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Also
Duke Francis Farnese had no heir; he did not consider
the Order as a privilege of the Crown and therefore
ordered that it would be handed down from father to
son and in case of the dying out of the family the Grand
Master would be «as close as possible [by blood]
to the previous Grand Master, and would belong in the
Farnese family». Therefore, when on 26 February
1727 Francis I died, the powers of the State and the
Grand Magistery of the Order passed to his brother Antonio,
who after only four years of reign, died on 20 January
1731, leaving no heir.
Call
for the Crusade against the Turks (1684). |
At
this point the role of Elisabeth Farnese became
of core importance. She was the sister of the
two Dukes and Queen of Spain since she had married
Philip V of Anjou, winner of the War of the Spanish
Succession (see the heading of the historical
part
The Bourbon family: three Kingdoms and a Duchy).
She succeeded in assuring this heritage of the
Farnese family to the Infant Don Charles of Bourbon.
In fact, the great powers, foreseeing the close
extinction of the Farnese family, by the Treaty
of London of 1718 established that at the death
of the Farnese Duke, the Infant Don Charles would
have the dominions of the Farnese family (i.e.
the Duchy of Parma and Piacenza), but with no
intrusion of his father, the King of Spain, not
even under the excuse of family protection.
The Peace of Utrecht of 1713 demanded that. After
the death of the Farnese Duke in 1727, his successor
Antonio called his nephew the Infant Don Charles
of Bourbon as successor of his family.
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In 1731 Charles came to Parma as King; in 1734 he became
King of Naples and in 1735 he was crowned in Palermo
as King of Sicily. In 1759, however, the two crowns
of Naples and Sicily went to his son Ferdinand who reigned
until 1825, since Charles abdicated to become King of
Spain (see the pages dedicated to Charles
of Bourbon and Ferdinand
I).
The Grand Magistery to the
Bourbon Two Sicilies After
the conquest of the Kingdom of Naples, Charles transferred
to Naples the seat of the Order and left his younger
brother Philip the Duchy of Parma and Piacenza (1748).
As we said, since he later ascended the Throne of Spain
in 1759 (and therefore he was forced to abdicate the
Throne of Naples and Sicily due to political and dynastic
reasons explained under the headings dedicated to Charles
of Bourbon and the " Sacred Military Constantinian
Order of St. George and the Royal House of Bourbon Two
Sicilies"), by royal decree of 6 October 1759 he
gave all Italian assets to his third son Ferdinand,
and by a separate deed, he also granted him the Grand
Constantinian Magistery since this Order was linked
to the lineage and heirs of the Farnese family.
The Holy See clearly and expressly recognised the Bourbon
of Naples as holders of the Grand Constantinian Magistery
by the Monitorium of 19 December 1763 issued by Clement
XIII, in which the Pontiff ordered the ordinaries and
all those who care the souls not to create problems
to the Knights of St. George for their peaceful possess
of their privileges and mentioned the Bulls of his predecessors
while insisting on the fact that in case of conflict
with the ecclesiastic authority «it could not
appear before the Apostolic Chamber». This general
Monitorium was issued upon request of the Knight of
Grand Constantinian Cross Petraccone Caracciolo, Duke
of Martina, also on behalf of the other Knights of Grand
Cross, and it inflicts punishments to the disturbers
of the privileges granted to the Order by the Bulls
Sinceræ Fidei and Militantis Ecclesiæ issued
by Innocent XII and Clement XI respectively.
Moreover there is the Brief of Pious VI Rerum humanarum
conditio, of 24 March 1777, which ratified the aggregation
of the assets of the suppressed Order of St. Antonio
Viennese of the Kingdom of Naples to the Constantinian
Order made by Ferdinand of Bourbon King of Naples and
Sicily.
In this way, it was clear and irrefutable that the Holy
See recognised the Grand Magistery of the Constantinian
Order to the Bourbon of Naples and Sicily. There are
many sources of legal right showing the “family
nature” of this very high dignity, among which
it is worth to mention a "Dispatch" of King
Ferdinand IV dated 8 March 1796, which reads: ««(...)
after due consideration, the King has acknowledged that
his sacred royal person embodies two different qualities
- the Monarch of the Two Sicilies and the Grand Master
of the Constantinian Order – and these qualities,
although gloriously united, form two independent Lordships
due to their laws and prerogatives, and privileges and
jurisdiction (...) so that the previous Grand Master
of this Order formed a Code of Constitutions called
“Statutes”, in which a precise will can
be found of establishing a Private Jurisdiction for
both the Order and the Knights, and to this end a Supreme
Magisterial Council is established to assess all rights,
prerogatives and causes belonging to them». |
