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The Treaties of Blois (1504–5) gave Naples and Sicily
to Spain, which for two centuries ruled the two
kingdoms through viceroys—one at Palermo, one at
Naples. Gonzalo Fernández de Córdoba was the first
viceroy of Naples. Under Spain, S Italy became one of
the most backward and exploited areas in Europe.
Heavy taxation (from which the nobility and clergy
were exempt) filled the Spanish treasury; agriculture
suffered from the accumulation of huge estates by
quarreling Italian and Spanish nobles and the church;
famines were almost chronic; disease, superstition, and
ignorance flourished. A popular revolt against these
conditions, led by Masaniello, was crushed in 1648. In the War of the Spanish
Succession the kingdom was occupied (1707) by Austria, which kept it by the terms
of the Peace of Utrecht (1713; see Utrecht, Peace of). During the War of the Polish
Succession, however, Don Carlos of Bourbon (later Charles III of Spain) re
conquered Naples and Sicily. The Treaty of Vienna (1738) confirmed the conquest,
and the two kingdoms became subsidiary to the Spanish crown, ruled in personal
union by a cadet branch of the Spanish line of Bourbon. Naples then had its own
dynasty, but conditions improved little.
(Above: GONZALO FERNANDEZ DE CORDOBA,''THE GREAT CAPTAIN” Córdoba, 1453 -
Granada, 1515) was the first viceroy of Naples).
In 1798 Ferdinand IV and his queen, Marie Caroline, fled from the French
Revolutionary army. The Parthenopean Republic was set up (1799), but the
Bourbons returned the same year with the help of the English under Lord Nelson.
Reprisals were severe; Sir John Acton, the queen's favorite, once more was
supreme. In 1806 the French again drove out the royal couple, who fled to Sicily.
Joseph Bonaparte (see under Bonaparte, made king of Naples by Napoleon I, was
replaced in 1808 by Joachim Murat. Murat's beneficent reforms were revoked after
his fall and execution (1815) by Ferdinand, who was restored to the throne (Marie
Caroline had died in 1814). In 1816 Ferdinand merged Sicily and Naples and styled
himself Ferdinand I, king of the Two Sicilies.
Ferdinand I (Ferdinando Antonio Pasquale Giovanni Nepomuceno
Serafino Gennaro Benedetto, January 12, 1751 – January 4, 1825) was King
variously of Naples, Sicily, and the Two Sicilies from 1759 until his death. He
was the third son of King Charles VII of Naples and Sicily by his wife Maria
Amalia of Saxony. On August 10, 1759, Charles succeeded his brother as
King Charles III of Spain. Treaty provisions made Charles unable to hold the
titles of all three Kingdoms. On October 6, 1759 he therefore abdicated in
The Hohenstaufen Dynasty - Page 150 of 200