ALFONSO V d'ARAGONA, IV di CATALOGNA, I di NAPOLI, known as the MAGNANIMO. — Born in 1396, died in 1458. King of Aragon and Sicily from 2 April 1416, when he succeeded his father Ferdinando I, in 1420 he was adopted as son by the queen of Naples Giovanna II, who designated him her heir. However, the question of the succession to the Neapolitan throne was first made difficult by difficulties that arose with the queen herself, which compelled him to return to his homeland, and, after the death of Giovanna II (1435), by the hostility of the Italian states and the Holy See, which had sided with Renato d'Angiò, designated by the deceased queen to succeed her. The struggles that followed prevented A. from taking possession of Naples until 1442.
With regard to the Holy See, A. pursued a policy dictated by self-interest, and while, in opposition to Martino V, who favored the Angevins, he sided with Pietro di Luna (Benedetto XIII), under Eugenio IV, A., after wavering for several years between the Pope and the Council of Basel, finally reached an agreement with the former, who in the peace of Terracina (1443) granted him the investiture of the kingdom of Naples. From then until his death A. took an active part in Italian affairs, and his influence in this sphere was predominant. Among other things, the election of Callisto III in 1455 was due in part to him. During A.’s reign Naples became a center of cultural renewal; the king himself was a patron of the arts and of artists. All this, however, could not conceal the unpopularity of a reign that always remained that of a conqueror, and moreover a foreigner.