Felice Orsini
Encyclopedia
Felice Orsini was an Italian
revolutionary and leader of the Carbonari
who tried to assassinate Napoleon III
, Emperor of the French.
in Romagna
, then part of the Papal States
.
His biographer, the Englishman Michael St. John Packe, describes him:
Orsini was encouraged to become a priest, but he abandoned that lifestyle and became an ardent liberal, joining the Giovane Italia
, a society founded by Giuseppe Mazzini
.
set him free, and he led a company of young Romagnols in the First War of Italian Independence in 1848, distinguishing himself in the engagements at Treviso
and Vicenza
.
Orsini was elected member of the Roman Constituent Assembly in 1849, and after the fall of the Second Roman Republic he conspired against the papal autocracy in the interest of the Mazzinian party. Mazzini sent him on a secret mission to Hungary
, but he was arrested in 1854 and imprisoned at Mantua
. He escaped a few months later using a tiny saw to cut through two grids of bars, climbed out of the window 100 feet above ground and slid down using a rope he had made of bedsheets. Passing as a sympathetic peasant, he managed to get past the Austrian guards.
In 1856, he briefly visited Great Britain
and received a favorable welcome. The daily news had published the first English translation of his tale of escape. He published The Memoirs and Adventures of Felice Orsini in 1856. In 1857, he also published an account of his prison experiences in English under the title of The Austrian Dungeons in Italy, which led to a rupture between him and Mazzini. Then he began to negotiate with Ausonio Franchi
, editor of the Ragione of Turin
, which he proposed to make the organ of pure republicans.
Orsini became convinced that Napoleon III was the chief obstacle to Italian independence and the principal cause of the anti-liberal reaction throughout Europe
. He plotted his assassination with the logic that after the emperor's death, France would rise in revolt and the Italians could exploit the situation to revolt themselves. He went to Paris in 1857 to conspire against the emperor.
At the end of 1857, Orsini briefly visited England, where he contacted gunsmith Joseph Taylor and asked him to make six copies of a bomb of Orsini's own design; it would explode on impact and used fulminate of mercury as an explosive. The bomb was tested in Sheffield and Devonshire with the aid of French radical Simon Bernard. Satisfied, Orsini returned to Paris with the bombs and contacted other conspirators, Giuseppe Pieri, Antonio Gomez and Carlo di Rudio (later changed to Charles DeRudio
).
's William Tell
, Orsini and his accomplices threw three bombs at the imperial carriage. The first bomb landed among the horsemen in front of the carriage. The second bomb wounded the animals and smashed the carriage glass. The third bomb landed under the carriage and seriously wounded a policeman who was hurrying to protect the occupants. Eight people were killed and 142 wounded, though the emperor and empress were unhurt. Napoleon, the first modern European politician, realized that he and Eugénie de Montijo
had to proceed to the performance and appear in their box.
Orsini himself was wounded on the right temple and stunned. He tended to his wounds and returned to his lodgings, where police found him the next day.
The attempted assassination actually increased Napoleon III's popularity. Because the bombs had been made and tested in England, it caused a brief anti-British furor in France because of suspicion of British involvement. The Emperor refused to escalate the situation and the indignation eventually died down.
, from where he escaped and later went to America; he became an officer in the United States Army
, was appointed to the U.S. 7th Cavalry, and participated in — and survived — the 1876 Battle of the Little Big Horn.
Italy
Italy , officially the Italian Republic languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Italy's official name is as follows:;;;;;;;;), is a unitary parliamentary republic in South-Central Europe. To the north it borders France, Switzerland, Austria and...
revolutionary and leader of the Carbonari
Carbonari
The Carbonari were groups of secret revolutionary societies founded in early 19th-century Italy. The Italian Carbonari may have further influenced other revolutionary groups in Spain, France, Portugal and possibly Russia. Although their goals often had a patriotic and liberal focus, they lacked a...
who tried to assassinate Napoleon III
Napoleon III of France
Louis-Napoléon Bonaparte was the President of the French Second Republic and as Napoleon III, the ruler of the Second French Empire. He was the nephew and heir of Napoleon I, christened as Charles Louis Napoléon Bonaparte...
, Emperor of the French.
Early
Felice Orsini was born at MeldolaMeldola
-History:The area of Meldola was inhabited since very ancient times. The Romans built here a large aqueduct which served the military port of Classis. To the 5th-6th century belongs a large patrician villa which is now under the historical centre.In the Middle Ages a castle was present, the name...
in Romagna
Emilia-Romagna
Emilia–Romagna is an administrative region of Northern Italy comprising the two historic regions of Emilia and Romagna. The capital is Bologna; it has an area of and about 4.4 million inhabitants....
, then part of the Papal States
Papal States
The Papal State, State of the Church, or Pontifical States were among the major historical states of Italy from roughly the 6th century until the Italian peninsula was unified in 1861 by the Kingdom of Piedmont-Sardinia .The Papal States comprised territories under...
.
His biographer, the Englishman Michael St. John Packe, describes him:
According to the prosecutors in his trial, Felice Orsini was born a conspirator. Whether that can be believed or not, quite certainly his mother had no notion of it. She was a gentle, cultivated girl of twenty, Florentine, graceful, kind and true. She suckled him and crooned at him in the usual manner. She treated him as, a year or so before, she had treated his elder sister Rosina, as she would likewise treat, in three years’ time, his younger brother, Leonidas, all with the best results. She did not realize that his infant thoughts were of a repressed and furtive trend; that when he waved his wooden spoon and gurgled, he was marshalling secret armies in craggy places, or that his wondering unfathomable eyes, jet black and shining, screened from her view a world of incipient revolution, wherein already he was blowing up Emperors and dethroning Popes. Yet such, maintained the prosecution, was the case.
Orsini was encouraged to become a priest, but he abandoned that lifestyle and became an ardent liberal, joining the Giovane Italia
La Giovine Italia
Young Italy was a political movement founded in 1831 by Giuseppe Mazzini. The goal of this movement was to create a united Italian republic through promoting a general insurrection in the Italian reactionary states and in the lands occupied by the Austrian Empire...
, a society founded by Giuseppe Mazzini
Giuseppe Mazzini
Giuseppe Mazzini , nicknamed Soul of Italy, was an Italian politician, journalist and activist for the unification of Italy. His efforts helped bring about the independent and unified Italy in place of the several separate states, many dominated by foreign powers, that existed until the 19th century...
.
Revolution and freedom for Italy
Orsini was arrested in 1844 along with his father, implicated in revolutionary plots and condemned to imprisonment for life. The new pope, Pius IXPope Pius IX
Blessed Pope Pius IX , born Giovanni Maria Mastai-Ferretti, was the longest-reigning elected Pope in the history of the Catholic Church, serving from 16 June 1846 until his death, a period of nearly 32 years. During his pontificate, he convened the First Vatican Council in 1869, which decreed papal...
set him free, and he led a company of young Romagnols in the First War of Italian Independence in 1848, distinguishing himself in the engagements at Treviso
Treviso
Treviso is a city and comune in Veneto, northern Italy. It is the capital of the province of Treviso and the municipality has 82,854 inhabitants : some 3,000 live within the Venetian walls or in the historical and monumental center, some 80,000 live in the urban center proper, while the city...
and Vicenza
Vicenza
Vicenza , a city in north-eastern Italy, is the capital of the eponymous province in the Veneto region, at the northern base of the Monte Berico, straddling the Bacchiglione...
.
Orsini was elected member of the Roman Constituent Assembly in 1849, and after the fall of the Second Roman Republic he conspired against the papal autocracy in the interest of the Mazzinian party. Mazzini sent him on a secret mission to Hungary
Hungary
Hungary , officially the Republic of Hungary , is a landlocked country in Central Europe. It is situated in the Carpathian Basin and is bordered by Slovakia to the north, Ukraine and Romania to the east, Serbia and Croatia to the south, Slovenia to the southwest and Austria to the west. The...
, but he was arrested in 1854 and imprisoned at Mantua
Mantua
Mantua is a city and comune in Lombardy, Italy and capital of the province of the same name. Mantua's historic power and influence under the Gonzaga family, made it one of the main artistic, cultural and notably musical hubs of Northern Italy and the country as a whole...
. He escaped a few months later using a tiny saw to cut through two grids of bars, climbed out of the window 100 feet above ground and slid down using a rope he had made of bedsheets. Passing as a sympathetic peasant, he managed to get past the Austrian guards.
In 1856, he briefly visited Great Britain
Great Britain
Great Britain or Britain is an island situated to the northwest of Continental Europe. It is the ninth largest island in the world, and the largest European island, as well as the largest of the British Isles...
and received a favorable welcome. The daily news had published the first English translation of his tale of escape. He published The Memoirs and Adventures of Felice Orsini in 1856. In 1857, he also published an account of his prison experiences in English under the title of The Austrian Dungeons in Italy, which led to a rupture between him and Mazzini. Then he began to negotiate with Ausonio Franchi
Ausonio Franchi
Ausonio Franchi was an Italian philosopher and editor.-Life:...
, editor of the Ragione of Turin
Turin
Turin is a city and major business and cultural centre in northern Italy, capital of the Piedmont region, located mainly on the left bank of the Po River and surrounded by the Alpine arch. The population of the city proper is 909,193 while the population of the urban area is estimated by Eurostat...
, which he proposed to make the organ of pure republicans.
Orsini became convinced that Napoleon III was the chief obstacle to Italian independence and the principal cause of the anti-liberal reaction throughout Europe
Europe
Europe is, by convention, one of the world's seven continents. Comprising the westernmost peninsula of Eurasia, Europe is generally 'divided' from Asia to its east by the watershed divides of the Ural and Caucasus Mountains, the Ural River, the Caspian and Black Seas, and the waterways connecting...
. He plotted his assassination with the logic that after the emperor's death, France would rise in revolt and the Italians could exploit the situation to revolt themselves. He went to Paris in 1857 to conspire against the emperor.
At the end of 1857, Orsini briefly visited England, where he contacted gunsmith Joseph Taylor and asked him to make six copies of a bomb of Orsini's own design; it would explode on impact and used fulminate of mercury as an explosive. The bomb was tested in Sheffield and Devonshire with the aid of French radical Simon Bernard. Satisfied, Orsini returned to Paris with the bombs and contacted other conspirators, Giuseppe Pieri, Antonio Gomez and Carlo di Rudio (later changed to Charles DeRudio
Charles DeRudio
Charles Camillo DeRudio was an Italian aristocrat, would-be assassin of Napoleon III, and later a career U.S. Army officer who fought in the 7th U.S. Cavalry at the Battle of the Little Bighorn.-Early life:...
).
Assassination attempt on Louis Napoleon
On the evening of 14 January 1858, as the Emperor and Empress were on their way to the theatre in the Rue Le Peletier, the precursor of the Opera Garnier, to see RossiniGioacchino Rossini
Gioachino Antonio Rossini was an Italian composer who wrote 39 operas as well as sacred music, chamber music, songs, and some instrumental and piano pieces...
's William Tell
William Tell (opera)
Guillaume Tell is an opera in four acts by Gioachino Rossini to a French libretto by Etienne de Jouy and Hippolyte Bis, based on Friedrich Schiller's play Wilhelm Tell. Based on the legend of William Tell, this opera was Rossini's last, even though the composer lived for nearly forty more years...
, Orsini and his accomplices threw three bombs at the imperial carriage. The first bomb landed among the horsemen in front of the carriage. The second bomb wounded the animals and smashed the carriage glass. The third bomb landed under the carriage and seriously wounded a policeman who was hurrying to protect the occupants. Eight people were killed and 142 wounded, though the emperor and empress were unhurt. Napoleon, the first modern European politician, realized that he and Eugénie de Montijo
Eugénie de Montijo
Doña María Eugenia Ignacia Augustina de Palafox-Portocarrero de Guzmán y Kirkpatrick, 16th Countess of Teba and 15th Marquise of Ardales; 5 May 1826 – 11 July 1920), known as Eugénie de Montijo , was the last Empress consort of the French from 1853 to 1871 as the wife of Napoleon III, Emperor of...
had to proceed to the performance and appear in their box.
Orsini himself was wounded on the right temple and stunned. He tended to his wounds and returned to his lodgings, where police found him the next day.
The attempted assassination actually increased Napoleon III's popularity. Because the bombs had been made and tested in England, it caused a brief anti-British furor in France because of suspicion of British involvement. The Emperor refused to escalate the situation and the indignation eventually died down.
Letter to Napoleon III
On 11 February Orsini wrote his famous letter to Napoleon, in which he exhorted him to take up the cause of Italian independence — a cause Napoleon III had already supported in his youth. Modern historians have even suspected that Napoleon wrote some of the letter himself. He addressed another letter to the youth of Italy and condemned political assassination.Judgment
Orsini was sentenced to death and went calmly to the guillotine on 13 March 1858. His accomplices were also sentenced; Pieri was executed and Gomez was condemned to hard labour for life. Di Rudio was sentenced to death, but the sentence was commuted to life imprisonment on Devil's IslandDevil's Island
Devil's Island is the smallest and northernmost island of the three Îles du Salut located about 6 nautical miles off the coast of French Guiana . It has an area of 14 ha . It was a small part of the notorious French penal colony in French Guiana until 1952...
, from where he escaped and later went to America; he became an officer in the United States Army
United States Army
The United States Army is the main branch of the United States Armed Forces responsible for land-based military operations. It is the largest and oldest established branch of the U.S. military, and is one of seven U.S. uniformed services...
, was appointed to the U.S. 7th Cavalry, and participated in — and survived — the 1876 Battle of the Little Big Horn.