In the

Age of Revolution The Age of Revolution is a period from the late-18th to the mid-19th centuries during which a number of significant revolutionary movements occurred in most of Europe and the Americas. The period is noted for the change from absolutist monarc ...

, the Lazzaroni (or Lazzari) of Naples were the poorest of the lower class (

Italian Italian(s) may refer to: * Anything of, from, or related to the people of Italy over the centuries ** Italians, an ethnic group or simply a citizen of the Italian Republic or Italian Kingdom ** Italian language, a Romance language *** Regional Ita ...

''lazzaroni'' or ''lazzari'', singular: ''lazzarone'') in the city and

Kingdom of Naples The Kingdom of Naples ( la, Regnum Neapolitanum; it, Regno di Napoli; nap, Regno 'e Napule), also known as the Kingdom of Sicily, was a state that ruled the part of the Italian Peninsula south of the Papal States between 1282 and 1816. It was ...

(in present-day

Italy Italy ( it, Italia ), officially the Italian Republic, ) or the Republic of Italy, is a country in Southern Europe. It is located in the middle of the Mediterranean Sea, and its territory largely coincides with the homonymous geographical ...

). Described as "street people under a chief", they were often depicted as "beggars"—which some actually were, while others subsisted partly by service as messengers, porters, etc. No precise census of them was ever conducted, but contemporaries estimated their total number at around 50,000, and they had a significant role in the social and political life of the city (and of the

kingdom Kingdom commonly refers to: * A monarchy ruled by a king or queen * Kingdom (biology), a category in biological taxonomy Kingdom may also refer to: Arts and media Television * ''Kingdom'' (British TV series), a 2007 British television drama s ...

of which Naples was the capital). They were prone to act collectively as crowds and mobs and follow the lead of demagogues, often proving formidable in periods of civil unrest and revolution.

Revolutionary period

At the time of the

French Revolution The French Revolution ( ) was a period of radical political and societal change in France that began with the Estates General of 1789 and ended with the formation of the French Consulate in November 1799. Many of its ideas are conside ...

, the Lazzaroni were staunchly

monarchist Monarchism is the advocacy of the system of monarchy or monarchical rule. A monarchist is an individual who supports this form of government independently of any specific monarch, whereas one who supports a particular monarch is a royalis ...

in their political inclination—the diametrical opposite of the contemporary Parisian

sans-culottes The (, 'without breeches') were the common people of the lower classes in late 18th-century France, a great many of whom became radical and militant partisans of the French Revolution in response to their poor quality of life under the . T ...

—with their (sometimes lethal) mob violence being directed against supposed republican and

Jacobin , logo = JacobinVignette03.jpg , logo_size = 180px , logo_caption = Seal of the Jacobin Club (1792–1794) , motto = "Live free or die"(french: Vivre libre ou mourir) , successor = P ...

sympathisers. For that reason,

republican Republican can refer to: Political ideology * An advocate of a republic, a type of government that is not a monarchy or dictatorship, and is usually associated with the rule of law. ** Republicanism, the ideology in support of republics or agains ...

s at the time and later dismissed them as "tools of the absolutist government". The Lazzaroni were fiercely loyal to the

House of Bourbon The House of Bourbon (, also ; ) is a European dynasty of French origin, a branch of the Capetian dynasty, the royal House of France. Bourbon kings first ruled France and Navarre in the 16th century. By the 18th century, members of the Spani ...

and specifically to the person of King Ferdinand I who—unlike most monarchs of his and other times—did not keep an aristocratic distance but liked to mingle among the Lazzaroni and sport with them. During the French military campaigns of the late 1790s, designed to

export the Revolution Export of the revolution is actions by a victorious revolutionary government of one country to promote similar revolutions in unruled areas or other countries as a manifestation of revolutionary internationalism of certain kind, such as the Marxi ...

to Italy (as to other parts of Europe), the regular Neapolitan troops did not particularly distinguish themselves against the French Army. The Lazzaroni, to the contrary, clamored to be armed and made a valiant effort to defend the city against the French—even though the royal family had already fled to Sicily. Some sources put as high as 2,000 the number of Lazzaroni who were killed on a single bloody day. Though unable to stand in face-to-face fighting with trained troops (a contemporary drawing shows Lazzaroni being mowed down by a volley from French guns), their resistance ensured that the Parthenopaean Republic (which was established in Naples) had no popular base of support and could only rely on the repressive power of the French Army. Thus, it collapsed when the French needed to shift much of their troops elsewhere in Italy—whereupon the Lazzaroni exacted acts of retribution upon that republic's adherents.

Friedrich Engels Friedrich Engels ( ,"Engels"
'' lumpenproletariat In Marxist theory, the ''Lumpenproletariat'' () is the underclass devoid of class consciousness. Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels coined the word in the 1840s and used it to refer to the unthinking lower strata of society exploited by reactionary a ...

'' during the repression of the 1848 Revolution in

Naples Naples (; it, Napoli ; nap, Napule ), from grc, Νεάπολις, Neápolis, lit=new city. is the regional capital of Campania and the third-largest city of Italy, after Rome and Milan, with a population of 909,048 within the city's adm ...

: "This action of the Neapolitan ''lumpenproletariat'' decided the defeat of the revolution. Swiss guardsmen, Neapolitan soldiers and ''lazzaroni'' combined pounced upon the defenders of the barricades."

The Lazzaroni and Garibaldi

During the first decades of the Nineteenth Century, the Bourbons gradually lost the support of the Naples Lazzaroni. This was fully evident by 1860 when

Garibaldi Giuseppe Maria Garibaldi ( , ;In his native Ligurian language, he is known as ''Gioxeppe Gaibado''. In his particular Niçard dialect of Ligurian, he was known as ''Jousé'' or ''Josep''. 4 July 1807 – 2 June 1882) was an Italian general, pat ...

arrived in the city at the climax of his campaign for the

unification of Italy The unification of Italy ( it, Unità d'Italia ), also known as the ''Risorgimento'' (, ; ), was the 19th-century political and social movement that resulted in the consolidation of different states of the Italian Peninsula into a single ...

. As mentioned in many eyewitness reports, when entering Naples after the Bourbon King fled, Garibaldi received a tumultuous welcome from the Lazzaroni, as from other sections of Naples' population. Journalist Charles Arrivabene wrote at the time: "Garibaldi was accompanied by a great procession along the seafront to Piedigrotta (...) He was cheered by fishermen and lazzaroni, and women shouted 'May the blessed Virgin be with you, Eccellenza!'". Another observer, Marc Monnier, noted that "Garibaldi is a saint for ''les lazzarones''. It is God who had sent him to save the country. Several call him Jesus Christ, and his officers are the apostles. Alms are asked in Garibaldi's name".M.Monnier, "Garibaldi. Histoire de la conquete des deux Siciles", Paris, 1861, p. 302; quoted in Rial, op.cit., p. 230, p. 429 note 18

Revolutionary period

The Lazzaroni and Garibaldi

See also

References

Further reading