On Ferdinand's death in 1516, the Habs burg Charles became king of Spain, and three years later was elected emperor as Charles V. ; in 1522 he appointed John de Lannoy viceroy of Naples, which became henceforth an integral part of the Spanish dominions. Spanish rule presently provoked several rebellions. On July 7, 1647, tumults occurred at Naples in consequence of a new fruit tax, and the viceroy, Count d'Arcos, was forced to take refuge in the Castelnuovo. The populace, led by an Amalfi fisherman, known as Masaniello (q.v.), obtained arms, erected barricades, and, while professing loyalty to the king of Spain, demanded the removal of the oppressive taxes and murdered many of the nobles. D'Arcos came to terms with Masaniello; but in spite of this, and of the subsequent assassina tion of Masaniello, the disturbances continued.
In 167o disorders broke out at Messina, which developed into an anti-Spanish movement ; and while the inhabitants called in the French, the Spaniards, who could not crush the rising, called in the Dutch. In 1707 an Austrian army conquered the kingdom and Spanish rule came to an end.
In Sicily the Spaniards held their own till the peace of Utrecht, in 1713, when the island was given over to Duke Victor Amadeus of Savoy, who assumed the title of king. In 1718 he had to hand back his new possession to Spain, which, in 172o, surrendered it to Austria and gave Sardinia to Victor Amadeus. In 1733 the treaty of the Escurial between France, Spain, and Savoy against Austria was signed. Don Carlos of Bourbon, son of Philip V. of Spain, easily conquered both Naples and Sicily, and in 1738 he was recognized as king of the Two Sicilies, Spain renouncing all her claims, Charles was well re ceived and with the Tuscan Bernardo Tanucci as his minister, introduced many useful reforms. In 1759 Charles III., having succeeded to the Spanish crown, abdicated that of the Two Sicilies in favour of his 8-year-old son Ferdinand, who became Ferdinand IV. of Naples and III. of Sicily, with a regency under Tanucci. The regency ended in 1767, and the following year Ferdinand married the masterful and ambitious Maria Carolina, daughter of the empress Maria Theresa. With the help of John Acton, an Englishman whom she made minister in the place of Tanucci, she secured a rapprochement with England and Austria. On the outbreak of the French Revolution the king and queen were not at first hostile to the new movement ; but in 1793 they joined the first coalition against France, instituting severe per secutions against all who were remotely suspected of French sympathies. Republicanism, however, gained ground, especially
among the aristocracy. In 1798, during Napoleon's absence in Egypt and after Nelson's victory at Aboukir, Maria Carolina in duced Ferdinand to go to war with France. The French marched on Naples, but not until Jan. 20, 5799, were the invaders masters of the city. On the 23rd the Parthenopaean republic was pro claimed. The Republicans were men of culture and high char acter, but doctrinaire and unpractical, and they knew very little of the lower classes of their own country. Meanwhile the court at Palermo sent Cardinal Fabrizio Ruffo to Calabria, to organize a counter-revolution. He succeeded beyond expectation, and with his "Christian army of the Holy Faith" (Esercito Cristiano della Santa Fede), consisting of brigands, convicts, peasants and some soldiers, advanced on the capital, whence the French, save for a small force under Mejean, withdrew. On June 13 Ruffo and his hordes reached Naples and, after a desperate battle at the Ponte della Maddalena, entered the city. The French in Castel Sant' Elmo and the Republicans in Castelnuovo and Castel dell' Uovo still held out and finally an armistice was concluded and a capitu lation agreed upon, whereby the castles were to be evacuated and the garrisons free to remain in Naples unmolested or to sail for Toulon.
.On June 24 Nelson arrived with his fleet, and on hearing of the capitulation refused to recognize it save in so far as it concerned the French. Ruffo indignantly declared that the treaty had been signed, not only by himself but by the Rus sian and Turkish commandants and by the British captain, Foote.
On the 26th Nelson changed his attitude and informed the cardinal that he would do nothing to break the armistice; while Cap tains Bell and Troubridge wrote that they had Nelson's authority to state that the latter would not oppose the embarcation of the Republicans, who thereupon embarked on the vessels prepared for them. But on the 28th Nelson, acting on despatches from the court (in reply to his own), held up the vessels and many of the Republicans were arrested. Caracciolo, who commanded the Re publican Fleet, was tried by court-martial on board Nelson's flag ship, condemned to death, and hanged at the yard arm (see CARACCIOLO and NELSON).