The Vicissitudes of Italy since the Congress of Vienna

Preface

. Part of this summary, for it can pretend to no higher title, appeared in the 19th, 21st, and 22nd numbers of the British and Foreign Evangelical Review, as an analysis of Ferdi nando Panalb's Isforie Italiane. Since then, I have been often urged by some Italian friends, who had taken an honourable share in the movement of 1S4S, to expand these articles into a small book, bringing down the narrative (which I had closed at 1849) to the present day. "It must be short or nobody will read it,' was the recommendation of one amongst them who had visited England since his exile, and been received as a distinguished guest in some of our first circles. " Your counts-people have too many books to take up their attention upon subjects that immediately concern them, to have much time to bestow upon the lengthy recital of our misfortunes." The truth of this assertion I was fully aware of. The knowledge that it would be labour lost a

PREFACE.

. had already deterred me from translating any of the recent Italian historians. I believe an Eng lish reader would succumb after twenty pages either of Eanabi or Gualterio ; yet these are by far the most practical, the least prosy, and the least exaggerated of any of the native writers. To set about condensing, what no one has hitherto attempted to relate, with any accuracy, under three or four volumes at least, into three or four hundred pages, was b}r no means an exhi larating prospect : — still I wished so earnestly to contribute my mite towards dissipating the igno rance and misconception that prevails amongst us relative to Italian affairs, that at last I took courage. I should be sorry to call upon my readers to wade through the dreary array of* volumes, pamphlets, and newspapers, my task compebed me to digest ; still more sorry to leave upon their minds any trace of its bewildering com plications.

If, however, my object should in any wa}r be attained, and, through an insight into Italy's past, her present be more fairly ap preciated, I shall be well rewarded. It now only remains for me to give a list of all the publications from which I have

PREFACE.

. V drawn my materials ; and to add the assurance that an earnest desire to state the truth has been seconded by more means than are often accessible to foreigners, of ascertaining it. Genoa, 27th January, 1859. Eanalli. Le Istorie Italiane. 4 vols. Florence, 1855. G.ualterio. Gli Ultimi Rivolyimenti Italiani, con documenti inediti. 4 vols. Florence, 1852. Cibraeio. Ricordi d'ttna missione in Portogallo al Re Carlo Alberto. 1 vol. Turin. La Farina. Istoria Documentata delta Rivoluzione Siciliana. 8 vols. Capolago (Tessino), 1851. Torre. Memorie Storiche sull' intervento Francese a Roma. 2 vols. Vecchj. La Italia. Storia di due anni. Torino, 1856. 1 vol. Mariano d'Ayala. Vita del re di Napoli. Torino, 1856. Farini. La Diplomazia e la quistione Italiana. Torino, 1856. Palmiert. Storia Costituzionale delta Sicilia. 1 vol. large 8vo.

Introduction

. Present Political Division of Italy as settled at the CoNGBESS OF VlENNA. I. Sardinia : Brief sketch of its previous history — Its geographical limits— Population, army, and navy — Present Sovereign Victor Emmanuel. — II. Lombardo- Venetian Provinces : Origin of the Austrian domination over the Milanese — Napoleon invades Italy, and possesses himself of Lombardy and Venice, and forms a kingdom, naming Eugene Beauharnais as Viceroy — The two provinces annexed to Austria in 1814-1815 — Their extent, population, and proportion of military force raised by conscription for the Austrian army. — III. Tuscany and Lucca : Originally comprised in various republics, united under a Prince of the House of Lorraine in 1757 — Present Grand Duke Leopold II.— Extent, population, army, and navy. — IV. Paema and Placentia passed under the rule of a Bourbon Prince in 1737 — Depravity of the late Grand Duke — Assassinated in 1854 — Extent, population, and arm}**. — V. Modena: Its Archduke a member of the House of Austria — Extent, population, &c. — VI.

Papal States : Mode of government ; extent of territory, population, and army. — VII. San Marino a petty republic. — VIII. Monaco, the smallest existing sovereignty. — IX. Kingdom of the Two Sicilies: Geographical limits — Early history — The Island of Sicily predominant in the Middle Ages — Kingdom consolidated in 1735 under a Bourbon Prince of Spain — Sicilian Constitution of 1812, guaranteed by England, violated by the King of Naples in 1816 — Extent, population, army, navy, and commerce of the kingdom — Present Monarch, Ferdinand II. It is essential to the clear understanding of the vicissitudes and struggles of which we have

INTRODUCTION.

. taken upon ourselves to give an outline, that the reader should carry in his mind some notion of the general history, the reigning dynasties, and territorial divisions of the Italian Peninsula. Charitably desirous of sparing him, wherever possible, the endless intricacies of the Eepublics and petty States of the Middle Ages, we take the treaties of 1815 as our starting-point, and proceed to describe the fobowing kingdoms and principalities of which Italy was then recognised to consist : — The kingdom of Sardinia, the Lom bardo-Venetian kingdom, the grand duchy of Tuscany, the duchy of Parma, the duchy of Modena, the duchy of Lucca (now annexed to Tuscany), the Pontifical States, the little Ee public of San Marino, the kingdom of the Two Sicilies, and the insignificant principality of Monaco ; giving a rough total of 24,000,000 of inhabitants and 119,679 square miles.

I. SARDINIA. The kingdom of Sardinia, as is well known, had for its cradle a few barren valleys on the French side of the Alps. In the year 1000, Beroldo, a powerful vassal of the Kino* of Burgundy, was invested with the fief of Man- SARDINIA. IX rienne in Savoy, and we speedily find his de scendants rising in influence and fame. By marriage with Adelaide of Susa, a wealthy Princess, who brought as her dowry a considerable portion of the most fertile districts of Piedmont, Oddone, the fourth Count of Savoy, estabbshed a footing on the Italian soil, which it became the rooted policy of his house to maintain and extend. The list of the possessions over which lying Victor Emmanuel II., the lineal descendant of Beroldo, now holds sway, accumulated during the course of eight centuries by conquest or negotiation, shows how his ancestors went on acquiring preponderance in Italy, to consolidate which they were content to cede, one by one, the chief part of their Trans-Alpine provinces, and from having owned Geneva, the Canton de Vaud, Bourg en Bresse, Bugey, and Valromey (the three last now constituting the French department of the Ain), remained with only Savoy to divert their attention from an exclusively Italian policy.

At the same time it must be remarked, that from the force of custom, tradition, and intermarriage, the language of France long con tinued to be spoken at the Court of Turin, and X

INTRODUCTION.

. by the nobbity; and a tone of Gabicism was suffered to predominate in the social relations of the country, wholly at variance with the external measures of the Government, and the independence of action it always claimed. This State, with an area of 29,167 square miles, and 5,000,000 of inhabitants, comprises the duchy of Savoy ; the principalities of Pied mont and Carignano, the inheritance of Adelaide of Susa; the marquisate of Ivrea, which sub mitted to Savoy in 1313; the lordship of Ver celli, ceded by the duke of Milan in 1427 ; the county of Asti, obtained in 1531 ; the marqui sate of Saluzzo, long contested by the French, and exchanged in 1601 against Bourg en Bresse, Bugey and Valromey ; the marquisate of Mont ferrat (lying between Piedmont and the republic of Genoa), Alessandria, Valenza, Lomebina, dis memberments of the duchies of Mantua and Milan, acquired at the peace of Utrecht in 1713 ; the island of Sardinia, whence the regal title is derived, in 1720; Tortona, Novara, and Oltre- Po-Pavese, other fragments of the rich territory of Milan, so long and pertinaciously desired, made over at the treaty of Aix-la-Chapehe ; Nice, which in 1386 became incorporated with Pied- SARDINIA.

XI mont by a nobler means than conquest, the deliberate vote of its inhabitants, who voluntarily placed themselves under the rule of the chival rous Amadeus VII., better known in history as the Eed Count ; and lastly, the repubhc of Genoa, assigned to the King of Sardinia at the Congress of Vienna in 1815. By a just and paternal administration, the territories thus gained have been fused into a homogeneous whole ; provincial jealousies have been appeased, rankling memories laid at rest. Genoa is the most signal triumph in this greatest of victories. Forty-four years only have passed since a yeb of despair and execration rose up from the queen-like city, on learn ing that her independence was laid low, and that the great Powers of Europe had abotted her to the Sardinian monarchy. Since then, her spirit of disaffection has been unceasingly fanned by the high-priest of Italian democracy ; yet such is the irresistible influence of liberality and for bearance, that as a thing of the past may be counted her murmurs at this union, or her republican aspirations. Victor Emmanuel II., the reigning sovereign, was born in 1820, and ascended the throne on

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. XII the abdication of his father, Charles Albert, the evening after his overthrow at Novara, the 23rd of March, 1849. In 1842 he married his cousin, Adelaide of Austria, daughter of the Archduke Eegnier. The Queen, dying in 1855, left five children, the eldest of whom, the Princess Clo tdde, has recently been united to Prince Napo leon of France. Umberto, Prince of Piedmont, heir apparent to the crown of Sardinia, is now fifteen years of age. The Sardinian army, in time of peace, amounts to 43,000 men ; when placed on a war footing, to 90,000, levied by conscription, much on the same system as in France. The navy consists of 25 vessels, of which 14 are steamers, carrying a total of 403 guns, and manned by 5500 sailors, also levied by conscription. Genoa and Spezia are the two naval harbours.

The mercantile marine numbers 3305 ships, giving a total of 167,000 tons burden, and employs 27,000 men. II. THE LOMBARDO-VENETIAN STATES. We now come to the Lombardo-Venetian kingdom, belonging to Austria. The Duchy of Milan, generally designated the Milanese, the wealthiest and most fertile of the Italian pro- AUSTRIAN PROVINCES. XIII vinces, has been under the direct government of foreigners since 1535, when, on the death of the last of the Sforza family (the successors to the famous Visconti), Dukes of Milan, the Emperor, Charles V., claimed the duchy, in de fault of immediate heirs, as an imperial fief. Francis I. of France, on the other hand, urged his claims to the inheritance through a maternal ancestor ; but the battle of Pavia giving an irresistible ascendancy to his rival, the Milanese remained to the victor, and, on the abdication of Charles, reverted to his son, Philip II., with the other dependencies of the Spanish Crown.

Before long, however, a prospect arose of its conjunction with Piedmont under an Italian prince : the Duke of Savoy, Charles Emmanuel I., married the eldest daughter of Phibp II., and it was stipulated that their first-born son should be invested with this, as web as his paternal dominions, under the title of King of Lombardy. But the eldest son of this mar riage dying in childhood, the Court of Spain, desirous of shuffling off the engagement, de clared it was not bound to give the benefit of it to his younger brother. A few years later, Henri IV. of France revived

INTRODUCTION.

. the hopes of the Duke, by confiding to him his project of curbing the encroachments of Germany, in which the annexation of the Milanese to the dominions of Savoy, and their formation into the kingdom of Lombardy, formed part; but the dagger of Eavaibac cut short his magnifi cent intentions, and deferred anew the fulfilment of the dreams of the House of Savoy. The successors of Phibp II. continued to hold this province until the wars of the Spanish Suc cession, when the Treaty of Utrecht, in 1713, adjudged it to Austria, who at the same time was confirmed in the possession of the duchy of Mantua, which she had seized upon during the war. Henceforth the latter and the Milanese shared the same fortunes, and, under the name of Lombardy, became identified. Up to 1796, when Italy was overrun by the victorious armies of Napoleon, the House of Hapsburg enjoyed these possessions undis turbed; and, far from the severity and exclu sively German polic)*" which have marked its sway subsequent to the Congress of Vienna, it conti nued the system pursued by Spain, allowing the Lombards a special administration, and many national privbeges.

AUSTRIAN PROVINCES. XV A brilliant period of nearly twenty years succeeded to the French invasion, during which, as the capital of Upper Italy, and the seat of the Vice-Eegal Court, where Eugene Beauharnais displayed regal magnificence, Milan was raised to unprecedented prosperity. Before long the ad dition of Venice gave completeness to the new State. In 1806 this celebrated city, with its terra firma provinces, was ceded by Austria to France after a precarious tenure of ten years. The Serene Eepublic, the most ancient govern ment in Europe, had outlived her palmiest days when she ingloriously submitted to be handed over by Napoleon to Austria, at the treaty of Campo Formio in 1796; and amongst the in consistencies in the former's public transactions, none certainly exceed the coolness with which, after having induced the Venetians to surrender to France as to a sister republic, he transferred them to the Emperor Francis II.

But aU was forgiven when the conqueror of Austerlitz gave Venice back to Italy, and turned a favourable ear to the suggestion of erecting a kingdom of North Italy, independent of his sceptre. The old scheme of placing the Iron Crown of Lombardy on the head of a Prince of

INTRODUCTION.

. Savoy was then revived by the Duke Melzi and others of the leading Italian politicians ;* but Napoleon had little sympathy for this House, the chief of which, Charles Emanuel IV., a weak and bigoted monarch, stripped by the French Directory of his territories in the Peninsula, had retired to the island of Sardinia, and he therefore discountenanced the proposal, without, however, definitively putting an end to the hopes of eventual separation from the French Empire. But his downfall frustrated these designs, if ever sin cerely entertained, and the Lombardo- Venetians, after the most dazzling promises of national inde pendence, put forward by Austria herself ,\ gloomily * Cesare Balbo. Le Speranze dTtalia, p. 12. i In 1809, the Archduke John, seeking to stir up the Italian populations against the French, addressed to them the following proclamation : — "Italians!

Listen to the voice of liberty and reason. Both tell you that you are the slaves of France, that you are wasting your blood and treasure on her behalf. The kingdom of Italy (*>'. e. as promised by Napoleon) is but a dream, an idle name. Conscription, taxes, oppression in every form, the nullity of your political existence, — these are facts. Eeason must demonstrate that in such a state of humiliation you can neither be safe, nor be respected, nor be Italians. Would you become so once for all ? Unite your forces, your arms, your hearts, to the generous efforts of the Emperor Francis. At this moment he is about to TUSCANY. XVII saw themselves annexed in 1814-15 to her do minions. The Lombardo- Venetian kingdom contains 17,511 square miles ; its population amounts to nearly 5,000,000. In ordinary times* the con scription furnishes 60,000 troops to the Imperial army, sent to serve in remote parts of the empire, while Bohemians, Hungarians, and Croatians, furnish the garrisons of Upper and Central Italy.

III. TUSCANY AND LUCCA. The grand duchy of Tuscany comprises the ancient republics of Florence, Pisa, Sienna, and Lucca, with the island of Elba in the Mediter ranean. Lucca was converted into a duchy at the Congress of Vienna as an appanage for Charles Louis of Bourbon, rightful Duke of Parma, during the lifetime of Maria Louisa, wife of Napo leon, who had been granted the sovereignty of that State. On the death of this Princess (1847), Lucca, as had been previously stipulated, despatch a powerful army into Italy. He does this, not to satisfy a vain thirst of conquest, but in self-defence, and to assure the independence of all the nations of Europe." * We are unable, at this moment, to state with correct ness its amount in time of war. b

INTRODUCTION.

. reverted to Tuscany, and Charles Louis took possession of his hereditary dominions. The present Grand Ducal family is a branch of the Austrian House. On the extinction of the Medici, Grand Dukes of Tuscany, the country In 1737 passed according to treaty into the hands of Francis, Duke of Lorraine, husband of the Em press Maria Theresa, who received it as an equiva lent for that duchy thenceforth Incorporated with France. Their second son, Pietro Leopoldo, reigned in Florence as Grand-duke, while the eldest, Joseph II., succeeded the Empress at Vienna. The reigns of the two brothers form the brightest pages in the history of their respective States. Pietro Leopoldo is still enthu siastically remembered by the Tuscans as a wise and great reformer. He made Tuscany a model for all other Governments of that period, by his ecclesiastical reforms, his revision of the civil and criminal code, and other needful internal changes; trade, agriculture, public instruction, bterature, and the fine arts, being at the same time sedu lously encouraged.

His grandson the actual Grand-duke, Leo pold II., born in 1797, and married to Maria Antonia, sister of the King of Naples, has not PARMA AND PIACENZA. XIX fobowed in his footsteps. In the first twenty years of his reign, however, the patriotism and energy of two successive Prime Ministers preserved the institutions of the great Leopold in violate, and his descendant, being a mild and web-intentioned Prince, enjoyed a large share of popularity. But, since 1845, his moral weakness and subserviency to Naples ; his infringe ment of some of the Leopoldine laws, coupled witli the suspicion that he contemplated their entire abrogation ; and above ab his partizanship with Austria, — have thoroughly destroyed the respect and affection with which his subjects once regarded him. The Hereditary Prince Ferdinand was born in 1835.

Tuscany contains 9179 square miles, and a population of 1,786,875. The army consists of 12,000 men; the navy of six small sailing craft, manned by 147 men. The merchant service numbers 711 ships, measuring 31,340 tons, and employing 6222 men. IV. PARMA AND PIACENZA. The duchy of Parma comprehends three smab principalities — Parma, Piacenza, and Guab

INTRODUCTION.

. XX stalla. The Government of this State was held for two centuries by the Farnese family ; but in 1731, on the death of Antonio, the last Prince of this line, it was adjudged, after much contention, to Phbip of Bourbon, son of Philip V. of Spain (the grandson of Louis XIV.), and his second wife, Elizabeth Farnese, who had long been bent on securing this inheritance for her son. From this Prince the succession has continued unbroken, though the spoliations of Napoleon, and .subsequently the arrangement we have noticed respecting the Empress Maria Louisa, excluded the family for many years from their possessions. When Charles Louis was summoned to Parma in 1847, it was to find his subjects in ah the fervour of the Itaban movement, and clamo rous for reform. Shrinking from the dangers o *****> and responsibilities of his position, the Duke threw himself into the arms of Austria; but shortly after finding the tide of affairs running against his allies, he made some tardy concessions, and fled from the country.

The Parmesans then offered themselves to Piedmont. After the disasters of Charles Albert, they were compelled by the Austrians to receive back their Duke under the Imperial ægis. The abdication of Charles Louis PARMA AND PIACENZA. XXI left them to the tender mercies of his son, Charles III., who seemed desirous of imitating the mingled ferocity, sensuality, and buffoonery of Eome's worst Emperors. The State groaned beneath his tyranny and suspicion ; an immense number of persons of note were exiled or im prisoned on the most frivolous political grounds ; and the taxes were raised to an unheard-of ex tent to supply almost fabulous debauchery. At length he had determined on laying a sacrilegious hand on the revenues of the great hospital of Pa„*ma, and other charitable institutions ; the whole city stood aghast ; no redress seemed pos sible where Austrian troops held the chief citadel, and gave their countenance to these iniquities.

If a crime could ever be justifiable, it would be the secret stroke which, early in 1854, sent Charles III. to his last account. When it was known that the Duke had been carried to his palace, mortally wounded by the dagger of an assassin, — it is supposed, some outraged husband or brother,- — no prayer went up to Heaven for his recovery. Even in his own famby, un honoured and unloved, his death was known to release his wife from degrading thraldom. Her first public act, as Regent, conveyed a tacit cen-

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. XXII sure on the departed, and an assurance of redress to the population. The same edict which announced her assumption of the Government during her son's minority, notified the dismissal of the Ministers, obnoxious as abettors of the Duke's tyranny. Since then, this princess, Louisa of Bourbon, sister of the Due de Bordeaux, has displayed considerable energy and administrative capacity; and her silent but persevering struggle against Austrian encroachment, though unavailing as respeets its material results, has obtained for her much personal consideration. The Duke of Parma, Eobert I., was born in 1S4S. The extent of the duchy is 2274 square miles, and its population, 496,803. The army, in time of peace, consists of 2802 men, and 250 horses ; in time of war, it can be raised to 4100 men, and 350 horses.

The State is com pletely inland, but the river Po flows through it on the north. On its banks, and close upon the Sardinian frontier, stands the city of Piacenza, so strongly fortified by the Austrians, as to have become second only to the citadel of Mantua in importance. xxm V. MODENA. The duchy of Modena, lying between Lom bardy, Tuscany, and Sardinia, is made up of five small duchies — Modena, Reggio, Garfag nana, Massa, and Carrara. At the Congress of Vienna, it was abotted to Francis, Archduke of Austria, as heir through the female line to Ercole Rinaldo of Este, the last of that princely house, which gathered round it in the sixteenth century all that Italy held most distinguished in literature and art. None of the Itaban princes of the Restoration were more detested than Francesco IV., for his relentless severity towards all suspected of holding liberal views ; or more feared for his spirit of intrigue and dis contented ambibion.

Mortified at not having received a kingdom on the re-adjustment of Italy, he was perpetually plotting to remedy this omission ; and left no means untried of setting aside his kinsman Charles Albert's claims to the succession of Sardinia. His son, the reigning Duke, more humane in his disposition, is no less despotic and priest ridden in his government. Reinstated by the Austrians after the Revolution of 1848, he has

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. XXIV since continued their ready tool. Unlike his neighbour, the Duchess of Parma, who seems to fret under the pressure of her albes and pro tectors, the Duke of Modena hugs bis chains, and debghts in proclaiming to the world his willing vassalage. Recently he has transferred his political prisoners, for greater security, to the Austrian dungeons of Mantua ; and forcibly obliged his new levies to enter the Imperial army. Born in 1819, Francis V. is married to Alde gonda of Bavaria. He has no children. With a pertinacity which borders on the ludicrous, he fobows his father's example, and refuses to ac knowledge any Government in France since the expulsion of Charles X. His two sisters are married to exbed Bourbon princes, — one to the Duke de Bordeaux, in his eyes the only legiti mate Sovereign of France ; the other to Don Juan, younger brother to the Conde de Monte molino, the Carlist claimant to the throne of Spain.

This duchy contains 2129 square miles, and a population of 513,343. The army is large in proportion to the inhabitants. VI. THE PAPAL STATES. The Roman States occupy the centre of the " Italian boot," washed on the east by the Adriatic, and on the west by the Mediterranean ; Ancona and Civita-vecehia being the principal seaports. The dominions of the Church are formed of various territories, of which the nucleus was the duchy of Rome, conferred by Charlemagne upon Pope Stephen II. The duchy of Benevento, some three centuries later, was the next important acquisition. The famous Countess Matbda's bequest to Gregory VII. followed in the year 1077 ; it included the marches of Ancona lying along the Adriatic, and the duchy of Spoleto. Bologna and the provinces of Romagna (a term now frequently, although erroneously, applied to the whole of the Pontifical States) were conquered by Julius II., in 1506.

The present Pontiff, Pius IX., elected on 16th June, 1846, was born in 1792, and belongs to a noble though somewhat decayed family, the Counts Ferretti-Mastai, of Sinigagba, near An cona. The superficial extent of the States is by some authorities computed at 17,000 square

INTRODUCTION.

. XXVI miles, though we incline to think this is an exaggeration. The population is generally estimated at 3,000,000; the census of 1S53 gives it at 3,124,000, but the exact truth is not easily arrived at. It is almost superfluous to remark that the Government is elective, the Pope being chosen by vote, -from amongst their own body, by the Sacred College of Cardinals. The affairs of the country are administered by a council of Ministers, of whom the chief is Cardinal Anto nelli, Secretary of State and Minister of Foreign Affairs. The whole Papal military force amounts to nearly 15,000 men and 1630 horses. The navy consists only of one or two very small steamers, and a solitary gun brig. Ancona, Bologna, and Ferrara, are in the hands of the Austrians, who have in eaeh imposing garrisons. Pome and Civita-vecchia are held by the French.

Vn. SAN MARINO. San Marino is the last survivor of the Italian republics. Protected by its insignificance and its poverty, it has escaped the storms by which the rest of the Peninsula has been convulsed. A rocky mountain rising boldly from the plains MONACO. XXVII near Rimini, in the province of Romagna, con stitutes this State, which does not own more than seventeen square miles of territory with 7000 inhabitants. Tradition assigns its origin to the fourth century, when a Dalmatian soldier, mimed Murinus, having embraced Christianity, retired to this mountain, and there departing from the common practice of the period, instead of founding a convent, organized a miniature commonwealth. Proud of its antiquity, San Marino always claimed an equality with the most powerful republics ; in its official corre spondence, Venice, when at the zenith of pros perity, was addressed as " our dear sister."

It is governed by a council of fifteen elders, elected from among the principal families of the com munity. VIII. MONACO. The principality of Monaco is a mere dot on the Biviera di Ponenle, the Sardinian sea coast from Niee to Genoa. It has the pecubarity of being she smallest monarchy in the world. Piedmont would greatly desire to become the purchaser of a territory containing but one town, and 5000 inhabitants ; but the Prince, Charles

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. XXVIII of Valentinois, who resides in Paris, has hitherto set his face against such an arrangement. IX. THE TWO SICILIES. The kingdom of the Two Sicilies embraces the southern and most beautiful part of the Italian Peninsula, consisting of the provinces of Naples, the Terra di Lavaro, the Capitanata, and the Terra di Bari (the ancient Apulia), the Calabrias, the Basbicata, the Abruzzi, Terra di Otranto, &c, formerly called Sicily, al di qua del Faro, i. e. on this side of the Straits of Messina : al di Id del Faro is the island speciaby called Sicily, which, though now a degraded province, was the parent State of the monarchy. Throughout the Middle Ages, Sicby had the pre-eminence. The Normans, who held both that and Apulia, Calabria, &c, made Palermo their capital; and having established a representative form of Government, raised the kingdom to a high pitch of civilization and pros perity.

On the failure of male issue, the Sicilian crown passed, through a Norman princess, in 1189, to the House of Swabia, whose resistance to the encroachments of the Roman See finally brought about its downfab. In THE TWO SICILIES. XXIX 1265, the animosity of Pope Clement IV. to Manfred, King of Sicily, one of the most gallant princes of this line, drew down on Italy the calamities of a French invasion. Charles of Anjou, brother to Louis IX., at the head of a powerful army, responded to the Pontiff's in vitation ; was crowned at Rome, King of the Sicilies ; and soon after, at the bloody battle of Benevento, totally defeated the forces of Manfred, who lost his bfe upon the field. The French prince then fixed the seat of government at Naples, and became the founder of the Angevin dynasty, which subsisted until 1441.