Events

Following the trend of revolutionary fervor that began in France and North Germany, radicalism and nationalist thought would find its way into the Kingdom of the Two Sicilies where the Murat Brothers were in the process of implementing slow but incremental reforms aimed at Liberalizing the Kingdom. Already Achille Murat, the leader of the Moderate Party was caught in a power struggle with the more conservative elements of his party who had begun to take a stronger stance against his reforms. 

After a tense showdown in Parliament over the enactment of Interventionism, Achille Murat suddenly defected from the Moderates amidst the rising tide of radicalism, taking his faction of Liberal Landowners and the Armed Forces with him and joining the Liberals. In a major speech in Naples, Murat proclaimed his defection to the Radicals and Liberals who welcomed him with open arms–provided he renounced the institution of the Monarchy itself. 

The next morning, Achille Murat would denounce his own close friend, King Ferdinand II in another fiery speech in Naples, joining his brother Lucien as the Radicals would march on the Capital hoping to overthrow the King peacefully. However the initial march was repulsed by the Royal Guard leading to a tense and brutal siege between the Royal Guard and elements of the Sicilian Army under General Carlo Filangieri who came to reinforce the Murats. With the assistance of the Army, the Royal Guard was defeated and Ferdinand II himself was captured. 

Despite the capture of Ferdinand II, the monarch would be released by Murat out of consideration of their past friendship with the King soon leaving the country into exile while the Murats proclaimed a Third Neapolitan Republic for the sake of modernizing the country and preparing it for the Risorgimento. 

Thus another nation has fallen to the growing tides of revolution, as Europe continues to be engulfed by the spreading wave of radicalism and nationalism.