Naples, which became henceforth an integral part of the Spanish
dominions. The old divisions of nobility, clergy and people were
maintained and their mutual rivalry encouraged; the
Naples a Spanish possession.
nobles were won over by titles and by the splendour
of the viceregal court, but many persons of low birth
who showed talent were raised to high positions.
The viceroy was assisted by the Collateral Council and the Sacred
College of Santa Chiara, composed of Spanish and Italian
members, and there was an armed force of the two nationalities.
Spanish rule on the whole was oppressive and tyrannical, and
based solely on the idea that the dependencies must pay tribute
to the dominant kingdom. During the rule of Don Pedro de
Toledo (one of the best viceroys) Naples became the centre of
a Protestant movement which spread to the rest of Italy, but
was ultimately crushed by the Inquisition. In Sicily Spanish
rule was less absolute, for the island had not been conquered,
but had given itself over voluntarily to the Aragonese; and the
parliament, formed by the three bracci or orders (the militare
consisting of the nobility, the ecclesiastico, of the clergy, and the
demaniale, of the communes), imposed certain limitations on
the viceroy, who had to play off the three bracci against each
other. But the oppressive character of the government provoked
several rebellions. In 1598 an insurrection, headedRevolutions.
by the philosopher Tommaso Campanella, broke out
in Calabria, and was crushed with great severity.
In 1647, during the viceroyalty of the marquis de Los Leres in
Sicily, bread riots in Palermo became a veritable revolution,
and the people, led by the goldsmith Giovanni d’ Alessio, drove
the viceroy from the city; but the nobles, fearing for their
privileges, took the viceroy’s part and turned the people against
d’ Alessio, who was murdered, and Los Leres returned. On the
7th of July 1647, tumults occurred at Naples in consequence of
a new fruit tax, and the viceroy, Count d’ Arcos, was forced
to take refuge in the Castelnuovo. The populace, led by an
Amalfi fisherman, known as Masaniello (q.v.)., obtained
Masaniello.
arms, erected barricades, and, while professing loyalty
to the king of Spain, demanded the removal of the oppressive
taxes and murdered many of the nobles. D’ Arcos came to terms
with Masaniello, but in spite of this, and of the assassination
of Masaniello, whose arrogance and ferocity had made him
unpopular, the disturbances continued, and again the viceroy
had to retire to Castelnuovo and make concessions. Even the
arrival of reinforcements from Spain failed to restore order, and
the new popular leader, Gennaro Annese, now sought assistance
from the French, and invited the duke of Guise to come to Naples.
The duke came with some soldiers and ships, but failed to effect
anything; and after the recall of d’ Arcos the new viceroy,
Count d’Ognate, having come to an arrangement with Annese
and got Guise out of the city, proceeded to punish all who had
taken part in the disturbances, and had Annese and a number
of others beheaded.
In 1670 disorders broke out at Messina. They began with a
riot between the nobles and the burghers, but ended in an anti-Spanish
movement; and while the inhabitants called
in the French, the Spaniards, who could not crush the
rising, called in the Dutch. Louis XIV. sent a fleet
under the duc de Vivonne to Sicily, which defeatedThe revolution
at Messina.
the Dutch under de Ruyter in 1676. But at the peace of
Nijmwegen (1679) Louis treacherously abandoned the Messinese,
who suffered cruel persecution at the hands of the Spaniards
and lost all their privileges. An anti-Spanish conspiracy of
Neapolitan nobles, led by Macchia, with the object of proclaiming
the archduke Charles of Austria king of Naples, was discovered;
but in 1707 an Austrian army conquered the kingdom, and
Spanish rule came to an end after 203 years, during which it had
succeeded in thoroughly demoralizing the people.
In Sicily the Spaniards held their own until the peace of Utrecht in 1713, when the island was given over to Duke Victor of Savoy, who assumed the title of king. In 1718 he had to hand back his new possession to Spain, who, in 1720, surrendered it to Austria and gave Sardinia to Victor Amadeus. In 1733 the treaty of the EscurialSicily under Savoy. between France, Spain and Savoy against Austria was signed. Don Carlos of Bourbon, son of Philip V. of Spain, easily conquered both Naples and Sicily, and in 1738 he was recognized as king of the Two Sicilies, Spain renouncing all her claims.” charles Charles was well received, for the country now was an independent kingdom once more. With the Tuscan Bernardo Tanucci as his minister, he introduced many useful reforms, improved the army, which was thus able to repel an Austrian invasion in 1744, embellished the city of Naples andCharles III. built roads. In 1759 Charles III., having succeeded to the Spanish crown, abdicated that of the Two Sicilies in favour of his son Ferdinand, who became Ferdinand IV. of Naples and III. of Sicily. Being only eight years old, a regency under Tanucci was appointed, and the young king’s education was purposely neglected by the minister, who wished toFerdinand IV. dominate him completely. The regency ended in 1767, and the following year Ferdinand married the masterful and ambitious Maria Carolina, daughter of the empress Maria Theresa. She had Tanucci dismissed and set herself to the task of making Naples a great power. With the help of John Acton, an Englishman whom she made minister in the place of Tanucci, she freed Naples from Spanish influence and secured a rapprochement with England and Austria.
On the outbreak of the French Revolution the king and queen were not at first hostile to the new movement; but after the fall of the French monarchy they became violently opposed to it, and in 1793 joined the first coalition against France, instituting severe persecutions against all who were remotely suspected of French sympathies. Republicanism, however, gained ground, especially among the aristocracy. In 1796 peace with France was concluded, but in 1798, during Napoleon’s absence in Egypt and after Nelson’s victory at Aboukir, Maria Carolina induced Ferdinand to go to war with France once more. Nelson arrived in Naples in September, where he was enthusiastically received. The king, after a somewhat farcical occupation of Rome, which had been evacuated by the French, hurried back to Naples as soon as the French attacked his troops, and although the lazzaroni (the lowest class of the people) were devoted to the dynasty and ready to defend it, he fled with the court to Palermo in a panic on board Nelson’s ships. The wildest confusion prevailed, and the lazzaroni massacred numbers of persons suspected of republican sympathies, while the nobility and the educated classes, finding themselves abandoned by their king in this cowardly manner, began to contemplate a republic under French auspices as their only means of salvation from anarchy. InThe French in Naples and the Partheno-paean republic. January 1799 the French under Championnet reached Naples, but the lazzaroni, ill-armed and ill-disciplined as they were, resisted the enemy with desperate courage, and it was not until the 20th that the invaders were masters of the city. On the 23rd the Parthenopaean republic was proclaimed. The Republicans were men of culture and high character, but doctrinaire and unpractical, and they knew very little of the lower classes of their own country. The government soon found itself in financial difficulties, owing to Championnet’s demands for money; it failed to organize the army, and met with scant success in its attempts to “democratize” the provinces. Meanwhile the court at Palermo sent Cardinal Fabrizio Ruffo, a wealthy and influential prelate, to Calabria, to organize a counter-revolution. He succeeded beyond expectation, and with his “Christian army of the Holy Faith” (Esercito Cristiano della Santa Fede), consisting of brigands, convicts, peasants and some soldiers, marched throughCardinal Ruffo and the Sanfedisti. the kingdom plundering, burning and massacring. An English squadron approached Naples and occupied the island of Procida, but after a few engagements with the Republican fleet commanded by Caracciolo, an ex-officer in the Bourbon navy, it was recalled to Palermo, as the Franco-Spanish fleet was expected. Ruffo, with the addition of some Russian and Turkish allies, now marched on the capital, whence the French, save for a small force under Méjean, withdrew. The scattered Republican detachments were defeated, only Naples and Pescara holding
