Kingdom of the Two Sicilies

Kingdom of the Two Sicilies, political entity formed in 1816 from the kingdoms of Sicily and Naples. The term is sometimes used incorrectly to refer to the Gothic, Angevin, and Aragonese kingdoms that ruled Sicily and/or Naples from the 13th century ad. The effective unification of these kingdoms occurred in 1443 under Alfonso V of Aragón, who was the first to bear the title rex utriusque Siciliae, (Latin, “king of both Sicilies”). Little used during the Bourbon rule of the ancien régime, the title was taken up again after the Congress of Vienna, when Ferdinand I became king of the Two Sicilies in 1816.

Ferdinand abolished the constitution that Sicily had adopted in 1812 and the two parts of his kingdom were united under one government. This decision provoked protest from the Sicilians, who lost their long-standing autonomy, and led to the revolt of Palermo in February 1848. The Bourbons, however, kept the crown until 1860. The kingdom ceased to exist after Giuseppe Garibaldi and his forces captured the island, and the plebiscite of October 21 allowed the kingdom to be annexed to Sardinia, a step that preceded the formation of the kingdom of Italy in March 1861.