In Naples King Ferdinand II retained considerable control over constitutional developments. Moreover, the Sicilian revolt created a state of emergency and allowed the king to strengthen his army, which he was then able to use to suppress the Neapolitan parliament. Calls for a constitution rose early in 1848. Initially Ferdinand tried to ignore the agitation, but as it increased he unwillingly granted a constitution on February 10, 1848, swore to uphold it, and authorized elections to parliament by a limited suffrage. The constitution provided for an elected chamber of deputies, but placed no limits on the king's power and authority. The liberal middle-of-the road chamber elected in April 1848 immediately clashed with the king over its demand to amend the constitution. Ferdinand finally agreed as barricades rose in the center of Naples, Sicily proclaimed its independence, and revolutionists in Calabria established a provisional government. But in May the king declared the elections null and void, suppressed the recently won freedom of press and public assembly, and ordered the arrest of many of his critics. New elections on 15 June returned a more cautious parliament which supported the king's actions against the Sicilian rebels for whom the Neapolitans had little sympathy. As relations with Sicily worsened, the king prorogued parliament. Before it could reassemble a royal decree, citing the Sicilian emergency and the bloody revolt in the Papal States, remanded its reconvening until February 1, 1849. When parliament finally met again, it came into conflict with the king and his ministers over taxes. Losing patience the king dissolved it on March 12, 1849. By summer 1849, the Sicilian revolt having been suppressed and liberal constitutional regimes routed elsewhere in Italy except for Piedmont-Sardinia, Ferdinand put an end to the Neapolitan constitutional experiment, arrested many former parliamentarians and sentenced them to long prison terms. He never formally revoked the constitution, as Neapolitan bishops ruled that the king could not rescind it unilaterally without breaking the oath he had taken to uphold it, which the deeply religious Ferdinand was unwilling to do.
In Rome and Tuscany, popular agitation forced both rulers to leave their states in the winter of 1848-49. In Rome the papal charter, granted by Pius IX on March 14, 1848, was abrogated. It failed to meet the people's demands for equitable participation in the government. While it had granted bi-cameral representation, it had given the college of cardinals and pope absolute veto power over parliamentary actions. After the pope's flight from Rome in November 1848, deliberations began on a popular republican constitution. Unique among the constitutions promulgated in Italy during 1848-49, the Roman republican constitution was the only one written, debated, and approved by a constituent assembly, elected by universal manhood suffrage. The Roman legislators expended much discussion and thought on drafting a document that would not only serve the needs of the Roman republic but which could be extended to a future united Italy. So highly did the Roman framers regard their constitution and so determined were they that it not be forgotten that they adopted it as French troops breached the defenses of their city on July 3, 1849.
In Tuscany after the departure of the grand duke at the beginning of 1849, a provisional government was established. The legislative assembly, elected by limited suffrage under the granducal charter, was renamed the constitutional assembly and initiated discussions on a new charter that would be applicable to all of Italy. It also debated merging with the Roman Republic as a first step towards a united Italy. Before, however, this could be effected, both republics came to an end. The draft of a new constitution never progressed beyond the talking stage, as political and military events overwhelmed the republic's leaders.
In Piedmont-Sardinia the constitution or Statuto, was reluctantly granted by King Charles Albert on February 8, 1848, after repeated agitations in Turin and Genoa, the kingdoms's two main cities, and promulgated on March 4. Redacted by Charles Albert's ministers the Statuto provided for a bicameral parliament, the lower house or chamber of deputies to be elected on a very limited suffrage, and the upper house or senate to be appointed by the monarch. A conservative document, reflecting political attitudes of the early nineteenth century, it provided for limited sharing of power between king and parliament, but vested control over important areas of Italian life in the hands of the monarch, left ministers responsible only to the king, and proclaimed Roman Catholicism to be the state religion, though it recognized the right of the Waldensians and Jews, the two religious minority groups in the kingdom, to freedom of worship. It was to be the only Italian constitution to survive the revolutionary collapse in 1849.
By autumn 1849 parliaments and constitutions had ended their
brief existence, leaving a controversial legacy. The members of
the legislative assemblies elected in the various Italian states
had been handicapped by hostility from the rulers and the
entrenched ruling classes, internal differences among themselves,
and conflicting demands on their resources and limited decision-
making authority. Were they to institute reforms, draft a new
constitution or modify the existing one, join in a war against
Austria, set local interests aside in favor of newly proclaimed
national goals, or docilely obey the ruler? Each followed a
different pattern. Only the Tuscan and Roman parliaments looked
to a future united Italy, but faced with powerful foreign
military interference in Rome and internal dissension in Tuscany,
both succumbed. In southern Italy, Ferdinand II was able to
abolish parliament and ignore the constitution in Naples. In
Sicily he profited from the island's limited military resources
and failure to deploy them adroitly to defeat the islanders'
attempt to institute an independent parliamentary constitutional
regime. In Turin parliament and constitution survived because
Victor Emmanuel, despite serious personal reservations about
constitutions and representative government, was persuaded to
preserve the Statuto. During the 1850s thanks to
the skillful and moderate leadership of ministers like Camillo
Benso di Cavour constitutional parliamentary government was
strengthened. In 1861 the Statuto became the
constitution of united Italy. It survived until the end of World
War II, when finally a popularly elected constitutional
convention met to draft a new charter for the republic of Italy.
Later critics of the 1848-49 revolutions concluded that lack of a
unified purpose and goal had doomed all the constitutional
parliamentary governments from the very beginning. With the
exception of Tuscany and Rome, revolutioan Italy divided into
many states each with its own government, constitution, and
parliament.
Le Assemblee del Risorgimento, ed. for Chamber of
Deputies (15 vols., Rome, 1911)
Giorgio Candeloro. Storia dell'Italia moderna. III,
La rivoluzione nazionale [1846-1849] (2d ed., Milan,
1966)
Nino Cortese. Le costituz
ioni italiane del 1848-49.
(Naples, 1945).
M. Cossu. L'Assemblea costituente romana del 1849.
(Rome, 1923).
A. Aquarone, M. D'Addio, G. Negri (eds.) Le costituzioni
italiane. (Milan, 1958).
JGC revised this file
(http://www.ohiou.edu/~chastain/ip/ityconst.htm) on October 20, 2004.
Please E-mail comments or suggestions to
© 1999, 2004 James Chastain.
Emiliana P. Noether
Bibliography