Soon a few years after its foundation, Nunziatella's history started to cross the landmark events that would have characterized the European scene in the last years of the 18th century. On July 14, 1789, the people of Paris assaulted the Bastille, thus starting the French Revolution, that would have caused the king and queen of France, Louis XVI and Marie Antoinette to be beheaded. These events, which marked the collapse of the Ancien Régime, could not be indifferent to the Neapolitan court, since Ferdinand IV was a member of the big royal family of Bourbons, while his wife Maria Carolina of Austria was Marie-Antoinette's sister. The level of police awareness against Jacobins' activities sharply rose, while the latter increased their attempts to influence the Neapolitan Army's commanding personnel: their aim was, indeed, to make military to support a revolt and pull the king out of his throne for building a Republic like in France.