TheKingdom of Naples,[3] officially theKingdom of Sicily, was a state that ruled the part of theItalian Peninsula south of thePapal States between 1282 and 1816. It was established by theWar of the Sicilian Vespers (1282–1302). Until then, theisland of Sicily andsouthern Italy had constituted the "Kingdom of Sicily". When the island of Sicily revolted and was conquered by theCrown of Aragon, it become a separate kingdom also called theKingdom of Sicily.[4] This left the Neapolitan mainland in the possession ofCharles of Anjou who continued to use the name "Kingdom of Sicily". Later, two competing lines of the Angevin family competed for the Kingdom of Naples in the late 14th century, which resulted in the murder ofJoanna I at the hands of her successor,Charles III of Naples. Charles' daughterJoanna II adopted KingAlfonso V of Aragon as heir, who would then unite Naples into hisAragonese dominions in 1442.
As part of theItalian Wars, France briefly ruled the territory in 1494 and at the beginning of the 16th century; it thenwent to war with Spain over the kingdom in 1502, a conflict that ended in a victory forFerdinand II, who was in full control of the kingdom by 1504. The Spanish held control of Naples throughout the 17th century where it remained an important source of economic and military power for the Spanish Crown. After theWar of the Spanish Succession in the early 18th century, the possession of the kingdom again changed hands; the 1714Treaty of Rastatt saw Naples given toCharles VI of the Austrian Habsburgs. However, Naples and Sicily wereconquered byCharles, Duke of Parma (of the Spanish Bourbons) during theWar of the Polish Succession in 1734, he was then installed as King of Naples and Sicily from 1735. In 1816, Naples formally unified with the island of Sicily to form theKingdom of the Two Sicilies.
The Kingdom of Naples was one of the largest and most importantItalian states of its era. Its territory corresponded to the current Italian regions ofCampania,Calabria,Apulia,Basilicata,Abruzzo,Molise, and also included some areas of today's southern and easternLazio.[5]
The term "Kingdom of Naples" is in near-universal use among historians, but it was not used officially by the government. Since the Angevins remained in power on the Italian peninsula, they kept the original name of the Kingdom of Sicily (Regnum Siciliae). At the end of the War of the Vespers, thePeace of Caltabellotta (1302) provided that the name of the kingdom would be the Kingdom of SicilyCitra Farum had become known colloquially as the Kingdom of Naples (Regnum Neapolitanum orRegno di Napoli).
In the late Middle Ages, it was common to distinguish the two Sicilies by noting its location relative to the rest of Italy and thePunta del Faro, i.e., theStrait of Messina. The peninsular kingdom was known as Sicilycitra Farum oral di qua del Faro ('on this side of Faro'), and the island kingdom was known as Sicilyultra Farum ordi la del Faro (on the other side of Faro). When both kingdoms came under the rule ofAlfonso the Magnanimous in 1442, this usage became official, althoughFerdinand I (1458–94) preferred the simple title King of Sicily (Rex Sicilie).[6]
In the 18th century the Neapolitan intellectualGiuseppe Maria Galanti argued that Apulia was the true "national" name of the kingdom. By the time of Alfonso the Magnanimous, the two kingdoms were sufficiently distinct that they were no longer seen as divisions of a single kingdom. Despite being repeatedly inpersonal union, they remained administratively separate. In 1816, the two kingdoms finally merged to form the Kingdom of the Two Sicilies.[6]
Naples, which was the capital of theDuchy of Naples since the 7th century, surrendered toRoger II of Sicily in 1137, and was annexed to theKingdom of Sicily.[7] The Normans were the first to bring political unity to southern Italy in the centuries after the failure of the Byzantine effort to reconquer Italy. The Normans established a kingdom that included southern mainland Italy and the island of Sicily, which was primarily ruled from Palermo. The title ofKing of Sicily was established by theAntipope Anacletus II as early as 1130 and subsequently legitimized, in 1139, byPope Innocent II. Since the royal titles over the State had been assigned to the Normans by Innocent II, the popes, in particularPope Innocent III andPope Innocent IV, claimed the feudal rights of theChurch State over the Kingdom.[8] AfterConstance, Queen of Sicily marriedHenry VI, Holy Roman Emperor, the region was inherited by their sonFrederick II, as King of Sicily. The region that later became the separate Kingdom of Naples under the Angevins formed part of the Kingdom of Sicily, which included the island of Sicily andApulia.[4]
Following the rebellion in 1282, KingCharles I of Sicily (Charles of Anjou) was forced to leave the island ofSicily byPeter III of Aragon's troops. Charles, however, maintained his possessions on the mainland, customarily known as the "Kingdom ofNaples", after its capital city.
Queen Joan I also played a part in the ultimate demise of the first Kingdom of Naples. As she was childless, she adoptedLouis I, Duke of Anjou, as her heir, in spite of the claims of her cousin, the Prince of Durazzo, effectively setting up a junior Angevin line in competition with the senior line. This led to Joan I's murder at the hands of the Prince of Durazzo in 1382, and his seizing of the throne asCharles III of Naples.
The two competing Angevin lines contested each other for the possession of the Kingdom of Naples over the following decades. In 1389Louis II of Anjou son of Louis I managed to seize the throne fromLadislas of Naples son of Charles III, but was expelled by Ladislas in 1399. Charles III's daughterJoanna II (r. 1414–1435) adoptedAlfonso V of Aragon (whom she later repudiated) andLouis III of Anjou as heirs alternately, finally settling succession on Louis' brotherRené of Anjou of the junior Angevin line, and he succeeded her in 1435.
René of Anjou temporarily united the claims of junior and senior Angevin lines.
When Ferdinand I died in 1494,Charles VIII of France invaded Italy, using as a pretext the Angevin claim to the throne of Naples, which his father had inherited in 1481 on the will ofCharles IV of Anjou, nephew and heir of King René who had no surviving son. This began theItalian Wars.
Charles VIII expelledAlfonso II of Naples from Naples in 1495, but was soon forced to withdraw due to the support ofFerdinand II of Aragon for his cousin, Alfonso II's sonFerrantino. Ferrantino was restored to the throne but died in 1496 and was succeeded by his uncle,Frederick IV.
Charles VIII's successor,Louis XII reiterated the French claim. In 1501, he occupied Naples and partitioned the kingdom with Ferdinand of Aragon, who abandoned his cousin King Frederick. However, disputes over ownership of key Neapolitan territories made the deal quickly fall through, and Aragon and Franceresumed their war over the kingdom in 1502. The Spanish troops occupyingCalabria andApulia, led byGonzalo Fernandez de Cordova, invaded and expelled all Frenchmen from the area. The resulting Aragonese victory left Ferdinand in full control of the kingdom by 1504 and Naples became a constituent kingdom of theCrown of Aragon.
The peace treaties that continued were never definitive, but they established at least that the title ofKing of Naples was reserved for Ferdinand's grandson, the futureCharles V, Holy Roman Emperor. Ferdinand nevertheless continued in possession of the kingdom, being considered the legitimate heir of his uncle Alfonso I of Naples (Alfonso V of Aragon) and also to the formerKingdom of Sicily (Regnum Utriusque Siciliae).
The kingdom continued to be disputed between France and Spain for the next several decades, but French efforts to gain control of it became feebler asHabsburg power grew, and never genuinely endangered Spanish control.
The French finally abandoned their claims to Naples by theTreaty of Cateau-Cambrésis in 1559. In the Treaty of London (1557), five cities on the coast ofTuscany were designated theStato dei Presidi (State of the Presidi), and part of the Kingdom of Naples.
As the most populous holding of theSpanish Empire outside ofCastile itself (with 3 million inhabitants in 1600),[10] Naples remained an important source of economic and military power for the Spanish. Heavy taxation was levied upon the kingdom to pay for Spain's wars, especially after 1580. Beyond dispatching troops to fight theEighty Years' War in the Low Countries, Naples also disbursed a third of the military expenditures accruing to the Spanish controlledDuchy of Milan and paid for the Spanish garrisons in Tuscany. This cost the kingdom 800,000 ducats annually, or about a third of the kingdom's revenues; moreover, the public debt also had a military origin, and interest payments on it devoured 40 percent of all tax income. Naples was rich enough to redeem the debt and pay an attractive ten percent in full to lenders. While the soldiers of Naples were under the command of the Spanish viceroy, Neapolitan nobles enjoyed ascendancy in the assemblies and committees that financed and administered the army.[11]
The kingdom suffered a heavy burden from theFranco-Spanish War (1635–1659). From 1631 to 1636 alone, Naples sent 53,500 soldiers and 3.5 millionscudi to support the Spanish king.[12] This was actually more than was raised in the same time byCastile, which had a population twice the size. Naples provided and paid for 10,000 troops and 1,000 horses annually from 1630 to 1643, on top of a 1 million ducat annual subsidy for the war effort and more funds and soldiers for the kingdom's garrisons and navy.[13] The kingdom was increasingly forced to revert to borrowing to finance the war as it went on, which it could do due to its good credit. From 1612 to 1646, Neapolitan taxes tripled and the public debt quintupled, and 57 percent of the kingdom's revenue was devoted to interest payments. Spain's wars crushed the Neapolitan economy. Furthermore, 90 percent of taxes were collected by state creditors, meaning the state paid an effective interest rate of 70 percent annually on the money it borrowed to fight the war. The kingdom started selling state assets to anyone willing to buy them, which usually ended up being barons; these assets included prisons, forests, buildings, and even royal fortresses, and titles.[14]
Due to this excessive taxation the people of Naples rose in revolt in 1647, forming theNeapolitan Republic with French assistance. The revolt was suppressed later that year by Spanish troops.
After theWar of the Spanish Succession in the early 18th century, possession of the kingdom again changed hands. Under the terms of theTreaty of Rastatt in 1714, Naples was given toCharles VI, theHoly Roman Emperor. He also gained control ofSicily in 1720, but Austrian rule did not last long. Both Naples and Sicily wereconquered by a Spanish army during theWar of the Polish Succession in 1734, andCharles, Duke of Parma, a younger son of KingPhilip V of Spain, the first member of the FrenchHouse of Bourbon to rule in Spain, was installed as King of Naples and Sicily from 1735. When Charles inherited the Spanish throne from his older half-brother in 1759, he left Naples and Sicily to his younger son,Ferdinand IV. Despite the two Kingdoms being in apersonal union under the Habsburg and Bourbon dynasties, they remained constitutionally separate.
Being a member of theHouse of Bourbon, Ferdinand IV was a natural opponent of theFrench Revolution andNapoleon. On 29 November 1798, he effectively started theWar of the Second Coalition by briefly occupying Rome, but was expelled from it by French Revolutionary forces within the year and safely returned home. Soon afterwards, on 23 December 1798, Ferdinand fledNaples toPalermo as a French army closed in. In January 1799, the French armies installed aParthenopaean Republic, but this proved short-lived, and a peasant counter-revolution inspired by the clergy allowed Ferdinand to return to his capital. However, in 1801 Ferdinand was compelled to make important concessions to the French by theTreaty of Florence, which reinforced France's position as the dominant power in mainland Italy.
Ferdinand's decision to ally with theThird Coalition againstNapoleon in 1805 proved more damaging. In 1806, following decisive victories over the allied armies atAusterlitz and over the Neapolitans atCampo Tenese, Napoleon installed his brother,Joseph as King of Naples, he conferred the title "Prince of Naples" to be hereditary on his children and grandchildren. When Joseph was sent off toSpain two years later, he was replaced by Napoleon's sisterCaroline and his brother-in-law MarshalJoachim Murat.
Meanwhile, Ferdinand had fled to Sicily, where he retained his throne, despite successive attempts by Murat to invade the island. The British would defend Sicily for the remainder of the war but despite the Kingdom of Sicily nominally being part of theFourth,Fifth, andSixth Coalitions against Napoleon, Ferdinand and the British were unable to ever challenge French control of the Italian mainland.
After Napoleon's defeat in 1814, Murat reached an agreement with Austria and was allowed to retain the throne of Naples, despite the lobbying efforts of Ferdinand and his supporters. However, with most of the other powers, particularly Britain, hostile towards him and dependent on the uncertain support of Austria, Murat's position became less and less secure. Therefore, when Napoleon returned to France for theHundred Days in 1815, Murat once again sided with him. Realising the Austrians would soon attempt to remove him, Murat gave theRimini Proclamation hoping to save his kingdom by allying himself with Italian nationalists.
The ensuingNeapolitan War between Murat and the Austrians was short, ending with a decisive victory for the Austrian forces at theBattle of Tolentino. Murat was forced to flee, and Ferdinand IV was restored to the throne of Naples. Murat would attempt to regain his throne but was quickly captured and executed by firing squad inPizzo, Calabria. The next year, 1816, finally saw the formal union of the Kingdom of Naples with the Kingdom of Sicily into the newKingdom of the Two Sicilies.
The languages of the Kingdom of Naples reflect the rich cultural and historical diversity of this southern Italian state. The official language was Italian, used for bureaucracy, education, and formal communications. However, the languages spoken daily by the population were varied. In the mainland territories, such as Campania and Calabria, theNeapolitan andCalabrian dialects predominated, which are part of the group of intermediate southern languages.[15]
In Sicily, the main language spoken wasSicilian, a language with its own history and literature. Furthermore, in the various territories of the kingdom, there were linguistic minorities, such as theGreek speakers in Calabria and Puglia, and theAlbanian speakers in Sicily and Calabria, who spoke Greek and Albanian respectively. This linguistic plurality was a reflection of the history of colonization and domination of different cultures that characterized the Kingdom of the Two Sicilies.[16]
As often happens, the evolution of the various dialects of the kingdom is not easily traceable, since the dialects were practically never transcribed andLatin andItalian language were used for written communication. In the kingdom, written communication was itself very rare considering the high rate of illiteracy. Nevertheless, traces of dialects are sometimes found in some expressions used by educated people, for example in correspondence; also some methodologies such ascomparative linguistics enables to trace some features of the evolution of dialects.[17]
One of the few testimonies relating to the language in use in the Middle Ages in the Kingdom of Naples is that ofSalimbene de Adam (13th century AD) who, in hisChronicle, notes the total absence of the use of courtesy pronouns in the languages of the Apulians and Sicilians who, according to what the author reports, the courtesy pronouns were almost absent and they would use thetu ("you") even to refer to the emperor while, on the contrary, the Lombards would use the pronounvoi (courtesy pronoun) even for referring to a child. These regional differences also occur in contemporary Italian.[18]
Religions in the Kingdom of Naples and, later, theKingdom of the Two Sicilies were mainlyRoman Catholicism, which was the state religion and deeply intertwined with the political, social and cultural life of the kingdom. The Catholic Church had a strong influence and ran many educational and charitable institutions. Despite the predominance of Catholicism, other religious communities were also present and small Jewish communities lived mainly in the major cities such asNaples andPalermo, where they enjoyed relative tolerance and actively participated in economic life. In addition, there were minorities of Greek-Catholic rite, especially in Calabria and Sicily, due to the historical Byzantine presence and the immigration of Albanian communities. These communities maintained their religious and cultural traditions, while remaining in communion with the Church of Rome.
Much more varied, however, was the amount of religions in the Kingdom of Naples during theMiddle Ages. Most of the cities and towns had Jewish as well as Muslim communities (the so-calledi mori); those communities significantly decreased in the following centuries. In particular, the Jewish communities were significantly reduced after the expulsion edicts issued during the 16th century byFerdinand the Catholic (1510) and other kings. With the edict of expulsion ofCharles V of Habsburg (1541), Jews and new converts became mostly insignificant in the Kingdom of Naples.[19]
TheNeapolitan Republic of 1647 greatly influenced subsequent historical development of revolutions in Europe over the 17th century and 18th century, and it even inspired theFrench Revolution of 1789. It is noteworthy what was then reported by travellers (British for the most part) in the 18th century and 19th century insideNaples; they reported, in thedaguerreotypes and in the pictorial representations of their travels, that spaghetti were eaten using bare hands in the streets of Naples. This tradition soon became a proper tourist attraction, so that tourists gave small change to thelazzaroni who then rushed to buy spaghetti and then eat them with their own hands.[20][21][22][23]
This custom was preserved well beyond the period of existence of the Kingdom of Naples and until very recent times; it was also the subject of popular scenes in a few films of the 20th century and, in particular, in the moviePoverty and Nobility (1954) starring the Italian actorTotò.[24][25][26] Other distinctive characteristics of the inhabitants of the kingdom were the low level of literacy and widespread selfishness.[27] In this context, there were regions such asCalabria whose inhabitants were referred to by Europeans as the last "European savages".[28][29][30]
For a few centuries,Naples has often been described as "a paradise inhabited by devils" (in Italian:un paradiso abitato da diavoli). Italian historianBenedetto Croce, in one of his essays, traced the origin of this saying and he discovered its first occurrence in a letter written in 1539 by Bernardino Daniello and sent to Alessandro Corvino. In 1592, it occurred for the first time outside the Italian peninsula in a letter by SirHenry Wotton. As pointed out by Benedetto Croce, this saying was used over the centuries to denote different things, i.e. in some cases Naples was described as a city of sin and vices, most notably prostitution. In other cases, it was used to denote the rudeness, mischievousness and lack of intelligence of its population (for example, some statements of the bookLe facezie del Pievano Arlotto onPiovano Arlotto) – 14th century). Neapolitans were also described as extremely jealous and "tyrants of women".[31][32][33] In 1707, the German author Johann Andreas Bühel published a whole essay on this saying, i.e.Regnum Neapolitanum Paradisus Est, Sed A Diabolis Habitatus.[34]
Scientists and philosophers of the Kingdom of Naples
Giovanni Alfonso Borelli (1608–1679), physicist and mathematician who contributed to the principle of modern scientific inquiry by continuing Galileo's practice of testing hypotheses against observation. Having studied mathematics, Borelli also did extensive work on the moons of Jupiter, the mechanics of animal movements, and microscopically on the components of blood. He also used microscopy to investigate the stoma movement of plants and conducted studies in the field of medicine and geology.
Agostino Scilla (1609–1650), the archaeologist who initiated the modern scientific study of fossils
^In 1799, there was a brief interregnum for about 5 months during which theParthenopean Republic, a French-supportedpuppet state, operated.
^Presumed motto, not official. A legend has it that the motto of the kingdom wasNoxias herbas ('noxious herbs'), chosen byCharles I of Anjou in reference to therake [it] present on the coat of arms, which would have symbolized the expulsion of the Swabian "weed". This hypothesis is rejected by Giovanni Antonio Summonte, who explains that the rake (which is actually alabel) indicated that the Angevins were a cadet branch of theCapetians, from whom they inherited the coat of arms with the goldenfleurs-de-lis.[1]
^abFremont-Barnes, Gregory (2007).Encyclopedia of the Age of Political Revolutions and New Ideologies, 1760–1815. Vol. 1. Greenwood. p. 495.ISBN978-0-313-33446-7.
^Galasso, Giuseppe (2005).Il regno di Napoli: Il Mezzogiorno angioino e aragonese, 1266–1494 (in Italian). UTET.
^abEleni Sakellariou,Southern Italy in the Late Middle Ages: Demographic, Institutional and Economic Change in the Kingdom of Naples, c.1440–c.1530 (Brill, 2012), pp. 63–64.
^Hanlon, Gregory (2001).The Twilight Of A Military Tradition: Italian Aristocrats And European Conflicts, 1560–1800. Routledge. p. 384.ISBN978-1-135-36142-6.
^Gregory Hanlon.The Hero of Italy: Odoardo Farnese, Duke of Parma, his Soldiers, and his Subjects in the Thirty Years' War. Routledge: 2014, p. 116.ISBN9780199687244
^Given this custom, the termSpaghettifresser also derived, a derogatory epithet towards Italians, very widespread during the 20th century in Germanic countries. This term literally means "one who's eating spaghetti like an animal". In the German language, the verbfressen (to eat) is used for animals whileessen (to eat) for humans. See alsoGerman-Italian Dictionary – Spaghettifresser
^Even today, according toOECD estimates, low levels of education persist in Southern Italy. While in fact the regions of the North would reach average levels of education and literacy, the regions of Southern Italy exhibit very poor scores, and Italy ranks last among the OECD countries with regard to the level of education.
Colletta, Pietro (1858),History of the Kingdom of Naples, 1734–1825 (with a supplementary chapter 1825–1856), translated by Susan Horner, Edinburgh: T. Constable: vol. 1, vol. 2 (reprinted in one volume with a new introduction by John Davis asThe History of the Kingdom of Naples: From the Accession of Charles of Bourbon to the Death of Ferdinand I, London: Tauris, 2009)
Croce, Benedetto (1970), H. Stuart Hughes (ed.),History of the Kingdom of Naples, translated by Frances Frenaye, Chicago: University of Chicago Press (English translation of the revised 3rd edn. (1953) ofStoria del regno di Napoli, 1st edn. Bari: Laterza, 1925)
Mozzillo, Attanasio (1972),Croncache della Calabria in guerra, Naples: Edizioni Scientifiche Italiane
Ryder, Alan (1976),The Kingdom of Naples under Alfonso the Magnanimous: The Making of a Modern State, Oxford: Oxford University Press,ISBN978-0198225355
Labrot, Gérard (1979),Baroni in città. Residenze e comportamenti dell'aristocrazia napoletana, 1530–1734, Naples: Società editrice napoletana [ISBN unspecified]
Delille, Gérard (1985),Famille et propriété dans le royaume de Naples (XVe–XIXe siècles), Rome: École française de Rome,ISBN978-2728300792
Galasso, Giuseppe; Romeo, Rosario, eds. (1986–1991),Storia del Mezzogiorno, vol. 1–15, Napoli: Edizioni del Sole
Marino, John A. (1988),Pastoral Economics in the Kingdom of Naples, Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press,ISBN978-0801834370
Galasso, Giuseppe, ed. (1992–2011),Il regno di Napoli, Storia d'Italia, 15, vol. 1–6, Torino: UTET,ISBN8802044996
Labrot, Gérard (1995),Quand l'histoire murmure. Villages et campagnes du Royaume de Naples (XVIe–XVIIIe siècle), Rome: École française de Rome,ISBN978-2728303274
Dunbabin, Jean (1998),Charles I of Anjou: Power, Kingship and State-Making in Thirteenth-Century Europe, London: Routledge,ISBN978-0582253704
Kiesewetter, Andreas (1999),Die Anfänge der Regierung König Karls II. von Anjou (1278–1295). Das Königreich Neapel, die Grafschaft Provence und der Mittelmeerraum zu Ausgang des 13. Jahrhunderts, Husum: Matthiesen,ISBN3786814511
Porter, Jeanne Chenault (2000),Baroque Naples: A Documentary History 1600–1800, New York: Italica,ISBN978-0934977524,OCLC43167960
Pollastri, Sylvie (2011),Le lignage et le fief. L'affirmation du milieu comtal et la construction des états féodaux sous les Angevins de Naples (1265–1435), Paris: Publibook,ISBN978-2748367409
Sakellariou, Eleni (2012),Southern Italy in the Late Middle Ages: Demographic, Institutional, and Economic Change in the Kingdom of Naples, c. 1440–c. 1530, Leiden: Brill,ISBN978-90-04-22406-3
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