| King of the Two Sicilies | |
|---|---|
 Royal Coat of arms | |
 Francis II , last king of the Two Sicilies | |
| Details | |
| First monarch | Ferdinand I |
| Last monarch | Francis II |
| Formation | 1816 |
| Abolition | 1861 |
| Residence | |
| Pretender(s) | Disputed:
|
The Kingdom of the Two Sicilies in Southern Italy was ruled by monarchs from its establishment in 1816 to its incorporation into the Kingdom of Italy in 1861.
Joachim Murat was the first king to rule a kingdom called "Two Sicilies" by the Edict of Bayonne, in 1808. Though he controlled the mainland, he never physically controlled the island of Sicily, where his Bourbon rival had fled from Naples. [1] [2]
After the Congress of Vienna in 1815, the title of king of Two Sicilies was adopted by Ferdinand IV of Naples in 1816. [3] Under Ferdinand's rule, the Kingdom of Naples and the Kingdom of Sicily were unified. He had previously been king separately of both Naples and Sicily.
| Portrait | Name | Arms | Reign | Succession | Life details |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
 | Ferdinand I Ferdinando I |  | 12 December 1816 – 4 January 1825 (8 years and 23 days) | Son of Charles III of Spain | 12 January 1751 – 4 January 1825 (aged 73) |
 | Francis I Francesco I | 4 January 1825 – 8 November 1830 (5 years, 10 months and 4 days) | Son of Ferdinand I | 19 August 1777 – 8 November 1830 (aged 53) | |
 | Ferdinand II Ferdinando II | 8 November 1830 – 22 May 1859 (28 years, 6 months and 14 days) | Son of Francis I | 12 January 1810 – 22 May 1859 (aged 49) | |
 | Francis II Francesco II | 22 May 1859 – 20 March 1861 (1 year, 9 months and 26 days) | Son of Ferdinand II | 16 January 1836 – 27 December 1894 (aged 58) |
Ferdinand I was King of the Two Sicilies from 1816 until his death. Before that he had been, since 1759, King of Naples as Ferdinand IV and King of Sicily as Ferdinand III. He was deposed twice from the throne of Naples: once by the revolutionary Parthenopean Republic for six months in 1799, and again by a French invasion in 1806, before being restored in 1815 at the end of the Napoleonic Wars.
The Kingdom of Naples was a state that ruled the part of the Italian Peninsula south of the Papal States between 1282 and 1816. It was established by the War of the Sicilian Vespers (1282–1302), when the island of Sicily revolted and was conquered by the Crown of Aragon, becoming a separate kingdom also called the Kingdom of Sicily. This left the Neapolitan mainland under the possession of Charles of Anjou. Later, two competing lines of the Angevin family competed for the Kingdom of Naples in the late 14th century, which resulted in the death of Joanna I by Charles III of Naples. Charles' daughter Joanna II adopted King Alfonso V of Aragon as heir, who would then unite Naples into his Aragonese dominions in 1442.
The Neapolitan War, also known as the Austro-Neapolitan War, was a conflict between the Napoleonic Kingdom of Naples and the Austrian Empire. It started on 15 March 1815, when King Joachim Murat declared war on Austria, and ended on 20 May 1815, with the signing of the Treaty of Casalanza. The war occurred during the Hundred Days between Napoleon's return from exile and before he left Paris to be decisively defeated at the Battle of Waterloo. The war was triggered by a pro-Napoleon uprising in Naples and ended with a decisive Austrian victory at the Battle of Tolentino, after which Bourbon monarch Ferdinand IV was reinstated as King of Naples and Sicily. However, the intervention by Austria caused resentment in Italy, which further spurred on the drive towards Italian unification.
The Kingdom of Sicily was a state that existed in Sicily and the south of the Italian Peninsula plus, for a time, in Northern Africa from its founding by Roger II of Sicily in 1130 until 1816. It was a successor state of the County of Sicily, which had been founded in 1071 during the Norman conquest of the southern peninsula. The island was divided into three regions: Val di Mazara, Val Demone and Val di Noto.
Southern Italy, also known as Meridione or Mezzogiorno, is a macroregion of Italy consisting of its southern regions.
Maria Isabella of Spain was Queen of the Two Sicilies from 4 January 1825 until 8 November 1830 as the wife of Francis I of the Two Sicilies.
The House of Bourbon-Two Sicilies is a cadet branch of the House of Bourbon that ruled Southern Italy and Sicily for more than a century in the 18th and 19th centuries. It descends from the Capetian dynasty in legitimate male line through Philip, Duke of Anjou, a younger grandson of Louis XIV of France (1638–1715) who established the Bourbon dynasty in Spain in 1700 as Philip V (1683–1746). In 1759, King Philip's younger grandson was appanaged with the kingdoms of Naples and Sicily, becoming Ferdinand IV and III (1751–1825), respectively, of those realms. His descendants occupied the joint throne, merged as the "Kingdom of the Two Sicilies" in 1816, until 1861, claimed it thereafter from exile, and constitute the extant Bourbon-Two Sicilies family.
Lucia Migliaccio, suo jure 12th Duchess of Floridia was the second wife of Ferdinand I of the Two Sicilies. Their marriage was morganatic and Lucia was never a queen consort.
The flag of Naples is a vexillological symbol of the city of Naples, the capital of the Southern Italian region of Campania. The current flag representing the city consists of two equal-sized rectangles: golden yellow on the left and red on the right side.
The Kingdom of the Two Sicilies was a kingdom in Southern Italy from 1816 to 1861 under the control of the House of Bourbon-Two Sicilies, a cadet branch of the Bourbons. The kingdom was the largest sovereign state by population and land area in Italy before the Italian unification, comprising Sicily and most of the area of today's Mezzogiorno and covering all of the Italian Peninsula south of the Papal States.
The Battle of Mileto took place during the War of the Fourth Coalition on 28 May 1807 in Calabria. The Bourbon Kingdom of Sicily attempted to re-conquer its possessions in continental Italy, known as the Kingdom of Naples. The battle ended in a victory for French forces under general Jean Reynier.
The Royal Navy of the Kingdom of the Two Sicilies was the official term in documents of the era for the naval forces of the Kingdom of the Two Sicilies - it and the Royal Army together formed the Kingdom's armed forces. The modern use of the term Regio for royal was only introduced into the force's title after the annexation of the Kingdom of Sardinia. It was the most important of the pre-unification Italian navies and Cavour made it the model of the new Italian Regia Marina after the annexation of the Two Sicilies.
The Army of the Two Sicilies, also known as the Royal Army of His Majesty the King of the Kingdom of the Two Sicilies, the Bourbon Army or the Neapolitan Army, was the land forces of the Kingdom of the Two Sicilies, whose armed forces also included a navy. It was in existence from 1734 to 1861. It was the land armed force of the new independent state created by the settlement of the Bourbon dynasty in southern Italy following the events of the War of the Polish Succession.
Luigi de' Medici was an Italian nobleman, legal scholar, diplomat and statesman, who served as Prime minister of the Kingdom of the Two Sicilies and the legal representative at the Congress of Vienna.
The Royal Palace of Ficuzza, also named Reggia or Real Casina di Caccia of Ficuzza is located near the town of Corleone, located some 45 kilometers from Palermo, Sicily. It was commissioned by Ferdinand IV of Naples and III of Sicily during his exile in Sicily starting after the establishment of the Parthenopean Republic in 1798.
The Kingdom of Naples was a French client state in southern Italy created in 1806 when the Bourbon Ferdinand IV & III of Naples and Sicily sided with the Third Coalition against Napoleon and was in return ousted from his kingdom by a French invasion. Joseph Bonaparte, elder brother of Napoleon, was installed in his stead: Joseph conferred the title "Prince of Naples" to be hereditary on his children and grandchildren. When Joseph became king of Spain in 1808, Napoleon appointed his brother-in-law Joachim Murat to take his place. Murat was later deposed by the Congress of Vienna in 1815 after striking at Austria in the Neapolitan War, in which he was decisively defeated at the Battle of Tolentino.
