[Fenians], an Irish political organisation having for its object the overthrow of English rule in Ireland and the establishment of a republic there. The movement was initiated in the United States soon after the great famine in Ireland of 1846-47, which, together with the harsh exactions of the landlords, compelled many Irishmen to emigrate from their island with a deeply-rooted sense of injustice and hatred of the English. The Fenians organised themselves so far on the model of a republic, having a senate at the head, with a virtual president called the "head-centre," and various "circles" established in many parts of the U.S. They collected funds and engaged in military drill, and sent agents to Ireland and England. An invasion of Canada in 1866 and a rising at home in 1867 proved abortive, as also the attack on Clerkenwell Prison in the same year. Another attempt on Canada in 1871 and the formation of the Skirmishing Fund for the use of the Dynamitards and the institution of the Clan-na-Gael leading to the "Invincibles," and the Phoenix Park murders (1882) are later manifestations of this movement. The Home Rule and Land League movements practically superseded the Fenian. The name is taken from an ancient military organisation called the Fionna Eirinn, said to have been instituted in Ireland in 300 B.C.
[Ferdinand the Catholic], V. of Castile, II. of Aragon and Sicily, and III. of Naples, born at Sos, in Aragon, married Isabella of Castile in 1849, a step by which these ancient kingdoms were united under one sovereign power; their joint reign is one of the most glorious in the annals of Spanish history, and in their hands Spain quickly took rank amongst the chief European powers; in 1492 Columbus discovered America, and the same year saw the Jews expelled from Spain and the Moorish power crushed by the fall of Granada. In 1500-1 Ferdinand joined the French in his conquest of Naples, and three years later managed to secure the kingdom to himself, while by the conquest of Navarre in 1512 the entire Spanish peninsula came under his sway. He was a shrewd and adroit ruler, whose undoubted abilities, both as administrator and general, were, however, somewhat marred by an unscrupulous cunning, which found a characteristic expression in the institution of the notorious Inquisition, which in 1480 was started by him, and became a powerful engine for political as well as religious persecution for long years after (1452-1516).
[Ferdinand I.], emperor of Germany (1556-64), born at Alcalá, in Spain, son of Philip I., married Anna, a Bohemian princess, in 1521; was elected king of the Romans (1531), added Bohemia and Hungary to his domains (1503-1564).
[Ferdinand II.], emperor of Germany (1619-37), grandson of the preceding and son of Charles, younger brother of Maximilian II., born at Grätz; his detestation of the Protestants, early instilled into him by his mother and the Jesuits, under whom he was educated, was the ruling passion of his life, and involved the empire in constant warfare during his reign; an attempt on the part of Bohemia, restless under religious and political grievances, to break away from his rule, brought about the Thirty Years' War; by ruthless persecutions he re-established Catholicism in Bohemia, and reduced the country to subjection; but the war spread into Hungary and Germany, where Ferdinand was opposed by a confederacy of the Protestant States of Lower Saxony and Denmark, and in which the Protestant cause was in the end successfully sustained by the Swedish hero, [Gustavus Adolphus] (q. v.), who had opposed to him the imperial generals [Tilly] and [Wallenstein] (q. v.); his reign is regarded as one of disaster, bloodshed, and desolation to his empire, and his connivance at the assassination of Wallenstein will be forever remembered to his discredit (1578-1637).
[Ferdinand III.], emperor of Germany (1637-57), son of the preceding, born at Grätz; more tolerant in his views, would gladly have brought the war to a close, but found himself compelled to face the Swedes reinforced by the French; in 1648 the desolating struggle was terminated by the Peace of Westphalia; the rest of his reign passed in tranquillity (1608-1657).
[Ferdinand I.], king of the Two Sicilies, third son of Charles III. of Spain, succeeded his father on the Neapolitan throne (1759), married Maria Caroline, daughter of Maria-Theresa; joined the Allies in the struggle against Napoleon, and in 1806 was driven from his throne by the French, but was reinstated at the Congress of Vienna; in 1816 he constituted his two States (Sicily and Naples) into the kingdom of the Two Sicilies, and in the last four years of his reign ruled, with the aid of Austria, as a despot, and having broken a pledge to his people, was compelled ere his return to grant a popular constitution (1751-1825).
[Ferdinand II.], king of the Two Sicilies, grandson of the preceding and son of Francis I.; after the death of his first wife, a daughter of Victor Emmanuel I., he married the Austrian princess Maria-Theresa, and fell under the influence of Austria during the rest of his reign; in 1848 he was compelled to grant constitutional rights to his people, but was distrusted, and an insurrection broke out in Sicily; with merciless severity he crushed the revolt, and by his savage bombardment of the cities won him the epithet "Bomba"; a reign of terror ensued, and in 1851 Europe was startled by the revelations of cruel injustice contained in Mr. Gladstone's famous Neapolitan letters (1810-1859).
[Ferdinand III.], Grand-duke of Tuscany and Archduke of Austria, born at Florence; succeeded to the government of Tuscany in 1790; introduced many wise measures of reform, which brought peace and prosperity to his State; reluctantly joined the coalition against Napoleon in 1793, but two years later entered into friendly relations with France, and in 1797, in order to save his States being merged in the Cisalpine Republic, undertook to make payment of an annual subsidy; later he formed an alliance with Austria, and was by Napoleon driven from his possessions, which were, however, restored to him in 1814 by the Peace of Paris (1769-1824).
[Ferdinand VII. of Spain], son of Charles IV. of Spain; too weak to steer his way through the intrigues of the court, he appealed to Napoleon in 1807 to support the king, his father, and himself; but his letter was discovered, and his accomplices exiled; the following year the French entered Spain, and Charles abdicated in favour of his son Ferdinand; but soon after, under Napoleon's influence, the crown was surrendered to the French, and Joseph Bonaparte became king; in 1813 Ferdinand was reinstated, but found himself immediately met by a demand of his people for a more liberal representative government; the remaining years of his reign were spent in an internecine struggle against these claims, in which he had French support under Louis XVIII. (1784-1833).
[Ferdusi]. See [Firdausi].