On Jan. 12, 1848, a revolution under the leadership of Ruggiero Settimo broke out in Sicily. These events were followed by demonstrations at Naples, and on Jan. 28 the king granted the constitution. The popular demand was now that Naples should assist the Lombards in their revolt against. Austria, for a feeling of Italian solidarity was growing up. Fer dinand declared war against Austria (April 7, 1848) ; and a Neapolitan army under General Pepe marched towards Lom bardy in May, while the fleet sailed for Venice. But a dispute between the king and the parliament concerning the form of the royal oath having arisen, a group of demagogues with criminal folly provoked disturbances and erected barricades (May
The king refused to open parliament unless the barricades were removed. A few shots were fired on the 15th, the Swiss regi ments stormed the barricades and street fighting lasted all day. By the evening the Swiss and the royalists were masters of the situation. A new ministry under Prince Cariati was appointed. Parliament was dissolved, the National Guard disbanded and the army recalled from the Po.
In Sicily the revolutionists were bitterly hostile to the Neapoli tans. The Sicilian assembly met in March 1848, and Settimo in his inaugural speech declared that the Bourbon dynasty had ceased to reign and that Sicily united her destinies to those of Italy; Settimo was elected president of the Government. After the Austrian victories Ferdinand sent a Neapolitan army under Carlo Filangieri (q.v.) to subjugate the island. The troops landed at Messina, whose citadel had been held by the royalists through out, and after three days' desperate fighting the city itself was captured and sacked. Filangieri marched forward, committing many atrocities. In April he reached Palermo while the fleet appeared in the bay, and tumults having broken out within the city the Government surrendered on terms which granted amnesty for all except Settimo and 42 others.
For a few months after the dissolution of the Neapolitan par liament the Government abstained from persecution, but with the crushing of the Sicilian revolution its hands were free ; and when the commission on the affair of May 15 had completed its labours thousands of respectable citizens were thrown into prison, such as L. Settembrini, Carlo Poerio, and Silvio Spaventa. The abominable conditions of the prisons in which the best men of the kingdom were immured were made known to the world by the famous letters of W. E. Gladstone, which branded the Bour bon regime as "the negation of God erected into a system of government." In 1857 Carlo Pisacane, an ex-Neapolitan officer who had taken part in the defence of Rome, fitted out an expedition, with Mazzini's approval, from Genoa, and landed at Sapri in Calabria ; but the local police assisted by the peasantry attacked the band, killing many, including Pisa cane himself, and capturing most of the rest. The following year at the instance of Great Britain and France, Ferdinand commuted the sentences of some of the political prisoners to exile. (See FERDINAND II., king of the Two Sicilies.) In May 1859 Ferdinand died and was succeeded by his son, Francis II. (q.v.). Victor Emmanuel, king of Sardinia, wrote to him proposing an alliance for the division of Italy, but Francis refused. In June part of the Swiss Guard mutinied and were shot
down; and this affair resulted in the disbanding of the whole force—the last support of the autocracy. Various proposals were made for an alliance with Sardinia, but Francis rejected them and indeed began to negotiate with Austria.
In the meantime events in Sicily were reaching a crisis destined to subvert the Bourbon dynasty. Mazzini's emissaries, F. Crispi (q.v.) and R. Pilo, had been trying to or ganize a rising in favour of Italian unity and, although they merely succeeded in raising a few armed bands, they persuaded Garibaldi (q.v.) that the revolution, which he knew to be im minent, had broken out. Garibaldi, whose hesitation had been overcome, embarked on May 5, 186o, at Quarto, near Genoa, with i,000 picked followers on board two steamers, and sailed for Sicily. On the I 1 th the expedition reached Marsala and landed without opposition. Garibaldi was somewhat coldly re ceived by the astonished population ; but he set forth at once for Salemi, where he issued a proclamation assuming the dictatorship of Sicily in the name of Victor Emmanuel, with Crispi as secre tary of state. On the 15th he attacked and defeated 3,000 of the enemy under General Landi at Calatafimi ; the news of this brilliant victory revived the revolutionary agitation throughout the island, and Garibaldi was joined by Pilo and his bands. By a cleverly devised ruse he avoided General Colonna's force, which expected him on the Monreale road, and entering Palermo from Misilmeri received an enthusiastic welcome. After three days' street fighting the Bourbonist commander, General Lanza, not knowing that the Garibaldians had scarcely a cartridge left, asked for and obtained a 24 hours' armistice (May 3o). Garibaldi went on board the British flagship to confer with the Neapolitan generals Letizia and Chretien ; then he informed the citizens by means of a proclamation of what he had done, and declared that he would renew hostilities on the expiration of the armistice. Although unarmed, the people rallied to him as one man, and Lanza became so alarmed that he asked for an unconditional extension of the armistice, which Garibaldi granted; 15,000 Bourbon troops embarked for Naples on
leaving the revo lutionists masters of the situation. The Sardinian Admiral Persano's salute of 19 guns on the occasion of Garibaldi's official call constituted a practical recognition of his dictatorship by the Sardinian (Piedmontese) Government. In July further rein forcements of volunteers under Cosenz and Medici, assisted by Cavour, arrived at Palermo with a good supply of arms furnished by subscription in northern Italy. Garibaldi's forces were now raised to 12,000 men, besides the Sicilian squadre. Cavour's at tempt to bring about the annexation of Sicily to Sardinia failed, for Garibaldi wished to use the island as a basis for an invasion of the mainland. When the Garibaldians advanced eastward they encountered a force of 4,000 of the enemy under Colonel Bosco at Milazzo; on July 20 a desperate battle took place, resulting in a hard-won Garibaldian victory. The Neapolitan Government then decided on the evacuation of the whole of Sicily except the citadel of Messina, which did not surrender until the next year.