Garibaldi’s Landing at Marsala

Garibaldi’s Landing at Marsala was the opening of the campaign that brought Sicily out of Bourbon rule and helped make Italian unification possible. The landing appears both as a turning point in the island’s political upheaval and, in the Prince’s drawing room, as alarming news filtered through a frightened letter and a dismissive newspaper account.

Background and Expedition

When the novel opens, the Kingdom of the Two Sicilies is nearing its end, following the death of Ferdinand II. The Risorgimento has been gathering strength for years, but in 1860 the struggle for unification is led chiefly by the Kingdom of Sardinia, ruled by Victor Emmanuel II and served by Cavour as prime minister.

In early May, Giuseppe Garibaldi sets sail from near Genoa with a thousand volunteers, acting against Cavour’s wishes. His aim is to wrest Sicily from Bourbon rule. The expedition, known as the Garibaldini, lands at Marsala; from there, the campaign moves swiftly into the island’s interior and toward its political center.

The Landing as News

The landing reaches the Prince of Salina through sharply contrasting accounts. A letter from his brother-in-law Màlvica reports that the Piedmontese have landed and predicts disaster. Màlvica plans to take his family aboard a British man-of-war and offers to reserve places for the Prince. Rather than follow the warning, the Prince laughs at Màlvica’s panic and worries that an empty palace in Palermo will be lost to its servants. His response makes the news a practical threat to property as well as a political crisis.

The newspaper in the same delivery describes the landing as an act of piracy. It says the force numbers about eight hundred, is commanded by Garibaldi, and has avoided an encounter with royal troops while moving in the direction of Castelvetrano. The account characterizes the volunteers as brigands and reports threats to peaceful citizens and spreading destruction. Its hostile language and uncertain details contrast with the broader account of an expedition of a thousand volunteers. The gap between the dispatch’s estimate and the campaign’s stated force, and between its account of a raiding band and the political purpose of the expedition, shows how the landing is understood through competing interests and incomplete reports.

The Prince is unsettled by Garibaldi’s name, but reassures himself that the king will be able to control the adventurer. He puts the newspaper away and waits for the Rosary. The news has reached him, but his first interpretation does not grasp how far the political order is already shifting.

Campaign and Consequences

The landing proves to be the beginning of a rapid advance, not an isolated raid. The Garibaldini defeat Bourbon troops at Calatafimi, and within three weeks occupy Palermo. Garibaldi, hailed as Dictator of Sicily, gathers more volunteers, crosses to the mainland, and enters Naples in triumph. That autumn the Bourbon armies are defeated on the Volturno; after the Piedmontese besiege Francis II of the Two Sicilies at Gaeta, Garibaldi hands southern Italy to Victor Emmanuel II and withdraws from public life.

The landing’s consequences extend beyond the campaign itself. Plebiscites bring the peninsula’s states into the new kingdom, apart from the Papal States, which remain occupied by troops of Napoleon III. Garibaldi’s later attempt to march on Rome ends at Aspromonte, where Piedmontese troops rout his men and wound him. The Italian government’s action there closes the revolutionary phase of the Risorgimento; Rome is declared Italy’s capital in 1870. Marsala therefore marks both the start of Garibaldi’s decisive southern campaign and the first movement toward a unified state.