Fall of Rome (1849)

Fall of Rome
Part of Unification of Italy and Italian War of Independence
Date 25 April 1849 – 2 July 1849 Location Rome, Roman Republic Result Papal Coalition victory Fall of Roman Republic
Belligerents
Papal Coalition [a] Papal States   France   Spain   Austria [b]   Sardinia [c]   Two Sicilies   Portugal [1]   Britain [2] [d]	Roman Republic
Commanders and leaders
Pope Pius IX Charles Oudinot Fernando Fernández Joseph Radetzky Carlo Filangieri Victor Emmanuel II Ferdinand II Lord John Russell	Giuseppe Mazzini Giuseppe Garibaldi Anita Garibaldi   # [e]
Strength
French troops  : 8,000–10,000 French Spanish troops  : 13,000 Spanish [f] Austrian troops  : 5,000 Austrians Sicilian troops  : 20,000 Sicilian [3] 48,000 Coalition troops	4,000 Bersaglieri

Fall of Rome (1849) ^[4] was conflict between the Roman Republic and Papal Coalition of Pope Pius IX.

Background

Proclamation of Roman Republic

One of the emblems of the Roman Republic.

On 15 November 1848, Pellegrino Rossi, the Minister of Justice of the Papal government, was assassinated. The following day, the liberals of Rome filled the streets, where various groups demanded a democratic government, social reforms and a declaration of war against the Austrian Empire to liberate long-held territories that were culturally and ethnically Italian. On the night of 24 November, Pope Pius IX left Rome disguised as an ordinary priest, and went out of the state to Gaeta, a fortress in the Kingdom of the Two Sicilies. Before leaving, he had allowed the formation of a government led by Archbishop Carlo Emanuele Muzzarelli, to whom he wrote a note before leaving:

We entrust to your known prudence and honesty to inform the minister Galletti, engaging him with all the other ministers not only to defend the palaces, but especially the persons near you that did not know Our decision. Because not only you and your family are dear to Our heart, We repeat they did not know Our thinking, but much more We recommend to those Sirs tranquillity and order of the whole City. ^[5]

On 2 February 1849, at a political rally held in the Teatro Apollo, a young Roman ex-priest, the Abbé Arduini, made a speech in which he declared that the temporal power of the popes was a "historical lie, a political imposture, and a religious immorality." ^[6]

The Constitutional Assembly convened on 8 February and proclaimed the Roman Republic after midnight on 9 February. According to Jasper Ridley: "When the name of Carlo Luciano Bonaparte, who was a member for Viterbo, was called, he replied to the roll-call by calling out Long live the Republic!" (Viva la Repubblica!). ^[6] That a Roman Republic was a foretaste of wider expectations was expressed in the acclamation of Giuseppe Mazzini as a Roman citizen.

Proclamation of the Roman Republic in 1849, in Piazza del Popolo

Prelude

The Pope asked for military help from Catholic countries. Saliceti and Montecchi left the Triumvirate; their places were filled on 29 March by Saffi and Giuseppe Mazzini, the Genoese founder of the journal La Giovine Italia , who had been the guiding spirit of the Republic from the start. Mazzini won friends among the poor by confiscating some of the Church's large landholdings and distributing them to peasants. He inaugurated prison and insane asylum reforms, freedom of the press, and secular education, but shied away from the "Right to Work" or work guarantee programs for unemployed poor, having seen the compromise National Workshops measure of Louis Blanc fail in France shortly before.

However, the government's policies (lower taxes, increased spending) were fiscally expansionary and involved a decrease in the value of the currency.

Piedmont was at risk of attack by Austrian forces, and the Republic's movement of troops in the area was a threat to Austria (which was certainly capable of attacking Rome itself). ^[7]

"Three days of blood will give us thirty years of peace"

— Count Joseph Radetzky when declaring war on the Republic

Battle

Initial assualts on Rome

Main articles: First Assault on Rome and Second Assault on Rome

In April 1849, France and Austria both had the option to intervene in Rome to put down the Roman Republic and reinstall Pope Pius IX, with France making the first move. The French legislature approved funding for an expedition on 14 April 1849, but the expedition was officially to block any potential intervention by Austria. ^[8] The French president, Louis-Napoleon Bonaparte, had hopes that sending a military mission to Rome would also be viewed positively by Catholics in France. The army of Marshal Nicolas Oudinot landed at the port of Civitavecchia (just north of Rome) on 24 April, and immediately began making its way to the capital. ^[9]

In the early stages of the campaign, Oudinot made the mistake of underestimating the level of support the Republic would receive from local citizens. He attempted to seize the city of Rome from 29 to 30 April but was met with a stiff defense led by Giuseppe Garibaldi. The French forces were successfully repelled. ^[10] Republican forces also repelled two attacks from the Kingdom of the Two Sicilies in Palestrina on 8 May and again at Velletri on 19 May.

Garibaldi capturing four French guns at Rome. Illustration from The Life and Times of Garibaldi, published by Walter Scott.

On June 3, 1849 French troops commanded by marshal Nicolas Oudinot made their second attempt at invading Rome in the context of the ongoing conflict between French Forces and the Roman Republic. The assaults were launched with no preparatory signals and the intent of achieving a swift breakthrough into the city and restoring papal authority. But the defense of Rome was led by Giuseppe Garibaldi; the Roman defenders reacted with extreme tenacity against the French attack. ^[11]

There was extensive combat on and around the walls and entrances and the Roman forces effectively repulsed the second French attempt, again, after an exhausting battle. The French were ultimately forced to withdraw due to such intense resistance from the Roman defenders. The French later established a blockade around and laid siege against Rome, using the blockade to suppress supplies, and ultimately leading to the gradual breaking down of the defenses of Rome over a time period beginning June 3rd, 1849 and continuing through the eventual falling of the Roman Republic in July, 1849. ^[12]

Papal Coalition besieges Rome

Prince-President of the French Second Republic, Louis-Napoleon Bonaparte.

After weeks of being besieged by the French, Garibaldi was aware that Rome could no longer be held. He reached an accord with Marshal Nicolas Oudinot, the French commander regarding the surrender of the city. The primary target of the siege were Republican troops defending the city. ^[13] The French were supported by approximately nine thousand Spanish soldiers who had been sent to assist the pope. On July 2nd, Garibaldi attempted to lead four thousand volunteers out of Rome to reach the beleaguered Venetian Republic. The column was continually followed by French, Austrian, Spanish and loyalist forces from the Kingdom of the Two Sicilies and the Kingdom of Sardinia. Most of Garibaldi's men had been killed or captured before being forced to scatter, but Garibaldi succeeded in escaping. ^[14]

Garibaldi and his pregnant wife Anita Garibaldi defending Rome against the Coalition.

Death of Anita Garibaldi

One of the only two known portraits of Anita Garibaldi, painted in Rome in 1849 by Gerolamo Induno.

Anita dies in a farmhouse not far from Ravenna surrounded by Garibaldi, some of his comrades, and those who grant her asylum as the Austrians seek them out.

Anita accompanied Garibaldi and his red-shirted legionnaires back to Italy to join in the revolutions of 1848, where he fought against the forces of the Austrian Empire. In February 1849, Garibaldi joined in the defense of the newly proclaimed Roman Republic against Neapolitan and French intervention aimed at the restoration of the Papal States. Anita joined her husband in the defense of Rome, which fell to a French siege on June 30. She then fled from French and Austrian troops with the Garibaldian Legion. Pregnant and sick from malaria, she died on August 4, 1849, at 7:45 pm in the arms of her husband at Guiccioli Farm in Mandriole, near Ravenna, Italy, during the tragic retreat. Her body had to be hurriedly buried and was later dug up by a dog. ^[16]

Aftermath

The French Army entered Rome on 3 July and reestablished the Holy See's temporal power. In August Louis Napoleon issued a sort of manifesto in which he asked of Pius IX a general amnesty, a secularized administration, the establishment of the Code Napoléon, and in general a Liberal Government. Pius, from Gaeta, promised reforms that he declared motu proprio , that is, of his own volition, not in answer to the French.

The pope did not return to Rome itself until April 1850, since the French were considered liberals all the same, and the pope would not return until assured of no French meddling in his affairs. In the interim, Rome was governed by a "Red Triumvirate" of cardinals. ^[17] French soldiers propped up the papal administration in Rome until they were withdrawn at the outbreak of the Franco-Prussian War in 1870, leading to the subsequent capture of Rome and annexation by the Kingdom of Italy.

Casino Savorelli after the French bombardments of Rome in 1849

According to Raffaele De Cesare:

The Roman question was the stone tied to Napoleon's feet – that dragged him into the abyss. He never forgot, even in August 1870, a month before Sedan, that he was a sovereign of a Catholic country, that he had been made emperor, and was supported by the votes of the conservatives and the influence of the clergy; and that it was his supreme duty not to abandon the pontiff. […] For twenty years Napoleon III had been the true sovereign of Rome, where he had many friends and relations […] Without him the temporal power would never have been reconstituted, nor, being reconstituted, would have endured." ^[18]

Notes

1. The Coalition of states that wanted to restore the authority of the Pope
2. Austria joined the Coalition because Roman Republic was a threat to Austria, they were not really interested in restoring the authority of Pope
3. Vassal of Austrian Empire
4. Although against French Military expedition against Roman Republic and even terming the war as "Papal agression", British supported the Pope due to the his support to Britain in Great Famine (Ireland)
5. While retreating from the Austrian Army she died due to illness and pregnancy
6. 4,000 Spanish troops during First and Second Assault on Rome, 9,000 Spanish reinforcements during Siege of Rome

References

1. Washington, Jerome Bonaparte (1876). Footprints of the Ages: Our Method of Government and Centennial History, with Facts and Figures Invaluable to Every American Citizen, Together with the Lives of the Presidents, and Biographical Sketches of the Representative Men of the World. Goodspeed's Empire Publishing House. During this conflict against the Roman Republic the King of Portugal remained neutral but showed some diplomatic support to the Papal States
2. "UQ eSpace". Great Britain, the Papacy and the Papal States, 1846-1850 : British opinion and policy towards Pius IX and the temporal power during the first phase of the Roman question. Retrieved 2025-11-29.
3.  One or more of the preceding sentences incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain:  Villari, Luigi (1911). "Ferdinand II. of the Two Sicilies". In Chisholm, Hugh (ed.). Encyclopædia Britannica . Vol. 10 (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. p. 268.
4. Westera, Rick. "Historical Atlas of Europe (3 July 1849): Fall of the Last Roman Republic". Omniatlas. Retrieved 2025-11-29.
5. Stefan Hughes (2012). Catchers of the Light: The Forgotten Lives of the Men and Women Who First Photographed the Heavens. ArtDeCiel Publishing. p. 770. ISBN   978-1-62050-961-6.
6. Ridley, Jasper (1976). Garibaldi . New York: Viking Press. p.  268. ISBN   978-0-670-33548-0.
7. Smith Robertson, Priscilla (1971) [1952]. Revolutions of 1848, a social history (2nd printing ed.). Princeton, New Jersey: Princeton University Press. p.  331. ISBN   9780691007564.
8. Kertzer, David I. (2018). The Pope who Would be King: The Exile of Pius IX and the Emergence of Modern Europe. Oxford University Press. ISBN   978-0-19-882749-8.
9. Robertson, Priscilla Smith (1952). Revolutions of 1848, a social history. Internet Archive. Princeton, Princeton University Press. p. 331.
10. Trevelyan, George Macaulay (1907). Garibaldi's defence of the Roman Catholic Republic,. New York Public Library. London ; New York [etc.] : Longmans, Green and co. p. 227.
11. "Siege of Rome (1849) | Garibaldi, Description, & Significance | Britannica". Encyclopedia Britannica. Archived from the original on 2025-02-19. Retrieved 2025-11-28.
12. Tucker, Spencer C. (2009-12-23). A Global Chronology of Conflict: From the Ancient World to the Modern Middle East [6 volumes]. Bloomsbury Publishing USA. p. 1192. ISBN   978-1-85109-672-5.
13. "Siege of Rome (1849) | Garibaldi, Description, & Significance | Britannica". Encyclopedia Britannica. Archived from the original on 2025-02-19. Retrieved 2025-11-29.
14. Tucker, Spencer C. (2009-12-23). A Global Chronology of Conflict: From the Ancient World to the Modern Middle East [6 volumes]. Bloomsbury Publishing USA. p. 1192. ISBN   978-1-85109-672-5.
15. Brugnatelli, Pia. "Anita Garibaldi, l'eroina dei due mondi". Storica - National Geographic. Archived from the original on 2025-01-27. Retrieved 2025-01-27.
16. "Garibaldi's Worst Hours - Beachcombing's Bizarre History Blog". 24 September 2010.
17. Kertzer, David I. (2018). The Pope Who Would Be King: The Exile of Pius IX and the Emergence of Modern Europe. Oxford: Oxford University Press. pp. 274–75. ISBN   978-0-1-988-2749-8.
18. De Cesare, Raffaele (1909). The Last Days of Papal Rome, 1850–1870. London: Archibald Constable & Co. pp.  440–443. the last days of papal rome.