The rule of the House of Bourbon was generally popular throughout Naples, but especially so amongst the strongly religious and royalist residents of San Giorgio a Cremano. However the French Revolution reached the Kingdom of Naples during the rule of Ferdinand IV of Naples, who provoked by his opposition. Horatio Nelson arrived in Naples to warn Ferdinand of the dangers of the revolution, but the Neapolitan King attacked Rome following its fall into French hands. When he was defeated by French forces in Rome, he fled back to Naples, and took the offer from the British there to take refuge in Sicily, leaving Naples in anarchy.