Dukedom of Bronte
The Dukedom of Bronte was a dukedom with the title Duke of Bronte, referring to the town of Bronte in the province of Catania, Sicily. It was granted on 10 October 1799 at Palermo to the British Royal Navy officer Horatio Nelson by King Ferdinand III of Sicily, in gratitude for Nelson having saved the kingdom of Sicily from conquest by Revolutionary French forces under Napoleon. This was largely achieved by Nelson's victory at the Battle of the Nile, 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 dukedom does not descend according to fixed rules but is transferable by the holder to whomsoever he or she desires, strangers included. Accompanying it was a grant of a estate, centered on the ancient monastery of Maniace, five miles north of Bronte, which Nelson ordered to be restored and embellished as his residence – thenceforth called Castello di Maniace. He appointed as his resident administrator Johann Andreas Graeffer, an English-trained German landscape gardener who had recently created the English Garden at the Royal Palace of Caserta in Naples. Nelson never set foot on his estate, as he was killed in action six years later at the Battle of Trafalgar.
Choice of title
The Admiral was offered by King Ferdinand a choice of one of three dukedoms with an 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 Nelson chose Bronte for several reasons, including the Greek origin of the name, the majesty of the volcano itself, the healthiness and fertility of the soil, the verses of the Palermo poet Giovanni Meli, and 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, whose forge was supposed to be underneath Mount Etna. He signed his will as "Nelson Bronte", and the initials "NB" appear on the wrought-iron entrance gates at Castello di Maniace.
Ducal powers
The grant, of perpetual duration and comprising about of land, included extensive feudal rights, the same as had been held from the 15th century by the previous overlord, the Ospedale Grande e Nuovo in Palermo, including: "the City of Bronte" "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 Spanish royal family 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 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 and of the king, Nelson had executed Admiral Prince Francesco Caracciolo, 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 Castello dei Nelson, "Castle of the Nelsons", containing memorabilia of the Admiral and portraits of the Hood family.
Palazzo Ducale, Bronte
Until 1935, the dukes had a town house in Bronte, five miles south of the Castello, for use when on business in that town. Known as the Palazzo Ducale, it had 35 rooms with a walled garden to the rear, and was situated on Corso Umberto, the facade being opposite Piazza Cappuccini, site of the Cappuccine Convent, the rear being bounded by the via Madonna Riparo and the via Nelson. It was built by Bryant Barret, one of the dukedom's land agents during the early period when the Castello was uninhabitable and the dukes were absentee landlords. Most has since been demolished but a few sections, including that of the main entrance, survive, namely the residence of the late Professor Paparo, the former Santangelo printing works, the houses Mineo, Parisi etc, as far as the former Cinema Roma. The large and imposing cellar today houses the Deluchiana municipal library. The 5th Duke considered it a white elephant and stayed there only once, namely on the first night of his first visit to the dukedom aged 14 in 1868.File:CasaOtaiti Maniace Bronte Sicily 1885.png|thumb|Casa Otaiti in 1885, summer residence of the land agent, surrounded by peasants' "wigwam"-like straw huts reminding the 5th Duke of Tahiti in the Pacific
There was also a small summer residence built by the estate's land agent William Thovez, now known as Casa Otaiti, situated to the north-east of the Castello at higher altitude to escape malaria, on the way up to the Nebrodi Mountains and about half-way to the Obelisco di Nelson. This was done on the order of the 2nd Duke, who was concerned about his health and had urged him to drain and canalize the swampy areas around the Castello.