Michele Pezza (7 April 1771-11 November 1806), also known as Fra Diavolo, was a Neapolitan guerrilla leader who resisted the French Empire's occupation of Naples during the Napoleonic Wars. Fra Diavolo fought against the French occupation in 1799 with success, but he was betrayed to the French during their second invasion in 1806, and he was hanged for "banditry".
Biography[]
Fra Diavolo in battle
Michele Pezza was born in Itri, Kingdom of Naples on 7 April 1771, and he was forced into the Neapolitan Army during the 1790s after being convicted of manslaughter. In November 1798, he took part in Naples' disastrous attempt to oust France from the Papal States, and France proceeded to invade Naples. Naples fell on 22 January 1799, and French and Polish soldiers looted his hometown and massacred a few of its inhabitants, including his father. Diavolo, unlike many reform-minded nobles and intellectuals, opposed the Parthenopaean Republic, and he became the leader of irregular resistance against the French. His massa (band) grew to 4,000 men, and he cut down the "Liberty Tree" at Fondi and replaced it with a cross. In June 1799, Naples was liberated from the French, followed by Gaeta in July. By late September 1799, the French had largely been driven from Naples, and the Neapolitans went on to liberate Rome; as many as 60,000 Neapolitans died in the conflict. Pezza's men carried out monstrous misdeeds such as the torture and murder of hundreds of prisoners-of-war (including a French general), leading to fellow resistance leader Cardinal Fabrizio Ruffo having him arrested.
In January 1806, 32,000 French troops invaded Naples with the goal of installing Joseph Bonaparte as King. Pezza was recalled to active duty as Naples rapidly fell, and he attempted to follow up the British success at Maida with a landing at Amante in Calabria. His guerrillas had initial success, but the French continued to advance relentlessly, and his forces were heavily defeated at Lauria on 8 August 1806. Pezza's forces were virtually annihilated, and the French posted a 50,000 ducat reward for anyone who killed or captured Pezza. On 28 August, he was nearly captured by a French flying column near Itri, and he was captured at a pharmacy in Baronissi, Avellino on 1 November 1806 by French troops under Major Joseph Leopold Sigisbert Hugo, Victor Hugo's father. On 11 November 1806, he was hanged as a bandit.