Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
THE PARTHENOPEAN REPUBLIC
While the Neapolitan court naturally disapproved of the 1789 French Revolution, it would
take the beheading of Maria Carolina's sister, Marie Antoinette, to prompt Naples to join
the anti-French coalition.
Troops from Naples and revolutionary France clashed in French- occupied Rome in
1798. The Neapolitans claimed the city but within 11 days were scurrying back south with
the French in hot pursuit. Panicked, Ferdinand and Maria Carolina headed for Palermo,
leaving Naples to its own devices.
Bitterly opposed by most of the population, the French were welcomed by the Neapolit-
an nobility and bourgeoisie, many of whom had adopted fashionable republican ideas. And
it was with the full backing of the French that the Parthenopean Republic was declared on
23 January 1799.
But it wasn't a success. The leaders were an ideologically rather than practically minded
lot, and were soon in financial straits. Their efforts to democratise the city failed and the
army was a shambles.
Over the water in Palermo, the royal exiles had not been sitting idle. Ferdinand and
Maria Carolina dispatched Cardinal Fabrizio Ruffo to Calabria to organise an uprising. On
13 June he entered Naples and all hell broke loose as his men turned the city into a
slaughterhouse. With a score to settle, Ferdinand and Maria Carolina returned from Sicily
on 8 July and embarked on a systematic extermination of republican sympathisers. More
than 200 were executed.
