Ferdinand II

Kingdom of the Two Sicilies state institutions Counter-revolutionary forces 1810–1859 ○ Natural causes

King of the Two Sicilies who granted a constitution in 1848, then dissolved the Naples parliament and shelled Messina: the "Bomb King"

Born in Palermo, the son of Francis I of the Two Sicilies, he came to the throne in 1830. In his early years he won popularity by cutting taxes and building the first railway in Italy, but in 1837 he crushed Sicilian demonstrators demanding a constitution. When the Palermo rising, timed for his birthday on 12 January 1848, spread across the island, he promised a constitution on 29 January. But in a dispute over the deputies' oath he dispersed the rioters with troops and dissolved parliament on 13 March 1849, and he gave the fugitive Pope asylum at Gaeta. He sent Filangieri against Sicily, which had declared independence, and his fleet's eight-hour bombardment of Messina after its surrender earned him the nickname "the Bomb King". Sicily was wholly subdued on 15 May 1849, and some 2,000 people were jailed afterwards. He died in 1859.

Also known as: Re Bomba · Ferdinando Carlo Maria