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141-665: Mongiana was the seat of the main ironworks and foundries of the Kingdom of Two Sicilies . The Monte Pecoraro , a peak in the Serre Calabresi , is located in its territory. This Calabrian location article is a stub . You can help Misplaced Pages by expanding it . Kingdom of Two Sicilies The Kingdom of the Two Sicilies ( Italian : Regno delle Due Sicilie ) was a kingdom in Southern Italy from 1816 to 1861 under

282-545: A papal legate that Frederick was her son by Henry. It is probable that these public acts of affirmation on account of her age gave rise to some false rumours. In the spring of 1195, a few months after Henry VI had been crowned king of Sicily and not long after the birth of her son, Constance the empress continued her journey to Palermo . After the unexpected death of Tancred of Lecce (an illegitimate son of Roger, eldest son of Roger II of Sicily) Henry had hurried over to assume power and to have himself crowned king. Frederick

423-412: A General Council. Frederick and his allies, however, dashed Gregory's plan for a General Council when they intercepted a delegation of prelates traveling to Rome in a Genoese fleet at the crushing Battle of Giglio (1241) , capturing almost all of the high dignitaries and taking thousands of prisoners along with most of the fleet. The emperor proclaimed his victory to be divine judgment and a symbol against

564-758: A baroque planned city in Caserta and planned to move the seat of government to the Palace of Caserta. Charles attempted to rebuild the relatively weak state with enlightened reforms directed particularly against the influence of the Roman Catholic Church. When this assertive monarch became King of Spain in 1759, he had to cede his former empire to his younger son Ferdinand IV , who founded the Bourbon-Sicily collateral line, because this crown could not be united with Naples-Sicily according to international treaties. This line

705-508: A cautious, yet authoritarian policy aiming at the prevention of the occurrence of yet another rebellion. Over half of the delegates elected to parliament in the liberal atmosphere of 1848 were arrested or fled the country. The administration, in their treatment of political prisoners, in their observation of 'suspicious elements', violated the rights of the individual guaranteed by the constitution. Conditions were so bad that they caused international attention; in 1856 Britain and France demanded

846-620: A chronicler of the time, wrote that Frederick: went to the Mediterranean sea, and embarked with a small retinue; but after pretending to make for the Holy Land for three days, he said that he was seized with a sudden illness [...] this conduct of the emperor redounded much to his disgrace, and to the injury of the whole business of the crusade. Frederick eventually sailed again from Brindisi in June 1228. The pope, still Gregory IX, regarded that action as

987-568: A complete capitulation, and the Statutum in favorem principum ("Statute in favor of the princes"), issued at Worms, deprived the emperor of much of his sovereignty in Germany. Frederick summoned Henry to a meeting, which was held at Aquileia in 1232. Henry confirmed his submission, but Frederick was nevertheless compelled to confirm the Statutum at Cividale soon afterwards. The situation for Frederick

1128-492: A diplomatic match for his protege Frederick, to enable him successful future alliances. Eventually Constance of Aragon , a widow of the late King of Hungary and double his age was found. Otto of Brunswick had been crowned Holy Roman Emperor by Pope Innocent III in October 1209. In southern Italy, Otto became the champion of those noblemen and barons who feared Frederick's increasingly strong measures to check their power, such as

1269-503: A last unsuccessful attack in October, Frederick was forced to raise the siege. Frederick’s prestige suffered a blow and the “legend of the emperor’s invincibility” had been damaged. Regrouping as the year closed, it was not Frederick’s political nous which failed him but a combination of bad luck and his incorrect assessment of the military resources required to subjugate the last few holdouts against imperial authority in northern Italy. Gregory IX sensed vulnerability and Frederick received

1410-477: A low water supply due to the lack of public investment in the construction of pipes, which also means that most private houses do not have toilets. Paved roads are rare, except in the area around Naples or on the main roads of the country, and they are often flooded and have many potholes. Moreover, most rural inhabitants often live in small old towns which, due to lack of social expenditure, become unhealthy, allowing many infectious diseases to spread rapidly. While

1551-513: A major military expedition so readily, refused. He was unwilling to cross into Hungary, and although he went about unifying his magnates and other monarchs to potentially face a Mongol invasion, he specifically took his vow for the defense of the empire on "this side of the Alps". Frederick was aware of the danger the Mongols posed, and grimly assessed the situation, but also tried to use it as leverage over

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1692-560: A new and larger theatre to replace the old, dilapidated, and too-small Teatro San Bartolomeo of 1621. Which had served the city well, especially after Scarlatti had moved there in 1682 and had begun to create an important opera centre which existed well into the 1700s. Thus, the San Carlo was inaugurated on 4 November 1737, the king's name day , with the performance of Domenico Sarro 's opera Achille in Sciro and much admired for its architecture

1833-555: A papal incited rebellion flared in Apulia. In southern Italy, Frederick attacked and razed the papal enclaves of St Angelo and Benevento . In the meantime the Ghibelline city of Ferrara had fallen, and Frederick swept his way northwards capturing Ravenna and, after another long siege , Faenza . The people of Forlì , which had kept its Ghibelline stance even after the collapse of Hohenstaufen power, offered their loyal support during

1974-548: A provocation, since, as an excommunicate, Frederick was technically not capable of conducting a crusade, and he excommunicated the emperor a second time. Frederick reached Acre in September. Many of the local nobility, the Templars, and Hospitallers were therefore reluctant to offer overt support. Since the crusading army was already a small force, Frederick negotiated along the lines of a previous agreement he had intended to broker with

2115-721: A result of the War of the Sicilian Vespers (1282–1302), the King of Sicily lost the Island of Sicily (also called Trinacria) to the Crown of Aragon , but remained ruler over the peninsular part of the realm. Although his territory became known unofficially as the Kingdom of Naples , he and his successors never gave up the title King of Sicily and still officially referred to their realm as the Kingdom of Sicily. At

2256-522: A small following. He agreed with the pope on a future separation between the Sicilian and Imperial titles, and named his wife Constance as regent. Passing through Lombardy and Engadin , he reached Konstanz in September 1212, preceding Otto by a few hours. Frederick was crowned king on 9 December 1212 in Mainz . Frederick's authority in Germany remained tenuous, and he was recognized only in southern Germany. In

2397-567: The 1830 revolution . In 1829 he had created the Royal Order of Merit (Royal Order of Francis I of the Two Sicilies). His successor Ferdinand II declared a political amnesty and undertook steps to stimulate the economy, including reduction of taxation. Eventually the city of Naples would be equipped with street lighting and in 1839 the railroad from Naples to Portici was put into operation, measures that were visible signs of progress. However, as to

2538-611: The Assizes of Capua (1220, issued soon after his coronation in Rome) but came to fruition in his promulgation of the Constitutions of Melfi (1231, also known as Liber Augustalis ), a collection of laws for his realm that was remarkable for its time and was a source of inspiration for a long time after. It made the Kingdom of Sicily an absolutist monarchy ; it also set a precedent for the primacy of written law. With relatively small modifications,

2679-689: The Ayyubid sultan, Al-Kamil . The treaty , signed in February 1229, resulted in the restitution of Jerusalem, Nazareth , Bethlehem , and a small coastal strip to the Kingdom of Jerusalem, though there are disagreements as to the extent of the territory returned. The treaty also stipulated that the Dome of the Rock and al-Aqsa Mosque were to remain under Muslim control and that the city of Jerusalem would remain without fortifications. Virtually all other crusaders, including

2820-653: The French period and which had been outlawed in 1816. In 1820 a revolution planned by Carbonari and their supporters, aimed at obtaining a written constitution (the Spanish constitution of 1812), did not work out as planned. Nevertheless, King Ferdinand felt compelled to grant the constitution sought by the liberals (13 July). That same month, a revolution broke out in Palermo , Sicily, but was quickly suppressed. Rebels from Naples occupied Benevento and Pontecorvo , two enclaves belonging to

2961-570: The Inquilani (small-farmers) and the Contadini (peasantry), along with 65,225 listed as shepherds . Wheat, wine, olive oil and cotton were the chief products with an annual production, as recorded in 1844, of 67 million liters of olive oil largely produced in Apulia and Calabria and loaded for export at Gallipoli along with 191 million liters of wine that were for the most part consumed domestically. On

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3102-654: The Kingdom of Naples ruled by the Angevins. In the Peace of Caltabellotta 1302 , the Aragonese king Frederick III of Sicily and the Angevin king Charles II of Naples recognized each other's rule, but the ancient name "Trinacria" was chosen for the island, while the title "King of Sicily" remained associated with Neapolitan rule, so that there were now two kingdoms called Sicily. A brief "reunification" took place from Sicily, when in 1442

3243-440: The Kingdom of Naples , which was officially also known as the Kingdom of Sicily. Since both kingdoms were named Sicily, they were collectively known as the "Two Sicilies" ( Utraque Sicilia , literally "both Sicilies"), and the unified kingdom adopted this name. The king of the Two Sicilies was overthrown by Giuseppe Garibaldi in 1860, after which the people voted in a plebiscite to join the Kingdom of Sardinia . The annexation of

3384-541: The Liber Augustalis remained the basis of Sicilian law until 1819. In 1223–1224, Frederick tried Bishop Aldoin of Cefalù for maladministration. The trial was nullified by the pope on procedural grounds. Worried by the independent rule the Muslim population developed since his departure in 1212, he deported the Muslim population of Sicily to Lucera on mainland Italy between 1220-1223. In Lucera he assumed, surveillance

3525-506: The Nicene Empire , and even a contingent sent by Muslim sultans in the east. From June, he besieged Brescia. After savage fighting in which the emperor himself was nearly captured, Frederick was surprised at the city’s continued defiance in the face of his large army and sent emissaries to negotiate its surrender. The Brescians rejected the emperor’s terms and the siege continued into September when torrential rains prevented any assault. After

3666-634: The Papal States . At the Congress of Troppau (Nov. 19th), the Holy Alliance ( Metternich being the driving force) decided to intervene. On 23 February 1821, in front of 50,000 Austrian troops paraded outside his capital, King Ferdinand cancelled the constitution. An attempt at Neapolitan resistance to the Austrians by regular forces under General Guglielmo Pepe , as well as by irregular rebel forces (Carbonari),

3807-647: The Papal States . The emperor ordered Enzo to destroy the Republic of Venice , which had sent some ships against Sicily. In December of that year Frederick entered Tuscany and spent Christmas in Pisa. In January 1240, Frederick triumphantly entered Foligno followed by Viterbo , whence he aimed to finally conquer Rome to restore the ancient splendours of the Empire. Frederick's plan to attack Rome at that time, however, did not come to fruition as he chose to leave for southern Italy where

3948-715: The Schatzkammer of the Kunsthistorisches Museum in Vienna. In any case, Gerald of Lausanne , the Latin Patriarch of Jerusalem , did not attend the ceremony; indeed, the next day the Bishop of Caesarea arrived to place the city under interdict on the patriarch's orders. Frederick's further attempts to rule over the Kingdom of Jerusalem were met by resistance on the part of the barons, led by John of Ibelin, Lord of Beirut . In

4089-638: The Second Coming for 1260, at which time Frederick would then confiscate the riches of Rome and distribute them among the poor, the "only true Christians". During Frederick's stay in the Holy Land, his regent, Rainald of Spoleto , had attacked the March of Ancona and the Duchy of Spoleto . Gregory IX recruited an army under John of Brienne and, in 1229, invaded southern Italy. His troops overcame an initial resistance at Montecassino and reached into Campania as far as

4230-619: The Teatro di San Carlo in Naples on 30 May 1826. The kingdom had a large population, its capital Naples being the biggest city in Italy, at least three times as large as any other contemporary Italian state . At its peak, the kingdom had a military 100,000 soldiers strong, and a large bureaucracy . Naples was the largest city in the kingdom and the third largest city in Europe. The second largest city, Palermo,

4371-518: The Urbano Rattazzi law. Peninsula departments Insular departments In 1860–61, the kingdom was absorbed into the Kingdom of Sardinia , and the title dropped. It is still claimed by the head of the House of Bourbon-Two Sicilies . Frederick II, Holy Roman Emperor Frederick II ( Italian : Federico ; German : Friedrich ; Latin : Fridericus ; 26 December 1194 – 13 December 1250)

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4512-539: The Aragonese-Sicilian king Alfonso V also brought the Kingdom of Naples under his rule. With Alfonso's death, this southern Italian personal union dissolved again, since the Aragonese heir to the throne, John II (1458–1479), was only recognized in Sicily, but not in Naples, where Ferdinand (Ferrante, 1458–1494) , an illegitimate son of Alfonso V, seized power in 1458. However, his descendants lost Naples in 1495, first to

4653-527: The Crusade to continually stall in anticipation of his ever-delayed arrival. The crusade ended in failure with the loss of Damietta in 1221. Frederick was blamed by both Pope Honorius III and the general Christian populace for this calamitous defeat. In 1225, after agreeing with Pope Honorius to launch a Crusade before 1228, Frederick summoned an imperial Diet at Cremona , the main pro-imperial city in Lombardy :

4794-629: The Duchy of Apulia . In 1131 this became the Kingdom of Sicily. Through further conquests, Roger II was able to expand his sphere of influence over all of Lower Italy as far as the Papal States . The previously Norman Kingdom of Sicily fell to the Staufer Henry VI , who had married Constance of Sicily in 1186, the daughter of the Norman King Roger II of Sicily and aunt and heiress of the last Norman King William II . Competing counter kings from

4935-550: The Emperor was initially happy with his election. Innocent, however, was to become his fiercest enemy. Negotiations began in the summer of 1243, but the situation changed as Viterbo rebelled, instigated by the intriguing local cardinal Ranieri Capocci . Frederick could not afford to lose his main stronghold near Rome, so he besieged Viterbo . Innocent IV convinced the rebels to sign a peace but, after Frederick withdrew his garrison, Ranieri had them slaughtered on 13 November. Frederick

5076-481: The Fonderia Ferdinandea was a large foundry where cast iron was produced. The Reali ferriere ed Officine di Mongiana was an iron foundry and weapons factory. Founded in 1770, it employed 1600 workers in 1860 and closed in 1880. In Sicily (near Catania and Agrigento ), sulfur was mined to make gunpowder . The Sicilian mines were able to satisfy most of the global demand for sulfur. Silk cloth production

5217-598: The French king Charles VIII , who claimed the old Anjou throne rights for himself, and at the end of the wars triggered by this in 1501/04 to King Ferdinand V of Aragon and Sicily (1479–1516). Due to the dynastic union in 1494 between the Habsburgs and the houses of Aragon and Castile, Naples and Sicily also fell to Charles V in 1516. With the extinction of the Spanish Habsburgs in 1700, Naples and Sicily were caught up in

5358-588: The Great , the first Christian emperor). It was still his name at the time of his election as King of the Romans . He was only given his grandfathers' names, becoming Frederick Roger (or Roger Frederick), at his baptism when he was two years old. This dual name served the same purpose as Constantine: emphasising his dual heritage. Frederick's birth was accompanied by gossip and rumour on account of his mother's advanced age. According to Albert of Stade and Salimbene , he

5499-678: The Habsburgs in 1720 for the Sardinia . Since then, people have spoken of "Naples-Sicily". Until 1735, the Kingdoms of Naples and Sicily were now ruled by Austria. In the War of the Polish Succession the Austrians were harassed here by Spanish troops who supported the claims of the Duke of Parma and Spanish Infante Charles to Naples and Sicily and were victorious at Bitonto in 1734. Infante Charles of

5640-566: The Holy Roman Empire seemed now the target of the Mongols, Frederick II sent letters to Henry III of England and Louis IX of France in order to organise a crusade against the Mongol Empire. A full-scale invasion never occurred, as the Mongols spent the next year pillaging Hungary before withdrawing. After the Mongols withdrew from Hungary back to Russia, Frederick turned his attention back towards Italian matters. The danger represented by

5781-447: The House of Bourbon ruled both Sicily from 1735 to 1759, until he became King of Spain. He was the first king of Naples and Sicily in over 230 years to live and rule there personally. The center of power was and remained Naples, which was magnificently expanded by the new Bourbon kings, while Sicily retained a secondary and semi-colonial status. North of Naples, Charles began the construction of

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5922-523: The Italian unification, the railway development was highly limited. In the year 1859, the kingdom had only 99 kilometers of rail, compared to the 850 kilometers of Piedmont . Other achievements included the first volcano observatory in the world, l'Osservatorio Vesuviano (1841). The rails for the first Italian railways were built in Mongiana , Calabria , as well. All the rails of the old railways that went from

6063-512: The King of Germany, he did not travel to Egypt with the armies of the Fifth Crusade in 1217. He sent forces to Egypt under the command of Louis I, Duke of Bavaria , but constant expectation of his arrival caused papal legate Pelagius to reject Ayyubid sultan Al-Kamil 's offer to restore the Latin Kingdom of Jerusalem to the crusaders in exchange for their withdrawal from Egypt and caused

6204-601: The Kingdom of Sicily and much of Italy, Frederick built upon the work of his Norman predecessors and forged an early absolutist state bound together by an efficient secular bureaucracy. He was known by the appellation stupor mundi or the “wonder of the world” and enjoys a reputation as a brilliant Renaissance man avant la lettre and polymath : a visionary statesman, scientist, scholar, mathematician, architect, poet and composer. Frederick also reportedly spoke six languages: Latin, Sicilian , Middle High German , Old French , Greek, and Arabic. As an avid patron of science and

6345-419: The Kingdom of Sicily or on Crusade until 1235, when he made his last journey to Germany. He returned to Italy in 1237 and stayed there for the remaining thirteen years of his life, represented in Germany by his son Conrad . In the Kingdom of Sicily, he built on the reform of the laws begun at the Assizes of Ariano in 1140 by his grandfather Roger II . His initiative in this direction was visible as early as

6486-412: The Kingdom of the Two Sicilies completed the first phase of Italian unification, and the new Kingdom of Italy was proclaimed in 1861. The Two Sicilies were heavily agricultural, like other Italian states. The name "Two Sicilies" originated from the partition of the medieval Kingdom of Sicily . Until 1285, the island of Sicily and the Mezzogiorno were constituent parts of the Kingdom of Sicily. As

6627-440: The Kingdom of the Two Sicilies was most efficiently conducted by sea. The kingdom possessed the largest merchant fleet in the Mediterranean. Urban road conditions, compared to Northern Italy, did not comply with the best European standards; by 1839, the main streets of Naples were gas-lit. Efforts were made to tackle the tough mountainous terrain; Ferdinand II built the cliff-top road along the Sorrentine peninsula. Road conditions in

6768-406: The League when in June 1226 Louis VIII of France laid siege to Avignon , an imperial city. The barons of the French army sent a letter to Frederick defending their action as a military necessity, and a few days after the start of the siege Henry (VII) ratified an alliance with France that had been signed in 1223. Problems of stability within the empire delayed Frederick's departure on crusade. It

6909-419: The Lombard cities to block the Alpine passes. In May 1235, Frederick went to Germany, taking with him no anrmy, only a sumptuous entourage as a display of his power and wealth. News of his arrival spread quickly and the rebellion disintegrated. As soon as July, he was able to force his son to renounce the crown and all his lands at Worms, where Henry was tried and imprisoned. Henry remained a prisoner in Apulia for

7050-413: The Mongols preoccupied themselves with the lands east of the Danube, attempting to smash all Hungarian resistance. He subsequently ordered his vassals to strengthen their defenses, adopt a defensive posture, and gather large numbers of crossbowmen. A chronicler reports that Frederick received a demand of submission from Batu Khan at some time, which he ignored. Frederick II apparently kept up to date on

7191-469: The Mongols' activities, as a letter from the emperor dated June 1241 comments that the Mongols were now using looted Hungarian armor. On 20 June in Faenza , the emperor issued the Encyclica contra Tartaros , an encyclical letter announcing the fall of Kiev , the invasion of Hungary and the threat to Germany, and requesting each Christian nation to devote its proper quota of men and arms to the defense of Christendom. According to Matthew of Paris's copy of

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7332-490: The Norman ruling family were finally eliminated by military force. When Henry VI died unexpectedly in 1197 at the age of 32, Constance took over the rule of the Sicilian kingdom as regent for her son. He had been elected German King as Frederick II in 1196 at the age of two, but was no longer recognized as such after the death of his father. In 1212, at the instigation of the Pope Innocent III , he finally became German king, initially as an anti-king to Otto IV , and in 1220 he

7473-480: The Papacy to frame himself as the protector of Christendom. While he called them traitorous pagans, Frederick expressed an admiration for Mongol military prowess after hearing of their deeds, in particular their able commanders and fierce discipline and obedience, judging the latter to be the greatest source of their success. He called a levy throughout Germany while the Mongols were busy raiding Hungary. In mid-1241, Frederick dispersed his army back to their holdfasts as

7614-446: The San Carlo was now the biggest opera house in the world. On 13 February 1816 a fire broke out during a dress-rehearsal for a ballet performance and quickly spread to destroy a part of the building. On the orders of King Ferdinand I, who used the services of Antonio Niccolini , to rebuild the opera house within ten months as a traditional horseshoe-shaped auditorium with 1,444 seats, and a proscenium, 33.5m wide and 30m high. The stage

7755-421: The San Carlo. An offer in 1822 from Domenico Barbaja , the impresario of the San Carlo , which followed the composer's ninth opera, led to Gaetano Donizetti 's move to Naples and his residency there which lasted until the production of Caterina Cornaro in January 1844. In all, Naples presented 51 of Donizetti's operas. Also Vincenzo Bellini 's first professionally staged opera had its first performance at

7896-407: The Staufer supporters in Germany, she had her son renounce the title King of the Romans. She probably agreed with Philip that Frederick's prospects in Germany were hopeless. The decision strengthened Frederick's position in Sicily as this satisfied both Philip of Swabia and the Pope, who did not like the idea of a ruler who had authority in both Sicily and the North Alpine realm. Constance of Sicily

8037-412: The Swiss Guard, took the initiative and ordered the suppression of the revolution in Naples (15 May) and by July the mainland was again under royal control and by September, also Messina . Palermo, the revolutionaries' capital and last stronghold, fell to the government some months later on 15 May 1849. The Kingdom of Two Sicilies, over the course of 1848–1849, had been able to suppress the revolution and

8178-480: The Templars and Hospitallers, condemned this deal as a political ploy on the part of Frederick to regain his kingdom while betraying the cause of the Crusaders. Al-Kamil, who was nervous about possible war with his relatives who ruled Syria and Mesopotamia , wished to avoid further trouble from the Christians, at least until his domestic rivals were subdued. The crusade ended in a truce and in Frederick's coronation as King of Jerusalem on 18 March 1229, although this

8319-402: The Two Sicilies was the land forces of the Kingdom, it was created by the settlement of the Bourbon dynasty in Southern Italy following the events of the War of the Polish Succession . The army collapsed during the Expedition of the Thousand . The Real Marina was the naval forces of the Kingdom. It was the most important of the pre-unification Italian navies. A major problem in the Kingdom

8460-515: The Volturno–Irpino. Frederick arrived at Brindisi in June 1229. He quickly recovered the lost territories, and tried and condemned the rebel barons, but avoided crossing the borders of the Papal States. The war came to an end with the Treaty of San Germano in July 1230. On 28 August, in a public ceremony in Ceprano , the papal legates Thomas of Capua and Giovanni Colonna absolved Frederick and lifted his excommunication. The emperor personally met Gregory IX at Anagni , making some concessions to

8601-469: The administration of Kings Joseph and Joachim Murat , such as the Code Civil , the penal and commercial code, were kept (and extended to Sicily). In the mainland parts of the Kingdom, the power and influence of both nobility and clergy had been greatly reduced, though at the expense of law and order. Brigandage and the forceful occupation of lands were problems the restored Kingdom inherited from its predecessors. The Vienna Congress had granted Austria

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8742-426: The allodial Guelphic possessions to Frederick, who in return enfeoffed Otto with the same lands and additional former imperial possessions as the newly established Duke of Brunswick-Lüneburg , ending the unclear status of the German Guelphs, who had been left without title and rank after 1180, and encouraging their cooperation. With peace north of the Alps, Frederick raised an army from the German princes to suppress

8883-403: The arts, he played a major role in promoting literature through the Sicilian School of poetry. His magnificent Sicilian imperial-royal court in Palermo and, more particularly, Foggia , beginning around 1220, saw the first use of a literary form of an Italo-Romance language, Sicilian. The poetry that emanated from the school had a significant influence on literature and on what was to become

9024-474: The attempt of Sicilian secession with their own forces, hired Swiss Guards included. The war declared on Austria in April 1848, under pressure of public sentiment, had been an event on paper only. In 1849 King Ferdinand II was 39 years old. He had begun as a reformer; the early death of his wife (1836), the frequency of political unrest, the extent and range of political expectations on the side of various groups that made up public opinion, had caused him to pursue

9165-473: The bourgeoisie, at times revolutionary, had been Neapolitan respectively Sicilian rather than Italian in its tendency; Sicily in 1848–1849 had striven for a higher degree of independence from Naples rather than for a unified Italy. As public sentiment for Italian unification was rather low in the Kingdom of the Two Sicilies, the country did not feature as an object of acquisition in the earlier plans of Piemont-Sardinia's prime minister Cavour . Only when Austria

9306-458: The burden of local government in Germany. It was a testament to Frederick’s considerable political strength, his increased prestige during the early 1230s, and sheer overpowering might that he succeeded in securing their support and rebound them to Hohenstaufen power. In Germany the Hohenstaufen and the Guelphs reconciled in 1235. Otto the Child , the grandson of Henry the Lion , had been deposed as Duke of Bavaria and Saxony in 1180, conveying

9447-480: The capture of the rival city: as a sign of gratitude, they were granted an augmentation of the communal coat-of-arms with the Hohenstaufen eagle, together with other privileges. This episode shows how the independent cities used the rivalry between Empire and Pope as a means to obtain maximum advantage for themselves. At this time, Gregory considered yielding. A truce occurred and peace negotiations began. Direct peace negotiations ultimately failed and Gregory called for

9588-526: The church in Sicily. He also issued the Constitutions of Melfi (August 1231) to solve the political and administrative problems of the country, which had dramatically been shown by the recent war. While he may have temporarily made his peace with the pope, Frederick found the German princes another matter. Frederick's son Henry VII (who was born 1211 in Sicily, son of Frederick's first wife Constance of Aragon ) had caused their discontent with an aggressive policy against their privileges. This forced Henry to

9729-399: The city, he was convinced that only complete military subjection could finally ensure imperial dominance. Frederick’s demand of total surrender spurred further resistance from Milan, Brescia , Bologna , and Piacenza . In the spring of 1238 Frederick summoned a vast international army to aid in his campaign against the remaining insurgent cities, gathering troops from England, France, Hungary,

9870-414: The civilian population. Mongol probing attacks materialised on the Holy Roman Empire's border states: a force was repulsed in a skirmish near Kłodzko, 300–700 Mongol troops were killed in a battle near Vienna to 100 Austrian losses (according to the Duke of Austria), and a Mongol raiding party was destroyed by Austrian knights in the district of Theben after being backed to the border of the River March. As

10011-425: The commune of Rome) and an elephant. Now at the zenith of his power, Frederick’s political preeminence across all Europe was seemingly unassailable. Frederick rejected any suit for conditional peace from his Lombard enemies, even from Milan , his most implacable foe among the cities, which had sent a great sum of money. Perhaps from sober political calculation in light of years of Milanese opposition or simply hatred of

10152-634: The control of the House of Bourbon-Two Sicilies , a cadet branch of the Bourbons . The kingdom was the largest sovereign state by population and land area in Italy before the Italian unification , comprising Sicily and most of the area of today's Mezzogiorno ( southern Italy ) and covering all of the Italian Peninsula south of the Papal States . The kingdom was formed when the Kingdom of Sicily merged with

10293-575: The death of his father Henry VI in 1197, Frederick was in Italy, traveling towards Germany, when the bad news reached his guardian, Conrad of Spoleto . Frederick was hastily brought back to his mother Constance in Palermo, Sicily, where he was crowned King of Sicily on 17 May 1198, at just three years of age. Originally his title had been Romanorum et Sicilie rex (King of the Romans and Sicily), but in 1198, after Constance (who kept using title of Empress) found out that Philip of Swabia had been recognized by

10434-485: The dismissal of the pro-noble Walter of Palearia. The new emperor invaded Italy, where he reached Calabria without meeting much resistance. In response, Innocent sided against Otto, and in September 1211 at the Diet of Nuremberg Frederick was elected in absentia as German King by a rebellious faction backed by the pope. Innocent also excommunicated Otto, who was forced to return to Germany. Frederick sailed to Gaeta with

10575-563: The election of a new pope. In 1241–1242, the forces of the Mongol Empire decisively defeated the armies of Hungary and Poland and devastated their countryside and all their unfortified settlements. King Béla IV of Hungary appealed to Frederick for aid, but Frederick, being in dispute with the Hungarian king for some time (as Bela had sided with the Papacy against him) and not wanting to commit to

10716-560: The encyclical, Frederick indicated he had accepted Hungarian submission as emperor. Another letter written by Frederick, found in the Regesta Imperii, dated to 20 June 1241, and intended for all his vassals in Swabia, Austria, and Bohemia, included a number of specific military instructions. His forces were to avoid engaging the Mongols in field battles, hoard all food stocks in every fortress and stronghold, and arm all possible levies as well as

10857-512: The encyclical, it was addressed to the Catholic nations— France , Spain , Wales , Ireland , England , Swabia , Denmark , Italy , Burgundy , Apulia , Crete , Cyprus , Sicily , Scotland and Norway —each addressed according to its own national stereotype. Richard of San Germano states that copies were sent to all the princes of the West and quotes the start of the letter to the French king. In

10998-565: The fortified port of Gaeta , where he surrendered and abdicated in February 1861 after the Siege of Gaeta . At the encounter of Teano , Garibaldi met King Victor Emmanuel , transferring to him the conquered kingdom, the Two Sicilies were annexed into the Kingdom of Sardinia , which became the Kingdom of Italy in 1861. The Real Teatro di San Carlo was commissioned by the Bourbon King Charles VII of Naples who wanted to grant Naples

11139-504: The general populace. Thomas of Split comments that there was a frenzy of fortifying castles and cities throughout the Holy Roman Empire, including Italy. Either following the Emperor's instructions or on their own initiative, Frederick II, Duke of Austria paid to have his border castles strengthened at his own expense. King Wenceslaus I of Bohemia had every castle strengthened and provisioned, as well as providing soldiers and armaments to monasteries in order to turn them into refuges for

11280-693: The illegality of his persecution by Gregory. Frederick then directed his army toward Rome and the Pope, burning and destroying Umbria as he advanced. Then just as the Emperor's forces were ready to attack Rome, Gregory died on 22 August 1241. Frederick then attempted to show that the war was not directed against the Church of Rome but against the Pope by withdrawing his troops and freeing from prison in Capua two cardinals he had captured at Giglio, Otto of Tonengo and James of Pecorara . Frederick then traveled to Sicily to wait for

11421-656: The interior and hinterland areas of the kingdom made internal trade difficult. The kingdom achieved several scientific and technological accomplishments, such as the first steamboat in the Mediterranean Sea (1818), built in the shipyard of Stanislao Filosa at the Vigliena dock, near Naples, the first railway in the Italian peninsula (1839), which connected Naples to Portici , and the first iron-suspension bridge (the Real Ferdinando Bridge ) in Italy. However, until

11562-419: The island of Sicily, in 1839, due to less arable lands, the output was much smaller than on the mainland yet approximately 115,000 acres of vineyards and about 260,000 acres of orchards , mainly fig, orange and citrus, were cultivated. One of the most important industrial complexes in the kingdom was the shipyard of Castellammare di Stabia , which employed 1800 workers. The engineering factory of Pietrarsa

11703-401: The kingdom however had no obligation for school attendance nor a recognizable school system. Clerics could inspect schools and had a veto power over appointments of teachers who were for the most part from the clergy anyhow. In 1859, for a population of 9 million inhabitants, there were only 2,010 primary schools with 67,428 pupils and 3,171 teachers. At the time of unification the literacy rate

11844-574: The main arguments for holding the Diet would be to continue the struggle against heresy, to organize the crusade and, above all, to restore the imperial power in northern Italy, which had long been usurped by the numerous communes located there. Those assembled responded with the reformation of the Lombard League , which had already defeated his grandfather Frederick Barbarossa in the 12th century, and again Milan

11985-607: The masses of Lazzaroni , the poorest class. After visiting Naples in 1850, Gladstone began to support Neapolitan opponents of the Bourbon rulers: his "support" consisted of a couple of letters that he sent from Naples to the Parliament in London, describing the "awful conditions" of the Kingdom of Southern Italy and claiming that "it is the negation of God erected to a system of government". Gladstone's letters provoked sensitive reactions in

12126-442: The mid-1230s, Frederick's viceroy was forced to leave Acre, and in 1244, following a siege , Jerusalem itself was lost again to a new Muslim offensive. Whilst Frederick's seeming bloodless recovery of Jerusalem for the cross brought him great prestige in some European circles, his decision to complete the crusade while excommunicated provoked Church hostility. Although in 1230 the Pope lifted Frederick's excommunication, this decision

12267-487: The mining, refining, and transportation of sulfur, combined with the failure of this lucrative export to transform Sicily's backward and impoverished economy, led to the 'Sulfur Crisis' of 1840. This was precipitated when King Ferdinand II granted a monopoly of the sulfur industry to a French company, in violation of an 1816 trade agreement with Britain. A peaceful solution was eventually negotiated by France. With all of its major cities boasting ports, transport and trade in

12408-657: The modern Italian language . He was also the first monarch to formally outlaw trial by ordeal , which had come to be viewed as superstitious. Though still in a strong position at his death, his line did not long survive, and the House of Hohenstaufen came to an end. Furthermore, the Holy Roman Empire entered a long period of decline during the Great Interregnum . His complex political and cultural legacy has attracted fierce debates and fascination until this day. Born in Jesi , near Ancona , Italy, on 26 December 1194, Frederick

12549-410: The municipal administration has few economic means to remedy the situation, the gentlemen often have whole sections of streets paved in front of the entrance of their home. The peninsula was divided into fifteen departments and Sicily was divided into seven departments. In 1860, when the Two Sicilies were conquered by the Kingdom of Sardinia , the departments became provinces of Italy , according to

12690-534: The new European superpower France . The Treaty of Casalanza restored Ferdinand IV of Bourbon to the throne of Naples and the island of Sicily (where the constitution of 1812 virtually had disempowered him) was returned to him. In 1816 he annulled the constitution and Sicily became fully reintegrated into the new state, which was now officially called the Regno delle Due Sicilie (Kingdom of Two Sicilies). Ferdinand IV became Ferdinand I. A number of accomplishments under

12831-622: The news of his excommunication by the pope in the first months of 1239 while his court was in Padua . The emperor responded by expelling the Franciscans and the Dominicans from Lombardy, taking hostages from important northern Italian families, and electing his son Enzo as Legate General and Imperial vicar of Lombardy. Enzo soon annexed the Romagna , Marche , and the Duchy of Spoleto , nominally part of

12972-580: The pope and the imperial diplomats, Frederick invaded Lombardy from Verona . In November 1237 he won the decisive battle in Cortenuova over the Lombard League, displaying his capability as a battlefield leader, able to maneuver and prevail in difficult situations. Frederick celebrated the victory with a triumph in Cremona in the manner of an ancient Roman emperor , with the captured carroccio (later sent to

13113-581: The population of the countryside rose at a faster rate than that of the city of Naples herself, a rather odd phenomenon in a time when much of Europe experienced the Industrial Revolution. As registered in the 1827 census, for the Neapolitan (continental) part of the kingdom, 1,475,314 of the male population were listed as husbandmen which traditionally consisted of three classes the Borgesi (yeomanry),

13254-532: The presence of the Mongols in Europe was debated again at the First Council of Lyon in 1245, but Frederick II was excommunicated by that very diet in the context of his struggle with the Papacy and ultimately abandoned the possibility of a crusade against the Mongol Empire. A new pope, Innocent IV , was elected on 25 June 1243. He was a member of a noble Imperial family and had some relatives in Frederick's camp, so

13395-654: The railroad, the Church still objected to the construction of tunnels, because of their 'obscenity'. In 1836 the kingdom was struck by a cholera epidemic which killed 65,000 in Sicily alone. In the following years the Neapolitan countryside saw sporadic local insurrections. In the 1840s, clandestine political pamphlets circulated, evading censorship. Moreover, in September 1847 an uprising saw insurrectionists crossing from mainland Calabria over to Sicily before government forces were able to suppress them. On 12 January 1848, an open rebellion began in Palermo and demands were made for

13536-501: The rebel cities in Lombardy. Gregory tried to stop the invasion with diplomatic moves, but in vain. During his descent to Italy, Frederick had to divert his troops to quell a rebellion of Frederick II, Duke of Austria . At Vienna , in February 1237, he obtained the title of King of the Romans for his 9-year-old son Conrad . After the failure of the negotiations between the Lombard cities,

13677-472: The red silk mantle that had been crafted during the reign of Roger II. It bore an Arabic inscription indicating that the robe dated from the year 528 in the Muslim calendar, and incorporated a generic benediction, wishing its wearer "vast prosperity, great generosity and high splendor, fame and magnificent endowments, and the fulfillment of his wishes and hopes. May his days and nights go in pleasure without end or change." This coronation robe can be found today in

13818-514: The region of northern Germany, the center of Guelph power, Otto continued to hold the reins of royal and imperial power despite his excommunication. Otto's decisive military defeat at the Bouvines forced him to withdraw to the Guelph hereditary lands where, virtually without supporters, he died in 1218. The German princes, supported by Innocent III, again elected Frederick king of Germany in 1215, and he

13959-505: The reintroduction of the 1812 constitution. King Ferdinand II appointed a liberal prime minister, broke off diplomatic relations with Austria and even declared war on the latter (7 April). Although revolutionaries who had risen in several mainland cities outside Naples shortly after the Sicilians approved of the new measures (April 1848), Sicily continued with her revolution. Faced with these differing reactions to his moves, King Ferdinand, using

14100-419: The release of the political prisoners. When this was rejected, both countries broke off diplomatic relations. The Kingdom pursued an economic policy of protectionism ; the country's economy was mainly based on agriculture , the cities, especially Naples – with over 400,000 inhabitants, Italy's largest – "a center of consumption rather than of production" (Santore p. 163) and home to poverty most expressed by

14241-470: The rest of his life until he reportedly committed suicide. Frederick II skillfully turned the complex challenge of Henry’s rebellion into a chance to introduce “thorough and groundbreaking” reform of Germany and the way the empire was ruled. The Mainz Landfriede or Constitutio Pacis , decreed at the Imperial Diet of 1235, became one of the basic laws of the empire and provided that the princes should share

14382-456: The right to station troops in the kingdom, and Austria, as well as Russia and Prussia , insisted that no written constitution was to be granted to the kingdom. In October 1815, Joachim Murat landed in Calabria , in an attempt to regain his kingdom. The government responded to acts of collaboration or of terrorism with severe repression and by June 1816 Murat's attempt had failed and the situation

14523-481: The royal opera houses, including the San Carlo. During this period he wrote ten operas which were Elisabetta, regina d'Inghilterra (1815), La gazzetta , Otello, ossia il Moro di Venezia (1816), Armida (1817), Mosè in Egitto , Ricciardo e Zoraide (1818), Ermione , Bianca e Falliero , Eduardo e Cristina , La donna del lago (1819), Maometto II (1820), and Zelmira (1822), many premiered at

14664-402: The royal palace of Palermo until 1206. Frederick was subsequently under tutor Walter of Palearia , until, in 1208, he was declared of age. At that time he spoke five languages, Greek, Arabic, Latin, Provençal and Sicilian . His first task was to reassert his power over Sicily and southern Italy, where local barons and adventurers had usurped most of the authority. Pope Innocent was in search of

14805-502: The same time, the Aragonese rulers of the Island of Sicily also called their realm the Kingdom of Sicily. Thus, there were two kingdoms called Sicily: hence, when they were reunited, the result was named the Kingdom of Two Sicilies. From 1061 onwards, Norman warriors conquered the island of Sicily, which had been ruled by the Saracens since 827. The conqueror Roger I became Count of Sicily and Calabria . His son Roger II also inherited

14946-623: The south to as far as Bologna were built in Mongiana. The kingdom was home to three universities namely those in Naples founded in 1224, Catania founded in 1434 and Palermo founded in 1806. Also in Naples, established by Matteo Ripa in 1732, was the Collegio dei Cinesi today the University of Naples "L'Orientale" teaching Sinology and Oriental studies . Despite these institutions of higher learning

15087-458: The south, he was " excommunicated four times between 1227 and his own death in 1250", and was often vilified in pro-papal chronicles of the time and after. Pope Gregory IX went so far as to declare him preambulus Antichristi (predecessor of the Antichrist ). For his many-sided activities and dynamic personality Frederick II has been called the greatest of all the medieval German emperors. In

15228-653: The support of the church. He left behind a kingdom in the Levant torn between his agents and the local nobility, a civil war known as the War of the Lombards . The itinerant Joachimite preachers and many radical Franciscans , the Spirituals , supported Frederick. Against the interdict pronounced on his lands, the preachers condemned the Pope and continued to minister the sacraments and grant absolutions. Brother Arnold in Swabia proclaimed

15369-517: The turmoil of the War of the Spanish Succession . After initial rule by the Bourbons , who now ruled in Spain , Central Italy was occupied by Austria in 1707/08, whose Habsburg line also laid claim to the kingdom. The peace treaties of 1713/14 ( Utrecht / Rastatt ) left the Kingdom of Naples with Austria , but assigned the Kingdom of Sicily to Victor Amadeus of Savoy , who exchanged it with

15510-504: The way north to Germany. As the Crusades progressed, he acquired control of Jerusalem and styled himself its king. Viewing himself as a direct successor to the Roman emperors of antiquity, he was Emperor of the Romans from his papal coronation in 1220 until his death; he was also a claimant to the title of King of the Romans from 1212 and unopposed holder of that monarchy from 1215. As such, he

15651-493: The whole of Europe and helped to cause its diplomatic isolation before the invasion and annexation of the Kingdom of the Two Sicilies by the Kingdom of Sardinia , with the following foundation of modern Italy . Administratively, Naples and Sicily remained separate units; in 1858 the Neapolitan Postal Service issued her first postage stamps; that of Sicily followed in 1859. Until 1849, the political movement among

15792-469: Was Cencio , who would become Pope Honorius III. Markward of Annweiler , with the support of Henry's brother, Philip of Swabia , reclaimed the regency for himself and soon after invaded the Kingdom of Sicily. In 1200, with the help of Genoese ships , he landed in Sicily and one year later seized the young Frederick. He thus ruled Sicily until 1202, when he was succeeded by another German captain, William of Capparone , who kept Frederick under his control in

15933-515: Was King of Germany , of Italy , and of Burgundy . At the age of three, he was crowned King of Sicily as a co-ruler with his mother, Constance, Queen of Sicily, the daughter of Roger II of Sicily . His other royal title was King of Jerusalem by virtue of marriage and his connection with the Sixth Crusade . Frequently at war with the papacy, which was hemmed in between Frederick's lands in northern Italy and his Kingdom of Sicily (the Regno ) to

16074-626: Was King of Sicily from 1198, King of Germany from 1212, King of Italy and Holy Roman Emperor from 1220 and King of Jerusalem from 1225. He was the son of Emperor Henry VI of the Hohenstaufen dynasty (the second son of Emperor Frederick Barbarossa ) and Queen Constance I of Sicily of the Hauteville dynasty . He was one of the most powerful figures of the Middle Ages and ruled a vast area, beginning with Sicily and stretching through Italy all

16215-639: Was defeated in 1859 and the unification of Northern Italy (except Venetia) was accomplished in 1860, did Giuseppe Garibaldi , at the head of the Expedition of the Thousand , launch his invasion of Sicily, with the connivance of Cavour (once in Sicily, many rallied to his colours); after a successful campaign in Sicily, he crossed over to the mainland and won the battle of the Volturno with half of his army being local volunteers. King Francis II (since 1859) withdrew to

16356-483: Was 34.5m deep. Niccolini embellished in the inner of the bas-relief depicting "Time and the Hour". Stendhal attended the second night of the inauguration and wrote: "There is nothing in all Europe, I won't say comparable to this theatre, but which gives the slightest idea of what it is like..., it dazzles the eyes, it enraptures the soul...". From 1815 to 1822, Gioachino Rossini was the house composer and artistic director of

16497-441: Was also problematic in Lombardy, after all the emperor's attempts to restore the imperial authority in Lombardy with the help of Gregory IX (at the time, ousted from Rome by a revolt) turned to nothing in 1233. In the meantime Henry in Germany had returned to an anti-princes policy, against his father's will: Frederick thus obtained his excommunication from Gregory IX (July 1234). Henry tried to muster an opposition in Germany and asked

16638-518: Was better in order to control them and the Muslims acknowledged that they were left with their religious freedom. He also enlisted some in the army and six hundred as his personal bodyguards because, as Muslim soldiers, they had the advantage of immunity from papal excommunication. At the time he was elected King of the Romans, Frederick promised to go on crusade. He continually delayed, however, and, in spite of his renewal of this vow at his coronation as

16779-524: Was chosen as the league's leader. The Diet was cancelled, however, and the situation was stabilized only through a compromise reached by Honorius between Frederick and the league. During his sojourn in northern Italy, Frederick also invested the Teutonic Order with the territories in what would become East Prussia , starting what was later called the Northern Crusade . Frederick was distracted with

16920-711: Was crowned Holy Roman Emperor in Rome by Honorius III, on 22 November 1220. At the same time, Frederick's oldest son Henry took the title of King of the Romans. Unlike most Holy Roman emperors, Frederick spent few years in Germany. In 1218, he helped King Philip II of France and Odo III, Duke of Burgundy , to bring an end to the War of Succession in Champagne (France) by invading Lorraine , capturing and burning Nancy , capturing Theobald I, Duke of Lorraine and forcing him to withdraw his support from Erard of Brienne-Ramerupt . After his coronation in 1220, Frederick remained either in

17061-523: Was crowned emperor. Frederick II (Frederick I of Sicily) rarely stayed on German soil, but ruled his empire from southern Italy. In contrast to the (Lombard-Tuscan) Kingdom of Italy north of the Papal States , the Kingdom of Sicily never became part of the Holy Roman Empire . As a result of the escalating conflict between the Hohenstaufen dynasty and the papacy, the French prince Charles of Anjou

17202-455: Was crowned king in Aachen in mid-July 1215 by one of the three German archbishops. Frederick then astonished the crowd by taking the cross and calling upon the nobles present to do the same. It was not until another five years had passed, and only after further negotiations between Frederick, Innocent III, and Honorius III – who succeeded to the papacy after Innocent's death in 1216 – that Frederick

17343-466: Was elevated to the Sicilian throne by Pope Clement IV in 1265. Charles took power in 1266 through his victory over the Hohenstaufen king Manfred , who had initially administered Sicily as regent for his underage and absent nephew Conradin , but had then assumed the royal title himself. As the last Hohenstaufen to lay claim to the Sicilian throne and fight for it, Conradin was captured in 1268 and executed by his opponent in Naples. Unlike in Naples, which

17484-661: Was entrusted to the care of the duchess of Spoleto, the wife of the Swabian noble Conrad I of Urslingen, who was named duke of Spoleto by Frederick Barbarossa. Frederick II stayed in Foligno, a place located in papal territory and so under papal jurisdiction, until the death of his father, on September 28 in 1197. In 1196 at Frankfurt am Main the infant Frederick was elected King of the Romans and thus heir to his father's imperial crown. His rights in Germany were to end up disputed by Henry's brother Philip of Swabia and Otto of Brunswick . At

17625-620: Was focused in San Leucio (near Caserta ). The region of Basilicata also had several mills in Potenza and San Chirico Raparo , where cotton , wool and silk were processed. Food processing was widespread, especially near Naples ( Torre Annunziata and Gragnano ). The kingdom maintained a large sulfur mining industry. In the increasingly industrialized Great Britain, with the repeal of tariffs on salt in 1824, demand for sulfur from Sicily surged. The growing British control and exploitation of

17766-539: Was forced to return when he was struck down by an epidemic that had broken out. Even the master of the Teutonic Knights , Hermann of Salza , recommended that he return to the mainland to recuperate. On 29 September 1227, Frederick was excommunicated by Pope Gregory IX for failing to honor his crusading pledge. Many contemporary chroniclers doubted the sincerity of Frederick's illness, and their attitude may be explained by their pro-papal leanings. Roger of Wendover ,

17907-553: Was in her own right queen of Sicily, and she established herself as regent . Constance sided with the Pope who preferred that Sicily and the Germans were under separate governments. She renounced the authority over the Sicilian state church to the papal side, but only as Sicilian queen and not as empress, seemingly with the intention of keeping options open for Frederick. Upon Constance's death in 1198, Pope Innocent III succeeded as Frederick's guardian. Frederick's tutor during this period

18048-415: Was just 14.4% in 1861. The situation of the time in terms of social expenditure and public hygiene is mainly known today thanks to the writings of the historian and journalist Raffaele De Cesare. It is well known that public hygiene conditions in the regions of the Kingdom of the Two Sicilies are very poor and especially in the central and rural regions. Most small municipalities do not have sewers and have

18189-417: Was not the son of Henry and Constance but was presented to Henry as his own after a faked pregnancy. His real father was variously described as a butcher of Jesi, a physician, a miller or a falconer. Frederick's birth was also associated with a prophecy of Merlin . According to Andrea Dandolo , writing at some distance but probably recording contemporary gossip, Henry doubted reports of his wife's pregnancy and

18330-400: Was not until 1225, when, by proxy, Frederick had married Isabella II of Jerusalem , heiress to the Kingdom of Jerusalem , that his departure seemed assured. Frederick immediately saw to it that his new father-in-law John of Brienne , the current king of Jerusalem, was dispossessed and his rights transferred to the emperor. In August 1227, Frederick set out for the Holy Land from Brindisi but

18471-457: Was only convinced by consulting Joachim of Fiore , who confirmed that Frederick was his son by interpretation of Merlin's prophecy and the Erythraean Sibyl . A later legend claims that Constance gave birth in the public square of Jesi to silence doubters. Constance took unusual measures to prove her pregnancy and its legitimacy and Roger of Howden reports that she swore on the gospels before

18612-516: Was smashed and on 24 March 1821 Austrian forces entered the city of Naples . Political repression then only intensified. Lawlessness in the countryside was aggravated by the problem of administrative corruption. A coup attempted in 1828 and aimed at forcing the promulgation of a constitution was suppressed by Neapolitan troops (the Austrian troops had left the previous year). King Francis I (1825–1830) died after having visited Paris , where he witnessed

18753-477: Was taken for a variety of reasons related to the political situation in Europe. Of Frederick's crusade, Philip of Novara , a chronicler of the period, said: "The emperor left Acre [after the conclusion of the truce]; hated, cursed, and vilified." Overall this crusade, arguably the first successful one since the First Crusade , was adversely affected by the manner in which Frederick carried out negotiations without

18894-403: Was technically improper. Frederick's wife Isabella, the heiress, had died, leaving their infant son Conrad as rightful king. There is also disagreement as to whether the "coronation" was a coronation at all, as a letter written by Frederick to Henry III of England suggests that the crown he placed on his own head was in fact the imperial crown of the Romans. At his coronation, he may have worn

19035-400: Was the distribution of land property – most of it concentrated in the hands of a few families, the landed nobility . The villages housed a large rural proletariat , desperately poor and dependent on the landlords for work. The Kingdom's few cities had little industry, thus not providing the outlet excess rural population found in northern Italy, France or Germany. The figures above show that

19176-522: Was the focus of Angevin rule, French rule on Sicily was abolished after just a few years by the popular uprising of 1282, the Sicilian Vespers , which instead elevated Peter III of Aragon , a son-in-law of the Hohenstaufen king Manfred, to king of the island. The old Norman-Staufer kingdom was since then - despite mutual claims to power - effectively divided into the Aragonese Kingdom of Sicily and

19317-572: Was the largest industrial plant in the Italian peninsula, producing tools, cannons , rails, and locomotives . The complex also included a school for train drivers and naval engineers, and, thanks to this school, the kingdom was able to replace the English personnel who had been necessary until then. The first steamboat with screw propulsion known in Italy was the Giglio delle Onde , with mail delivery and passenger transport purposes after 1847. In Calabria,

19458-478: Was the son of Henry VI, Holy Roman Emperor . He was known as the puer Apuliae (son of Apulia ). His mother was Constance of Sicily . Frederick was baptised in Assisi , in the church of San Rufino . At birth, Frederick was named Constantine by his mother. This name, a masculine form of his mother's name, served to identify him closely with both his Norman heritage and his imperial heritage (through Constantine

19599-432: Was the third largest in Italy. In the 1800s, the kingdom experienced large population growth, rising from approximately five to seven million. It held approximately 36% of Italy's population around 1850. Because the kingdom did not establish a statistical department until after 1848, most population statistics before that year are estimates and censuses that were thought by contemporaries to be inaccurate. The Army of

19740-479: Was under government control. However, the Neapolitan administration had changed from conciliatory to reactionary policies. The French novelist Henri de Stendhal , who visited Naples in 1817, called the kingdom "an absurd monarchy in the style of Philip II ". As open political activity was suppressed, liberals organized themselves in secret societies, such as the Carbonari , an organization whose origins date back into

19881-571: Was united with the Austrian Habsburgs through the marriage of Ferdinand IV and Maria Carolina of Austria , a daughter of Empress Maria Theresa , on 12 May 1768. Initially dominated by the dual influence of the great powers Spain and Austria, Naples-Sicily - particularly in the course of the French Revolutionary Wars from 1792 onwards - became increasingly dependent on the naval power Great Britain in order to defend itself against

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