Uniforms of Kingdom of Naples
JOACHIM NAPOLEON, KING OF NAPLES
The Napoleonic age brought remarkable changes in the political and social life of the Kingdom of Naples. Ever averse to neutrality, Bourbon king Ferdinand IV joined the First, Second, and Third Coalitions against France. During these wars, Naples fell twice into French hands: in 1799 (with the ephemeral experience of the Jacobin Parthenopean Republic) and, after seven years of Bourbon restoration, again in 1806. From 1806 to 1814 the Kingdom of Naples was a French satellite, ruled for two years by Joseph Bonaparte (Napoleon’s brother), and from 1808 onward by Joachim Murat, who introduced a more autonomous system of politics, with the vigorous encouragement of his wife, Caroline (Napoleon’s sister). Their attempt at keeping the throne led Naples to join the coalition against Napoleon in 1814, and in 1815, to a new war with Austria, the outcome of which resulted in Murat’s overthrow and the restoration of the Bourbons. Under Joseph and Murat, Naples enjoyed a period of social, economic, and institutional reform, which greatly contributed to its modernization.
At the end of the eighteenth century, the Kingdom of Naples included the whole of continental southern Italy and Sicily, and consequently bore as its official name, the Kingdom of the Two Sicilies. Relatively underdeveloped, it had a social and economic structure based mainly on large land estates and feudal privileges. Naples was, however, one of the most important and lively cities in Europe. The House of Bourbon, often at odds with the noble landowners (particularly in Sicily), enjoyed the faithful support of the Naples populace (the lazzari) and the peasantry. From the very beginning, Ferdinand IV, strongly influenced by his Austrian wife, Maria Carolina, and politically guided by his British minister Sir John Acton, showed a totally hostile attitude toward Revolutionary France. His participation in the First Coalition was sealed in July 1793 by a treaty with Britain, which was particularly interested in the Neapolitan naval bases in the Mediterranean.
In October 1796, however, Bonaparte’s victories in Italy forced Ferdinand to conclude peace with France. This treaty was broken in 1798, as Naples joined the Second Coalition and undertook a campaign against the French in the Papal States. Upon its defeat, the court sailed to Sicily, thus paving the way for the French occupation of the mainland possessions of Naples and the rise of the Jacobin-inspired Parthenopean Republic, proclaimed on 23 January 1799. Internally sapped by lack of political realism, the Republic was not to last long, as the course of the war in northern Italy forced the French to leave Naples. Popular masses faithful to the Bourbons and imbued with religious fanaticism (the Army of the Holy Faith) rose up under Cardinal Fabrizio Ruffo, seizing the city in June. The return of Ferdinand from Palermo the following month was followed by a period of bloody repression. By the Treaty of Florence (28 March 1801) the king went so far as to make peace with France and ally himself to that Republic, ceding Elba and the port of Taranto, the latter’s French garrison, to be supported at Neapolitan expense, and agreeing to close Neapolitan ports to British commerce. The following years put a strain on Franco-Neapolitan relations and in 1805, despite a formal commitment to neutrality, Naples joined the Third Coalition.
After Austerlitz and the Peace of Pressburg, the Bourbons were once again forced to flee to Sicily under British protection, the authorities left behind concluding an armistice with the French on 4 Feburary 1806. By Napoleon’s decree, Joseph Bonaparte became King of Naples on 30 March. He soon started reforming the state along French patterns (centralization of administration, new civil and penal codes, expropriation of Church properties). Murat, appointed King of Naples by Napoleon on 1 August 1808, and reaching the capital on 6 September, carried on such reforms with passion and energy, trying to eradicate feudal privileges and building important infrastructures throughout the kingdom. The Napoleonic Code was formally introduced to the kingdom on 1 January 1810. Personal lifestyle, together with his sympathetic concern for the Neapolitan people, gained Murat the favor of his subjects. Over these years, the Neapolitan Army contributed to the Napoleonic campaigns in Europe, albeit with a poor record of service.
Foreseeing Napoleon’s fall, in January 1814 Murat, whose relationship with the Emperor had long since deteriorated, changed sides so as to retain his throne. During the Congress of Vienna, however, Austria and Britain endorsed the Bourbon restoration. Murat then declared war on Austria, presenting himself as the champion of Italian independence. Defeated at Tolentino, he abdicated in May 1815 and fled to France, Neapolitan generals concluding peace with Austria on 23 May. A month later, Ferdinand was back on the throne of Naples, and when Murat returned for an attempt to recover his kingdom, he was captured and met his end at the hands of a Neapolitan firing squad. At the Congress of Vienna, Ferdinand IV reasserted his right as the legitimate monarch of the Kingdom of the Two Sicilies proceeding to abolish the existing constitution and wage a campaign of violence and vengeance on republicans and those who had collaborated under French rule.
References and further reading Acton, Harold. 1998. The Bourbons of Naples. London: Trafalgar Square. Croce, Benedetto. 1970. History of the Kingdom of Naples. Chicago: University of Chicago Press. Flayhart, William. 1992. Counterpoint to Trafalgar: The Anglo-Russian Invasion of Naples, 1805-06. Columbia: University of South Carolina Press. Ghirelli, Antonio. 1981. Storia di Napoli [History of Naples]. Torino: Einaudi. Gregory, Desmond. 1988. Sicily: The Insecure Base: A History of the British Occupation of Sicily, 1806-15. Madison, NJ: Fairleigh Dickinson University Press. Ilari, Virgilio, Piero Crociani, and Ciro Paoletti. 2001. Storia militare dell’Italia giacobina [A Military History of Jacobin Italy] 1796-1802. Vol. II: La guerra peninsulare. Rome: Stato Maggiore dell’Esercito-Ufficio Storico. Johnston, Robert M. 1904. The Napoleonic Empire in Southern Italy and the Rise of the Secret Societies. 2 vols. London: Macmillan. Rosselli, John. 1956. Lord William Bentinck and the British Occupation of Sicily, 1811-14. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Schneid, Frederick C. 2002. Napoleon’s Italian Campaigns, 1805-1815. Westport, CT: Greenwood.
