He gave a negative answer also to Franz Joseph's offer in 1851, when the Austrian proposed him a League of Italian States, and never accepted the pressure exerted by Louis Philip and then by Napoleon III to change his way of ruling.

Pious IX blesses the royal couple in Gaeta

However, he behaved differently with the Church. He always was a devout person and hosted Pious IX in a sumptuous and generous way during his two years of exile from Rome after the events of 1848 and the proclamation of the Roman Republic; but he did not grant the Church anything more than what foreseen by the Concordat in force and invited the Jesuits of "La Civiltà Cattolica" to leave the kingdom.

The last years of his life were embittered by the awareness that Turin was preparing something dangerous with the help of Great Britain, Palmerston and international protestant and Masonic forces and by the tragic expedition of Carlo Pisacane against the Kingdom in 1857. Death took him in his prime, at the eve of those events that led to the fall of the Kingdom, when his energy, experience and far-sightedness would have been more needed than ever, as he had shown in the years of his important and fruitful rule.

A Reign of Civil and Material Progress

Ferdinand II was surely the King of Naples most loved by his subjects, and for this reason still today he is the most calumniated by history, since history was written by those who stole the kingdom from his son through a treachery invasion of a peaceful and allied State, with a lawful monarch loved by his subjects. It is therefore clear that the winners could justify this action only by accusing the Bourbon Two Sicilies of a disqualified government. In short, to provide a possible historical justification to the assault of the peaceful, allied, lawful and seven-centuries old Kingdom of the Two Sicilies, they had to cast a blot on the memory of its Kings and in particular the best and more recent of them (since Francis II had just ascended the Throne and was still too young to be credibly calumniated).

Ferdinand II of Bourbon

In the next heading dedicated to Francis II and the historical events that led to the fall of the Kingdom, we will analyse in detail Cavour's policy, Garibaldi's expedition and the heroic Bourbon resistance. Here we just analyse the reformist policy carried out by Ferdinand II, since in this way it is possible to understand why he was the most loved King of Naples. His calumniators, those who directly or indirectly plotted for the fall of the Kingdom, presented his government as the "denial of God", and since then all schoolbooks of history (and not only them) repeat the same old calumnies. We, on the contrary, will leave the floor to some of the most famous old and new historians of the Risorgimento who do not pay a supine obedience to those lies so that they would describe the real character and work of this sovereign.

The historian of the Bourbon, Angelantonio Spagnoletti described the fame surrounding Ferdinand II among his subjects. He was surely the most loved Bourbon King of Naples; his constant concern was the easing of the suffering of his people when struck by earthquakes or outbreaks; he personally went to visit the places and was often present in Sicily to directly solve the ever present problems with the difficult local populations (even Louis Blanch acknowledged the love of these people to their sovereign and Niccolò Tommaseo described him as the best of the Italian Princes). While travelling, he lived with his subjects, was a witness to their weddings and baptisms, gave them money, etc. In short, he liked to be seen as a Father of his people, and they were his family. Spagnoletti wrote (p. 88): «Calumny seemed always present in the life and work of Ferdinand II; despite that, the pro-Bourbon environment knew that the King was virtuous and loyal, that he kept the valour, mercifulness and devotion of his ancestors, avoided any involvement of the Kingdom in the risings of 1830-31 and in so doing avoided dangerous foreign interferences, defended the national pride in the matter of sulphur and for this reason the whole population stood with him, a unique soul with their king».