decided to join the Second Coalition against France; Austria sent General Mack to take command. War council meetings, comprising the queen, the king, Mack, Sir William Hamilton, the English ambassador, and Admiral Nelson, the victor of the Nile, were held in the Palace of Caserta. They decided to invade the Roman Republic, a French puppet state. Escape and creation of the Parthenopean Republic When the Kingdom of Naples and Sicily joined the Second Coalition, Napoleon found a reason to act. The French General Jean Étienne Championnet succeeded rapidly, and in January 1799 he occupied Naples and forced the royal family to escape to Sicily. In the Sicilian exile Maria Carolina continued her politics towards Naples. On 24 January 1799, the Parthenopean Republic was proclaimed in Naples by the French troops led by General Championnet. The chosen name (after Parthenope, an ancient Greek colony which existed on the site of the future city of Naples) was an attempt by the French to obtain the support of the Neapolitan people. During the republican period, a government was installed with Ercole D'Agnese as elected President, press freedom was proclaimed, and future reforms were prepared. However, after only 6 months, the young republic ended when the Sanfedisti, the army led by Cardinal Fabrizio Ruffo, attacked and invaded Naples (21 June 1799). The collapse of the republic was largely due to the English fleet, which had supplied the royal army with weapons. Again, it was Admiral Nelson who successfully defeated the French in the middle of 1799 from Naples and Sicily securing the throne for the Royal couple. In June 1800, Maria Carolina traveled with her three unmarried daughters, her younger son Leopoldo, and accompanied by William and Emma Hamilton and Nelson over Livorno, Florence, Trieste and Laibach to Vienna, where she arrived two months later. Maria Carolina stayed two years in her homeland, where she arranged advantageous marriages for her children. In the family circle, she spent most time with her favorite grandchild, Archduchess Marie Louise of Austria, who later became the wife of her arch-enemy Napoleon. Exile and death After her stay in Vienna, Maria Carolina returned to Naples on 17 August 1802. It is said that Napoleon claimed that the queen was the only man in the Kingdom of Naples. The European states were concerned by Napoleon's growing power, which reached its peak with his Imperial coronation on 18 May 1804. By