​FRANCIS I. (1777–1830), king of the Two Sicilies, was the sonof Ferdinand IV. (I.) and Maria Carolina of Austria. He marriedClementina, daughter of the emperor Leopold II. of Austria,in 1796, and at her death Isabella, daughter of Charles IV. ofSpain. After the Bourbon family fled from Naples to Sicilyin 1806, and Lord William Bentinck, the British resident, hadestablished a constitution and deprived Ferdinand IV. of allpower, Francis was appointed regent (1812). On the fall ofNapoleon his father returned to Naples and suppressed theSicilian constitution and autonomy, incorporating his twokingdoms into that of the Two Sicilies (1816); Francis thenassumed the revived title of duke of Calabria. While still heir-apparenthe professed liberal ideas, and on the outbreak of therevolution of 1820 he accepted the regency apparently in afriendly spirit towards the new constitution. But he wasplaying a double game and proved to be the accomplice of hisfather’s treachery. On succeeding to the throne in 1825 he castaside the mask of liberalism and showed himself as reactionaryas his father. He took little part in the government, which heleft in the hands of favourites and police officials, and livedwith his mistresses, surrounded by soldiers, ever in dread ofassassination. During his reign the only revolutionary movementwas the outbreak on the Cilento (1828), savagely repressedby the marquis Delcarretto, an ex-Liberal turned reactionary.