{"id":37968,"date":"2026-05-08T10:27:13","date_gmt":"2026-05-08T08:27:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/new.realcasadiborbone.it\/h-m-ferdinand-ii-king-of-the-two-sicilies\/"},"modified":"2026-06-04T18:22:26","modified_gmt":"2026-06-04T16:22:26","slug":"h-m-ferdinand-ii-king-of-the-two-sicilies","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/realcasadiborbone.it\/en\/h-m-ferdinand-ii-king-of-the-two-sicilies\/","title":{"rendered":"H.M. Ferdinand II, King of the Two Sicilies"},"content":{"rendered":"\t\t
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H.M. Ferdinand II, King of the Two Sicilies<\/h1>\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t
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H.M. Ferdinand II,
King of the Two Sicilies\n\n<\/h1>\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t
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Palermo, January 12, 1810 \u2013 Caserta, May 22, 1859. He was King from 1830 to 1859. Proud and tenacious, he sought to lead the kingdom toward total autonomy, including economically (he managed to balance the state budget by reducing court costs and avoiding tax increases) and in relation to the great powers of the time (led by England, starting with the “Sulfur War”). <\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t

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\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\"King\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/a>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t
King Ferdinand II<\/figcaption>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/figure>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t
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Among the many achievements of the government of Ferdinand II, the “King of Pride,” we remember:<\/p>

  • the inauguration of the first Italian railway, the Naples-Portici line, in 1839;<\/li>
  • the first iron bridge over the Garigliano river;<\/li>
  • the expansion and construction of ports throughout the kingdom (from the port of Bari to the actual “construction” of the port of Ischia from a lake);<\/li>
  • the first electric and submarine telegraph in continental Europe;<\/li>
  • the construction of the beautiful and scenic Corso Maria Teresa (whose name was unfairly changed to the current Corso Vittorio Emanuele);<\/li>
  • the theaters of Foggia and Lucera;<\/li>
  • the development of factories such as those in Castellammare (1,200 workers in the shipyards alone), Sava at Porta Capuana (which supplied trousers even to foreign armies), Mongiana (Calabrian ironworks), or Pietrarsa (the largest Italian engineering plant with 1,050 workers: manufacturing everything from engines to rails, and cranes to locomotives).<\/li><\/ul>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t
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    \n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\"King\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t
    King Ferdinand II<\/figcaption>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/figure>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t
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    During the reign of Ferdinand II, industries met domestic demand and exported large quantities of goods: they produced washing machines (Armingaud, used at the Albergo dei Poveri in Naples and capable of washing up to 1,200 shirts), lightning rods, diving suits, fireproof shutters, glues, umbrellas, “riggiole” (artistic tiles), straw hats, matches, soaps, pianos, perfumes (also exported to the United States), medicines, scissors, protractors, watches, and even “steam cars”…<\/p>

    From his first marriage to Maria Christina of Savoy (“the Saint,” as she was called by the Neapolitans), who died in childbirth, he had an only son, Francis, jokingly nicknamed “lasa” because he was a great lover of lasagna.He remarried Maria Theresa (affectionately called “Tetella”), an Austrian who soon learned to love that very “Neapolitan” king and to whom she naturally gave many children (twelve).<\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t

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    A mysterious illness (likely the consequence of a wound suffered several months earlier and organized in a complex Anglo-Piedmontese-Masonic plot) led to his death in the spring of 1859.<\/p>

    His death was to be the most important prerequisite for starting a process of unification which, in the form it was carried out, would have been impossible to implement with a King like Ferdinand II present.<\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    H.M. Ferdinand II, King of the Two Sicilies H.M. Ferdinand II, King of the Two Sicilies Palermo, January 12, 1810 \u2013 Caserta, May 22, 1859. He was King from 1830 to 1859. Proud and tenacious, he sought to lead the kingdom toward total autonomy, including economically (he managed to balance the state budget by reducing […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":37970,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-37968","page","type-page","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry"],"yoast_head":"\nH.M. Ferdinand II King of the Two Sicilies<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Discover the history of H.M. 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