The Kingdom of the Two Sicilies (Italian: Regno delle Due Sicilie) was a kingdom in Southern Italy from 1816 to 1861 under the control of the House of Bourbon-Two Sicilies, a cadet branch of the Bourbons. The kingdom was the largest sovereign state by population and land area in Italy before the Italian unification, comprising Sicily and most of the area of today's Mezzogiorno (southern Italy) and covering virtually all of the Italian peninsula south of the Papal States.
The kingdom was formed when the Kingdom of Sicily merged with the Kingdom of Naples, which was officially also known as the Kingdom of Sicily. Since both kingdoms were named after Sicily, they were collectively known as the "Two Sicilies" (Latin: Utraque Sicilia, meaning "both Sicilies"), and the unified kingdom adopted this name. The king of the Two Sicilies was overthrown by Giuseppe Garibaldi in 1860, after which the people voted in a plebiscite to join the Kingdom of Sardinia. The annexation of the Kingdom of the Two Sicilies completed the first phase of Italian unification, and the new Kingdom of Italy was proclaimed in 1861 after uniting with other Italian states.
Name
The name "Two Sicilies" originated from the partition of the medieval Kingdom of Sicily. Until 1285, the island of Sicily and the Mezzogiorno were constituent parts of the Kingdom of Sicily. As a result of the War of the Sicilian Vespers (1282–1302), the King of Sicily lost the Island of Sicily (also called Trinacria) to the Crown of Aragon, but remained ruler over the peninsular part of the realm.
Although his territory became known unofficially as the Kingdom of Naples, he and his successors never renounced the title King of Sicily and still officially referred to their realm as the Kingdom of Sicily. At the same time, the Aragonese rulers of the Island of Sicily also called their realm the Kingdom of Sicily. Hence, the kingdom that resulted from their reunification was named the Kingdom of the Two Sicilies.
Background
Origins of the two kingdoms
From the late 11th century onwards, Norman warriors conquered the island of Sicily, which had been ruled by the Saracens since 827. The conqueror Roger I became Count of Sicily and Calabria. His son Roger II also inherited the Duchy of Apulia. In 1131 this became the Kingdom of Sicily. Through further conquests, Roger II was able to expand his sphere of influence over all of Lower Italy as far as the Papal States.
The previously Norman Kingdom of Sicily fell to the Staufer Henry VI, who had married Constance of Sicily in 1186, the daughter of the Norman King Roger II of Sicily and aunt and heiress of the last Norman King William II. Competing counter kings from the Norman ruling family were finally eliminated by military force. When Henry VI died unexpectedly in 1197 at the age of 32, Constance took over the rule of the Sicilian kingdom as regent for her son. He had been elected German King as Frederick II in 1196 at the age of two, but was no longer recognized as such after the death of his father. In 1212, at the instigation of the Pope Innocent III, he finally became German king, initially as an anti-king to Otto IV, and in 1220 he was crowned emperor. Frederick II (Frederick I of Sicily) rarely stayed on German soil, but ruled his empire from southern Italy. In contrast to the (Lombard-Tuscan) Kingdom of Italy north of the Papal States, the Kingdom of Sicily never became part of the Holy Roman Empire.
As a result of the escalating conflict between the Hohenstaufen dynasty and the papacy, the French prince Charles of Anjou was elevated to the Sicilian throne by Pope Clement IV in 1265. Charles took power in 1266 through his victory over the Hohenstaufen king Manfred, who had initially administered Sicily as regent for his underage and absent nephew Conradin, but had then assumed the royal title himself. As the last Hohenstaufen to lay claim to the Sicilian throne and fight for it, Conradin was captured in 1268 and executed by his opponent in Naples. Unlike in Naples, which was the focus of Angevin rule, French rule on Sicily was abolished after just a few years by the popular uprising of 1282, the Sicilian Vespers, which instead elevated Peter III of Aragon, a son-in-law of the Hohenstaufen king Manfred, to king of the island. The old Norman-Staufer kingdom was since then – despite mutual claims to power – effectively divided into the Aragonese Kingdom of Sicily and the Kingdom of Naples ruled by the Angevins. In the Peace of Caltabellotta 1302, the Aragonese king Frederick III of Sicily and the Angevin king Charles II of Naples recognized each other's rule, but the ancient name "Trinacria" was chosen for the island, while the title "King of Sicily" remained associated with Neapolitan rule, so that there were now two kingdoms called Sicily.
A brief "reunification" took place from Sicily, when in 1442 the Aragonese-Sicilian king Alfonso V also brought the Kingdom of Naples under his rule. With Alfonso's death, this southern Italian personal union dissolved again, since the Aragonese heir to the throne, John II (1458–1479), was only recognized in Sicily, but not in Naples, where Ferdinand (Ferrante, 1458–1494), an illegitimate son of Alfonso V, seized power in 1458. However, his descendants lost Naples in 1495, first to the French king Charles VIII, who claimed the old Anjou throne rights for himself, and at the end of the wars triggered by this in 1501/04 to King Ferdinand V of Aragon and Sicily (1479–1516).
Early Modern Period
Due to the dynastic union in 1494 between the Habsburgs and the houses of Aragon and Castile, Naples and Sicily also fell to Charles V in 1516.
With the extinction of the Spanish Habsburgs in 1700, Naples and Sicily were caught up in the turmoil of the War of the Spanish Succession. After initial rule by the Bourbons, who now ruled in Spain, Central Italy was occupied by Austria in 1707/08, whose Habsburg line also laid claim to the kingdom.
The peace treaties of 1713/14 (Utrecht/Rastatt) left the Kingdom of Naples with Austria, but assigned the Kingdom of Sicily to Victor Amadeus of Savoy, who exchanged it with the Habsburgs in 1720 for Sardinia. Since then, people have spoken of "Naples-Sicily". Until 1735, the Kingdoms of Naples and Sicily were ruled by Austria.
In the War of the Polish Succession the Austrians were harassed by Spanish troops who supported the claims of the Duke of Parma and Spanish Infante Charles to Naples and Sicily; the Spanish were victorious at Bitonto in 1734.
Infante Charles of the House of Bourbon ruled both Sicilies from the mid 18th century, until he became King of Spain. He was the first king of Naples and Sicily in over 230 years to live and rule there personally. The center of power remained Naples, which was magnificently expanded by the new Bourbon kings, while Sicily retained a secondary and semi-colonial status. North of Naples, Charles began the construction of a baroque planned city in Caserta and planned to move the seat of government to the Palace of Caserta. He attempted to rebuild the relatively weak state with enlightened reforms directed particularly against the influence of the Roman Catholic Church.
When this assertive monarch became King of Spain in 1759, he had to cede his former empire to his younger son Ferdinand IV, who founded the Bourbon-Sicily collateral line, because the Spanish crown could not be united with Naples-Sicily according to international treaties. This line was united with the Austrian Habsburgs through the marriage of Ferdinand IV and Maria Carolina of Austria, a daughter of Empress Maria Theresa, on 12 May 1768. Initially dominated by the dual influence of the great powers Spain and Austria, Naples-Sicily – particularly in the course of the French Revolutionary Wars from 1792 onwards – became increasingly dependent on the naval power Great Britain to defend itself against the new European superpower, France.
History
1816–1848
The Treaty of Casalanza restored Ferdinand IV of Bourbon to the throne of Naples and the island of Sicily (where the constitution of 1812 had virtually disempowered him) was returned to him. In 1816 he annulled the constitution and Sicily became fully reintegrated into the new state, which was now officially called the Regno delle Due Sicilie (Kingdom of Two Sicilies). Ferdinand IV became Ferdinand I.
A few of the deeds under the administration of Kings Joseph and Joachim Murat, such as some reforms to their civil code, the penal and commercial code, were kept (and extended to Sicily). In the mainland parts of the Kingdom, the power and influence of both nobility and clergy had been greatly reduced, though at the expense of law and order. Brigandage and the forceful occupation of lands were problems the restored Kingdom inherited from its predecessors.
The Congress of Vienna had granted Austria the right to station troops in the kingdom, and Austria, as well as Russia and Prussia, insisted that no written constitution was to be granted to the kingdom. In October 1815, Joachim Murat landed in Calabria, in an attempt to regain his kingdom. The government responded to acts of collaboration or of terrorism with severe repression and by June 1816 Murat's attempt had failed and the situation was under government control. However, the Neapolitan administration had changed from conciliatory to reactionary policies. The French novelist Henri de Stendhal, who visited Naples in 1817, called the kingdom "an absurd monarchy in the style of Philip II".
As open political activity was suppressed, liberals organized themselves in secret societies, such as the Carbonari, an organization whose origins date back into the French period and which had been outlawed in 1816. In 1820 a revolution planned by Carbonari and their supporters, aimed at obtaining a written constitution (the Spanish constitution of 1812), did not work out as planned. Nevertheless, King Ferdinand felt compelled to grant the constitution sought by the liberals (13 July). That same month, a revolution broke out in Palermo, Sicily, but was quickly suppressed. Rebels from Naples occupied Benevento and Pontecorvo, two enclaves belonging to the Papal States. At the Congress of Troppau (19 Nov.), the Holy Alliance (Metternich being the driving force) decided to intervene. On 23 February 1821, in front of 50,000 Austrian troops paraded outside his capital, King Ferdinand cancelled the constitution. An attempt at Neapolitan resistance to the Austrians by regular forces under General Guglielmo Pepe, as well as by irregular rebel forces (Carbonari), was smashed and on 24 March 1821 Austrian forces entered the city of Naples.
Political repression then only intensified. Lawlessness in the countryside was aggravated by the problem of administrative corruption. A coup was attempted in 1828 with the aim of forcing the promulgation of a constitution, but it was suppressed by Neapolitan troops (the Austrian army having left the previous year). King Francis I (1825–1830) died after visiting Paris, where he witnessed the 1830 revolution. In 1829 he had created the Royal Order of Merit (Royal Order of Francis I of the Two Sicilies). His successor Ferdinand II declared a political amnesty and took steps to stimulate the economy, including reduction of taxation. Visible signs of progress included the introduction of street lighting in Naples and the opening in 1839 of the railroad from Naples to Portici (despite the opposition of the Church to the construction of tunnels on account of their 'obscenity').
In 1836 the kingdom was struck by a cholera epidemic which killed 65,000 in Sicily alone. In the following years the Neapolitan countryside saw sporadic local insurrections. In the 1840s, clandestine political pamphlets circulated, evading censorship. Moreover, in September 1847 an uprising saw insurrectionists crossing from mainland Calabria over to Sicily before government forces were able to suppress them. On 12 January 1848, an open rebellion began in Palermo and demands were made for the reintroduction of the 1812 constitution. King Ferdinand II appointed a liberal prime minister, broke off diplomatic relations with Austria and even declared war on the latter (7 April). Although revolutionaries who had risen in several mainland cities outside Naples shortly after the Sicilians approved of the new measures (April 1848), Sicily continued with her revolution. Faced with these differing reactions to his moves, King Ferdinand, using the Swiss Guard, took the initiative and ordered the suppression of the revolution in Naples (15 May) and by July the mainland was again under royal control and by September, also Messina. Palermo, the revolutionaries' capital and last stronghold, fell to the government some months later on 15 May 1849.
1848–1861
The Kingdom of Two Sicilies, over the course of 1848–1849, had been able to suppress the revolution and the attempt of Sicilian secession with their own forces, hired Swiss Guards included. The war declared on Austria in April 1848, under pressure of public sentiment, had been an event on paper only.