r finance minister Martin-Michel-Charles Gaudin, in 1809 (family extinguished in 1841).
On August 8, 1815 it capitulated to the Austrians after a three months' siege. It had been attacked and partially reduced by ships of the Royal Navy on 24 July 1815.
After his flight from the Roman Republic, Pope Pius IX took refuge at Gaeta in November 1848. He remained in Gaeta until September 4, 1849.
Finally, in 1860, it was the scene of the last stand of Francis II of the Two Sicilies against the forces of United Italy. The king offered a stubborn defense, shut up in the fortress with 12,000 men and inspired by the heroic example of Queen Maria Sophie after Garibaldi's occupation of Naples. It was not until February 13, 1861 that Francis II was forced to capitulate when the withdrawal of the French fleet made bombardment from the sea possible, thus sealing the annexation of the Kingdom of Naples to the Kingdom of Italy. Cialdini, the Piedmontese general, received the victory title of Duke of Gaeta. Gaeta was the center for the Montenegrin rebels that opposed the unification of Yugoslavia, The Greens, 1919-1924.
Contemporary age
After the Risorgimento and until World War II, Gaeta grew in importance and wealth as a seaport. The nearby town of Elena, separated after the Risorgimento and named after the queen of Italy, was reunited to Gaeta following World War I. Mussolini transferred Gaeta from the southern region known today as Campania (formerly Terra di Lavoro, to which it is historically and culturally attached) to the central region of Lazio.
In April 1938 Gaeta was the scene of an extraterritorial vote of German and Austrian clerics, studying at the German college of Santa Maria dell'Anima, on the question of the German annexation of Austria ("Anschluss"). The place of the vote was the German heavy cruiser Admiral Scheer, which anchored in the harbour of Gaeta. In contrary to the overall German result, these clerical
