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The title of Duke of Bronté (Template:Lang-it) refers to the town of Bronte in Sicily and was granted in 1799 to the English Admiral Horatio Nelson by King King Ferdinand III of Sicily, in gratitude for his having saved the kingdom from conquest by Revolutionary French forces under Napoleon. 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. It carried the right to sit in parliament within the military branch. The title does not descend according to fixed rules but is transferrable by the holder to whomsoever he desires, strangers included. Accompanying it was a grant of a 25,000 hectare estate, centered on the ancient monastery of Maniace, 5 miles north of Bronte, which the Admiral ordered to be restored and embellished as his residence thenceforth called Castello di Maniace. He appointed as his agent Johann Andreas Graeffer (d.1802), an English-trained German landscape gardener who had recently created the English Garden at the Royal Palace of Caserta in Naples. The Admiral never set foot on his estate, having been killed in action six years later at the Battle of Trafalgar.

Choice of title

The Admiral was offered by the king a choice of one of three dukedoms with accompanying estate, Bisacquino, Partinico or Bronte. The king wrote in a note to his minister: The estate of Bronte is the most suitable for the purpose, but the revenue is insufficient, and must be not less than 6,000 ounces, not more than 8,000, thus if there are other adjoining estates to make up the difference these must be annexed, giving the equivalent sums to the proprietors, and creating the feudal form and character with title of duke which in England sounds better than the others.

It is suggested that he 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, the ease of pronunciation 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, 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.

Ducal powers

The grant, of perpetual duration and comprising 25,000 hectares (62,000 acres) of land, included extensive feudal rights, the same as had been held from mediaeval times by the previous overlord, the Hospital of Palermo, including: "the City of Bronte" (population 9,500) "with all its tenures and districts, together with its fiefdoms, marches, fortifications, vassal citizens, revenues of the vassals, censuses, services, bondage and gabelles". The dukedom also included the power of mero et mixto imperio, the sole power of the exercise of justice, both civil and criminal, including capital punishment. The title later became part of the nobility of the Kingdom of the Two Sicilies.

Local opposition

Aside from having been granted by a king from the Bourbon dynasty considered foreign and abhorrent by many Sicilians, the new dukedom was not popular with a powerful faction of the local population who had felt oppressed for centuries by the feudal power of the Hospital of Palermo, the previous overlord of Bronte, from which they believed they had just recently obtained freedom, after finally winning a legal battle lasting many centuries. The king compensated the Hospital of Palermo (with an annuity of 71,500 lire) 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. Two parties thus arose in the local population, the ducale, supportive of the duchy, and the comunista, supportive of an independent Commune of Bronte. Many indeed were highly sympathetic to the ideals of the French Revolution, and felt that Nelson had "smothered with bloodshed the Neapolitan Republic" 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", and "The evils which afflict Bronte are twofold: Etna and the Duchy"

Much to the approval of his mistress Lady Hamilton (wife of the English 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. 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" in the park of Castello di Maniace, at a cost of over 4 million lire, which they called "Borgo France­sco Caracciolo". It was never completed due to the Allied landing in 1943, and in 1964 was razed to the ground by the 6th Duke after a special UK-Italy war damages commission in 1956 adjudged the Duke the legitimate owner of the duchy and of the Borgo.

Although the dukes brought considerable improvements to the area, including in irrigation and agriculture, this opposed faction never accepted the English presence at Bronte, and the protracted and costly legal dispute continued unabated until 1981 when the Hood family, ultimate heirs of Admiral Lord Nelson, sold the entire estate and the house with all its contents, excepting the small ducal cemetery, to the Council of Bronte. The former ducal residence is now a museum open to the public, known locally as the Castello dei Nelson ("Castle of the Nelsons" (sic)), containing memorabilia of the Admiral and portraits of the Hood family.

Descent

The Admiral had obtained from the king the unusual right that the dukedom could be transferred "at the holder's pleasure, not only to his relatives but also to strangers". 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. Although the royal grant allowed him to do so, he did not specifically bequeath the duchy to his illegitimate daughter (by Lady Emma Hamilton), Horatia Nelson Thom­pson (whom he otherwise provided for in the will), possibly the intricacies having escaped his mind whilst writing his last will whilst mortally injured aboard HMS Victory. Thus the duchy passed to his elder brother and heir the 2nd Duke, who lived at Standlynch House in Wiltshire, and likewise never visited. The first to visit was his daughter the 3rd Duchess (who lived with her husband Samuel Hood, 2nd Baron Bridport at Cricket St Thomas in Somerset) who visited once very briefly in 1830s or 1840s but was appalled by the primitive state of the countryside and the entire absence of roads, which necessitated her travelling from Bronte to Maniace by mule litter. Her son the 4th Duke (Alexander Nelson Hood, 1st Viscount Bridport) visited twice, during his mother's lifetime, in 1864 and 1868, accompanied by his wife and some of his children. He bequeathed the title to his 4th son, who became the 5th Duke and was the first to make the Castello di Maniace his home, also building himself a palatial villa at Taormina on the coast, 40km to the east on the other side of Etna, already well-populated with fellow British ex-patriots and visitors. The latter died unmarried, and was ultimately buried at Maniace in the ducal cemetery, created by him. His heir was his great nephew the 3rd Viscount Bridport, the 6th Duke, who also made Maniace his home, the family's English seat at Cricket St Thomas in Somerset having been sold in 1989 by the 1st Viscount. In 1940 he was expelled from Italy by Mussolini and the duchy was confiscated, the lands being allotted to the local peasantry. The estate was recovered after the 1943 landings by the Allies in Sicily. The long-standing unrest of the comunista faction continued and by 1956, although his own tenants and peasantry still insisted (to his embarassment) on kissing his hand in the traditional manner, he was not so beloved by the "comunista" faction of the townsfolk and was employing armed guards around his estate, to counter for example the 1,500 strong demonstration of red-flag bearing townsfolk who attempted to march into the estate in that year, blocked by a chain across the road and the police. Violent civil unrest had been seen before in Bronte between the two parties, most notably during the Risorgimento in the 1860 massacre (I Fatti di Bronte) (the Dukes being then non-resident) when 16 people had been killed during rioting and looting, including the 3rd Duchess's notary Ignazio Cannata and his son, executed by the mob. It was the subject of a 1972 film by Florestano Vancini, Bronte - Cronaca di un massacro che i libri di storia non hanno raccontato ("Bronte - chronicle of a massacre which the history books have not recounted"). The 6th Duke's son the 4th Viscount and 7th Duke, a banker based in Geneva, sold the Sicilian estate in 1981, to the Commune of Bronte.

List of Dukes

See also Viscount Nelson, Earl Nelson, Viscount Bridport

The holders of this title have been:

• Horatio Nelson, 1st Duke of Bronté, 1st Viscount Nelson (1758–1805)
• William Nelson, 2nd Duke of Bronté, 1st Earl Nelson (1757–1835) (elder brother)
• Charlotte Mary Nelson, 3rd Duchess of Bronté (1787–1873) (daughter)
• Alexander Nelson Hood, 4th Duke of Bronté, 1st Viscount Bridport (1814–1904) (son) (previously created Viscount Bridport; see above)
• Sir Alexander Nelson Hood, 5th Duke of Bronté (1904–1937) (younger son, by bequest)
• Rowland Arthur Herbert Nelson Hood, 6th Duke of Bronté, 3rd Viscount Bridport (1911–1969) (great-nephew)
• Alexander Nelson Hood, 7th Duke of Bronté, 4th Viscount Bridport (b. 1948) (son)

The heir apparent is the present holder's son, the Hon. Peregrine Alexander Nelson Hood (b. 1974).
The heir apparent's heir presumptive is his eldest daughter, Honor Linda Hood (b. 2016).

Further reading

• Alexander Nelson Hood, Duke of Bronte, Tales of Old Sicily, 1906;
• Bronte, Alexander Nelson Hood, 5th Duke of, The Duchy of Bronte: a memorandum written for his family in 1924
• Alexander Nelson Hood, Duke of Bronte, Sicilian Studies, 1915
• Archives of the Dukes of Bronte, Palermo State Archives
• Antonio Petronaci, Luoghi della Ducea dei Nelson attraverso foto e cartoline d’epoca, 2002,
• William Sharp, Through Nelson's Duchy, 1903, Selected Writings of William Sharp, Vol. IV, Travel Sketches

External links

• Florestano Vancini, Bronte - Cronaca di un massacro che i libri di storia non hanno raccontato ("Bronte - chronicle of a massacre which the history books have not recounted"), 1972 film, filmed in Yugoslavia, see youtube

Sources

• The English Duchy ay the foot of Etna, www.bronteinsieme.it
• Benedetto Radice, Memorie storiche di Bronte (Historical memories of Bronte), Vols 1&2, Bronte 1928, 1936; background see digital text see
• Benedetto Radice, Il casale e l'abbazia di S. M. di Maniace, Palermo, 1909

References

1. "col diritto di sedere in Parlamento nel braccio militare", Benedetto Radice, Memorie storiche di Bronte (Historical memories of Bronte), Vols 1&2, Bronte 1928, 1936, p.206
2. http://www.bronteinsieme.it/BrIns_en/2st_en/nelson_graefer1_en.html
3. Montague-Smith, P.W. (ed.), Debrett's Peerage, Baronetage, Knightage and Companionage, Kelly's Directories Ltd, Kingston-upon-Thames, 1968, p.822, Earl Nelson
4. Montague-Smith, P.W. (ed.), Debrett's Peerage, Baronetage, Knightage and Companionage, Kelly's Directories Ltd, Kingston-upon-Thames, 1968 , p.174 (Viscount Bridport)
5. http://www.bronteinsieme.it/BrIns_en/2st_en/nelson_en.html
6. Questa terra di Bronte è la più adatta al caso; ma non sofficiente la rendita (allora il reddito di Bronte era calcolato in onze 5500), che dovrebbe essere non meno di onze 6000, nè più di 8000, dunque se ci siano altre terre confinanti per fare un tal pieno, ci si dovrebbero annessare (sic), dando l'equivalente agli attuali possessori, dan­dosegli la forma e carattere feudale col titolo di Duca che in Inghilterra suona meglio che gli altri
7. http://www.bronteinsieme.it/BrIns_en/2st_en/nelson_en.html
8. Il nome "Bronte" era bello, persino gli inglesi lo potevano pronunciare con facilità
9. http://www.bronteinsieme.it/BrIns_en/2st_en/nelson_en.html
10. In quell’anno Bronte contava una popolazione di circa 9.500 abitanti
11. «… in perpetuo la terra (quasi 25.000 ettari) e la stessa città di Bronte, … con tutte le sue tenute e i distretti, insieme ai feudi, alle marche, alle fortificazioni, ai cittadini vassalli, ai redditi dei vassalli, ai censi, ai servizi, alle servitù, alle gabelle …»
12. Benedetto Radice
13. http://www.bronteinsieme.it/2st/nelson.html
14. Jus Necis
15. "L'aborrito Ferdinando I" (così lo definisce lo storico brontese Benedetto Radice)
16. Il "munifico" Borbone salvò l'Ospedale (commutando il reddito che ricavava da Bronte in un assegno annuo di 71.500 lire a carico dello Stato)
17. http://www.bronteinsieme.it/2st/nelson.html
18. http://www.bronteinsieme.it/BrIns_en/2st_en/nelson_en.html
19. Così Bronte per la favola del nome ebbe l'onore della Ducea e confermata la sventura del vassallaggio, appunto come il cane a cui il padrone mette al collo una bella catena di argento o di oro
20. due sono i più grandi mali che affliggono Bronte: l'Etna e la Ducea.
21. http://www.bronteinsieme.it/BrIns_en/2st_en/nelson_en.html
22. borgo contadino
23. http://www.bronteinsieme.it/2st/nelson.html#BorgoCar
24. Nel 1956 una speciale commissione di conciliazione italo-britan­nica, istituita per occuparsi dei danni di guerra, stabilì che il duca Nelson-Bridport era il proprietario legittimo della Ducea e che lo stesso "Borgo Caracciolo" gli apparteneva.
25. la facoltà di trasmettere la Ducea, a suo piacimento, non solo a qualsiasi dei suoi parenti ma pure ad estranei
26. Non avendo l'ammiraglio eredi diretti (la figlia Orazia non fu neanche considerata, perchè illegit­tima) la ducea passò al fratello, il rev. William, II° duca di Bronte
27. Named La Falconara, sometimes referred to today by estate agents for marketing purposes as Villa Nelson, and claimed by them to have been built by the Admiral in 1780
28. He was initially buried in the garden of the Villa La Falconara, next to his sister Rosa Penelope Hood (1852-1922). Prior to the sale of the villa in 1948, both bodies were removed and reburied together in a single grave (with gravestone and monumental cross inscribed "Peace" also brought from Taormina) in the private ducal cemetery at Maniace
29. Il piccolo cimitero fra i mandorli, sul pendio di Fondaco, fu istituito, con legale autoriz­zazione da parte del Governo, circa venti anni fa, Bronte, Alexander Nelson Hood, 5th Duke of, The Duchy of Bronte: a memorandum written for his family in 1924.
30. http://www.bronteinsieme.it/2st/nelson.html#BorgoCar
31. Interview in Daily Telegraph, 1956 Lord Bridport, duca di Bronte ... aveva recen­temente con­fessato che «la sua popolarità tra i suoi contadini lo imbarazza» dato che essi sempre «insistono per baciargli la mano»
32. Per gli anditi oscuri del Castello si incontrano silenziosi i servi e le guardie armate private del duca
33. I Fatti di Bronte dal 2 al 10 Agosto 1860
34. See youtube, Bronte - Cronaca di un massacro
35. The Peerage
36. l'Archivio di Stato di Paler­mo

• Horatio Nelson
• Dukes of Italy
• Lists of Italian nobility