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A
Decisive Kingdom (1734-1759)
Charles of Bourbon |
We
usually consider Charles as the first King of
Naples from the Bourbon family. He was the great
restorer of the Kingdom, but, as we saw above,
the first king of that dynasty who reigned over
the South of Italy was his father Philip V when
he ascended the Throne of Madrid in 1700. During
the events of the long War for the Spanish Succession,
then, Philip -although winner of the war and
for this reason real king of Spain - lost the
viceroyalty of Naples and Sicily in favour of
the Austrian Hapsburgs, who kept it until 1734,
the year when Charles of Bourbon - son of Philip
V and his second wife Elisabeth Farnese - conquered
the Neapolitan viceroyalty with the diplomatic
help of his mother, became its king in every
respect and restored the autonomy of the Kingdom
of Naples by making it an independent and sovereign
state. |
To
this matter, the historian Angelantonio Spagnoletti
wrote: «When in 1734 don
Charles of Bourbon, son of Philip V king of Spain
and Elisabeth Farnese, succeeded in coming to Naples
and expelling the Austrians who had ruled it since
1707, everybody immediately understood that his conquest
did not forebear a return of the Spanish rule over
the South of Italy. In fact, although he maintained
strong relations with Madrid especially at the beginning,
he affirmed an independent political state, which,
as such, was acknowledged by the Vienna Peace Treaty
in 1738 (…) After more than two centuries of
foreign rule (first Spain and than Austria for about
27 years), a new independent state appeared in the
Italian political scenario».
Charles was born as elder son of a second marriage
on 20 January 1716. By birth, on his mother side -
Elisabeth Farnese’s father was the son of a
lady of Medici - he already was a pretender to an
Italian principality including the Duchy of Parma
and Piacenza and possibly also the Medici dominions
in case of dying out of the direct branch (as it started
to appear).
Only by overcoming a series of obstacles did Elisabeth
cleverly succeed in guaranteeing her son the Duchy
in 1732, under the tutelage of his grandmother, the
widow Duchess of Parma. In the meanwhile, the previous
year Charles declared himself "great Crown Prince"
of the Grand Duchy of Tuscany, since the dying out
of the Medici family was then sure and Giangastone,
the last Grand Duke still alive, was appointed as
his co-tutor.
When the War to the Polish Succession began, Charles’
future changed. In fact Elisabeth put him at the head
of an army in Italy and sent him to conquer the Kingdom
of Naples ruled by the Hapsburgs since 1707.
On 20 January 1734 Charles declared himself of full
age - therefore out of any tutelage - and marched
from Florence to Naples. In Monterotondo he addressed
the Neapolitans a proclamation of Philip V supporting
the enterprise: on 10 May he entered in triumph in
Naples. Five days after he received from Madrid a
deed of Philip V by which the latter transferred all
royal rights of the conquered Kingdom to his son.
Charles, availing himself of his rights, definitively
defeated the Austrian at Bitonto, conquered Sicily
and on 2 January 1735 adopted the title of King with
no number: in July he was crowned King of Sicily in
Palermo and on 12 July he came back to Naples.
However, the young king was in a phase of his life
in which he was still influenced by the policy of
his powerful parents who in 1737
chose the daughter of the King of Poland, Maria Amalia,
as his wife.
The end of the War for the Polish Succession in 1738
involved as consequence the Hapsburg conquest of the
Farnese’s Duchy of Tuscany (the Grand Duchy
was definitively taken by the Hapsburg-Lorraine),
whereas, by the Peace of Aachen, the Duchy of Parma
and Piacenza was given to Charles’ younger brother,
Philip, who started the Bourbon-Parma family.
In Naples, Charles ruled with the help of a State
Council formed by ministers chosen by his parents
and therefore influenced from Madrid (among them we
mention the Earl of Santostefano, the Marquis of Montealegre,
Tanucci, Brancaccio).
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