On 26 June 1797, Francis married his double first cousin
Archduchess Maria Clementina of Austria, daughter of
Leopold II, Holy Roman Emperor. When she died in 1801, he married his paternal first cousin
María Isabella, youngest daughter of King
Charles IV of Spain, on 6 July 1802. His youngest sister,
Princess Maria Antonia of Naples and Sicily, also married Maria Isabella's elder brother, the future
Ferdinand VII of Spain, then Prince of Asturias. After the
Bourbon family fled from Naples to
Sicily in 1806,
Lord William Bentinck, the British resident, had drafted a new constitution along British and French lines. Ferdinand agreed to
abdicate his throne, with Francis being appointed regent in 1812. On the abdication of
Napoleon I, his father returned to Naples and suppressed the Sicilian constitution, incorporating his two kingdoms into that of the Two Sicilies (1816); Francis then assumed the revived title of duke of
Calabria. While still heir apparent, he professed liberal ideas, and on the outbreak of the revolution of 1820, he accepted the regency, apparently in a friendly spirit towards the new constitution, although he was actually as conservative as his father. On succeeding to the throne in 1825, he pursued a conservative course. He took little part in the government, which he left in the hands of favourites and police officials, and lived with his mistresses, surrounded by soldiers, ever in dread of assassination. During his reign, the only revolutionary movement was the outbreak on the Cilento (1828), repressed by the Marquis Delcarretto, an ex-Liberal. He was, however, successful in having the Austrian occupation force withdrawn (1827), thereby relieving a large financial burden on the treasury. During his reign, the
Royal Order of Francis I was founded to reward civil merit. ==Issue==