Son of Francis I. He was born in Palermo on the 12th of January 1810 when de Bourbon court was in Sicily because of the French occupation in Naples. He ascended the throne of the Two Sicilies at the age of twenty, on the 8th of November 1830. In 1832, he married Maria Cristina of Savoya, who died of puerperal fever after having given birth to the long-awaited successor Francis.
He then married the archduchess of Austria, Maria Theresa with who he had twelve children. In the first decade of the reign stood out from his grandfather and his father for enlightened sovereign measures, even regarding the liberal demands: he allowed the amnesty for political prisoners; and for very innovative reforms administratively and economically. He paid a close attention to the State resources. He significantly reduced the costs of the state and of the court, including his apanage. He also reduced the military costs, whereas he invested in innovations, which contributed to revive the economy, to strengthen the industrial system with new productions with the expansion of Castellammare shipyards and the factory of Pietrarsa, with the reduction of the extraction of sulphur in Sicily from the English monopoly. In 1841 in Sicily, he also promoted the abolition of feudalism. A strong impulse was given to the public works for the infrastructures construction. In addition to the the first railway line Naples-Portici inaugurated in 1839, there were also the iron bridges on the Garigliano and on the Calore, the port of Ischia in 1854, routes and connexions which facilitated the commerce, supported also by several commercial agreements with foreign states, the reclaim of the Fucino and the Tavoliere delle Puglie (in Apulia) which made suitable for cultivation large portions of the land. And in Naples, the Maria Theresa street (which is Vittorio Emanuele nowadays), the gas lightening and Poggioreale cemetery. Despite the first encouraging signals for the liberals, who initially recognised in him the possible reference for the unification of Italy process, after the first decade of openings, a return to absolutist positions followed, more and more accentuated and accompanied by measures which were gradually repressing freedom. In January 1848, the revolt of Palermo strongly characterised by independentism pushed the king to grand the constitution, which, however, didn’t forbid Sicily to proclaim its independence on 27th of March, exactly when Europe was living a season of strong changings and political agitations and in France the republic was proclaimed. Still in March, Piedmont declared war to Austria, ushering in the First War of Independence, to which the bourbon reign adhered and declared war to Austria. In May, every mediation possibility between liberals and the royal government failed. This kicked off the revolt in the street of Naples repressed in blood. However, the constitution was not withdrawn and new elections ensued which led to the election of a new parliament. Meanwhile, however, Ferdinand withdrew his troops engaged in the north in the war against Austria and backed out of the diplomatic negotiation for the formation of a league of the Italian States.
The summer was marked by military actions in Sicily, culminated in the bombardment of Messines, which gave Ferdinand the nickname of “King Bomb”. After various events and mediation attempts, the offensive launched by the bourbon troops led to the end of secession of Sicily in 1849. Focused on defending at any costs the absolute power and the independence of the reign, more and more isolated at European level even for the action of the liberals exiled abroad, opposed especially by England aiming to avoid any form of concurrence in the Mediterranean, Ferdinand changed to a management of the power not less conservative and repressive than his predecessors’ one was; even after having initially called to the top of the government an ex adherent to the Neapolitan Republic and then a supporter of Murat, Giustino Fortunato.
On the 8th of December 1856, after the mass, the king was wounded with a bayonet by Mazzini’s solder who intended to kill him. The wound, never entirely healed, was the cause of a septicaemia, which three years later, on 22nd of May 1859 in Caserta, led to his death.
