Dukedom of Bronte

This was largely achieved by Nelson's victory at the Battle of the Nile (1798), which extinguished French naval power in the Mediterranean, but also by his having evacuated the royal family from their palace in Naples to the safety of Palermo in Sicily.

[6] It is suggested[5] that Nelson chose Bronte for several reasons, including the Greek origin of the name (meaning "thunder", an allusion to Mount Etna, the main crater of which is a mere 15 km to the east), the majesty of the volcano itself, the healthiness and fertility of the soil, the verses of the Palermo poet Giovanni Meli, and the ease of pronunciation[7] of the word for an Englishman.

But most likely because having lost an eye in battle in 1794, he was able to identify himself with the Cyclops[5] (mythical giant one-eyed creatures, makers of the thunderbolts of Zeus, god of war, and assistants of the smith-god Hephaestus), whose forge was supposed to be underneath Mount Etna.

The king compensated the Hospital of Palermo (with an annuity of 71,500 lire[15]) but ignored the free status claimed by the Brontese, who thus felt themselves subjected once again to a harsh feudal government, this time by a foreigner.

[12] Many indeed were highly sympathetic to the ideals of the French Revolution, and felt that Nelson had "smothered with bloodshed the Neapolitan Republic"[5] and confounded their dream to live in a new society where feudalism would be extinguished.

The Brontese historian Benedetto Radice wrote in 1928: "Thus Bronte, due to the fairytale of its name, got the honour of a duchy and was confirmed in the misfortune of vaselage, just like a dog on which its master places around its neck a fine collar of silver or gold",[16] and "The evils which afflict Bronte are twofold: Etna and the Duchy"[17] Much to the approval of his mistress Lady Hamilton (wife of the British Ambassador to Naples) and of the king, Nelson had executed Admiral Prince Francesco Caracciolo (1752–1799), hero of the Neapolitan revolution, by hanging him from the rigging of his ship after a summary trial.

[5] This act was never forgotten by this Brontese faction, which after 1940 when the Hood family had been expelled from Sicily during World War II, and their duchy confiscated by Mussolini, built with state assistance a model "peasants' village"[18] in the park of Castello di Maniace, at a cost of over 4 million lire, which they called "Borgo Francesco Caracciolo".

[22] Most has since been demolished but a few sections, including that of the main entrance, survive, namely the residence of the late Professor Paparo, the former Santangelo printing works, the houses Mineo, Parisi etc, as far as the former Cinema Roma.

[25] There was also a small summer residence built by the estate's land agent William Thovez (1819–1871),[27] now known as Casa Otaiti (so named because it was surrounded by "wigwams"[26] of peasants' straw-thatched huts, reminding the 5th Duke of Tahiti in the Pacific[28]), situated 3 1/2 km (2 miles) to the north-east of the Castello at higher altitude to escape malaria, on the way up to the Nebrodi Mountains[29] and about half-way to the (later) Obelisco di Nelson.

[32] The 1st Duke never set foot on the estate, although having spent extensively on refurbishing the monastic buildings he was clearly planning to make it his home with his mistress Lady Hamilton, and had become much enamoured with the island of Sicily.

Educated at Eton and the Sorbonne he had already embarked on a promising career at Kleinwort Benson merchant bank in the City of London, where he had been offered a job by his godfather David Robertson, one of the directors.

Although by then very successful and the youngest senior manager at the firm, he "realized that he would have to leave Kleinwort and go to live in Sicily until the sale was completed", and obtained employment in a bank in Rome.

In 1976 he first advertised the estate for sale by tender (i.e. to the highest bidder, without specifying a price), and in 1980 sold the agricultural land to a business based in Catania for 3 billion lire[48] (£1.3 million).

[55] Having moved on successively to senior roles in Chase Manhattan and Shearson Lehman Brothers, in 1992 he established his own asset management business, "Bridport Investment Services", with offices in Geneva and London.

In November 2003 he agreed to lease the ducal cemetery to the Comune di Maniace for a period of 10 years, for the promotion of tourism, and for the signing ceremony a delegation from Bronte comprising Emilio Conti (the mayor (sindaco)) and Riccardo Bontempo Scavo (the cultural assessor (l'Assessore alla Cultura)), travelled to the Italian Consulate in Geneva, where the 7th Duke was presented with a relief portrait of Admiral Lord Nelson sculpted on a sandstone tablet by the artist Maria Concetta Lazzaro.

[57] In January 1984[58] there occurred a major robbery in which about 20 important items of furniture, paintings (including Victory with Admiral Hood near Bastia by Lieutenant William Elliott) and Nelson memorabilia were stolen from the Castello, which remain unrecovered.

[59] To the consternation of many locals still harbouring the old anti-ducal outlook, the town of Bronte was recently twinned with the Norfolk village of Burnham Thorpe, birthplace of Admiral Nelson.