{"id":38093,"date":"2026-05-08T11:26:19","date_gmt":"2026-05-08T09:26:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/new.realcasadiborbone.it\/h-m-francis-ii-king-of-the-two-sicilies\/"},"modified":"2026-06-04T18:22:36","modified_gmt":"2026-06-04T16:22:36","slug":"h-m-francis-ii-king-of-the-two-sicilies","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/realcasadiborbone.it\/en\/h-m-francis-ii-king-of-the-two-sicilies\/","title":{"rendered":"H.M. Francis II, King of the Two Sicilies"},"content":{"rendered":"\t\t
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H.M. Francis II, King of the Two Sicilies\n<\/h1>\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t
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H.M. Francis II,
King of the Two Sicilies\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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Francis II was the last Sovereign to reign over the Two Sicilies; it was under him that the invasion of the Kingdom took place, first by Garibaldi’s Redshirts and then by the Savoyard army, leading to the annexation by the newly formed Kingdom of Italy. All this occurred just one year after the death of Ferdinand II, who passed away at only 48 years of age, while Francis found himself unexpectedly on the Throne at the young age of 23. <\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t

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King Francis II of the Two Sicilies<\/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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He was born on January 16, 1836, the eldest son of Ferdinand II and his first wife Maria Christina of Savoy (whose beatification process, as previously mentioned, is underway), who would leave him motherless only fifteen days after his birth. Both his father and his second wife, Queen Maria Theresa of Austria, gave him, with the help of Jesuit fathers, a strongly religious education, though not lacking in general culture, even if he never received the extensive military training that Ferdinand possessed. <\/p>

Furthermore, Ferdinand always taught him love for the Kingdom and his duties toward his subjects, which came before everything else, after his duties toward God, naturally. In any case, relations with his stepmother could not have been easy, as she naturally thought primarily of her own children (she had 11, including Alfonso Maria, Count of Caserta, the future head of the Royal House after Francis’s death), but they were never conflictual; Francis, for his part, respected the Queen, and she took care to guide the future sovereign. <\/p>

Ferdinand chose Maria Sophia of Bavaria as his wife, daughter of Duke Maximilian and sister of Elisabeth, the wife of Emperor Franz Joseph of Austria. Maria Sophia, as we shall soon see, would prove to be an exceptional woman during the tragic days of their lives, never forgotten by her subjects and admired throughout Europe. <\/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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Maria Sophia of Bavaria<\/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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The early days at Court were not easy for Maria Sophia, who was destined not to get along with the Queen; on the contrary, however, she had the full sympathy of the King, who was sincerely fond of her. The problem was that the illness that led Ferdinand to his death began precisely with her arrival in Naples; the elevation of Francis and Maria Sophia to the Throne made relations with the Queen Mother even more critical. But by then, far greater problems were brewing on the horizon, and Maria Sophia would prove to be a strong and courageous Queen like few others in history: one’s thoughts cannot help but turn to Marie Antoinette in the final days of her life, and although Maria Sophia was fortunately spared the tragedy of her own and her husband’s death, a slower sorrow was her lot for the rest of her long existence (she died in 1925). <\/p>

Francis was effectively able to reign as a free sovereign for only one year; then he had to deal with the invasion of the Kingdom. Yet, even in such a short time, he was able to provide some small demonstration of what his reign would have been like had he been allowed to govern peacefully like his ancestors. <\/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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He certainly did not possess his father’s strength of character, nor, obviously, his political experience, but he was a man rich in kindness and humanity, a man of deep faith and a sense of duty toward his subjects, especially those in need. He combined the reforming capacity of his ancestors with an even deeper sense of religious duty, which in fact made him perhaps the best of sovereigns for his subjects. <\/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

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Moreover, the fierce pro-Bourbon resistance that took place in the 1860s, involving tens of thousands of men and women\u2014as in the times of the uprisings\u2014taking up arms in defense of his legitimate rights, is the best proof of what has just been stated.<\/p>

  • From the moment of his accession to the Throne, he granted many amnesties and appointed special commissions to visit places of punishment and make necessary improvements;<\/li>
  • he wished to grant greater local autonomy to municipalities and reduced the weight of bureaucratic ties;<\/li>
  • in Palermo and Messina he granted customs exemptions, and in Catania he established a Commercial Court and discount and accounting banks;<\/li>
  • in Sicily, he pardoned customs arrears and halved the tax on ground grain, abolished the tax on ground-floor houses where the poor lived, and reduced customs duties, especially those on foreign books;<\/li>
  • he also decreased taxes on foreign merchandise and granted Stock Exchanges in Chieti and Reggio Calabria;<\/li>
  • he ordered the opening of grain banks and pawnshops, as well as Loan and Savings Banks in towns that lacked them;<\/li>
  • during a grain famine, while rebels were already accusing the King of wanting to place the burden on the poor, he gave orders to distribute entire shipments of foreign grain to the population at a greatly reduced price, resulting in an economic loss for the government. <\/li><\/ul>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t
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    H.R.H. Alfonso of Bourbon of the Two Sicilies, Count of Caserta<\/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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    In the photograph (by Bernoud), Maria Sophia with the daughters of 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\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t
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    The Invasion of the Kingdom<\/h2>\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t
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    It is certainly not possible here to provide a history of the Risorgimento or the conquest of the Kingdom by the Piedmontese. What can be said is that today, fortunately, there are many historical reconstructions of the events of those days that are much more serene, truthful, and objective than the “official version” provided and propagated over these 140 years by the Risorgimento historiographical “vulgata.” There is now a legion of historians (not all of whom sympathize with the Bourbon cause) who are honestly reconstructing the tragic pages of the invasion and conquest of the Kingdom. We limit ourselves only to listing the most established and now undisputed historical findings, well known among experts but still almost entirely unknown to the general public in Italy and abroad, who are still influenced by school memories of the heroic conquest of the Thousand among a Southern population exulting at being “liberated” from “Bourbon barbarism.” Such fables are hardly told by anyone today, yet they survive in the collective imagination. Moreover, the reader who has had the patience to carefully read the previous entries will have realized how false the anti-Bourbon “vulgata” is, and how it is exactly antithetical to historical truth. <\/p>

    Not out of a spirit of polemic, therefore, but only as a service to historical truth and the common memory of the Italian people, we limit ourselves to recalling the most evident, undisputed (though not yet known to all) historical findings on these events, referring the interested reader to the specific studies of the best historians, which we mention in the Recommended Books section.<\/p>

    • As early as the 1850s, and particularly in 1858 with the Plombi\u00e8res Agreements, Cavour had prepared\u2014with the complicity of Napoleon III and Great Britain, and the help of the Italian democratic world\u2014the invasion of the Kingdom of the Two Sicilies, a sovereign state seven centuries old, peaceful, friendly, and an ally of the Kingdom of Sardinia, whose last King was moreover a cousin of King Victor Emmanuel II;<\/li>
    • Napoleon III supported Cavour in the hope (later proved chimerical) that the Kingdom would go to his cousin Lucien Murat, while Great Britain hoped that a new Kingdom of Italy, grateful and friendly to it, could counter both French and Habsburg dominance;<\/li>
    • For his expedition, Garibaldi received men, ships, and above all weapons from the Kingdom of Sardinia, while he received money in great abundance from Great Britain and international Freemasonry [This amounted to 3 million French francs (given to Garibaldi in Turkish gold piastres in Genoa before embarking) and 1 million ducats (astronomical figures) in the hands of Admiral Persano, to which must be added the 300,000 gold lire procured in Milan by the banker Garavaglia and given directly into Garibaldi’s hands. Cf. A.A.-V.V., Un tempo da riscrivere: il risorgimento italiano, Rimini Exhibition 2000, Il Cerchio, p. 21. Cf. also for the whole matter the excellent work by R. MARTUCCI, L\u2019invenzione dell\u2019Italia unita, Sansoni, Florence 1999];<\/li>
    • this money was used for the corruption of the highest Bourbon officers, who from the moment of the landing in Sicily never seriously fought Garibaldi’s forces (suffice it to say that Garibaldi reached Naples by train! And with only a few dead and wounded in total), cowardly surrendering entire fortresses and various military positions to the invader; <\/li>
    • but it was also used for the corruption of key government figures, who always advised Francis II in the worst possible manner, even reaching open treason, as in the case of Liborio Romano, the most famous name, who was Prime Minister and the King’s primary traitor;<\/li>
    • Cavour ordered Admiral Persano, commander of the Savoyard fleet, to follow Garibaldi’s expedition from a distance and to help him if everything went well; and this is exactly what happened;<\/li>
    • Great Britain did the same, deploying an entire fleet in battle formation in the Gulf of Naples as Garibaldi arrived, a clear sign of what would have happened if Francis II had attempted to resist;<\/li>
    • while Victor Emmanuel II swore friendship to his cousin in Naples and deprecated what was happening, Cavour ordered General Cialdini to march south with the army to Naples to seize the Kingdom (invading the Papal States in the process), and the Savoyard King himself came to the South to receive the conquered Kingdom from Garibaldi (the meeting at Teano);<\/li>
    • as is well known, in the face of what was happening, Napoleon III, who publicly condemned the expedition as an act of international piracy (and how else could it be defined?), secretly gave his consent to Cavour with the famous phrase: \u201cFaites, mais faites vite!\u201d (\u201cDo it, but do it quickly!\u201d), asking however for Nice and Savoy in exchange for his \u201cnon-intervention\u201d;<\/li>
    • Francis II, faced with one of the greatest international conspiracies in history and, above all, faced with the betrayal of his officers, government officials, and closest \u201cdevoted\u201d advisors, understood that all was lost, but that honor and historical memory must not be lost: to avoid civilian bloodshed, he left Naples and took refuge in the fortress of Gaeta, followed by all those who voluntarily chose to save their honor by fighting on the side of the legitimate and beloved sovereign under attack.<\/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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      At Gaeta<\/h2>\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t
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      Upon leaving Naples, Francis II issued a proclamation on December 8, 1860, from which we quote a few phrases: \u00ab(…) I preferred to leave Naples, my own home, my beloved capital, so as not to expose it to the horrors of a bombardment, like those that later took place in Capua and Ancona. I believed in good faith that the King of Piedmont, who called himself my brother, my friend, who protested to me his disapproval of Garibaldi’s invasion, who was negotiating with my government an intimate alliance for the true interests of Italy, would not have broken all pacts and violated all laws to invade my States in full peace, without motives or declarations of war. If these were my wrongs, I prefer my misfortunes to the triumphs of my adversaries\u00bb [In: \u201cGazzetta di Gaeta\u201d, December 9, 1860, no. 21, p. 1]. The proclamation frightened the head of the Lieutenancy police, Silvio Spaventa, since, as Ruggero Moscati testifies, it \u00abproduced a very wide impression among vast layers of the southern population\u00bb [R. MOSCATI, I Borboni d\u2019Italia, ESI, Naples 1970, p. 153]. <\/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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      The fortress of Gaeta<\/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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      In fact, thousands of loyal Bourbon supporters converged on Gaeta (at the same time, the fortresses of Civitella del Tronto\u2014which was the last to fall\u2014and Messina also resisted heroically), also ready to die in defense of their sovereign [Roberto Martucci recognizes the merits of Francis II and denounces the wrongs of opposing historiography in depicting him as \u201cFranceschiello,\u201d and cites the following text by A. ARCHI (Gli ultimi Asburgo e gli ultimi Borbone in Italia (1814-1861), Cappelli, Bologna 1965, p. 376): \u201cFrancis II was a king in misfortune even more than in his few months of effective sovereignty: he did not withdraw his deposits from the banks; from the Royal Palace, rather than works of art and items of market value, he took with him objects of devotion and family memories.\u201d]<\/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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      Here, we limit ourselves to quoting the following moving words by Roberto Martucci, who describes the tragic atmosphere in which the siege took place, especially the final days, and above all describes the state of mind of those who were losing\u2014amidst hunger and pestilence\u2014but knowing they were the innocent victims of an aggression desired by no one and heroic defenders not just of a Kingdom, but of a centuries-old civilization, and of those who were winning amidst laughter, but it was a laughter of bitter flavor: \u00abOn February 5, 1861, a shell hit the Sant’Antonio powder magazine, causing about a hundred deaths and burying hundreds of living soldiers under the rubble. \u201cThe enemy,\u201d wrote Pietro Cal\u00e0 d\u2019Ulloa, \u201cmade a sacrifice of human victims to the gods of the underworld; a final explosion launched soldiers and officers into the air only to plunge them into the sea; the besiegers, at Mola, clapped their hands as if at a show\u201d\u00bb [P. CAL\u00c0 D\u2019ULLOA, Lettres d\u2019un ministre \u00e9migr\u00e9, Marseille, 1870, p. 80].<\/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

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      Explosion of the powder magazine at Gaeta<\/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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      After a brief truce to extract the wounded from the ruins, Cialdini refused an extension that would have allowed for the rescue of other victims still alive; the Sardinian general then chose to resume the bombardment, while simultaneously offering an unconditional surrender to the exhausted Neapolitan garrison. <\/p>

      Faced with the futility of further resistance, Francis II authorized the governor of Gaeta\u2014who was the same General Giosu\u00e9 Ritucci who had directed the unfortunate counter-offensive on the Volturno\u2014to negotiate the capitulation.<\/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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      It was February 11, and for two days the talks continued without General Cialdini ceasing to pour an avalanche of fire onto the unfortunate fortress; he had even taken advantage of the time to bring two more deadly batteries of rifled cannons into action. Since surrender was certain, that further deployment of siege artillery was mortally useless. <\/p>

      Unless one was faced with that syndrome masterfully described by the French novelist Jules Verne in From the Earth to the Moon, when the dejected engineers and ballistics experts, members of the Baltimore \u201cGun Club,\u201d learned with unparalleled grief that the end of the Civil War prevented them from testing the effectiveness of their cannon shells on Confederate flesh. Thus it was that at Gaeta, at three in the afternoon on February 13, while the Neapolitan and Sardinian negotiators were discussing the final details of the capitulation, the powder magazine of the Transylvania battery blew up with its eighteen tons of explosives. Immediately, the Piedmontese siege batteries concentrated their fire on the rubble to prevent rescue efforts, machine-gunning the stretcher-bearers. Two officers, fifty soldiers, and the entire family of the bastion keeper died needlessly. <\/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

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      The Bourbon plenipotentiaries, who were negotiating the surrender at Cialdini’s Headquarters, barely held back their tears while their hosts applauded loudly, simultaneously violating the rules of hospitality and the unwritten laws of military honor.\u00bb<\/p>

      Cialdini, not yet satisfied, also wanted to be sarcastic to humiliate those who had had the courage to resist him with dignity, and offered to generously provide the royal couple with a ship to go to Rome: he chose one that he had renamed \u201cGaribaldi\u201d!<\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t

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      The battle of October 1st on the Volturno (Francesco Mancini)<\/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\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t
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      Amidst the tears of kneeling soldiers and officers and the population, while shaking hands with everyone without distinction, amidst tears and smiles, Francis II and Maria Sophia set sail for Rome.<\/p>

      \u00abFrancis of Bourbon was 25 years old at that moment, Maria Sophia only 19, yet in misfortune they were able to show a strength of spirit and dignity that much older and more seasoned sovereigns would not have possessed.\u00bb<\/p>

      Sergio Romano comments: \u00abIf these were the new battalions of united Italy, the new ruling class should have paid respectful homage, at the moment it assumed the leadership of the new State, to the obstinate Bourbon defenders of Messina, Civitella del Tronto, and Gaeta, and should have added their names to the \u201croll of heroes\u201d whose memory is to be venerated. Like the Swiss at the Tuileries in 1792, those men fought because they had sworn allegiance to their king and did not deserve the oblivion to which the Risorgimento legend has condemned them\u00bb [S. ROMANO, Finis Itali\u00e6. Declino e morte dell\u2019ideologia risorgimentale. Perch\u00e9 gli italiani si disprezzano, Milan, 1994, p. 15].<\/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

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      The Royals leave the port of Gaeta aboard the Mouette<\/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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      The Royals left the port of Gaeta to the sound of Paisiello’s Royal March with a 21-gun salute, while an entire people wept and waved goodbye.<\/p>

      The Kingdom of the Two Sicilies had thus ceased to exist, leaving millions of Southern peasants stunned and without a homeland, while a large part of the city notables prepared to seek an adequate position in the new political and administrative hierarchy of united Italy, and were already setting aside the little money with which they would soon seize the lands of the loyal aristocrats and the Church, only to bring economic ruin to millions of peasants who no longer knew what mercy and humanity were, and for whom the only salvation remained emigration.<\/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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      But this is not the place to speak of the evils that befell Southern Italy after 1861, for which there exists a well-known and still unresolved explanatory concept that hangs like a sword of Damocles over united national history: the \u201cSouthern Question.\u201d<\/p>

      All historians agree in stating that Francis II’s heroic behavior at the siege of Gaeta served to redeem him from his political weaknesses, both real and presumed. We could cite many moving judgments from sympathetic historians; instead, we prefer to quote, on behalf of all, the objective and more detached judgment of a historian of undisputed value and certainly not pro-Bourbon. Giuseppe Coniglio writes: \u00abHowever, in the face of history, he was able to redeem his failures with the siege of Gaeta, in which he participated with audacity, to demonstrate to Europe that he knew how to act, and he succeeded fully, even if supported by the example and encouragement of his wife. It would have been easy for the two sovereigns to flee (…) But Francis did not want to bow to this humiliation and preferred to fight for a long time, also obtaining, in the judgment of his enemies themselves, that honor of arms which all the defenders of Gaeta received\u00bb [G. CONIGLIO, I Borboni di Napoli, Corbaccio, Milan 1999, p. 460]. <\/p>

      We wish to conclude this page with a tribute to H.M. Maria Sophia, Queen of the Two Sicilies [Thus Martucci describes Maria Sophia of Bavaria: \u201cSister of Empress Elisabeth of Austria \u2013 the Sissi of legend \u2013 Maria Sophia, the charming as she was ephemeral sovereign of Naples, during the long siege was a nurse among the wounded, fearless on the ramparts among the cannons, smiling among the soldiers, always ready to address a word of encouragement to that suffering humanity…\u201d. MARTUCCI, op. cit., p. 194.], the true soul of the siege of Gaeta, savior of the honor of the Kingdom and the Bourbon army: not a day passed that she did not spend helping her soldiers under cannon fire, tending to their wounds, sharing their hardships and fears, encouraging them, feeding them, and assisting them, just as she gave strength to her husband in the most difficult moments.<\/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

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      The royal couple at Gaeta gave a most worthy account of themselves, a display of love, self-sacrifice, devotion, honor, and dignity, a sense of duty and homeland, but also of serenity and affection for their soldiers.<\/p>

      Gaeta will always remain, in the history of the Bourbons of the Two Sicilies, in the history of the Kingdom of Naples, in the history of the Italians, and in history itself, one of the pages richest in glory, dignity, and honor. It was signed by thousands of volunteers\u2014and, ideally, also by the volunteers who fought simultaneously, even without the sovereigns present, in the fortresses of Messina and Civitella del Tronto, the other two heroic bulwarks of Bourbon resistance, taken only with grim violence\u2014who added their own signature of blood and honor following the first two, those of the very young Royals, Francis II and Maria Sophia of Bourbon of the Two Sicilies. <\/p>\t\t\t\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\"Maria\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t
      Maria Sophia of Bavaria<\/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\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. Francis II, King of the Two Sicilies H.M. Francis II,King of the Two Sicilies Francis II was the last Sovereign to reign over the Two Sicilies; it was under him that the invasion of the Kingdom took place, first by Garibaldi’s Redshirts and then by the Savoyard army, leading to the annexation by the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":37740,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-38093","page","type-page","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry"],"yoast_head":"\nH.M. Francis II King of the Two Sicilies<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Discover the history of H.M. 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