Lazzaroni (Naples)

[1] No precise census of them was ever conducted, but contemporaries estimated their total number at around 50,000, and they had a significant role in the social and political life of the city (and of the kingdom of which Naples was the capital).

They were prone to act collectively as crowds and mobs and follow the lead of demagogues, often proving formidable in periods of civil unrest and revolution.

At the time of the French Revolution, the Lazzaroni were staunchly monarchist in their political inclination—the diametrical opposite of the contemporary Parisian sans-culottes—with their (sometimes lethal) mob violence being directed against supposed republican and Jacobin sympathisers.

The Lazzaroni, to the contrary, clamored to be armed and made a valiant effort to defend the city against the French—even though the royal family had already fled to Sicily.

Journalist Charles Arrivabene wrote at the time: "Garibaldi was accompanied by a great procession along the seafront to Piedigrotta (...) He was cheered by fishermen and lazzaroni, and women shouted 'May the blessed Virgin be with you, Eccellenza!'".