FILANGIERI, CARLO (1784-1867), prince of Satriano, Neapolitan soldier and statesman, was the son of Gaetano Filangieri (1752-1788), a celebrated philosopher and jurist. At the age of fifteen he was admitted to the Military academy at Paris. After serving in the French campaign of 1803-05 he re turned to Naples as captain on Massena's staff to fight the Bour bons and the Austrians in 1806, and subsequently went to Spain, where he followed Jerome Bonaparte in his retreat from Madrid. In consequence of a fatal duel he was sent back to Naples; there he served under Joachim Murat with the rank of general. He fought against the Anglo-Sicilian forces in Calabria and at Mes sina, and against Eugene Beauharnais, and later in the campaign against Austria, and was severely wounded at the battle of the Panaro (1815). On the restoration of the Bourbon king, Ferdinand IV. (I.), Filangieri retained his rank and command, but found the army utterly disorganized and impregnated with Carbonarism. In the disturbances of 1820 he adhered to the Constitutionalist party, and fought under General Pepe (q.v.) against the Austrians. On the re-establishment of the autocracy he was dismissed from the service, and retired to Calabria where he had inherited the princely title and estates of Satriano.
In 1831 he was recalled by Ferdinand II. and entrusted with various military reforms. On the outbreak of the troubles of 1848 Filangieri advised the king to grant the constitution, which he did in Feb. 1848, but when the Sicilians formally seceded from the Neapolitan kingdom Filangieri was given the command of an armed force with which to reduce the island to obedience. He re conquered Sicily, and remained there as governor until 1855, when he retired into private life, as he could not carry out the reforms he desired owing to the hostility of Giovanni Cassisi, the minister for Sicily. On the death of Ferdinand II. (May 22, 1859) the new king Francis II. appointed Filangieri premier and minister of war. He promoted good relations with France, then fighting with Pied mont against the Austrians in Lombardy, and urged an alliance with Piedmont and a constitution as the only means of saving the dynasty. These proposals being rejected, Filangieri resigned office. After the downfall of the Bourbons Filangieri went into exile for some time. Although he adhered to the new government he re f used to accept any dignity at its hands, and died at his villa of San Giorgio a Cremano near Naples on Oct. 9, 1867.
His biography has been written by his daughter Teresa Filangieri Fieschi-Ravaschieri, 11 Generale Carlo Filangieri (Milan, 1902), an interesting, although somewhat too laudatory volume based on the general's own unpublished memoirs ; for the Sicilian expedition see V. Finocchiaro, La Rivoluzione siciliana del 1848-49 (Catania, 1906, with bibliography), in which Filangieri is bitterly attacked; see also under