Salemi, whence he issued a proclamation assuming the dictatorship
of Sicily in the name of Victor Emmanuel, with Crispi as
secretary of state. He continued his march towards Palermo,
where the bulk of the 30,000 Bourbon troops were concentrated,
gathering numerous followers on the way. On the 15th he
attacked and defeated 3000 of the enemy under General Landi
at Calatafimi; the news of this brilliant victory revived the
revolutionary agitation throughout the island, and Garibaldi
was joined by Pilo and his bands, By a cleverly devised ruse he
avoided General Colonna’s force, which expected him on the
Palermo.Monreale road, and entering Palermo from Misilmeri
received an enthusiastic welcome. The Bourbonists
although they bombarded the city from the citadel and the
warships in the harbour, gradually lost ground, and after three
days’ street fighting their commander, General Lanza, not
knowing that the Garibaldians had scarcely a cartridge left,
asked for and obtained a twenty-four hours' armistice (May 30th).
Garibaldi went on board the British flagship to confer with the
Neapolitan generals Letizia and Chrétien; Letizia’s proposal
that the municipality should make a humble petition to the
king was indignantly rejected by Garibaldi, who merely agreed
to the extension of the armistice until next day. Then he
informed the citizens by means of a proclamation of what he had
done, and declared that, knowing them to be ready to die in the
ruins of their city, he would renew hostilities on the expiration
of the armistice. Although unarmed, the people rallied to him
as one man, and Lanza became so alarmed that he asked for
an unconditional extension of the armistice, which Garibaldi
granted. The dictator now had time to collect ammunition, and
the Neapolitan government having given Lanza full powers to
treat with him, 15,000 Bourbon troops embarked for Naples on
the 7th of June, leaving the revolutionists masters of the situation.
The Sardinian Admiral Persano’s salute of nineteen guns on the
occasion of Garibaldi’s official call constituted a practical recognition
of his dictatorship by the Sardinian (Piedmontese) government.
In July further reinforcements of volunteers under Cosenz
and Medici, assisted by Cavour, arrived at Palermo with a good
supply of arms furnished by subscription in northern Italy. Garibaldi’s
forces were now raised to 12,000 men, besides the Sicilian
squadre. Cavour’s attempt to bring about the annexation of
Sicily to Sardinia failed, for Garibaldi wished to use the island as
a basis for an invasion of the mainland. Most of the island had
now been evacuated by the Bourbonists, but Messina and a few
other points still held out, and when the Garibaldians advanced
eastward they encountered a force of 4000 of the enemy under
Colonel Bosco at Milazzo; on the 20th of July a desperate
battle took place resulting in a hard-won Garibaldian victory.
The Neapolitan government then decided on the evacuation of
the whole of Sicily except the citadel of Messina, which did not
surrender until the following year.
The news of Garibaldi’s astonishing successes entirely changed the situation in the capital, and on the 25th of June 1860 the king, after consulting the ministers and the royal family, granted a constitution, and appointed A. Spinelli prime minister. Disorders having taken place between Liberals and reactionaries, Liberio The Neapolitan constitution. Romano was made minister of police in the place of Aiossa. Sicily being lost, the king directed all his efforts to save Naples; he appealed to Great Britain and France to prevent Garibaldi from crossing the Straits of Messina, and only just failed (for this episode see under Lacaita, G.). Victor Emmanuel himself wrote to, Garibaldi urging him to abstain from an attack on Naples, but Garibaldi refused to obey, and on the 19th of August he crossed with 4500 men and took Reggio by storm. He was soon joined by the rest of his troops, 15,000 in all, and although the Neapolitan government had 30,000 men in Calabria alone, the army collapsed before Garibaldi’s advance, and the people rose in his favour almost everywhere. Francis offered Garibaldi a large sum of money if he would abstain from advancing farther, and 50,000 men to Garibaldi on the mainland. fight the Austrians and the pope; but it was too late, and on the 6th of September the king and queen sailed for Gaeta. The 40,000 Bourbon troops between Salerno and Avellino fell back panic-stricken, and on the 7th Garibaldi entered Naples alone, although the city was still full of soldiers, and was received with delirious enthusiasm. On the 11th a part of the royalists capitulated and the rest retired on Capua. Cavour now decided that Sardinia must take part in the liberation of southern Italy, for he feared that Garibaldi’s followers might induce him to proclaim the republic and attack Rome, which would have provoked French hostility; consequently a Piedmontese army occupied the Marche and Umbria, and entered Neapolitan territory with Victor Emmanuel at its head. On the 1st and 2nd of October 1860 a battle was fought on the Volturno between 20,000 Garibaldians, many of them rawVictor Emmanuel and Garabaldi. levies, and 35,000 Bourbon troops, and although at first a Garibaldian division under Türr was repulsed, Garibaldi himself arrived in time to turn defeat into victory. On the 26th he met Victor Emmanuel at Teano and hailed him king of Italy, and subsequently handed over his conquests to him. On the 3rd of November a plebiscite was taken, which resulted in an overwhelming majority in favour of union with Sardinia under Victor Emmanuel. Garibaldi departed for his island home at Caprera, while L. C. Farini was appointed viceroy of Naples and M. Cordero viceroy of Sicily. The last remnant of the Bourbon army was concentrated at Gaeta, the siege of which was begun by Cialdini on the 5th of November, on the 10th of January 1861 the French fleet, which Napoleon III. had sent to Gaeta. to delay the inevitable fall of the dynasty, was withdrawn at the instance of Great Britain; and although the garrison fought bravely and the king and queen showed considerable courage, the fortress surrendered on the 13th of February and the royal family departed by sea. (See Francis II., King of the Two Sicilies.) The citadel of Messina The fall of Gaeta. capitulated a month later, and Civitella del Tronto on the 21st of March. On the 18th of February the first Italian parliament met at Turin and proclaimed Victor Emmanuel king of Italy. Thus Naples and Sicily ceased to be a separate political entity and were absorbed into the united Italian kingdom.
Bibliography.—General works: F. Carta, Storia del regno delle Due Sicilie (Naples, 1848); F. Pagano, Istoria del regno di Napoli (Naples and Palermo, 1832, &c.); J. Albini, De gestis regum Neapolit. ab Aragonia (Naples, 1588); several chapters in the Storia politica d’ Italia (Milan, 1875–1882); F. Lanzani, Storia dei comuni Italiani . . . fino al 1313; C. Cipolla, Storia delle signorie Italiane dal 1313 al 1530; Cosci, L’ Italia durante le preponderanze straniere, 1530–1789; A. Franchetti, Storia d’ Italia dal 1789 al 1799; G. de Castro, Storia d’ Italia dal 1799 al 1814; F. Bertolini, Storia d’ Italia dal 1814 al 1878. For the more recent history P. Colletta’s Storia del reame di Napoli (Florence, 1848) will be found very useful, though not without bias, and G. Pepe’s Memorie (Paris, 1847) are also important, both authors having played an important part in the events of 1809–1815 and 1820–1821; N. Nisco, Gli ultimi 36 anni del reame di Napoli (Naples, 1889). On the subject of the revolution of 1799 and the Nelson episode there is quite a library. The documents are mostly to be found in Nelson and the Neapolitan Jacobins (Navy Records Society, London, 1903), edited by H. C. Gutteridge, with an introduction, where Nelson’s action is defended, and a bibliography. A. T. Mahan in his Life of Nelson (2nd ed., London, 1899), and in the English Historical Review for July 1899 and October 1900, takes the same view; for the other side see C. Giglioli, Naples in 1799 (London, 1903), which is impartial and well written; F. P. Badham, Nelson at Naples (London, 1900); P. Villari, “Nelson, Caracciolo e la Repubblica Napolitana” (Nuova Antologia, February 16, 1899); A. Maresca, Gli avvenimenti di Napoli dal 13 giugno al 12 luglio, 1799 (Naples, 1900); B. Croce, Studii storici sulla rivoluzione Napoletana del 1799 (Rome, 1897); Freiherr von Helfert has attempted the impossible task of whitewashing Queen Mary Caroline in his Königin Karolina von Neapel and Sicilien (Vienna, 1878) and Maria Karolina von Österreich (Vienna, 1884), while in his Fabrizio Ruffo (Italian edition, Florence, 1885) he gives a rose-coloured portrait of that prelate and his brigand bands; see also H. Hüffer’s Die neapolitanische Republik des Jahres 1799 (Leipzig, 1884). For a general account of the French period see C. Auriol, La France, l’Angleterre, et Naples (Paris, 1906) and R. M. Johnston, The Napoleonic Empire in South Italy (London, 1904). both based on documents. For the latest period see N. Nisco, Gli ultimi 36 anni del reame di Napoli (Naples, 1889); H. R. Whitehouse, The Collapse of the Kingdom of Naples (New York, 1899), and R. de Cesare, La Fine d’ un regno (Città di Castello, 1900), which contains much information but is not always accurate. For the British occupation of Sicily see G. Bianco,
La Sicilia durante l’ occupazione Inglese (Palermo, 1902); and for
