Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 9.djvu/89

FERDINAND 79 his excessive preference for athletic exercises and outdoor sports. His minority ended on the 12th January 1767, and in 1768 he married Maria Caroline, daughter of the empress Maria Theresa. According to the marriage con tract the queen after the birth of her first son was to have a voice in the councils of state ; and she was not backward to make use of this opportunity of political influence. Beautiful, clever, and ambitious, and inheriting many of the masculine characteristics of her mother, she soon ousted Tanucci both from the favour of the king and from all but nominal authority in the state; and when he systematically attempted to frustrate her purposes, he was finally in 1777 dismissed from his office. The Englishman Sir John Acton was shortly after this appointed admiral of the Neapolitan fleet, and succeeded so completely in winning the favour of both queen and court, that he was speedily promoted to be minister of war, and then of foreign affairs. Under his in fluence Spain lost her ascendency in Neapolitan politics, and an intimate connexion was formed with Austria and England. In 1793 Ferdinand joined the coalition against France, and although he made peace with Franco in 1 796, he took advan tage of the absence of Napoleon in Egypt to renew the war in 1793. His army occupied Rome for a short time, but after the defeat of some of its divisions by the French, Ferdinand without attempting to defend Naples, to which he had fled panic-stricken, escaped on board the English fleet under Admiral Nelson, mid went to Palermo ; and the French, entering the city after a furious but undisciplined resistance by the lazzaroni, established with the aid of the citizens and nobles the " Parthenopean Republic." When, six weeks after this, the defeat of their arms in the north of Italy compelled the French to abandon Naples, Ferdinand was restored by a Calabrian army under Cardinal Ruffo ; and with tho connivance of Admiral Nelson a reign of terror was inaugurated, which continued until the success of the French arms in 1801 induced Ferdinand to sign a treaty whereby, besides other concessions, he promised to grant an amnesty to political offenders, and also agreed to permit French troops to occupy his territories. But when war broke out between France and Austria in 1805, he thought the opportunity favourable for throwing off the French domination, and prompted by Caroline permitted 13,000 Russian and English troops to land at Naples. Scarcely had he done so, when the victory of Austerlitz enabled Napoleon to despatch an army against him. Ferdi nand with his usual precipitation fled from his capital, leaving Caroline to negotiate terms with the enemy, but as Napoleon refused all further compromise with the house of Bourbon she was compelled to follow her husband into Sicily. On March 30, 1806, Joseph Bonaparte was proclaimed king of Naples and Sicily; but Ferdinand with the aid of England continued to reign over the latter kingdom. After the dethronement in 1815 of Murat, who had succeeded Joseph Bonaparte as king of Naples in 1808, Ferdinand was recalled to his capital, and on December 12, 1816, he united his two states into one, and assumed the title of king of the Two Sicilies. As a condition of his recall he had sworn to grant a constitution, but no sooner did he find himself secure from external interference than he abolished it ; and although a revolution compelled him again in 1820 to give to it a nominal assent, he was shortly afterwards able, with the help of an Austrian army, to break his promises with impunity, and by means of an elaborate system of espionage and the unscrupulous arrest and punishment of all suspected persons to re-establish his despotism in a more vigorous form than ever. He died 4th January 1825. See Botta, Storia, d ltalia dal 1789 al 1814 ; Coletta, Storia del reame di Napoli dal 1734 sino al 1825, 2 vols., 1834, English translation, 1858; Sketch of Popular Tumults, 1337 ; and Mtmoircs du Central Pcpc, 1847. FERDINAND II. (1810-1859), king of the Two Sicilies, grandson of the preceding, and son of Francis I., was born at Palermo, January 12, 1810. On succeeding his father in 1830, he published an edict in which he promised to "give his most anxious attention to the impartial administration of justice," to reform the finances, and to "use every effort to heal the wounds which had afflicted the kingdom for so many years ; " but these promises seem to have been meant only to lull discontent to sleep, for while the existing burden of taxation was only slightly lightened, corruption began gradually to invade all departments of the administration, and an absolutism was finally established harsher than that of all his predecessors, and supported by even more extensive and arbitrary arrests. Ferdinand, was naturally shrewd, but badly educated, grossly superstitious, and possessed of inordinate self-esteem. Though he kept the machinery of his kingdom in a high state of efficiency, he made little account of the wishes or welfare of his subjects, and did not deem it of much importance to be on good terms either with them or with foreign states. In 1832 he married Christina, daughter of Victor Emmanuel, and shortly after her death in 1836 he took fora second wife Maria Theresa, daughter of Archduke Charles of Austria. After his Austrian alliance the bonds of despotism were more closely tightened, and the increasing discontent of his subjects was manifested by abortive attempts at insurrection in 1837, 1841, 1844, and 1847, and in 1848 by a general rising in Sicily, on account of which the king judged it pru dent to promise a constitution. A dispute, however, arose as to the nature of the oath which should bo taken by the members of the chamber of deputies, and as neither the king nor the deputies would yield, serious disturbances began to occur in the streets of Naples; and the king, making these the excuse for withdrawing his promise, on the 13th March 1849 dissolved tho national parliament. The efforts at revolt were renewed in Sicily, but were speedily quelled, chiefly by the bombardment of tho principal cities of the state, an expedient which won for Ferdinand the epithet of " Bomba." During the last years of his reign espionage and arbitrary arrests prevented all serious manifestations of insubordination among his subjects. In 1851 the poli tical prisoners of Naples were calculated by Mr Gladstone to number 13,000, and so great was the scandal created by the rule of terror which prevailed that in 1856 France and England, though vainly, made diplomatic representations to induce a mitigation of its rigour and the proclamation of a general amnesty. An attempt was made to assassinate Ferdinand in 1857. He died May 22, 1859. See Correspondence respecting the. Affairs of Naples and Sicily, 1848-49, presented to both Houses of Parliament by command of Her Majesty, 4th May 1849 ; Two Letters to the Earl of Aberdeen, by Plight Hon. W. E. Gladstone, 1st. ed. 1851 (an edition published in 1852, and the subsequent editions, contain an Examination of the Official Hc2>hj of the Neapolitan Government) ; supplementary chap ter to the English translation of Coletta s History of Naples ; and Dawburn, Naples and King Ferdinand, 1858. FERDINAND I. of Portugal (1345-1383), sometimes referred to as d Gentil (the Gentleman), son of Pedro I. of Portugal (who is not to be confounded with his Castilian contemporary Pedro the Cruel), succeeded his father in 1367. On tho 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 tho field. After one or two indecisive campaigns, all parties were ready to accept the mediation of Pope Gregory XL The conditions of the treaty, ratified in 1371, included a marriage between