The behavior of the southern Italian and Roman nobility is also noteworthy. According to Benedetto Croce, in the south of the peninsula, “a large number of noble families” followed the Bourbons into Roman exile for several years. Croce further informed us that after 1870, they returned the same way “in groups or individually.” Towards the end of the century, the stay of the fashionable young Prince Vittorio Emanuele in Naples softened their opposition. Nevertheless, this behavior clearly demonstrates how alien the creation of the new state was to a large part of the nobility—especially those closely connected to the Bourbon court and who possessed the greatest wealth and influence!—during its crucial phase. More striking was the case of Rome, where after 1870, many families of the “black” pro-papal nobility remained hostile to a united Italy and the Savoy “occupiers” for a long time. In the capital, too, time healed wounds, but many maintained their hostile attitudes even until the conclusion of the Lateran Treaties. The divide between “black” pro-papal and “white” liberal nobles was of particular importance, as it affected the rich and prestigious families of the Roman princes, from whom popes and cardinals had emerged for centuries. They enjoyed a status almost comparable to royalty and were endowed with great wealth and strong social influence. These nobles of Naples and Rome together constituted 15 to 20 percent of the entire Italian nobility; the Piedmontese accounted for 10 percent. Elsewhere, too, where the dynasties and courts were less firmly established than the papacy in Rome, veritable sectors of aristocrats existed who—albeit less conspicuously—barely identified with the national cause.
From Hochkultur als Herrschaftselement – Italienischer und deutscher Adel im langen 19. Jahrhundert
Herausgegeben von: Gabriele B. Clemens , Malte König und Marco Meriggi
