“L’invasione giacobina” di Silvio Vitale was translated with permission from L’Alfiere: Pubblicazione Napoletana Tradizionalista, Numero Uno, Gennaio, 1961, pp. 3-7.
Part 1, Part 2, Part 3
The French, led by General Championnet, had believed victory certain—especially after easily taking the three fortresses—but were suddenly attacked from every side. Though victorious against a regular army, they now found themselves unable to advance against loosely organized groups with no military experience. They were forced to concentrate and regroup.
Yet while popular insurrection grew stronger, the regular army collapsed due to betrayal. Croce describes the Neapolitan army as full of Jacobins bent on sowing disorder among the troops (24), and it could no longer guarantee the safety of the capital. The court was forced to flee to Sicily.
Croce, noting the Jacobin treachery, declares that the true traitor was the King himself, for waging a war against the will of the nation and the advice of the wise. But how can this be sincerely said, when the people showed unprecedented unanimity in support of the legitimate power and an extraordinary willingness to sacrifice? And when the so-called “wise” revealed themselves only through conspiracies, not prudent counsel? That is, if we even concede the label of “wise” belonged solely to the reformers.
As the King departed, having named Prince Francesco Pignatelli as his vicar, the Jacobins in the capital, maintaining secret contacts with General Championnet, plotted to seize Castel Sant’Elmo. Before long, they succeeded.
The King’s departure triggered a vast institutional crisis. Even the authority of the appointed vicar came under scrutiny, proving unequal to the weight of the powers entrusted to him.
A representative of the nobility, the Prince of Canosa, claimed that in the King’s absence, it was the duty of his class to govern. He had already distinguished himself in 1796 with a forceful writing against the imposition of a tax decree that had been issued without the public approval of the city squares, in open violation of the rights of the nobility.
This assertion of a noble-led government was later seen as a direct call for an aristocratic republic—a possibility not to be ruled out, considering that the aristocracy had often been harmed by the monarchy, which, having violated many of their privileges, appeared to them—despite being their traditional bulwark—almost revolutionary and usurping (25). The significant participation of the nobility in the new institutions imposed by France would find its origin in this very discontent. Nonetheless, the Prince of Canosa remained essentially monarchist and claimed power only to prevent it from falling straight into plebeian hands.
The crisis was resolved by the entry of the French into Naples on January 23, 1799, after a fierce and bloody battle. A proclamation by General Championnet declared to the Neapolitans:
“You are free! If you know how to enjoy the gift of liberty, the French Republic shall receive in your happiness a great reward for her labors, her deaths, and her war.”
The very next day, Championnet reported to the Directory:
“Three days of successive combat were barely enough to subdue this immense city, defended by the remnants of the royal army. Delirium and fanaticism had armed 160,000 men; an equal number were on my flanks and behind me. No combat was ever so obstinate, no scene so dreadful. The lazzaroni, these extraordinary men, and the foreign and Neapolitan regiments who had escaped from the army that fled before us—all enclosed within Naples—were heroes. They fought in every street; the ground was contested inch by inch. The lazzaroni were led by intrepid commanders. The fortress of Sant’Elmo thundered down upon them, the terrible bayonet struck them down, yet they withdrew in order and returned to the charge (26)."
Footnotes:
(24) Croce: Storia del Regno di Napoli
(25) Blanch, L.: Ibid.
(26) Letter from Championnet to the Directory, 5 Pluviôse, Year VII (January 24, 1799)
