Neopolitan (Civ3)/Civilopedia

During the French Revolution, the largest state in Italy was the Kingdom of Naples. Led by the very
ineffective Bourbon king Ferdinand IV and his queen Marie-Caroline (sister to Marie-Antoinette), the
kingdom was ripe for change. King and queen fled the French Revolutionary army but later returned to
power under the aid of the British and Lord Nelson. But the fate of the kingdom ultimately rested in
the hands of the little emperor, and in 1806, the French once again drove the Bourbons out of Naples.
In their place, Napoleon throned his brother Joseph Bonaparte, who himself was later replaced by Joachim
Murat. But, as was typical of the politics of the time, Murat himself was executed by the resurgent
Ferdinand, who merged both Naples and Sicily together, and crowned himself Ferdinand I (King of the Two
Sicilies).