Kingdom of Sicily

The Kingdom of Sicily is a constitutional and political ideal whose suppression shapes the novel’s account of Sicilian autonomy, revolution, and commerce. Its abolition by the Bourbons turns the island’s political subordination into a practical condition of daily life; its restoration becomes a revolutionary demand, but divisions among Sicilian cities and the rival claims of changing governments repeatedly frustrate that aim. Through the Florios’ exposure to taxes, customs controls, blocked shipping, and requisitions, the kingdom’s history is measured not only in constitutions and proclamations but also in the resources a state can command.

Abolition and Bourbon centralization

The loss of the kingdom’s political independence follows the Bourbon return. Since December 1816, Neapolitans administer state offices and customs and hold military command. Palermo has lost its power and independence, while heavier taxes, trade restrictions, and new constraints deepen an already severe economic downturn. Political change therefore reaches the Florios through the institutions governing commerce: customs authority and trade policy can determine whether goods move and whether credit obligations can be met.

The wider divisions among Sicilians help explain why opposition does not readily become collective resistance. Palermo resents Messina, Trapani sides with Messina against Palermo, and Catania looks after its own interests. The cities share hostility toward rule from beyond the Strait of Messina, but that common feeling does not erase their rivalry. The novel sets this fragmentation against the island’s history of parliament and self-government, showing that a political tradition alone cannot guarantee effective unity.

The revolts of 1820 and the restoration project

In 1820, constitutional and revolutionary upheaval in Naples gives Sicilian opponents of Bourbon rule an opening. The novel recounts a revolt on June 15 that forces Prince Francesco to take refuge in Naples and leads to the creation of a Sicilian Parliament, which restores the constitution. On the mainland, an insurrection led by General Guglielmo Pepe also compels Ferdinand I to accept a constitutional charter. These parallel developments briefly make constitutional government appear possible on both sides of the strait, but the Sicilian movement has a distinct objective: restoration of the Kingdom of Sicily.

A later account places the outbreak of the Sicilian revolt on July 14, 1820, during the Feast of Saint Rosalia, when the city is crowded with people and the crisis in Naples prompts nobles, intellectuals, and others to declare independence. This account emphasizes the aristocracy’s role in setting the revolt in motion. The nobility resents the loss of its former power, privileges, and offices, and objects to a monarch it regards as foreign to an island whose ruling families claim generations of local authority. The revolutionary demand for Sicilian rule is thus connected to an elite struggle over political standing as well as to a broader rejection of rule from Naples.

The independence project is defeated by both internal division and external force. The Bourbons exploit discord among Palermo, Messina, and Catania; the monarchy is restored in November, returning Sicily to Neapolitan control. In March 1821, Prussia, Russia, and Austria intervene at Ferdinand I’s request. Austrian forces enter Naples on March 24 and restore the king to the throne, remaining until 1827. The sequence demonstrates how a parliamentary restoration and a declaration of independence can be reversed when local divisions meet the military strength of the restored monarchy and its allies.

The kingdom as a continuing claim

The memory of the kingdom’s abolition remains politically active in later scenes. During the upheaval of 1848, the demand is framed as a right to regain the constitution taken away in 1816 and to revive the Kingdom of Sicily. The revolutionary committee proclaims the kingdom, but it cannot find a king willing to accept the crown. Vincenzo reports that neither the son of Carlo Alberto, Duke of Genoa, nor another candidate will take it, and that British opposition to Sicily’s separation from the Bourbons further narrows the project’s prospects. The restored name and constitutional claim therefore coexist with an unresolved question of sovereign authority.

The provisional government’s needs also make the revolutionary cause a direct commercial burden. Vincenzo says that he bought a large consignment of rifles in England on behalf of the revolutionary committee, while ships have been requisitioned and the Florios have effectively been forced to provide a loan. Trade has fallen by half since the revolt began, and the Sicilian Steamship Company vessel Palermo has been taken by Ruggero Settimo’s regime to transport troops. When customs operations become disordered and outgoing ships are blocked, the revolution’s political uncertainty becomes a stoppage of the trade on which the Florios depend.

State power and commercial resources

The novel repeatedly presents sovereignty through control of practical resources. Under Bourbon centralization, Neapolitan officials administer customs and trade; during revolt, the provisional authorities block shipping, requisition vessels, and seek military supplies. In a later political transition, Vincenzo, acting as a trade governor, orders all cash and bank drafts transferred into the Royal Bank’s safe until the crisis passes. He anticipates that Garibaldi’s men will soon requisition the substantial gold supply in the treasury. The action distinguishes the money he can secure from public bullion he expects to lose to the incoming force.

After unification, Vincenzo objects that the Piedmontese are turning Sicily into a colony and that the Bourbon Crown treasury has been taken to Piedmont to pay the expenses of annexation. His protest shows that the end of Bourbon rule does not, in his view, fulfill the promise of Sicilian self-government. For him, a new national state may reproduce subordination in another form, while Casa Florio’s ships, money, and commercial world remain exposed to decisions made elsewhere.

Political ideal and narrative significance

The Kingdom of Sicily gathers together the novel’s conflict between political independence and material dependence. Its constitutional restoration is invoked as a right, and its re-establishment becomes an explicit revolutionary objective; yet the movement is weakened by rivalries among Sicilian cities, uncertainty over a monarch, foreign opposition, and military intervention. The kingdom’s political meaning is therefore inseparable from the limits on who can govern the island and command its institutions.

For the Florios, this history has an immediate economic measure. Governments change, but each claims access to customs, ships, credit, cash, or public stores. The kingdom’s fate thus illuminates a central tension in the family’s rise: commercial wealth can make the Florios useful to political power, but it cannot ensure control over the state that repeatedly redirects their resources. Their experience makes Sicilian autonomy a question not only of national identity, but also of who has the authority to move goods, levy taxes, and decide where the island’s wealth will go.