Editing Ferdinand I of the Two Sicilies (section)

==Third Coalition==
The king returned to Naples soon afterwards, and ordered the execution of a few hundred French [[Wartime collaboration|collaborators]]. This stopped only when the French successes forced him to agree to a treaty which included amnesty for members of the French party. When the [[War of the Third Coalition]] broke out between France and the [[Austrian Empire]] in 1805, Ferdinand signed a treaty of neutrality with the former. A few days later, Ferdinand allied himself with Austria and allowed an [[Anglo-Russian occupation of Naples|Anglo-Russian force]] to land at Naples.<ref name=EB1911/>

[[File:Piastra 1805.jpg|thumb|left|[[Neapolitan piastra|Piastra]] of Ferdinand IV of [[Kingdom of Naples|Naples]], dated 1805]]

The French victory at the [[Battle of Austerlitz]] on 2 December enabled Napoleon to launch an [[Invasion of Naples (1806)|invasion of the Kingdom of Naples]]. Ferdinand fled to [[Palermo]] on 23 January 1806, followed soon after by his wife and son, and on 14 February 1806 the French again entered Naples. Napoleon declared that the [[House of Bourbon|Bourbon]] dynasty had forfeited the crown, and proclaimed his brother [[Joseph Bonaparte|Joseph]] King of Naples and Sicily. But Ferdinand continued to reign over the latter kingdom (becoming the first King of Sicily in centuries to actually reside there) under British protection.<ref name=EB1911/>

Parliamentary institutions of a feudal type had long existed on the island, and [[Lord William Bentinck]], the British minister, insisted on a reform of the constitution on English and French lines. The king indeed practically [[abdicated]] his power, appointing his son Francis as regent, and the queen, at Bentinck's insistence, was [[exile]]d to Austria, where she died in 1814.<ref name=EB1911/>