Bourbon Italy

Southern Italy Series

-----Bourbon Italy-----

Following the loss of Sicily, Naples, Sardinia, Milan, Belgium, Minorca and Gibraltar at the Treaty of Utrecht, the Spanish Bourbon monarch Philip V was determined to rebuild his realm. He began in 1717 by invading Austrian occupied Sardinia. The Spanish invasion of Sicily in 1718 led to the War of the Quadruple Alliance where the Austrians, British, French, Dutch and later Savoyards. The war ended in 1720 with the Treaty of the Hague where Philip agreed to abandon his claims in Italy in exchange for his son receiving a claim on Parma. Savoy, which had proved unable to successfully defend Sicily from the Spanish, was given the island of Sardinia. The Austrians, already ruling in Naples, took Sicily.

The War of the Polish Succession in 1733 gave the French a reason to fight the Austrians and attack them in Belgium, Breisgau, Milan, Naples and Sicily. Philip used the opportunity to join the French in fighting the Austrians, hoping to win back southern Italy. He signed the Pacte de Famille with his nephew, King Louis XV of France, tying Spain and France together in a military alliance. Savoy, now known as the Kingdom of Sardinia-Piedmont, entered the war on the French side hoping to capture Austrian Milan.

“Seeing that the French were in control of the situation in northern Italy, Philip V decided to change his plans. The troops under the count of Motemar were now ordered to go south and occupy the formerly Spanish territories of Naples and Sicily. From its naval bases in the western Mediterranean, Spain had little difficulty in backing up the military expedition. A large fleet of twenty Spanish warships, accompanying a force of sixteen thousand men, sailed from Barcelona for Italy. It was a rapid and wholly successful campaign. Most of the inhabitants of the south had never accepted Austrian rule and greeted the Spaniards with enthusiasm. As soon as he reached Neapolitan territory, Charles in march 1734 issued a general pardon to all citizens of the kingdom, confirming their laws and privileges, and promised to remove all taxes imposed by the Austrians. The bulk of the imperial forces saw that fighting would be hopeless, and refrained from offering resistance.
On 9 May, even before Charles had arrived in the capital, representatives of the city of Naples came to offer him their obedience. Charles made his solemn entry into the city the next day and was proclaimed king. An Austrian force that invaded from the Adriatic was defeated by Montemar later that month. The Sicilians waited with expectation to be liberated from Imperial rule. In august a force under Montemar sailed from Naples for Sicily, and on 1 September entered Palermo and proclaimed Charles king. The Sicilians rose all over the island in support. Charles crossed over to visit them during the first six months of 1735. The Spanish Bourbons were now in control of all southern Italy as well as Tuscany. It was an astounding achievement carried out with remarkable speed and very little loss of life. Philip V’s forces had recovered all the Italian territories lost at Utrecht, with the exception of Milan. In Naples, the bourbons initiated a great new dynastic epoch.
In theory the Castilian elite should have been overjoyed at the recovery of the old Hapsburg empire. But the change of dynasty and the thirty years of war that followed it had profoundly affected the outlook of all the participants in the story. The Castilian historical image, carefully cultivated over the centuries, was of a kingdom of Naples that had been conquered gloriously by the Spanish troops of the Great Captain, annexed to the Spanish Crown and ruled over by Spaniards. That image had nothing to do with the new conquest of Naples, organized only by Italians and Frenchmen. To make matters worse, Philip V refused to integrate Naples (‘the kingdom of the Two Sicilies’, as it was now called) into the Spanish monarchy, and instead recognized his son Charles as ruler of a wholly independent kingdom. The decision infuriated the Castilians. When news arrived in Madrid that Charles had been proclaimed king in Naples, only two grandees, both of them Italians, went to the royal palace of La Granja to congratulate Philip on the achievement.” p458 of Henry Kamen’s Empire: How Spain became a world power 1492-1763

At the peace treaty in Vienna, the Spanish Parma was given to Austria in exchange for acknowledgement of their conquests in the south. France was given a claim on the Duchy of Lorraine which they would later acquire in 1766. In exchange Austria was given a claim on the Duchy of Tuscany which they would acquire in 1737. In exchange for that the Spanish received the Stato Dei Presidii.

But, it was only a matter of time until the Bourbon French, Hapsburg Austrian rivalry manifested itself in another war. The War of the Austrian Succession began in 1740 when Frederick II (the Great) of Prussia invaded Austrian Silesia. The war soon grew to involve all the major European powers. In Italy it pitted the French, Spanish, Neapolitans and Genovese against the Austrians and Piedmonts. The battle lines swung back and forth across the north of Italy, but the war finally ended in 1748 with Spanish troops occupying Austrian Parma.

The Diplomatic Revolution in 1756 finally ended the French-Austrian rivalry and brought both countries together to fight the Seven Years War. Now that France, Austria and Spain were allies, Italy was at peace.

Southern Italy Series

500 BC [link] Origins
264 BC [link] The Punic Wars
115 AD [link] The Roman Empire
405 [link] East and West
526 [link] Collapse of the West
565 [link] Reconquest
572 [link] Lombard Invasion
751 [link] Lombard Italy
814 [link] Charlemagne’s Empire
1000 [link] Italy and the Holy Roman Empire
1095 [link] The Norman Conquest
1154 [link] The Kingdom of Sicily
1250 [link] Hohenstaufen Italy
1280 [link] Anjou Sicily
1300 [link] War of the Vespers
1400 [link] Black Death
1492 [link] Renaissance Italy
1559 [link] Italian Wars
1715 [link] Habsburg Italy
1780 Bourbon Italy
1799 [link] Revolutionary Italy
1812 [link] Napoleonic Italy
1860 [link] United Italy

2/19/12 EDIT:
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map base created by Citypeek [link]