FERDINAND IV. (1751-1825)’of Naples, HL of Sicily, and I. of the Two Sicilies, third son of Don Carlos, king of Naples (afterwardsCharles III. of Spain), was born in Naples, January 12, 1751. When his father ascended the Spanish throne in 1759, Ferdinand, in accordance with the treaties which forbade the union of the two crowns, succeeded him on the throne of Naples, under a regency of which Bernardo Tanucci was the chief. On account of the ambitious purposes of Tanucci, who wished to retain the government of the kingdom as much as possible in his own hands, the education of the young king was very much neglected, while no restraint was put upon his love of pleasure, or his excessive preference for athletic exercises and outdoor sports. His minority ended on the 12th January 1767, and in 1768 he married Maria Caroline, daughter of the empress Maria Theresa. According to the marriage contract tho queen after the birth of her first son was to have a voice in the councils of state; and she was not backward to make use of this opportunity of political influence. Beautiful, clever, and ambitious, and inheriting many of the masculine characteristics of her mother, she soon ousted Tanucci both from the favour of the king and from all but nominal authority in the state; and when he systematically attempted to frustrate her purposes, he was finally in 1777 dismissed from his office. The Englishman Sir John Acton was shortly after this appointed admiral of the Neapolitan fleet, and succeeded so completely in winning the favour of both queen and court, that he was speedily promoted to be minister of war, and then of foreign affairs. Under his influence Spain lost her ascendency in Neapolitan politics, and an intimate connexion was formed with Austria and England. In 1793 ...Ferdinand joined the coalition against France, and although he made peace with France in 1796, he took advantage of the absence of Napoleon in Egypt to renew the war in 1798. His army occupied Rome for a short time, but after the defeat of some of its divisions by the French, Ferdinand without attempting to defend Naples, to which he had fled panic-stricken, escaped on board the English fleet under Admiral Nelson, and went to Palermo; and the French, entering the city after a furious but undisciplined resistance by the lazzaroni, established with the aid of the citizens and nobles the “Parthenopean Republic.” When, six weeks after this, the defeat of their arms in the north of Italy compelled the French to abandon Naples, Ferdinand was restored by a Calabrian army under Cardinal Ruffo; and with the connivance of Admiral Nelson a reign of terror was inaugurated, which continued until the success of the French arms in 1801 induced Ferdinand to sign a treaty whereby, besides other concessions, he promised to grant an amnesty to political offenders, and also agreed to permit French troops to occupy his territories. But when war broke out between France and Austria in 1805, he thought the opportunity favourable for throwing off the French domination, and prompted by Caroline permitted 13,000 Russian and English troops to land at Naples. Scarcely had he done so, when the victory of Austerlitz enabled Napoleon to despatch an army against him. Ferdinand with his usual precipitation fled from his capital, leaving Caroline to negotiate terms with the enemy, but as Napoleon refused all further compromise with the house of Bourbon she was compelled to follow her husband into Sicily. On March 30, 1806, Joseph Bonaparte was proclaimed king of Naples and Sicily; but Ferdinand with the aid of England continued to reign over the latter kingdom. After the dethronement in 1815 of Murat, who had succeeded Joseph Bonaparte as king of Naples in 1808, Ferdinand was recalled to his capital, and on December 12, 1816, he united his two states into one, and assumed the title of king of the Two Sicilies. As a condition of his recall he had sworn to grant a constitution, but no sooner did he find himself secure from external interference than he abolished it; and although a revolution compelled him again in 1820 to give to it a nominal assent, he was shortly afterwards able, with the help of an Austrian army, to break his promises with impunity, and by means of an elaborate system of espionage and the unscrupulous arrest and punishment of all suspected persons to re-establish his despotism in a more vigorous form than ever. He died 4th January 1825.
See Botta, Storia d'Italia dal 1789 al 1814; Coletta, Storia del reame di Napoli dal 1734 sino al 1825, 2 vols., 1834, English translation, 1858; Sketch of Popular Tumults, 1837; and Mémoires du Général Pepe, 1847.
FERDINAND IV. (1285-1312), sometimes called el Emρlazado, i.e., Cited or Summoned, succeeded his father Sancho IV. on the throne of Castile and Leon in 1295. The years of his minority were disturbed by a series of civil wars caused by the pretensions of his cousins Don Juan and Don Alonso de la Cerda to the crown, by the disputes of the Haros, Laras, and other nobles about their privileges, by the restlessness of the municipalities, and by the ambition of the neighbouring kings of Portugal, Aragon, and Granada. The queen-mother, Maria de
Molina, on each new outbreak succeeded in procuring peace by diplomatic tact and judicious compromise. Secure at last in possession of his throne, Ferdinand wa3 free to pursue the traditional policy of war against the Moors; and in carrying it out he was aided by pecuniary grants both from his own nobles and also from the pope (Clement V.), as well as by the spoils of the Templars on the extinction of that order in 1310. His chief exploit, as recorded by the historians, both Spanish and Arab, was the expedition against Algeciras (1309), which, while unsuccessful in its main object, resulted in the surrender of Gibraltar and the cession of other strongholds (Gayangos, ii. 348; Conde, IV. xiv). In the course of a subsequent campaign he died suddenly at Jaen, September 7,1312. According to Mariana, he had on the 8th of August preceding condemned to death without lawful trial two brothers of the name of Carvajal. These protesting their innocence had summoned him to meet them within thirty days at the bar of God; hence his surname. He was succeeded by his infant son Alphonso XI. (See Mariana, XV. i.-xi.)
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