FERDINAND II (1810-1859), nicknamed King Bomba, king of the Two Sicilies, son of Francis I, was born at Palermo on Jan. 12, 1810. In 1832 he married Cristina, daughter of Victor Emmanuel I, king of Sardinia, and shortly after her death in 1836 he took for a second wife Maria Theresa, daughter of the archduke Charles of Austria. After his Austrian alliance the bonds of despotism were more closely tightened; there were various abortive attempts at insurrection; in 1837 there was a rising in Sicily in consequence of the outbreak of cholera, and in 1843 the Young Italy Society organized a series if isolated outbreaks. The expedition of the Bandiera brothers in 1844, was followed by cruel sentences on the rebels. In Jan. 1848 a rising in Sicily was the signal for revolutions all over Italy and Europe; it was followed by a movement in Naples, and the king granted a constitution which he swore to observe. Serious disturbances broke out in the streets of Naples on May 15; the king withdrew his promise and dissolved the national parliament on March 13, 1849. He retired to Gaeta to confer with various deposed despots, and the Austrian victory at Novara (March 1849) strengthened his determination to return to a reactionary policy. Sicily was subjugated by General Filangieri, and the chief cities were bombarded, an expedient which won Ferdinand the epithet of King Bomba. In 1851 the political prisoners of Naples were calculated by Mr. Gladstone in his letters to Lord Aberdeen (1851) to number 15.000 (probably the real figure was nearer 40.000), and the scandalous reign of terror, and the abominable treatment of the prisoners led France and England to make diplomatic representations to the King, but without success. An attempt was made by a soldier to assassinate Ferdinand in 1856. He died on May 22, 1859, just after declaration of war by France and Piedmont against Austria, which was to result in the collapse of his kingdom and his dynasty. He was bigoted, cruel, mean, treacherous, tough not without a certain bonhomie. BIBLIOGRAPHY - See Corrispondence respecting the Affairs of Naples and Sicily, 1848-1849, presented to both Houses of Parliament by Command of Her Majesty, May 4, 1849; Two letters to the Earl of Aberdeen, by the Right Hon. W. E. Gladstone, 1st ed., 1851; N. Nisco, Ferdinando II il suo regno (Naples 1884); H. Remsen Whitehouse, the collapse of the Kingdom of Naples (1899); R. de Cesare, La caduta dun Regno, vol I (città di Castello, 1900), which contains a great deal of fresh information, but is badly arranged and not always reliable; see also M. Schipa, il Regno di Napoli al tempo di Carlo di Borbone (1904).
Posted on: Mon, 01 Sep 2014 16:40:29 +0000
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