Key Facts
- Start date
- 5 May 1815
- End date
- 30 May 1815
- Duration
- 25 days
- Context
- Fought days after Battle of Tolentino (3 May 1815)
- Significance
- Last major Italian city to surrender in Neapolitan War
Strategic Narrative Overview
Beginning on 5 May 1815, just two days after the Battle of Tolentino, Anglo-Austrian forces besieged Ancona, where Napoleon's remaining garrison held out. The city represented the final concentration of French military resistance in the Italian peninsula. Over the course of 25 days, allied pressure steadily mounted against the defenders. The siege unfolded as part of a broader allied campaign to expel French-aligned forces from Italy entirely during the Hundred Days.
01 / The Origins
During Napoleon's Hundred Days campaign in 1815, Joachim Murat, King of Naples and Napoleon's brother-in-law, sought to unify Italy under Bonaparte rule. This brought Neapolitan forces into direct conflict with the Anglo-Austrian alliance, which was determined to restore the pre-Napoleonic order in Italy. The fall of key positions accelerated after the decisive Battle of Tolentino on 3 May 1815, leaving Ancona as the last significant French-held stronghold in eastern Italy.
03 / The Outcome
Ancona surrendered to the Anglo-Austrian alliance on 30 May 1815, marking the effective end of organized French resistance in eastern Italy. The fall of the city contributed to the collapse of Murat's ambitions for a Bonaparte monarchy in Italy. In the aftermath, French forces were expelled from the region and the Papal State was restored to authority over the territories it had previously governed, consolidating the allied post-Napoleonic settlement in the Italian peninsula.
Belligerents & Mobilization Analysis
Side A
1 belligerent
Side B
1 belligerent
Kinetic Engagement Axis
Scroll horizontally to view full axis. Events plotted relatively.