regent, and the queen, at Bentinck’s instance, was exiled to Austria, where she died in 1814.
After the fall of Napoleon, Joachim Murat, who had succeeded Joseph Bonaparte as king of Naples in 1808, was dethroned, and Ferdinand returned to Naples. By a secret treaty he had bound himself not to advance further in a constitutional direction than Austria should at any time approve; but, though on the whole he acted in accordance with Metternich’s policy of preserving the status quo, and maintained with but slight change Murat’s laws and administrative system, he took advantage of the situation to abolish the Sicilian constitution, in violation of his oath, and to proclaim the union of the two states into the kingdom of the Two Sicilies (December 12th, 1816). He was now completely subservient to Austria, an Austrian, Count Nugent, being even made commander-in-chief of the army; and for four years he reigned as a despot, every tentative effort at the expression of liberal opinion being ruthlessly suppressed. The result was an alarming spread of the influence and activity of the secret society of the Carbonari (q.v.), which in time affected a large part of the army. In July 1820 a military revolt broke out under General Pepe, and Ferdinand was terrorized into subscribing a constitution on the model of the impracticable Spanish constitution of 1812. On the other hand, a revolt in Sicily, in favour of the recovery of its independence, was suppressed by Neapolitan troops.
The success of the military revolution at Naples seriously alarmed the powers of the Holy Alliance, who feared that it might spread to other Italian states and so lead to that general European conflagration which it was their main preoccupation to avoid (see Europe: History). After long diplomatic negotiations, it was decided to hold a congress ad hoc at Troppau (October 1820). The main results of this congress were the issue of the famous Troppau Protocol, signed by Austria, Prussia and Russia only, and an invitation to King Ferdinand to attend the adjourned congress at Laibach (1821), an invitation of which Great Britain approved “as implying negotiation” (see Troppau, Laibach, Congresses of). At Laibach Ferdinand played so sorry a part as to provoke the contempt of those whose policy it was to re-establish him in absolute power. He had twice sworn, with gratuitous solemnity, to maintain the new constitution; but he was hardly out of Naples before he repudiated his oaths and, in letters addressed to all the sovereigns of Europe, declared his acts to have been null and void. An attitude so indecent threatened to defeat the very objects of the reactionary powers, and Gentz congratulated the congress that these sorry protests would be buried in the archives, offering at the same time to write for the king a dignified letter in which he should express his reluctance at having to violate his oaths in the face of irresistible force! But, under these circumstances, Metternich had no difficulty in persuading the king to allow an Austrian army to march into Naples “to restore order.”
The campaign that followed did little credit either to the Austrians or the Neapolitans. The latter, commanded by General Pepe (q.v.), who made no attempt to defend the difficult defiles of the Abruzzi, were defeated, after a half-hearted struggle at Rieti (March 7th, 1821), and the Austrians entered Naples. The parliament was now dismissed, and Ferdinand inaugurated an era of savage persecution, supported by spies and informers, against the Liberals and Carbonari, the Austrian commandant in vain protesting against the savagery which his presence alone rendered possible.
Ferdinand died on the 4th of January 1825. Few sovereigns have left behind so odious a memory. His whole career is one long record of perjury, vengeance and meanness, unredeemed by a single generous act, and his wife was a worthy helpmeet and actively co-operated in his tyranny.
Bibliography.—The standard authority on Ferdinand’s reign is Pietro Colletta’s Storia del Reame di Napoli (2nd ed., Florence, 1848), which, although heavily written and not free from party passion, is reliable and accurate; L. Conforti, Napoli nel 1799 (Naples, 1886); G. Pepe, Memorie (Paris, 1847), a most valuable book; C. Auriol, La France, l’Angleterre, et Naples (Paris, 1906); for the Sicilian period and the British occupation, G. Bianco, La Sicilia durante l’occupazione Inglese (Palermo, 1902), which contains many new documents of importance; Freiherr A. von Helfert has attempted the impossible task of whitewashing Queen Carolina in his Königin Karolina von Neapel und Sicilien (Vienna, 1878), and Maria Karolina von Oesterreich (Vienna, 1884); he has also written a useful life of Fabrizio Ruffo (Italian edit., Florence, 1885); for the Sicilian revolution of 1820 see G. Bianco’s La Rivoluzione in Sicilia del 1820 (Florence, 1905), and M. Amari’s Carteggio (Turin, 1896). (L. V.*)
FERDINAND I., king of Portugal (1345–1383), sometimes
referred to as el Gentil (the Gentleman), son of Pedro I. of
Portugal (who is not to be confounded with his Spanish contemporary
Pedro the Cruel), succeeded his father in 1367. On
the death of Pedro of Castile in 1369, Ferdinand, as great-grandson
of Sancho IV. by the female line, laid claim to the
vacant throne, for which the kings of Aragon and Navarre, and afterwards the duke of Lancaster (married in 1370 to Constance,
the eldest daughter of Pedro), also became competitors. Meanwhile
Henry of Trastamara, the brother (illegitimate) and conqueror
of Pedro, had assumed the crown and taken the field.
After one or two indecisive campaigns, all parties were ready to
accept the mediation of Pope Gregory XI. The conditions of the
treaty, ratified in 1371, included a marriage between Ferdinand
and Leonora of Castile. But before the union could take place
the former had become passionately attached to Leonora Tellez,
the wife of one of his own courtiers, and having procured a
dissolution of her previous marriage, he lost no time in making
her his queen. This strange conduct, although it raised a serious
insurrection in Portugal, did not at once result in a war with
Henry; but the outward concord was soon disturbed by the
intrigues of the duke of Lancaster, who prevailed on Ferdinand
to enter into a secret treaty for the expulsion of Henry from his
throne. The war which followed was unsuccessful; and peace
was again made in 1373. On the death of Henry in 1379, the
duke of Lancaster once more put forward his claims, and again
found an ally in Portugal; but, according to the Continental
annalists, the English proved as offensive to their companions
in arms as to their enemies in the field; and Ferdinand made
a peace for himself at Badajoz in 1382, it being stipulated that
Beatrix, the heiress of Ferdinand, should marry King John
of Castile, and thus secure the ultimate union of the crowns.
Ferdinand left no male issue when he died on the 22nd of October
1383, and the direct Burgundian line, which had been in possession
of the throne since the days of Count Henry (about 1112), became
extinct. The stipulations of the treaty of Badajoz were set
aside, and John, grand-master of the order of Aviz, Ferdinand’s
illegitimate brother, was proclaimed. This led to a war which
lasted for several years.
FERDINAND I., El Magno or “the Great,” king of Castile
(d. 1065), son of Sancho of Navarre, was put in possession of
Castile in 1028, on the murder of the last count, as the heir of his
mother Elvira, daughter of a previous count of Castile. He
reigned with the title of king. He married Sancha, sister and
heiress of Bermudo, king of Leon. In 1038 Bermudo was killed
in battle with Ferdinand at Tamaron, and Ferdinand then took
possession of Leon by right of his wife, and was recognized in
Spain as emperor. The use of the title was resented by the
emperor Henry IV. and by Pope Victor II. in 1055, as implying
a claim to the headship of Christendom, and as a usurpation
on the Holy Roman Empire. It did not, however, mean more
than that Spain was independent of the Empire, and that the
sovereign of Leon was the chief of the princes of the peninsula.
Although Ferdinand had grown in power by a fratricidal strife
with Bermudo of Leon, and though at a later date he defeated
and killed his brother Garcia of Navarre, he ranks high among
the kings of Spain who have been counted religious. To a large
extent he may have owed his reputation to the victories over
the Mahommedans, with which he began the period of the great
reconquest. But there can be no doubt that Ferdinand was
profoundly pious. Towards the close of his reign he sent a special
embassy to Seville to bring back the body of Santa Justa. The
then king of Seville, Motadhid, one of the small princes who
had divided the caliphate of Cordova, was himself a sceptic and
poisoner, but he stood in wholesome awe of the power of the
