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Two Sicilies

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The Two Sicilies
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The Two Sicilies

The Kingdom of the Two Sicilies was the new name that the Bourbon King Ferdinand IV of Naples bestowed upon his domain (including Southern Italy and the island of Sicily) after the end of the Napoleonic Era and the full restoration of his power in 1816. The capital city of the kingdom was Naples.

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Origin of the Two Sicilies

Before the French invasions of the Napoleonic Era, the Bourbon dynasty ruled over the same lands, but they were formally divided into the "Kingdom of Naples" and the "Kingdom of Sicily". After the change in the name of the kingdom, Ferdinand became known as King Ferdinand I of the Two Sicilies.

Flags of the Kingdom of the Two Sicilies

Image:Flag_of_the_Kingdom_of_the_Two_Sicilies_1738.gif|1738-1848; 1849-1860 flag Image:Flag of the Kingdom of the Two Sicilies 1848.gif|1848-49 flag Image:Flag_of_the_Kingdom_of_the_Two_Sicilies_1860.gif|1860-61 flag

History of the name

The name Two Sicilies derived from the splitting of the Kingdom of Sicily in 1282. Though ruled as a unit for a century and a half, the island and mainland parted ways when the Sicilian Vespers rose up and threw off Neapolitan rule, accepting in its stead Aragon. The Angevin Kings of Naples retained the mainland and continued the name Kingdom of Sicily in order to assert their claim; for some time the southern peninsula was known as the Kingdom of Sicily this side of Cape Faro, for the lighthouse on the mainland side of the Strait of Messina, although the Kingdom of Sicily per se did not use the name. The two kingdoms were not under the same ruler until 1735 under Charles (to become later Charles III of Spain), and were not legally reunited until after the 1815 Congress of Vienna. Between 1816 and 1848 the island of Sicily experienced no less than three popular revolts against Bourbon rule, including the revolution of independence of 1848, when the island was fully independent of Bourbon control for 16 months. Apart from having occurred at an interesting point in European history (see Revolutions of 1848), there is a clear link between this revolution and the more well known historical event that was to occur 11 years hence (the Risorgimento).

Kings of the Two Sicilies, 1816-1861

In 1860-1861 the kingdom was conquered by the Kingdom of Sardinia, and the title dropped.

Other people of the House of Two Sicilies include:

Heads of the Royal House of the Two Sicilies, 1861-present

Upon Ferdinando Pio's death in 1960, there was a dispute about who inherited the headship of the house. Ferdinando's next brother, Carlo, had signed the so-called Act of Cannes, a renunciation of his eventual rights to the Crown of the Two Sicilies on 14 December 1900, "in execution of… [the]…laws and customs" of the House and the Pragmatic Decree of Charles III of 1759, in anticipation of his marriage to the eldest sister of King Alfonso XIII of Spain. The laws of the House and the Pragmatic Decree, however, required a renunciation only in very limited circumstances: the actual union of the Crown of the Two Sicilies in the person of the King of Spain or his immediate heir apparent, which had not happened in 1900 nor did it occur subsequently. Furthermore, this act was signed subsequently to the agreement on the marriage contract between the father of Prince Carlo, the Count of Caserta (then head of the Royal House) and the Queen Regent of Spain, which specifically excluded the need for a dynastic renunciation. Prince Carlo was created an Infante of Spain, a title held by several other Princes of the Two Sicilies in the past, but with his wife's death and the birth of a Prince of the Asturias (and three other sons) to the King and Queen of Spain, the possibility of him becoming King consort and his son becoming both King of Spain and claimant to the Two Sicilies, receded. All the descendants of King Francis I of the Two Sicilies by his wife, Infanta Isabel, already enjoyed a right to the Spanish throne by virtue of the royal constitutions of 1837, 1845 and 1876.

Prince Carlo's son, Infante Don Alfonso, became the senior male of the house on the death of his uncle, Ferdinando Pio, Duke of Calabria, in 1960 and was proclaimed Head of the Royal House of the Two Sicilies, with the immediate recognition of the Heads of the Royal Houses of Spain, Parma and Portugal, and the senior line (Bourbon) claimant to the throne of France. Prince Carlo and his descendants continued to be included as Princes of the Two Sicilies in the Almanach de Gotha from 1901-1944, and in the Libro d'Oro of the Italian Nobility from the first edition in 1907 until 1964, at which time the editor came out in support of the junior line claimant. Infante Don Alfonso took the title of Duke of Calabria, considering that the title of Duke of Castro had been lost with the sale of the last portions of the duchy to the Italian government in 1941 (a sale from which Prince Carlo received his portion of the proceeds, along with his brothers and sisters, although if the alleged renunciation of 1900 had been valid he would not have been entitled to do so). Prince Carlo married as his second wife, in 1907, Princess Louise of Orléans, and by her had a son (Carlos, killed in the Spanish Civil War) and three daughters (of whom Princess Maria married Juan, Count of Barcelona and was the mother of King Juan Carlos I of Spain, and Princess Esperanza married Prince Pedro-Gastão of Orléans-Braganza). The descent in the senior line is as follows:

The latter's immediate heir is Pedro, Duke of Noto, married to D. Sofia de Landaluce y Melgarejo (a descendant through her mother of the Dukes of San Fernando de Quiroga).

Most of the rest of the Bourbon-Two Sicilies family rejected Alfonso's claims, however, and recognized the next surviving brother of Ferdinando Pio, Ranieri, as head of the house. Ranieri took the title of "Duke of Castro" as his title of pretension. The representatives of the junior branch are as follows:

Current line of succession to Prince Ferdinando, Duke of Castro

  1. HRH Prince Carlo Maria Bernardo, Duke of Calabria, Hereditary Prince of the Two Sicilies (born 1963), married to Camilla Crociani
  2. HRH Prince Antonio of the Two Sicilies (born 1929), married to Duchess Elizabeth of Wurttemberg
  3. HRH Prince Francesco of the Two Sicilies (born 1960), married to Countess Alexandra of Schonborn-Wiesentheid
  4. HRH Prince Gennaro of the Two Sicilies (born 1966)
[HRH Prince Giovanni of the Two Sicilies (born 1933, died 2000)]
  1. HRH Prince Casimiro of the Two Sicilies (born 1938)
  2. HRH Prince Luigi of the Two Sicilies (born 1970) married to Christine Apovian
  3. HRH Prince Alessandro of the Two Sicilies (born 1974)
The most important surviving prerogative of the Head of this line is that of Grand Master of the Sacred Military Constantinian Order of Saint George. This dignity is an ecclesiastical office invested in the House of Farnese and its heirs by the Papal Brief Sincerae Fidei of 1699, the Imperial Bull Agnoscimus et notum facimus of the same year and the Papal Bull Militantis Ecclesiae of 1718. The succession of the Infante D. Carlos de Borbón y Farnese was approved by Papal Bull of 1739, and that of his son Ferdinand IV and III of Naples and Sicily in 1763. This dignity, whose descent by male primogeniture is governed by canon law, was neither mentioned in nor could it have been implied in the 1900 act of Cannes, since it was not only a separate and autonomous dignity governed by its own laws, but it is contrary to canon law to undertake to make an anticpatory renunciation of an ecclesiastical office.

See also

External links

Some cultural websites about the history of Naples and Sicily:

The headship of the house is in dispute between two branches of the family::

Further reading

 

From Wikipedia, the Free Encyclopedia. Original article here. Support Wikipedia by contributing or donating.
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