Parthenopean Republic

The Parthenopean Republic (, ) or Neapolitan Republic () was a short-lived sister republic in Southern Italy established during the French Revolutionary Wars following the defeat of the armies of Ferdinand IV. The republic existed from 21 January to 13 June 1799, collapsing when the Sanfedists returned Ferdinand to power, after which he harshly subdued republican activities.

Etymology

The Parthenopean Republic is named after Parthenope, an ancient Greek settlement now part of the city of Naples.

Origins of the Republic

On the outbreak of the French Revolution King Ferdinand IV of Naples and Queen Maria Carolina did not at first actively oppose reform; but after the fall of the French monarchy they became violently opposed to it, and in 1793, joined the first coalition against France, instituting severe persecutions against all who were remotely suspected of French sympathies. Republicanism, however, gained ground, especially among the aristocracy.

In 1796, peace with France was concluded, but in 1798, during Napoleon's absence in Egypt and after Nelson's victory at the Battle of the Nile, Maria Carolina induced Ferdinand to go to war with France once more. Nelson himself arrived at Naples in September 1798, where he was enthusiastically received. The Neapolitan army had 70,000 men hastily summoned under the command of the Austrian general Karl Mack. On 29 November, this army entered Rome, which had been evacuated by the French, wishing to restore Papal authority. However, after a sudden French counter-attack, his troops were forced to retreat and were eventually routed. A contemporary satirist said of the King's conquest of Rome: "He came, he saw, he fled".

The King hurried back to Naples. Although the lazzaroni (the lowest class of the people) were devoted to the Bourbon dynasty and ready to defend it, he embarked on Nelson's Vanguard and fled with his court to Palermo in a panic. Prince Francesco Pignatelli Strongoli took over the city and the fleet was burned.

The wildest confusion prevailed, and the lazzaroni massacred numbers of persons suspected of republican sympathies, while the nobility and the educated classes, finding themselves abandoned by their King, began to contemplate a republic under French auspices to avoid anarchy. On 12 January 1799, Pignatelli signed in Sparanise the surrender to the French general Jean Étienne Championnet. Pignatelli also fled to Palermo on 16 January 1799.

When the news of the surrender to the French reached Naples and the provinces, the lazzaroni rebelled. Though ill-armed and ill-disciplined, they resisted the enemy with desperate courage. In the meantime, the Jacobin and Republican parties of Naples surged, and civil war broke out. On 20 January 1799, the Republicans under General Championnet conquered the fortress of Castel Sant'Elmo, and the French entered the city the next day. The casualties were 8,000 Neapolitans and 1,000 French.

Republic

On 21 or 23 It was a client state of the French First Republic and part of the wider Parthenopean Republic.

In December 1798, French troops under General Duhesme captured the fortress of Pescara as part of the French invasion of the Kingdom of Naples.

Aftermath

thumb|Painting of the Revolution of 1799 with blue-yellow-red tricolours

On 10 July 1799, King Ferdinand entered the Bay of Naples on a Neapolitan frigate, the Sirena. At four o'clock that afternoon, he went aboard the British Foudroyant, which was to be his headquarters for the next four weeks.

Of some 8,000 political prisoners, 99 were executed, including Prince Gennaro Serra, who was publicly beheaded, the intellectual Mario Pagano, who had written the republican constitution; the scientist, Domenico Cirillo; Luisa Sanfelice; , the minister of war under the republic; Massa, the defender of Castel dell'Ovo; Ettore Carafa, the defender of Pescara, who had been captured by treachery; and Eleonora Fonseca Pimentel, court-poet turned revolutionary and editor of il Monitore Napoletano, the newspaper of the republican government. More than 500 other people were imprisoned (222 for life), 288 were deported and 67 exiled. The subsequent censorship and oppression of all political movement was far more debilitating for Naples.

After news of these events arrived in Britain, Whig statesman Charles James Fox made a speech in the British House of Commons on 3 February 1800 criticising what he alleged to be Britain's acquiescence to Ferdinand's repression of Neapolitan republicans.

Gallery

file:Flag of the Parthenopaean Republic.svg| The flag of the Parthenopean Republic was the French tricolor with a yellow stripe in the place of the white one

file:Flag of Parthenopaean Republic (1799).svg| Variant flag.

file:Flag of the Parthenopean Republic (variant).svg| Variant flag with emblem.

</gallery>