BOURBON-ANJOU-TWO SICILIES, ALFONSO MARIA GIUSEPPE ALBERTO. - Count of Caserta, born at Caserta on 28 March 1841 to King Ferdinand II and Maria Theresa of Austria, died at Cannes on 26 May 1934. An artillery officer in the Bourbon army, he took part in the stubborn and supreme defense of Gaeta (6 Nov. 1860 - 13 Feb. 1861), until, at dawn on 14 Feb., he embarked with his half-brother King Francis II on the «Mouette» and left the now-conquered fortress.

A tenacious and ardent, indeed often reckless, supporter of all the ill-advised and unhappy attempts aimed, in any case, at an impossible restoration, after having seen in the summer of 1867 the Queen Mother Maria Theresa and the little Prince of Caltagirone, last son of Ferdinand II, die of cholera in Albano, he cooperated effectively that autumn among the pontifical ranks in the close struggle against the Garibaldians bursting into Lazio.

In Rome he had married on 8 June 1868 Antonietta of Bourbon-Two Sicilies, and to Rome he promptly returned at the beginning of Sept. 1870 with the intention of fighting once again in favor of the pontifical government. The events of 20 Sept. surprised him with his brother the Count of Bari at the Palazzo Farnese, which appeared to the newcomers obstinately closed and protected by the Prussian colors; but on the following 23rd he had to leave for Civitavecchia and from Italy under escort.

Having succeeded on 15 Jan. 1895, at Munich, to the deceased Francis II, while the Neapolitan legitimist party, which continued for a long time to vegetate, recognized him as His Majesty Alfonso I of the Two Sicilies, he withdrew to Villa Maria Teresa in Cannes, dedicating the many years of his remaining life to the education of his numerous offspring as well as to distinguished works of charitable and retiring piety, thereby leaving behind an unconditional reputation for uncommon virtues and chivalrous nobility of character.

Bibliography12 works

BIBL.: E. Kanzler, Rapporto alla Santità di Nostro Signore papa Pio IX... sulla invasione dello Stato Pontificio nell'autunno 1867, Rome 1868, p. 6; L. R. De Cesare, Roma e lo Stato del papa, etc., ibid. 1907; id., La fine di un regno, Città di Castello 1908; B. Croce, Storia del Regno di Napoli, Bari 1925; id., Gli ultimi borbonici, Naples 1926, extract from Atti della R. Acc. di Scienze morali di Napoli, 50 (1927), pp. 1-23; P. Calà Ulloa, Un re in esilio. La corte di Francesco II a Roma dal 1861 al 1870, Bari 1918; Almanach de Gotha, 1934, pp. 36-38; Necrologio, in Osservatore Romano, 28-29 May 1934; C. Montù, Storia della artiglieria italiana, III, part 2, Rome 1937, pp. 917, 918, 930; C. M. De Vecchi, Le corte di Giovanni Lanza, VI, Turin 1938, pp. 44, 54; T. Battaglini, Il crollo militare del regno delle Due Sicilie, I, Modena 1939, pp. 33, 125, 129, 141, 171, 175, 183; II pp. 7, 25, 39, 52, 121, 177.

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Bourbon-Anjou-Two Sicilies, Alfonso Maria Giuseppe Alberto

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