by Scott Mehl
© Unofficial Royalty 2023
The Kingdom of the Two Sicilies was located in today’s southern Italy. It included the island of Sicily and all of the Italian peninsula south of the Papal States. Ferdinando I, the first King of the Two Sicilies, had previously reigned over two kingdoms, as Ferdinando IV of the Kingdom of Naples and Ferdinando III of the Kingdom of Sicily. He had been deposed twice from the throne of Naples: once by the revolutionary Parthenopean Republic for six months in 1799 and again by Napoleon in 1805, before being restored in 1816 after the defeat of Napoleon. After the 1816 restoration, the two kingdoms were united into the Kingdom of the Two Sicilies.
Vittorio Emanuele II, King of Sardinia became a driving force behind the Italian unification movement along with Giuseppe Garibaldi, a general and nationalist, and Giuseppe Mazzini, a politician and journalist. Garibaldi conquered Naples and Sicily, the territories of the Kingdom of Two Sicilies. Francesco II, King of the Two Sicilies was deposed, the Kingdom of the Two Sicilies ceased to exist, and its territory was incorporated into the Kingdom of Sardinia. Eventually, the Sardinian troops occupied the central territories of the Italian peninsula, except Rome and part of Papal States. With all the newly acquired land, Vittorio Emanuele II was proclaimed the first King of the new, united Kingdom of Italy in 1861.
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Prince Ferdinando of Bourbon-Two Sicilies, Duke of Castro, was a claimant to the headship of the House of Bourbon-Two Sicilies, and the former throne of the Kingdom of Two Sicilies, from 1973 until his death in 2008.
Prince Ferdinando Maria Andrea Alfonso Marcus was born in Podzamcze, Poland on May 28, 1926, the only son of Prince Ranieri of Bourbon-Two Sicilies, Duke of Castro and Countess Maria Carolina Zamoyska. He had one older sister, Princess Maria del Carmen, born in 1924.
On July 23, 1949, in Giez, Switzerland, Prince Ferdinando married Chantal de Chevron-Villette. The couple had three children:
- Princess Beatrice (1950) – married Prince Charles Bonaparte, had issue
- Princess Anne (1957) – married Baron Jacques Cochin, had issue
- Prince Carlo, Duke of Castro (1963) – married Camilla Crociani, had issue
Ferdinando’s father became one of the claimants to the headship of the House of Bourbon-Parma in 1960. Ferdinando succeeded him in 1973, although he had assumed the functions of the position in 1966.
Prince Ferdinando died in Draguignan, France on March 20, 2008, and was succeeded by his only son, Prince Carlo.
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Kingdom of the Two Sicilies Resources at Unofficial Royalty
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