736, and Don Carlos remained king of Naples. Upon his accession 

 to the throne of Spain, in 1759, it being found, by the inspection of 

 physicians and other trials, that his eldest son was by nature in- 

 capacitated for reigning, and his second being heir-apparent to the 

 Spanish monarch, he resigned the crown of Naples to his third son, 

 Ferdinand IV, the present sovereign of Sicily, who married an arch- 

 duchess of Austria. The present king of Naples is Joachim Murat, 

 brother-in-law to Bonaparte. He is a man of low extraction, but of 

 considerable military talents. 



The Milanese, the fairest portion of Italy, went through several 

 hands: the Vicontis were succeeded by the Gaieazzos and the Sforzas; 

 but fell at last under the power of the emperor Charles V, about the 

 year 1527, who gave it to his son, Philip II, king of Spain. It remain- 

 ed with that crown till the French were driven out of Italy, in 1703, 

 by the imperialists. They were dispossessed of it in 1745; but by 

 the emperor's cession of Nuples and Siciiy to the present king of 

 Spain, it returned to the house of Austria, who governed it by a 

 viceroy, till the conquest of it by the French, and the establishment 

 of the new kingdom of Italy, of which it formed the principal part. 

 It has now again reverted to Austria. 



The duchy of Mantua was formerly governed by the family of 



