Encyclopaedia Britannica, 11th Edition, "France" to "Francis Joseph I.": Volume 10, Slice 8Various
History
Encyclopaedia Britannica, 11th Edition, "France" to "Francis Joseph I.": Volume 10, Slice 8
Various
Encyclopedias and dictionaries
Both Francis and Maria Sophia behaved
with great coolness and courage, and even when the French fleet, whose
presence had hitherto prevented an attack by sea, was withdrawn, they
still resisted; it was not until the 12th of February 1861 that the
fortress capitulated. Thus the kingdom of Naples was incorporated in
that of Italy, and the royal pair from that time forth led a wandering
life in Austria, France and Bavaria. Francis died on the 27th of
December 1894 at Arco in Tirol. His widow survived him.
Francis II. was weak-minded, stupid and vacillating, but, although his
short reign was stained with some cruel massacres and persecutions, he
was less of a tyrant than his father. The courage and dignity he
displayed during his reverses inspired pity and respect. But the fact
that he protected brigandage in his former dominions and countenanced
the most abominable crimes in the name of legitimism greatly diminished
the sympathy which was felt for the fallen monarch.
BIBLIOGRAPHY.--R. de Cesare, _La Fine d'un regno_, vol. ii. (Citta di
Castello, 1900) gives a detailed account of the reign of Francis II.,
while H.R. Whitehouse's _Collapse of the Kingdom of Naples_ (New York,
1899) may be recommended to English readers; Nisco's _Francesco II_
(Naples, 1887) should also be consulted. See under NAPLES; GARIBALDI;
BIXIO; CAVOUR; ITALY; FILANGIERI; &c. (L. V.*)
FRANCIS IV. (1779-1846) duke of Modena, was the son of the archduke
Ferdinand, Austrian governor of Lombardy, who acquired the duchy of
Modena through his wife Marie Beatrice, heiress of the house of Este as
well as of many fiefs of the Malaspina, Pio da Carpi, Pico della
Mirandola, Cibo, and other families. At the time of the French invasion
(1796) Francis was sent to Vienna to be educated, and in 1809 was
appointed governor of Galicia. Later he went to Sardinia, where the
exiled King Victor Emmanuel I. and his wife Maria Theresa were living in
retirement. The latter arranged a marriage between her daughter Marie
Beatrice and Francis, and a secret family compact was made whereby if
the king and his two brothers died without male issue, the Salic law
would be changed so that Francis should succeed to the kingdom instead
of Charles Albert of Carignano (N. Bianchi, _Storia della diplomazia
europea in Italia_, i. 42-43). On the fall of Napoleon in 1814 Francis
received the duchy of Modena, including Massa-Carrara and Lunigiana; his
mother's advice was "to be above the law ... never to forgive the
Republicans of 1796, nor to listen to the complaints of his subjects,
whom nothing satisfies; the poorer they are the quieter they are"
(Silingardi, "Ciro Menotti," in _Rivista europea_, Florence, 1880).
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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