Carlo Filangieri
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Carlo Filangieri (May 10, 1784 – October 9, 1867), prince of
Biography
Born at
He returned to Naples as captain on
On the restoration of the Bourbon king Ferdinand IV (I), Filangieri retained his rank and command, but found the army utterly disorganized and impregnated with Carbonarism. In the disturbances of 1820, he adhered to the Constitutionalist party, and fought under General Pepe against the Austrians. On the re-establishment of the autocracy, he was dismissed from the service, and retired to Calabria where he had inherited the princely title and estates of Satriano.[1]
In 1831, he was recalled by Ferdinand II and entrusted with various military reforms. On the outbreak of the troubles of 1848, Filangieri advised the king to grant the constitution, which he did in February 1848, but when the Sicilians formally seceded from the Neapolitan kingdom Filangieri was given the command of an armed force with which to reduce the island to obedience. On September 3, he landed near Messina, and after very severe fighting captured the city. He then advanced southwards, besieged and took Catania, where his troops committed many atrocities, and by May 1849, he had conquered the whole of Sicily, though not without much bloodshed.[1]
He remained in Sicily as governor (the exact Italian title was
In May 1860, Francis at last promulgated the constitution, but it was too late, for Garibaldi was in Sicily and Naples was seething with rebellion. On the advice of Liborio Romano, the new prefect of police, Filangieri was ordered to leave Naples. He went to Marseilles with his wife and subsequently to
According to Luigi Villari in the Encyclopædia Britannica Eleventh Edition, Filangieri was a very distinguished soldier, and a man of great ability; although he changed sides several times, he became really attached to the Bourbon dynasty, which he hoped to save by freeing it from its reactionary tendencies and infusing a new spirit into it. His conduct in Sicily was severe and harsh, but he was not without feelings of humanity, and he was an honest man and a good administrator.[1]
His biography was written by his daughter Teresa Filangieri Fieschi Ravaschieri, Il generale Carlo Filangieri (Milan, 1902), an interesting, although somewhat too laudatory volume based on the general's own unpublished memoirs; for the Sicilian expedition see V. Finocchiaro, La rivoluzione siciliana del 1848-49 e la spedizione del generale Filangieri (Catania, 1906, with bibliography), in which Filangieri is highly criticised.[1]
References
- ^ a b c d e f g h public domain: Villari, Luigi (1911). "Filangieri, Carlo". In Chisholm, Hugh (ed.). Encyclopædia Britannica. Vol. 10 (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. pp. 338–339. One or more of the preceding sentences incorporates text from a publication now in the
- ^ Mullié, C. Biographie des célébrités militaires des armées de terre et de mer de 1789 à 1850 Retrieved 27 October 2013.