Sicilian Constitution of 1812, reactivated in 1848

The Sicilian Constitution of 1812, reactivated in 1848, is presented as both a constitutional reference point and a fragile claim to Sicilian self-government. Its revival accompanies the revolutionary proclamation of a Kingdom of Sicily, but the absence of a willing king and the return of Bourbon power expose how quickly constitutional aspiration can be constrained by political and military realities.

Origins and Political Setting

The Constitution belongs to a longer struggle over who governs Sicily. After the Bourbons returned to Naples, the island’s political autonomy was sharply curtailed: from December 1816, Neapolitans administered state offices and customs and held military commands. Heavier taxes, restrictions, and new trade constraints helped bring the already faltering economy to a halt. That history made the constitutional project of 1848 more than a procedural matter: it offered a counterclaim to centralized authority and its material burdens.

The context had changed again by 1848. Vincenzo Florio tells Giulia that the revolutionaries had selected a parliament through elections the previous March and sought to apply the 1812 Constitution again. They proclaimed the Kingdom of Sicily but could find no king willing to take the crown, including the son of Carlo Alberto, Duke of Genoa. Vincenzo also reports that Britain opposed Sicily’s separation from the Bourbons. The constitutional revival therefore faced obstacles both within Sicily and among foreign powers.

Revival and Limits

In Vincenzo’s account, the revived Constitution is connected to a revolutionary government still struggling to establish a stable political order. He describes the lack of a king as a central problem and says the revolutionaries had no clear point of reference. His remarks distinguish the act of restoring a constitutional framework from the harder task of securing the people and institutions needed to make it effective.

The upheaval also affected commerce and public resources. Vincenzo says trading had fallen by half since the revolt began and that the revolutionary regime had taken the steamship Palermo to transport troops. He had bought a large consignment of rifles in England on behalf of the revolutionary committee, while ships had been requisitioned and he had effectively been forced to provide a loan. The constitutional project thus unfolds amid demands on merchants, shipping, and credit: political authority is asserted not only through declarations, but through its claims on the resources that sustain it.

Suspension and Aftermath

After the revolts of 1848, Ferdinand II sought to restore unity in the Kingdom of the Two Sicilies and suspended the Constitution promulgated by the Sicilian Parliament in March 1848. The suspension ended its immediate operation. The people and local administrations, exhausted by prolonged instability, accepted the taxes imposed to address the national debt, while the aristocracy distanced itself from renewed rebellion. Further uprisings occurred, but they were isolated and chiefly rural, with little resonance in the cities.

The Constitution’s course therefore marks a reversal: a revolutionary attempt to revive a constitutional order gives way to Bourbon centralization. The persistence of patriotic feeling among exiles, expressed in the writings and interventions of figures including Giuseppe La Masa, Ruggero Settimo, and Francesco Crispi, shows that the defeat of the constitutional project did not extinguish the political ideals associated with it. In the narrative, the Constitution stands at the point where a claim to self-government meets the fiscal, military, and dynastic power able to suspend it.