Ettore Carafa

Ettore Carafa d'Andria, the Count of Ruvo (10 August 1767, in Andria – 4 September 1799, in Naples) was an Italian soldier and republican patriot, executed after the fall of the Parthenopean Republic.

[2] After returning to Naples, there was an incident wherein Ettore had appeared wearing a color emblematic of the revolution, in the form of a scarlet waistcoat, at the Fiorentini theater; this prompted a complaint by the Queen made to his mother, the Duchess of Andria.

After an angry debate with his mother, he entered to the church of San Severino e Sossio, where he proceeded to blacken the escutcheon on the tomb of his venerable ancestor Carafa, who had been grand prior of the order of Malta.

With the help of his brother Carlo Carafa, the castle commander Guglielmo Pepe, and large bribes, he was soon able to escape from Castel Sant'Elmo, and flee to the Cisalpine Republic that had been established in Milan.

On 13 June 1799, during the battle at the Ponte della Maddalena in Naples, he fell into a ditch, was seized and recognized by a Sanfedista from Andria, brought before Cardinal Ruffo, who jailed him at Castel Nuovo, from which he emerged after the Peace of Florence.

[11] Then Ettore moved south to Andria with General Broussier and alongside his former jailer Guglielmo Pepe, where he thought his birthplace and the feud of his family ties would welcome him.

He was taken to Naples and kept under guard with an iron cage around his neck for several days, which prevented sleep; ragged and with a long beard, he was brought to the Public Marketplace to be beheaded.

[14] Ettore's life was short; the battles won by his legions, meager; and at the time of his death, the republic was overthrown, and Naples was in the thrall of a brutal reactionary purge.