Editing Bandiera brothers

[[Image:Fratelli Bandiera.jpg|thumb|Execution of the ''Bandieras'']]
[[file:Palazzo Soderini (Venice).jpg|thumb|Palace Soderini, home of Attilio and Emilio Bandiera, facade in Campo Bandiera e Moro, Venice]]
[[file:Interior of Santi Giovanni e Paolo (Venice) - monumento ai patrioti fratelli Bandiera e Domenico Moro.jpg|thumb|Tombs on [[Santi Giovanni e Paolo, Venice]]]]

The brothers '''Attilio''' (1811&ndash;1844) and '''Emilio Bandiera''' (1819&ndash;1844) were Italian nationalists during the ''[[Risorgimento]]''.

==Background==

Emilio was born in [[Venice]] and Attilio was born in [[Spalato]]: both were sons of Baron Francesco Bandiera, an admiral in the [[Austrian Navy]], and were themselves members of that service. At an early age they were won over to the ideas of [[Italian unification]], and corresponded with [[Giuseppe Mazzini]] and other members of the [[Giovine Italia]], a patriotic revolutionary [[secret society]].<ref name="EB1911">{{EB1911|inline=y|wstitle=Bandiera, Attilio and Emilio|volume=3|page=312|first=Luigi|last=Villari|authorlink=Luigi Villari}}</ref>

During the year 1843 the air was full of different conspiracies and various other ill-starred attempts at nationalist uprisings were made.  The Bandiera brothers spread propaganda among the officers and enlisted men of the [[Austria]]n navy, nearly all Italians, and planned to seize a warship to bombard the city of [[Messina]].  Having been betrayed by informants they fled to [[Corfu]] early in 1844.<ref name="EB1911"/>

==Events==

Rumours reached them in Corfu of agitation in the [[Kingdom of the Two Sicilies]], where the people were being represented as ready to rise ''en masse'' at the first appearance of a leader. The Bandiera brothers, encouraged by Mazzini, consequently determined to make a raid on the [[Calabria]]n coast.  They assembled a band of about twenty men ready to sacrifice their lives, and set sail on their venture on 12 June 1844.  Four days later they landed near [[Crotone]], intending to go to [[Cosenza]], liberate the political prisoners and issue their proclamations.  Tragically for the Bandiera brothers, they did not find the insurgent band they were told awaited them, so they moved towards [[La Sila]]. They were ultimately betrayed by one of their party, the [[Corsica]]n Boccheciampe, and by some calabrese peasants who believed them to be Turkish pirates.<ref name="EB1911"/>

A detachment of [[Gendarmerie|gendarme]]s and volunteers were sent against them, and after a short fight the whole band was taken prisoner and escorted to Cosenza, where a number of [[Calabria]]ns who had taken part in a previous rising were also under arrest. First, the Calabrians were tried by court-martial, and a large number were condemned to death or the galleys. The raiders’ turn came next, and the whole party, save the traitor Boccheciampe, were condemned to be shot, but in the case of eight of them the sentence was commuted to the galleys.  On 23 July the two Bandiera brothers and their nine companions were executed by firing squad; some accounts state they cried "''Viva l’Italia''!" (Long live Italy!) as they fell.<ref name="EB1911"/>

The remains of the Bandiera Brothers and of their companion [[Domenico Moro]] were brought back to Venice on 18 June 1867, following the liberation of that city after the [[Austro-Prussian War]] of 1866. The three remains are buried in the Church of [[Santi Giovanni e Paolo, Venice]], at the [[Campo Santi Giovanni e Paolo]], where the equestrian monument of [[Bartolomeo Colleoni|Colleoni]] is located.{{Citation needed|date=January 2018}}

==Aftermath==

The moral effect was enormous throughout Italy, the action of the authorities was universally condemned, and the martyrdom of the Bandiera brothers bore fruit in the subsequent revolutions.  It also created a profound impression in Great Britain, where it was believed that the Bandiera brothers’ correspondence with Mazzini had been tampered with, and that information as to the proposed expedition had been forwarded to the Austro-Hungarian and [[House of Bourbon|Bourbon]] governments by their own [[Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs (UK)|Foreign Secretary]] [[George Hamilton-Gordon, 4th Earl of Aberdeen|Lord Aberdeen]].<ref name="EB1911"/> This has been proven by way of diplomatic and Parliamentary records by the historian Salvo Mastellone, in his work Mazzni & Marx: Thoughts upon Democracy in Europe (Prager Publisher, 2003).

==References==
{{Reflist}}

==External links==
{{commons category|Fratelli Bandiera|Bandiera Brothers}}
{{Authority control}}

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[[Category:Military personnel from Venice]]
[[Category:Italian people of the Italian unification]]
[[Category:Executed Italian people]]