{geni:about_me} ====Golden Fleece - Knights: Spanish Branch====
Name/title: Ferdinando Antonio Pasquale Giovanni Nepomuceno Serafino Gennaro Benedetto Prince of Naples and Sicily, Prince(Infante) of Spain
He was also as Ferdinand IV he was also king of Naples (1759-1806,
1815-25), and as Ferdinand III, king of Sicily (1806-15). In 1759
Ferdinand became king of Naples. He ruled for eight years under the
regency of his father's chief minister Bernardo Tanucci (1698-1783). In
1768 he married the daughter of Maria Theresa, empress of Austria, and
replaced Tanucci with John Francis Edward Acton (1736-1811), an
Englishman. Influenced by his wife and by Acton, Ferdinand allied Naples
with the coalition opposing France in the French Revolution and the
Napoleonic Wars. The French captured Naples in 1799 and there set up the
Parthenopean Republic. Ferdinand found refuge in Palermo, Sicily, until an
army under Cardinal Fabrizio Ruffo (1744-1827) recovered Naples later that
year. Ferdinand's return was marked by mass executions of Neapolitans who
had sided with the French. In 1806 he fled once more to Sicily before the
advance of Joseph Bonaparte, who had been made king of Naples by his
brother, Napoleon, and who captured Naples soon thereafter. Ferdinand's
authority was limited to Sicily from 1806 until 1815; his reign was
unpopular, and for a time (1812) his son acted for him as regent.
Ferdinand returned to Naples after Napoleon's overthrow in 1815. The
following year, against the will of most of his subjects, he reconstituted
the kingdom of the Two Sicilies along autocratic lines with the aid of
Austria. He was succeeded by his son, Francis I.
1751 - 1825 (73 år)
