The Sicilians' hostility to Bourbon rule was due to a variety of reasons, including the suppression of all forms of autonomy and the dominance of Neapolitan influences, the island's poverty-stricken condition, the harsh police regime, and the violations of commitments made by the governments in Naples.

[3] Already on March 2, 1822, four liberals who had participated in an insurrectional attempt in Messina had been shot, namely the priest Giuseppe Brigandì, Salvatore Cesareo, Vincenzo Fucini, and Camillo Pisano.

The police also severely tortured the Abbot Giovanni Krymi, the priest Carmine Allegra and the chaplains Simone Gerardi and Francesco Impalà, but did not succeed in making them denounce others.

All this, however, had strengthened the opposition to the regime, which now extended to all social classes and could rely on an extensive and ramified network of artisan associations, religious orders, monasteries, and academic circles.

However, the Bourbon army had taken care to retain the rule of the Citadel of Messina, which was large in size, powerfully fortified, and because of its location apt to constitute a real bridgehead for the reconquest of Sicily.

In the course of the night the uprising was prepared and at nine o'clock on the morning of January 29,[9] the people of Messina took to the streets en masse, improvisedly armed with hunting rifles, old firearms such as muskets or even white weapons such as sabers, rapiers, and knives.

The Bourbon command, which included Generals Cardamona, Busacca and Nunziante and the Duke of Bagnoli, had received orders from King Ferdinand II to hold Messina at all costs, as the city represented the indispensable bridgehead for the reconquest of insurgent Sicily.

The Bourbon high officials therefore decided to have the city bombarded with the numerous cannons and mortars at their disposal in the many fortresses, to which were still added the mobile artillery placed in the so-called Terranova plain, in front of the Citadel, and those of the warship "Charles III."

[22] At the same time other insurgent units attacked the so-called Terranova plain, which was the set of ancillary and secondary structures in front of the Citadel, which included the Don Blasco blockhouse, the Saracen gate, the arsenal, and the local barracks.

The revolutionary committee had Dr. G. Pisano as its chairman, although in fact the command of the insurgents on the military level temporarily passed to Ignazio Ribotti, a liberal and patriot who had been forced into exile in 1831 and had fought in Spain and Portugal, reaching the rank of colonel.

This period was used by the new Kingdom of Sicily, proclaimed by the re-elected Sicilian Parliament and reopened on March 25th, to try to create a regular army by the provisional government led by Ruggero Settimo.

[27] After these events, the priest Giovanni Krymi, who had been sentenced to death for his participation in the insurrection of September 1, 1847, and had later been released from prison by the uprising at the beginning of the year, had a letter delivered to General Pronio, commander of the Bourbon troops at the Citadel, which was transmitted to him through the French vice-consul.

In it, Krymi expressed his indignation as a Christian and a clergyman at "the plunder and massacre at the Monastery and the Church of the White Benedictines" for which the Bourbon troops had been responsible during the 1848 uprising in Palermo, and especially at Pronio's actions in Messina.

Fighting also continued on the sea: on June 15, in the Strait of Messina, Sicilian gunboats, commanded by Captain Vincenzo Miloro, confronted and forced a Neapolitan steam frigate to flee.

"[30] It was imperative for the Sicilians to conquer the great fortress, but this could not be done with a white-armed assault, which would have been crushed before the moats, the walls and the very numerous artillery: it was necessary to act with siege techniques, but there was a lack of both qualified men and means on the part of the insurgents.

[31] Civic morale remained high, however, and a song became popular among the people of Messina, defiantly denouncing the citadel's bombardment of the city and demanding freedom from Bourbon rule.

Citizens from all walks of life, rich and poor, clergy and laity, men and women, young and old, however, actively contributed to reinforcing the improvised fortifications to resist the expected attack by the Bourbons.

The two villages of Contesse and Gazzi and Borgo San Clemente ended up practically destroyed by the Bourbon army: the houses that escaped the bombardment were set on fire by the soldiers through phosphorus bombs, while the civilians were shot on the spot.

However, the offensive essentially stalled in the face of the Sicilians' extremely tenacious defence, and the royal troops retreated in panic and disorder, to the point where there was talk among them of re-embarking and fleeing.

The next morning, 7 September, the Bourbons resumed their offensive with the same modus operandi as the day before: massive artillery bombardments, fires set on buildings by phosphorus bombs used by the soldiers, and infantry actions that raked the ground, killing everyone they found.

[42] The massacre of the inhabitants of the Hospice of Collereale, which housed the blind and lame, was also due to the drunken state in which most of the Bourbon soldiers found themselves: "Bayoneted out of their hospice, many blind and paralyzed people, supporting and guiding each other, felt their way up for shelter, for an escape: but entangled in the Neapolitan ranks, they were all cowardly slaughtered: the Neapolitan soldiers, and even more the Swiss, had been aroused during the night with wine and spirits, and most of them were in a state of fierce drunkenness".

[48] Even the fall of the Magdalene monastery did not mark the end of the fierce battle, as the insurgents still defended themselves in the neighborhood behind, where the Swiss mercenaries proceeded to systematically set fire to all the buildings.

[50] In the meantime, the soldiers of the Bourbon army engaged in looting and violence against the inhabitants: "The march of the Swiss and the Neapolitans was preceded by fires, followed by robbery, plunder, murder and rape.

Women were raped in the churches, where they had hoped to find safety, and then slaughtered; priests were murdered on the altars, virgins cut to pieces, old people had their throats slit in their beds, whole families were thrown out of their windows or burned in their houses, loan funds were looted, sacred vessels were stolen.

A Bourbon officer wrote to his brother immediately after the taking of Messina, stating that the Neapolitan divisions had recaptured the city with an extremely intense fire and "trampling corpses at every step for a distance of about two miles" and then commenting "How horrible!

"[56] Messina was also troubled by the actions of common criminals sent by King Ferdinand II to Sicily against the insurgents, who, after harassing the Sicilians for months with brigandish acts (crimes, violence, theft, etc.

"From the first firing of the artillery, a multitude of merchant, transport, and fishing boats came out of the port of Messina, full of peaceful inhabitants, who united in crowding the English and French ships as in a place of health.

[61] The bombardment and the fires provoked protests from the foreign diplomats present in Messina, namely the consuls of Belgium, Denmark, France, the United Kingdom, the Netherlands, Russia and Switzerland.

This huge fortress continued to pose a looming danger to the city with its artillery, so much so that even in the early 1860s the Bourbon military commander of the stronghold warned the population that he would bombard Messina at the first turmoil.

[76] The long and very harsh siege of Messina in 1848, with the enormous damage to the city and the heavy loss of life, also left a lasting mark on the collective memory, as was manifested in March 1861, when the remaining Bourbon units that still controlled the citadel surrendered to the Royal Army.