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See also:FERDINAND II . (1810-1859), See also:- KING
- KING (O. Eng. cyning, abbreviated into cyng, cing; cf. O. H. G. chun- kuning, chun- kunig, M.H.G. kiinic, kiinec, kiinc, Mod. Ger. Konig, O. Norse konungr, kongr, Swed. konung, kung)
- KING [OF OCKHAM], PETER KING, 1ST BARON (1669-1734)
- KING, CHARLES WILLIAM (1818-1888)
- KING, CLARENCE (1842–1901)
- KING, EDWARD (1612–1637)
- KING, EDWARD (1829–1910)
- KING, HENRY (1591-1669)
- KING, RUFUS (1755–1827)
- KING, THOMAS (1730–1805)
- KING, WILLIAM (1650-1729)
- KING, WILLIAM (1663–1712)
king of the Two Sicilies, son of See also:Francis I., was See also:born at See also:Palermo on the 12th of See also:January 181o. In his See also:early years he was credited with Liberal ideas and he was fairly popular, his See also:free and easy See also:manners having endeared him to the lazzaroni. On succeeding his See also:father in 183o, he published an See also:edict in which he promised to " give his most anxious See also:attention to the impartial See also:administration of See also:justice," to reform the finances, and to " use every effort to heal the wounds which had afflicted the See also:kingdom for so many years "; but these promises seem to have been meant only to See also:lull discontent to See also:sleep, for although he did something for the economic development of the kingdom, the existing See also:burden of See also:taxation was only slightly lightened, corruption continued to flourish in all departments of the administration, and an See also:absolutism was finally established harsher than that of all his predecessors, and supported by even more extensive and arbitrary arrests. Ferdinand was naturally shrewd, but badly educated, grossly superstitious and possessed of inordinate self-esteem. Though he kept the machinery of his kingdom fairly efficient, and was a patriot to the extent of brooking no See also:foreign interference, he made little See also:account of the wishes or welfare of his subjects. In 1832 he married Cristina, daughter of See also:Victor See also:Emmanuel I., king of See also:Sardinia, and shortly after her See also:death in 1836 he took for a second wife Maria See also:Theresa, daughter of See also:archduke See also:Charles of See also:Austria. After his See also:Austrian See also:alliance the bonds of despotism were more closely tightened, and the increasing discontent of his subjects was manifested by various abortive attempts at insurrection; in 1837 there was a rising in See also:Sicily in consequence of the outbreak of See also:cholera, and in 1843 the See also:Young See also:Italy Society tried to organize a See also:general rising, which, however, only manifested itself in a See also:series of isolated out-breaks. The expedition of the See also:Bandiera See also:brothers (q.v.) in 1844, although it had no See also:practical result, aroused See also:great See also:ill-feeling owing to the cruel sentences passed on the rebels. In January 1848 a rising in Sicily was the See also:signal for revolutions all over Italy and See also:Europe; it was followed by a See also:movement in See also:Naples, and the king
See also:- LOUIS
- LOUIS (804–876)
- LOUIS (893–911)
- LOUIS, JOSEPH DOMINIQUE, BARON (1755-1837)
- LOUIS, or LEWIS (from the Frankish Chlodowich, Chlodwig, Latinized as Chlodowius, Lodhuwicus, Lodhuvicus, whence-in the Strassburg oath of 842-0. Fr. Lodhuwigs, then Chlovis, Loys and later Louis, whence Span. Luiz and—through the Angevin kings—Hungarian
Louis XVIII.'s speech from the See also:throne, See also:Jan. 28, 1823.granted a constitution which he swore to observe. A dispute, however, arose as to the nature of the See also:oath which should be taken by the members of the chamber of deputies, and as neither the king nor the deputies would yield, serious disturbances See also:broke out in the streets of Naples on the 15th of May; so the king, making these an excuse for withdrawing his promise, dissolved the See also:national See also:parliament on the 13th of See also:March 1849. He retired to See also:Gaeta to confer with various deposed despots, and when the See also:news of the Austrian victory at See also:Novara (March 1849) reached him, he determined to return to a reactionary policy. Sicily, whence the Royalists had been expelled, was subjugated by General See also:Filangieri (q.v.), and the See also:chief cities were bombarded, an expedient which won for Ferdinand the epithet of "King Bomba." During the last years of his reign espionage and arbitrary arrests prevented all serious manifestations of discontent among his subjects. In 1851 the See also:political prisoners of Naples were calculated by Mr See also:Gladstone in his letters to See also:Lord See also:Aberdeen (1851) to number 15,000 (probably the real figure was nearer 40,000), and so great was the See also:scandal created by the prevailing reign of terror, and the abominable treatment to which the prisoners were subjected, that in 1856 See also:France and See also:England made See also:diplomatic representations to induce the king to mitigate his rigour and proclaim a general See also:amnesty, but without success. An See also:attempt was made by a soldier to assassinate Ferdinand in 1856. He died on the 22nd of May 1856, just after the See also:declaration of See also:war by France and See also:Piedmont against Austria, which was to result in the collapse of his kingdom and his See also:dynasty. He was bigoted, cruel, mean, treacherous, though not without a certain bonhomie; the only excuse that can be made for him is that with his See also:heredity and See also:education a different result could scarcely be expected.
See See also:Correspondence respecting the Affairs of Naples and Sicily, 1848-1849, presented to both Houses of Parliament by Command of Her See also:Majesty, 4th May 1849; Two Letters to the See also:Earl of Aberdeen, by
the Right Hon. W. E. Gladstone, 1st ed., 1851 (an edition published in 1852 and the subsequent See also:editions contain an Examination of the
See also:Official Reply of the Neapolitan See also:Government) ; N. Nisco, Ferdinando II. it suo regno (Naples, 1884) ; H. Remsen Whitehouse, The Collapse of the Kingdom of Naples (New See also:York, 1899) ; R. de Cesare, La Caduta d' un Regno, vol. i. (Citta di See also:Castello, 190o), which contains a great See also:deal of fresh See also:information, but is badly arranged and not always reliable. (L.
End of Article: FERDINAND II
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