Kingdom of the Two Sicilies

You can walk to the waterfront in the Old City and find yourself surrounded by narrow streets, tall buildings, and churches that seem to appear around every corner.

Until very recently, Naples had been the capital of the Kingdom of the Two Sicilies, which governed much of southern Italy.

But that kingdom collapsed in 1860, and the following year a new kingdom of Italy was proclaimed.

Italy is still becoming the unified country we know today, and the Catholic Church is caught in the middle of all of this political upheaval.

Tuscany and Parma were ruled with the mildness traditional in the imperial house, and in these duchies the sovereigns were generally popular.

But Modena, the Papal States, and the Kingdom of the Two Sicilies presented, in varying shades, pictures of corrupt and unpopular administration.

Everywhere the repressive attitude of the governments led to a development of those secret societies which had first arisen during the Revolution and which made a potent appeal to the love of intrigue inherent in the Italian character.

The chief society was that of the Carbonari, which had been founded at Naples and joined after 1815 by the former partisans of Murat, who had been proscribed by the restored Bourbon.

Inside Palermo, the King of Naples kept around 20,000 soldiers, with cannon on the old castle by the harbour and warships in the bay.

The Bourbon kings had ruled Sicily from Naples for more than a century, and in Palermo few people loved them.

They had kept order with soldiers, a hated police force, and a network of informers in every quarter.

The plan for that morning was simple and very risky.

The column would break through the gate on the eastern side of the city and trust the people inside to rise.

The weighing crossed the river Oretto at an old stone bridge built by the Normans 700 years before.

The Bourbon outpost there opened fire as the first men reached it.

Many of the Picciotti, who had never faced a volley in the open, scattered into the groves on either side and went to ground behind the walls.

His diplomacy, aided by the advance of 16,000 Russians to the Rhine and by quarrels between the Spaniards and Sardinians, was successful, and in 1735 the preliminaries of the Third Treaty of Vienna were signed.

France secured the reversion of the Duchy of Lorraine, Don Carlos became King of the Two Sicilies, Naples and Sicily, and Sardinia secured fresh additions of territory.

Austria had succeeded in her aims in Poland, but she had lost heavily elsewhere and came out of the struggle considerably weakened.

After the election of 1735, Bolingbroke, despairing of being able to overthrow Walpole, retired to France, and his political connection with Poultney came to an end.

I definitely recommend that.

Um, but the, the area that was once called in ancient times or old times, the Two Sicilies is, is extraordinary.

It is actually the original Italian culture.

Um, everything else came later.

His diplomacy, aided by the advance of 16,000 Russians to the Rhine, and by quarrels between the Spaniards and Sardinians, was successful, and in 1735 the preliminaries of the Third Treaty of Vienna were signed.

France secured the reversion of the Duchy of Lorraine, Don Carlos became King of the Two Sicilies, Naples and Sicily, and Sardinia secured fresh additions of territory.

Austria had succeeded in her aims in Poland, but she had lost heavily elsewhere, and came out of the struggle considerably weakened.

After the election of 1735, Bolingbroke, despairing of being able to overthrow Walpole, retired to France, and his political connection with Poultney came to an end.

The place was Palermo, the capital of Sicily.

The year was eighteen forty-eight, but the date was January twelfth, the birthday of King Ferdinand II of the Two Sicilies.

This was not a coincidence.

The leaders of the rebellion had very deliberately chosen this day, knowing that the streets would be bustling with people and the king's forces might be a little less vigilant, perhaps distracted by the festivities.

It could be a spontaneous outburst of popular will.

Secondly, it proved that the great powers of Europe were not omnipotent.

The King of the Two Sicilies, a member of the Bourbon dynasty, was a powerful ruler, and yet a simple protest had brought his government to its knees.

This was a deeply inspiring thought for revolutionaries from Milan to Budapest.

Tuscany and Parma were ruled with the mildness traditional in the imperial house, and in these duchies the sovereigns were generally popular.

But Modena, the Papal States, and the Kingdom of the Two Sicilies presented, in varying shades, pictures of corrupt and unpopular administration.

Everywhere the repressive attitude of the governments led to a development of those secret societies which had first arisen during the revolution and which made a potent appeal to the love of intrigue inherent in the Italian character.

The chief society was that of the Carbonari, which had been founded at Naples and joined after 1815 by the former partisans of Murat, who had been proscribed by the restored Bourbon.

Tuscany and Parma were ruled with the mildness traditional in the imperial house, and in these duchies the sovereigns were generally popular.

But Modena, the Papal States, and the Kingdom of the Two Sicilies presented, in varying shades, pictures of corrupt and unpopular administration.

Everywhere the repressive attitude of the governments led to a development of those secret societies which had first arisen during the revolution and which made a potent appeal to the love of intrigue inherent in the Italian character.

The chief society was that of the Carbonari, which had been founded at Naples and joined after 1815 by the former partisans of Murat, who had been proscribed by the restored Bourbon.