Background
Francesco Caracciolo was born in Naples on January 18, 1732 to a noble family.
Francesco Caracciolo was born in Naples on January 18, 1732 to a noble family.
He entered the navy and learned his seamanship under Rodney. He fought with distinction in the British service in the American War of Independence, against the Barbary pirates, and against the French at Genoa under Lord Hotham. The Bourbons placed the greatest confidence in his skill.
Once at sea, Francesco Caracciolo fought actively against the British and Neapolitan squadrons and prevented the landing of some Royalist bands.
A few days later all the French troops in Naples, except 500 men, were recalled to the north of Italy. Caracciolo then attacked Admiral Thurn, who from the " Minerva " commanded the Royalist fleet, and did some damage to that vessel.
But the British fleet on the one hand and Cardinal Fabrizio Ruffo's army on the other made resistance impossible.
It is doubtful whether Caracciolo should have been included in the capitulation concluded with the Republicans in the castles, as that document promised life and liberty to those who surrendered before the blockade of the forts, whereas he was arrested afterwards, but as the whole capitulation was violated the point is immaterial.
As soon as he was brought on board, Nelson ordered Thurn to summon a court martial composed of Caracciolo's former officers, Thurn himself being a personal enemy of the accused.
He was condemned to death by three votes to two, and as soon as the sentence was communicated to Nelson the latter ordered that he should be hanged at the yard-arm of the " Minerva " the next morning, and his body thrown into the sea at sundown: Even the customary twenty-four hours' respite for confession was denied him, and his request to be shot instead of hanged refused.
The sentence was duly carried out on the 30th of June 1799.
Caracciolo was technically a traitor to the king whose uniform he had worn, but apart from the wave of revolutionary enthusiasm which had spread all over the educated classes of Italy, and the fact that treason to a government like that of the Neapolitan Bourbons could hardly be regarded as a crime, there was no necessity for Nelson to make himself the executor of the revenge of Ferdinand and Mary Caroline.
