page_title: Dukedom of Bronté
section_title: Descent
hierarchical_section_title: Dukedom of Bronté / Descent
caption_attribution_description: English: Contadini della Ducea Nelson posano ai pie­di della croce celtica innalzata in onore del­l'am­miraglio Nelson nel pri­mo cor­tile in­ter­no del Ca­stello (foto pubbli­cata nel 1903 dalla rivista lette­raria inglese The Pall Maga­zine. (Peasantry of the Duchy of Bronte posing at the foot of a Celtic cross in the inner courtyard (of Castello di Maniace) erected (by Sir Alexander Nelson Hood, 5th Duke of Bronté (1904–1937)) in honour of Horatio Nelson, 1st Duke of Bronté, 1st Viscount Nelson (1758–1805). At Maniace the 5th Duke erected a large Ionian or Celtic cross, made of local black lava from Mount Etna, in memory of Admiral Lord Nelson and inscribed on the base Heroi Immortali Nili ("To the immortal hero of the Nile"), the Battle of the Nile having particular significance in the saving of the Kingdom of Sicily and Naples from Napoleonic conquest. This resulted from a complaint by his aunt Jane Sarah Hood (Lady Hotham) when visiting, that no monument existed, to which the Duke replied in jest that Wren's epitaph in St Paul's Cathedral states Si monumentum requiris circumspice&#91;1&#93; ("if you seek his monument look around you").
context_page_description: The Dukedom of Bronté is a dukedom with title of Duke of Bronté, referring to the town of Bronte in the Province of Catania, Sicily, granted on 10 October 1799 at Palermo to the English Admiral Horatio Nelson by King Ferdinand III of Sicily, in gratitude for his having saved the kingdom from conquest by Revolutionary French forces under Napoleon. This was largely achieved by Nelson's victory at the Battle of the Nile which extinguished French naval power in the Mediterranean, but also by his having evacuated the royal family from their palace in Naples to the safety of Palermo in Sicily. It carried the right to sit in parliament within the military branch. The title does not descend according to fixed rules but is transferable by the holder to whomsoever he desires, strangers included. Accompanying it was a grant of a 15,000 hectare estate, centered on the ancient monastery of Maniace, 5 miles north of Bronte, which the Admiral ordered to be restored and embellished as his residence thenceforth called Castello di Maniace.
caption: Celtic cross monument to Admiral Lord Nelson, with contadini (peasant farmers), Castello di Maniace, erected in 1891[34] by the 5th Duke, whose close friend and frequent visitor was the "Celtic" poet William Sharp (d.1905), buried in the ducal cemetery. Photo published 1903
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