House of Bourbon-Two Sicilies | |
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Country | Kingdom of the Two Sicilies |
Parent house | House of Bourbon |
Titles | King of Naples, King of Sicily, King of the Two Sicilies |
Founded | 1734 |
Founder | Charles VII/V |
Final ruler | Francis II |
Current head | Disputed: Prince Pedro, Duke of Calabria Prince Carlo, Duke of Castro |
Deposition | 1861 |
Ethnicity | French |
The House of Bourbon-Two Sicilies is a cadet branch of the Spanish royal family which ruled parts of southern Italy for more than a century in the 18th and 19th centuries. It descends from the Capetian dynasty in legitimate male line through Philippe de Bourbon, Duke of Anjou, a younger grandson of Louis XIV of France who established the Bourbon dynasty in Spain in 1700 as Philip V. In 1759 King Philip's younger grandson was appanaged with the kingdoms of Naples and Sicily, becoming Ferdinand IV and III, respectively, of those realms. His descendants occupied the joint throne (renamed "Kingdom of the Two Sicilies" in 1816) until 1860, claimed it thereafter from exile, and constitute the extant Bourbon-Two Sicilies family. The name "Bourbon-Two Sicilies" (sometimes shortened to "Bourbon-Sicily") combines the patriline (Bourbon) with their former territorial designation (Two Sicilies).
The first Kingdom of the Two Sicilies resulted from the unification of the Kingdom of Sicily with the Kingdom of Naples (called the kingdom of peninsular Sicily), by King Alfonso V of Aragon in 1442. The two had been separated since the Sicilian Vespers of 1282. At the death of King Alfonso in 1458, the kingdom became divided between his brother John II of Aragon, who kept Sicily, and his bastard son Ferdinand, who became king of Naples.