Alfonso V of Aragon

Alfonso the Magnanimous
Portrait of Alfonso V of Aragon, by 16th century painter Vicente Juan Masip
Preceded by	Ferdinand I
Succeeded by	John II
Preceded by	René
Succeeded by	Ferdinand I
Personal details
Born	1396 Medina del Campo, Kingdom of Castile
Died	27 (aged -1370–-1369) June 1458 (aged 61–62) Castel dell'Ovo, Naples, Kingdom of Naples
Spouse(s)	Maria of Castile
Religion	Roman Catholicism

Alfonso the Magnanimous KG (also Alphonso; Catalan language: Alfons; 1396 – 27 June 1458) was the King of Aragon (as Alfonso V), Valencia (as Alfonso III), Majorca, Sardinia and Corsica (as Alfonso II), Sicily (as Alfonso I) and Count of Barcelona (as Alfonso IV) from 1416, and King of Naples (as Alfonso I) from 1442 until his death. He was one of the most prominent figures of the early Renaissance and a knight of the Order of the Dragon.

Biography

Born at Medina del Campo, he was the son of Ferdinand I of Aragon and Eleanor of Alburquerque. He represented the old line of the counts of Barcelona through the female line, and was on his father's side descended from the House of Trastamara, the reigning House of Castile. By hereditary right he was king of Sicily and claimed the island of Sardinia for himself, though it was then in the possession of Genoa. Alfonso was also in possession of much of Corsica by the 1420s.

In 1421 the childless Queen Joan II of Naples adopted and named him as heir to the Kingdom of Naples, and Alfonso went to Naples. Here he hired the famous condottiero Braccio da Montone with the task of reducing the resistance of his rival claimant, Louis III of Anjou, and his forces led by Muzio Attendolo Sforza. Pope Martin V supporting Sforza, Alfonso switched his religious allegiance to the Aragonese antipope Benedict XIII. When Sforza abandoned Louis' cause, Alfonso seemed to have all his problems solved; however, his relationship with Joan suddenly worsened, and in May 1423 he had her lover, Gianni Caracciolo, a powerful figure in the Neapolitan court, arrested.

After an attempt to arrest the queen herself had failed, Joan called on Sforza who defeated the Aragonese militias near Castel Capuano in Naples. Alfonso fled to Castel Nuovo, but the help of a fleet of 22 galleys led by Giovanni da Cardona improved his situation. Sforza and Joan ransomed Caracciolo and retreated to the fortress of Aversa. Here she repudiated her earlier adoption of Alfonso and, with the backing of Martin V, named Louis III as her heir instead.

The Duke of Milan, Filippo Maria Visconti, joined the anti-Aragonese coalition. Alfonso requested support from Braccio da Montone, who was besieging Joan's troops in L'Aquila, but had to set sail for Spain, where a war had broken out between his brothers and the Kingdom of Castile. On his way towards Barcelona, Alfonso destroyed Marseille, a possession of Louis III.

Manuscript detail of Alfonso V of Aragon.

In late 1423 the Genoese fleet of Filippo Maria Visconti moved in the southern Tyrrhenian Sea, rapidly conquering Gaeta, Procida, Castellammare and Sorrento. Naples, which was held by Alfonso's brother, Pedro de Aragon, was besieged in 1424 by the Genoese ships and Joan's troops, now led by Francesco Sforza, the son of Muzio Sforza (who had met his death at L'Aquila). The city fell in April 1424. Pedro, after a short resistance in Castel Nuovo, fled to Sicily in August. Joan II and Louis III again took possession of the realm, although the true power was in the hands of Gianni Caracciolo.

An opportunity for Alfonso to reconquer Naples occurred in 1432, when Caracciolo was killed in a conspiracy. Alfonso tried to regain the favour of the queen, but failed, and had to wait for the death of both Louis (at Cosenza in 1434) and Joan herself (February 1435). In her will, she bequeathed her realm to René of Anjou, Louis III's younger brother. This solution was opposed by the new pope, Eugene IV, who nominally was the feudal lord of the King of Naples. The Neapolitans having called in the French, Alfonso decided to intervene and, with the support of several barons of the kingdom, captured Capua and besieged the important sea fortress of Gaeta. His fleet of 25 galleys was met by the Genoese ships sent by Visconti, led by Biagio Assereto. In the battle that ensued, Alfonso was defeated and taken prisoner.

In Milan, however, he impressed his captor with his cultured demeanor and persuaded him to let him go by making it plain that it was not in Milan's interest to prevent the victory of the Aragonese party in Naples. Helped by a Sicilian fleet, Alfonso recaptured Capua and set his base in Gaeta in February 1436. Meanwhile, papal troops had invaded the Neapolitan kingdom, but Alfonso bribed their commander, Cardinal Giovanni Vitelleschi, and their successes waned.

In the meantime, René had managed to reach Naples on 19 May 1438. Alfonso tried to besiege the city in the following September, but failed. His brother Pedro was killed during the battle. Castel Nuovo, where an Aragonese garrison resisted, fell to the Angevine mercenaries in August 1439. After the death of his condottiero Jacopo Caldora, however, René's fortune started to decline: Alfonso could easily capture Aversa, Salerno, Benevento, Manfredonia and Bitonto. René, whose possession included now only part of the Abruzzi and Naples, obtained 10,000 men from the pope, but the cardinal leading them signed a truce with Alfonso. Giovanni Sforza came with a reduced corps, as troops sent by Eugene IV had halted his father Francesco in the Marche.

Alfonso, provided with the most impressive artillery of the times, again besieged Naples. The siege began on 10 November 1441, ending on 2 June the following year. After the return of René to Provence, Alfonso easily reduced the remaining resistance and made his triumphal entrance in Naples on 26 February 1443, as the monarch of a pacified kingdom. In 1446 he also conquered Sardinia.

Alfonso V's silver medal (1449), by Pisanello.

Alfonso, by formally submitting his reign to the Papacy, obtained the consent of Pope Eugene IV that the Kingdom of Naples would go to his illegitimate son Ferdinand. He died in Castel dell'Ovo in 1458, while he was planning the conquest of Genoa. At the time, Alfonso was at odds with Callixtus III, who died shortly afterwards.

His Spanish possessions were ruled for him by his brother John, later king John II of Aragon. Sicily and Sardinia were also inherited by his brother.

Alfonso was also a powerful and faithful supporter of Skanderbeg, whom he decided to take under his protection as a vassal in 1451, shortly after the latter had scored his second victory against Murad II. In addition to financial assistance, he supplied the Albanian leader with troops, military equipment, and sanctuary for himself and his family if such a need should arise. This was because in 1448, while Skanderbeg was victoriously fighting off the Turkish invasions, three military columns, commanded by Demetrio Reres along with his sons Giorgio and Basilio, had been dispatched to help Alfonso V defeat the barons of Naples who had rebelled against him.

Family

Alfonso had been betrothed to Maria of Castile (1401–1458; sister of John II of Castile) in Valladolid in 1408; the marriage was celebrated in Valencia on 12 June 1415. They failed to produce children. Alfonso had been in love with a woman of noble family named Lucrezia d'Alagno, who served as a de facto queen at the Neapolitan court as well as an inspiring muse.

Genealogical records in the Old Occitan Chronicle of Montpellier in Le petit Thalamus de Montpellier indicate that Alphonso's relationship with his mistress, Giraldona Carlino, produced three children:

• His successor in Naples, King Ferdinand I of Naples, (b. 1423; reigned 1458–1494).
• Maria d'Aragona (died 1449, aged around 15 or 16). She had married in 1444 Leonello d'Este, deceased 1450.
• Leonora d'Aragona, who married circa 1443, Mariano Marzano, Duke of Squillace, Prince of Rossano.

Giraldona was the daughter of Enrique Carlino and his wife, Isabel.

Art and administration

Like a true prince of the Renaissance, he favoured men of letters whom he trusted to preserve his reputation to posterity. He founded the Academy of Naples under Giovanni Pontano, and for his entrance into the city in 1443 had a magnificent triumphal arch added to the main gate of Castel Nuovo. This edifice, considered the most important civil piece of art of the time, was designed by Francesco Laurana. Alfonso's devotion to the classics was exceptional even in his day.

For example, he halted his army in pious respect before the birthplace of a Latin writer, carried texts of Livy or Caesar on his campaigns, and his panegyrist Panormita even stated that the king was cured of an illness when a few pages of Quintus Curtius Rufus' history of Alexander the Great were read to him. However, the classics had not refined his taste, for he was amused by setting itinerant scholars, who swarmed to his court, to abuse one another in the indescribably filthy Latin scolding matches which were then the fashion.

Castel Nuovo – triumphal arch entrance.

After his conquest of Naples in 1442, Alfonso ruled by his mercenary soldiers and mercenary men of letters. In his Italian kingdom, he maintained the former political and administrative institutions.

A unified General Chancellorship for the whole Aragonese reign was set in Naples, although the main functionaries were of Aragonese nationality. Apart from financial, administrative and artistical improvements, his other accomplishments in the Sicilian kingdom include the restoration of the aqueducts, the drainage of marshy areas, and the pavement of streets.

Connection with Ethiopia

Alfonso was the object of diplomatic contacts from the empire of Ethiopia. In 1428, he received a letter from Yeshaq I of Ethiopia, borne by two dignitaries, which proposed an alliance against the Muslims and would be sealed by a dual marriage that would require the Infante Peter to bring a group of artisans to Ethiopia where he would marry Yeshaq's daughter.

In return, Alfonso sent a party of 13 craftsmen, all of whom perished on the way to Ethiopia. He later sent a letter to Yeshaq's successor Zara Yaqob in 1450, in which he wrote that he would be happy to send artisans to Ethiopia if their safe arrival could be guaranteed, but it probably never reached the Emperor.