House of Bourbon

The House of Bourbon is the ruling dynasty whose restoration and exercise of authority become a defining political force in the Florios’ world. Its return to power brings Sicily’s constitutional autonomy to an end and makes political rule tangible through administrative centralization, customs control, taxation, and restrictions on commerce. The resulting conflict links the island’s struggle for self-government to the fortunes of merchants whose ships, credit, and goods are exposed to each change of regime.

Restoration and the loss of autonomy

The novel presents Bourbon restoration as a political settlement imposed on a divided Sicily. Palermo, Messina, Trapani, and Catania are described as rivals rather than a united constituency; their shared hostility to rule from beyond the Strait of Messina does not resolve their disagreements. This fragmentation leaves the island poorly positioned to resist the dynasty’s return. The account emphasizes the irony that Sicily could claim one of the world’s oldest parliaments yet had not found a common political purpose with which to defend it.

The decisive institutional change follows the return of the Bourbons to Naples. From December 1816, state offices and customs are administered by Neapolitans, as are the military commands. Palermo consequently loses its power and independence. Heavier taxes, trade restrictions, and further constraints compound an economy already in difficulty, bringing commercial activity to a near standstill. For the Florios, the change in sovereignty is therefore also a change in the conditions under which business can be conducted: political decisions reach them through the accounts book, expiring credit, and the difficulty of moving goods.

The dynasty’s restoration also carries the memory of the abolished Kingdom of Sicily and the revoked 1812 constitution. In Ignazio’s recollection of the revolutionary crisis of 1820, the insult of 1816 remains impossible to forget. The Bourbon king’s authority is opposed by Sicilians seeking independence and restoration of their kingdom, while aristocratic grievances add another source of resistance. The narrative distinguishes these interests: a demand for Sicilian self-rule is present, but so is the nobility’s resentment at losing its traditional power and privileges.

Rule, resistance, and renewed suppression

The 1820 revolt emerges from a wider climate of anti-Bourbon hostility, fostered by Palermo’s aristocracy and secret societies. On June 15, a revolt forces Prince Francesco to take refuge in Naples and leads to the creation of a Sicilian Parliament, which restores the constitution. Events on the mainland intensify the crisis: an insurrection led by General Guglielmo Pepe compels Ferdinand I to accept a constitutional charter. Sicily’s independence-seeking government, however, seeks to restore the Kingdom of Sicily, a goal that conflicts directly with Bourbon rule.

The revolution is weakened by divisions among Sicilian cities, particularly Palermo, Messina, and Catania. The Bourbons exploit that discord and suppress the revolt through bloodshed. In November the monarchy is restored and Sicily returns to the control of the Neapolitan government. The reversal shows how the island’s constitutional restoration can be proclaimed and then removed again when the balance of force turns against it. In March 1821, the Holy Alliance powers—Prussia, Russia, and Austria—intervene at Ferdinand I’s request. Austrian forces enter Naples on March 24 and restore the king to the throne; they remain until 1827, when Francesco I, who succeeded his father in 1825, manages to drive them out.

Ignazio’s later recollection of the uprising gives the conflict a further dimension. He recalls that the Sicilians seized the opportunity created by rebellion in Naples to declare independence, but he identifies the aristocrats as the real spark. Their grievance is that the Bourbons, once welcomed and protected when they fled in 1799, subsequently stripped the nobility of power, privileges, and offices. The narrative does not present this elite resistance as equivalent to a universal popular movement: aristocrats also expect to retain command over peasants and the poor. Their opposition to a foreign king is bound up with a desire to preserve their own inherited authority.

Commerce and fiscal power

Bourbon rule acts on the Florios through the machinery of government. The post-1816 administration’s customs and trade restrictions help deepen Palermo’s economic paralysis. During the 1820 revolt, uncertainty becomes immediate when officials seek to requisition customs goods and outgoing ships are blocked. Ignazio reports that the provisional government has left customs in disorder and that Benjamin Ingham has alerted him to the situation. Merchants and seamen gather at the Customs House, where soldiers try to hold the crowd back. The political crisis is thus rendered as a contest over who can move and claim commercial goods, not merely as a change of rulers.

The novel also complicates any simple identification of Bourbon government with economic stagnation. Under Ferdinand II, who becomes king in 1830, the regime pursues economic and social revival. The account describes a political and tax overview, substantial infrastructure development, greater use of technology and science, engineering projects, railways, and military ships with metal hulls. It also notes the first pension system in Italy and the start of a network of electric street lighting. Efforts to improve sulfur extraction, however, produce open conflict with British and French interests seeking to buy sulfur below market prices. The same state that promotes modernization also exercises power over taxation and resources, and its policies remain entangled with competing commercial interests.

The strain between political upheaval and private enterprise becomes especially clear during the 1848 revolution. Vincenzo tells Giulia that he has bought a large consignment of rifles in England on behalf of the revolutionary committee. The revolutionary regime has also requisitioned ships and effectively compelled the Florios to lend it money. Trade has fallen by half since the revolt began, and the company vessel Palermo, previously operating at full capacity, has been taken to transport troops. Vincenzo’s account makes plain the limits of a wealthy merchant’s influence: his commercial assets can make him useful to a government, but they can also be commandeered for its military needs.

Changing sovereignty and the Florios

The Florios encounter political authority as successive administrations make claims on the same commercial resources. During the revolutionary crisis of 1848, the question of who will rule Sicily remains unresolved: the Kingdom of Sicily is proclaimed, but no candidate accepts its crown, and British opposition to separation from the Bourbons further complicates the effort. Vincenzo regards the situation as dangerous for his business, especially as the revolutionary government takes control of shipping and trade declines. The conflict is not simply between monarchy and revolution; it is also about which authority can command the island’s money, transport, and public institutions.

By the later crisis, Vincenzo’s position as a trade governor allows him to act on financial information and protect liquid assets. He orders all cash and bank drafts transferred into a safe, while anticipating that Garibaldi’s men will soon requisition the substantial gold supply in the treasury. The scene places public finance and commercial security on the same unstable ground: even a carefully managed reserve cannot prevent the state or an advancing force from claiming resources held in its institutions.

After Italian unification, Vincenzo rejects the assumption that the end of Bourbon rule has brought Sicily genuine independence. He argues that the Piedmontese are turning the island into a colony and denounces the seizure of the Bourbon Crown treasury and its transfer to Piedmont to pay the costs of annexation. His bitter response links the old regime to the new through a shared question: who controls Sicily’s wealth, and for whose purposes? In this way the House of Bourbon remains central even after its rule has ended, because the novel measures political change against the island’s continuing loss of control over its own resources.

Political and social significance

The House of Bourbon’s role is defined by the collision between dynastic sovereignty and Sicilian claims to self-government. The revoked constitution and abolished kingdom become lasting grievances; the 1820 revolt briefly restores constitutional institutions before Bourbon and allied forces suppress them. Later revolution again turns the question of sovereignty into a struggle over practical authority, as governments seek ships, credit, customs goods, and treasury funds.

That political history also parallels the Florios’ struggle for recognition. The family’s commercial wealth grows in a society where inherited rank remains a barrier, while political regimes repeatedly decide whose authority counts and whose resources can be commandeered. The novel does not reduce the Bourbon period to a single economic or moral verdict: it shows centralization and restriction, violent suppression of independence movements, and, under Ferdinand II, projects of modernization. Its enduring emphasis is on the material terms of power. Sicily’s changing rulers may promise order, constitutional rights, or national unity, but the Florios encounter each promise through its effects on trade, finance, and the island’s capacity to determine its own future.