Bandiera brothers, Italian brothers who were followers of Giuseppe Mazzini and who led an abortive revolt against Austrian rule in Italy. Attilio Bandiera (b. May 24, 1810, Venice [Italy]—d. July 23, 1844, Cosenza, Kingdom of Naples) and Emilio Bandiera (b. June 20, 1819, Venice [Italy]—d. July 23, 1844, Cosenza) were both executed, and their deaths made a profound impression on the Italian revolutionary movement.
The sons of Baron Francesco Bandiera, an admiral in the Austrian navy, Attilio and Emilio themselves became naval officers but were converted to the cause of Italian independence by Mazzini, carrying on correspondence with him and with members of his organization, Giovine Italia (Young Italy). In 1841, while serving in the war with Syria under their father’s command, they founded a secret society, Esperia, devoted to the cause of freeing Italy. In 1843 they began to agitate among their fellow officers and sailors, trying to get them to join a Malta-based revolutionary group, the Legione Italiana, in its plan for stealing a warship and bombarding Messina. The plot was betrayed by a member of Esperia, and in 1844 the brothers were forced to flee to the island of Corfu off the coast of Greece.
Hearing that the people of the Kingdom of Naples were awaiting only the appearance of a leader to rise en masse, the Bandieras gathered a band of about 20 young men and set sail for Calabria (the toe of Italy) on June 12, 1844. Landing at Cotrone four days later, they intended to march on nearby Cosenza, liberating political prisoners and issuing a proclamation of independence. Their expected support did not materialize, and they were betrayed by a Corsican member of their party, Pietro Boccheciampe. The whole band was taken prisoner by a detachment of gendarmes and were taken to Cosenza, where most of them were tried and condemned to death. On July 23, 1844, the Bandieras and nine companions were executed, crying “Viva l’Italia!” as they fell.
The execution of the Bandieras made them martyrs for the cause of Italian independence. The execution also had wide repercussions extending to England. Mazzini proved that his correspondence with the Bandieras had been systematically opened on the orders of the British home secretary, Sir James Graham. He charged the British Foreign Office with having forwarded their plans to the Austrians. That accusation was later disproved, but it gave Mazzini the opportunity of making an eloquent plea for his cause in a famous “Letter to Sir James Graham.”