Sbandata e fuga di un esercito. Cittaducale, pomeriggio del 7 marzo 1821

With the defeat of Napoleon Bonaparte in the Battle of Waterloo and the conclusion of the Congress of Vienna (June 1815), many rulers of the Ancient Regime were resettled on their thrones. Wanting to preserve the innovative ideas of the French Revolution, many European liberals were forced to organize in secret societies to escape the repression of the restored monarchies. In March 1820, an uprising of Spanish soldiers prevailed, forcing King Ferdinand VII of Spain to reinstate the Constitution (ruled by the Cortes of Cádiz in 1812) into the state’s legal system, which he had scrapped two years after his return from exile. The news of the events in Spain rippled with particular intensity in the Kingdom of Two Sicilies, especially because of the dynastic closeness of the two monarchies. There, a strong conspiratorial bond between the Carbonari and the military had developed in favour of the promulgation of a constitutional charter. At the start of July 1820, a group of officers and petty officers affiliated with the Carboneria mobilized the troops stationed at Nola, strongly demanding a constitution. The insurrection was successful, as it had the support of the Vendite of the Carboneria of the province and of the commander of the army, general Guglielmo Pepe, who, after joining the insurgents at Avellino, took command of the rebels and marched on the Capital. Backed into a corner, and wanting to avoid bloodshed, on June 7, 1820, the Bourbon monarchy conceded a constitution modelled after the Spanish constitution of 1812. Hiding his opposition toward the liberal novelties, King Ferdinand I swore allegiance to the constitutional charter, and then solicited the intervention of the Austrian army, claiming to have been strongarmed into it. Through the Papal States, the Austrian general Johann Philipp Frimont came to Rieti with 52,000 men; the city was near the Neapolitan border and was overseen by general Guglielmo Pepe and 22,000 soldiers. The decisive battle between the two armies happened near the city on March 7, 1821. After 6 hours of honourable fighting, at nightfall the Neapolitans surrendered to the overwhelming imperial armies, disbanded, and shamefully ran away. The purpose of this study is to show the modalities of the defeat and understand its reasons.