Giuseppe Tardio

Giuseppe Tardio (1 October 1834 – 6 June 1890) was a Cilento lawyer, Bourbon legitimist and commander of an army composed of hundreds of partisans who fought under the banner of Francis II for the independence of the Two Sicilies between 1861 and 1863. Tardio is considered the major political exponent of the so called post-unification brigandage in Salerno.

Biography

Early life and education

Born in Piaggine, of peasant origins, he was the first of four brothers, and spent his childhood years in Campora. In 1858, when he was only 24 years old, Tardio graduated in law with sacrifices, but with the highest marks, at the Royal Lyceum of Salerno.

Career overview

After the fall of the Kingdom of the Two Sicilies, he went to Rome where he made contact with the Bourbon legitimist committee. He embarked from Civitavecchia on September 18, 1861 with thirty-two men, landed at Agropoli in the night between the 21 and 22 following, and collected volunteers as captain of the Bourbon troops.

In a short time, he put in motion many centers of Cilento belonging to the District of Vallo, including Centola, Forìa, Camerota, Celle di Bulgheria, Novi Velia, Laurito, Vallo della Lucania. He also carried out sensational actions, among which can be mentioned the capture and disarmament of the entire garrison of the National Guard of Futani.

In July 1862, Tardio and his men entered Camerota, and headed for the town hall. Here they pulled down the Savoy coat of arms, destroyed the bust of Vittorio Emanuele II, a lithograph of Garibaldi and tore all the papers from the walls. The inhabitants, and in particular the sisters Anna Teresa and Filomena Castelluccio, 24 and 22 years old, participated in the event, trampling on the fragments of the bust.

Because of his oratorical skills, derived from his studies, Tardio was a very effective political agitator and managed to enlist hundreds of men in his ranks, overshadowing the fact that he was not even thirty years old. Several people joined him, among which Carlo Veltri, Andrea Perriello, Vincenzo De Nardo, Antonio Perriello; other fellow countrymen acted as supporters, such as Giuseppe Galzerano, and the brothers Francesco and Angelo Ciardo.

On July 3, 1862 he published in Futani his first "Proclamation to the people of the Two Sicilies", in which he incited the Cilentan populations to revolt, stigmatizing the numerous shootings that were carried out for repressive purposes by the invaders.

"Citizens, the factious despotism of the subalpine regime in conquering the Kingdom seduced you with fallacious proclamations. Bitter fruits you have gathered. Reducing these beautiful lands to a province, burdening you with tributes, bringing you misery and desolation. Inaugurating the right to be shot as a reason of state (of the Gentleman King!). The most daring is now a year since they brandished weapons. And the hour to make the last effort has sounded. Do not delay in arming yourselves, and line up under the banner of the legitimate Sovereign Francis II, the only symbol and bulwark of the rights of man and citizen; as well as the commercial prosperity and wealth of the people. Will you hesitate to fearlessly face the armed Piedmontese, in order to force them to cross the Liri?"

(The Captain Commanding the Bourbon Arms, Major Giuseppe Tardio, Primo Proclama ai popoli delle Due Sicilie con timbro regio e stemma di Francesco II di Borbone)

The campaign, however, suffered a heavy setback when it was intercepted and decimated near San Biase, in the locality "Fontana del Cerro". Left with few survivors, he repaired on the mountains of Pruno di Laurino, where he managed to reorganize himself and to resume his raids in October 1862.

In the night between 3 and 4 June 1863, he was in Campora, and in this place he wrote the second "Proclamation to the people of the two Sicilies":

"Citizens, you who were destined by Providence to enjoy the delights that nature, science and the arts have lavished in abundance in this southern part of Italy, the second valley of Eden. But for almost three years of hard, tyrannical and factious despotic subalpine regime, has reduced you to the sad condition of the barbarians of the north of the Middle Ages, reducing these lands to the sad condition of Province, despising your sincere and pitiful acts of religion, distressing you with tributes. Arise with a cry and rush to line up under the banner of your Augustus and Legitimate Sovereign Francis II, as the only symbol and bulwark for the respect of Religion, personal safety, inviolability of freedom, property, home and peace and honor of families, as well as commercial property and wealth of the people. May your cry be unique: long live Francis II, the independence and autonomy of the Two Sicilies!".

(The Captain Commanding the Bourbon Arms, Major Giuseppe Tardio, Secondo Proclama ai popoli delle Due Sicilie con timbro regio e stemma di Francesco II di Borbone)

On the night of the invasion of June 3, 1863, a sensational episode occurred in Campora, namely the shooting of the Capuchin Father Giuseppe Feola. After having him led into the square and having demanded a ransom of two thousand ducats, the liberal Feola fell under the gunfire exploded by some members of the squad and was finished off by the saber of the lawyer Tardio, who before his death had turned to the supporter of Victor Emanuel II with these words: "You must die because this order came to me from Rome".

On the morning of June 4, 1863, Tardio and his men were again intercepted by a squad of Carabinieri and a division of the National Guard between Stio and Magliano Vetere. After a bloody battle, Tardio and his band were forced to fall back in the direction of Sacco and then Corleto Monforte, where they disbanded the group.

Arrest and trial

Tardio escaped capture until 1870, when he was betrayed by Nicola Mazzei, a fellow countryman who was serving as a Bersagliere in Rome, and arrested twice (the first time he managed to escape) along with fellow soldier Pietro Rubano, with him since December 1861. Incarcerated first in Rome and then in Salerno, he was finally tried for brigandage by the Court of Vallo della Lucania. At the trial he strenuously defended himself from the accusation of being a criminal, writing among other things:

"I am not guilty of common crimes because my status, my character and my education could never make me a vulgar evildoer; I did not move and acted only with merely political intentions and purposes; so that one could not call me responsible for any common crime that others had perpetrated without my knowledge against my express will and against the very clear and unique purpose for which the band had been gathered by me".

(Giuseppe Tardio, the memoirs)

Despite the efforts of the lawyer Carmine Zottoli, of the Salerno bar and famous defender of "brigands", Tardio was sentenced to death, a sentence then commuted to hard labor for life in the terrible prison of Favignana, still the worst prison in Italy regarding the living conditions of prisoners. Here he had for companion of imprisonment the legitimist Cosimo Giordano, condemned for the destruction of a unit of Piedmontese infantrymen, which followed the reprisal operated by the bersaglieri of the Royal Army known as the massacre of Pontelandolfo and Casalduni. Tardio remained in prison in Favignana until his death, which occurred at 58 years of age. He was poisoned by a woman for fear, it seems, that he made revelations.

References

• Antonio Chiazza, Giuseppe Tardio. Napoli: Tempi Moderni Edizioni (1986)
• Giovanni De Matteo, Brigantaggio e Risorgimento: Legittimisti e Briganti tra i Borbone e i Savoia. Napoli: A. Guida Editore. (2000)