FERDINAND II, king of the Two Sicilies: (((King Bomba") : b. Palermo, 10 Jan. 1810; d. Naples, 22 May 1859. He succeeded his father, Francis I, 8 Nov. 1830. The new sovereign at first made some concessions to his subjects. He married Maria Theresa, daughter of the Archduke Charles of Austria, an alliance of sinister omen to liberal measures. He pursued a reactionary policy, giving his subjects to understand that his will was to be their only law and that the least opposition to it would be followed by banishment or incarceration in a dungeon. This was no empty threat. Devoting much time to hunting, he left the government to be administered by favorites and reserved his interference chiefly for occasions requiring the exercise of that mixture of obstinacy and energy which formed the leading feature in his character. After a succession of partial outbreaks, the revolutionary year of 1848 brought matters to a crisis, during which Ferdinand II earned the nickname of ((King Bomba,') by bombarding Messina from the forts commanding it. At the commencement of the insurrection, which first broke out at Paler mo and threatened to extend over both divisions of the kingdom, Ferdinand issued a decree promising a constitution, but after the Austrian victory at Novara, when he had by main force re-established his ascendency, retracted all his promises and established one of the vilest des potisms which has disgraced modern times.
William Ewart Gladstone, who personally vis ited the Neapolitan prisons, denounced his rule as the of God,') a judgment that was endorsed by Lord Palmerston. It was estimated at that time that there were 15,000 persons in prison accused of political offenses and this number is believed to be greatly underestimated. Great Britain and France endeavored, by friendly remonstrance, to check him, and being only rebuked for presuming to interfere, testi fied their displeasure by withdrawing their ministers from Naples. This measure seems only to have made Bomba more resolute than ever to rule in his own way. He died leaving his dungeons crowded with the best and bravest of his subjects and his kingdom in a state ap proaching dissolution. Consult Dawburn, 'Naples and King Ferdinand> (1858) ; and Gladstone, 'Two Letters to Lord Aberdeen on the Neapolitan Prisons> (1851).