Alfonso V of Aragon, IV of Catalonia, I of Naples, called the Magnanimous

ALFONSO V OF ARAGON, IV of Catalonia, I of Naples, called the Magnanimous. - B. in 1396, d. in 1458. King of Aragon and of Sicily from 2 April 1416, when he succeeded his father Ferdinand I, in 1420 he was adopted as a son by Queen Joanna II of Naples, who designated him her heir. However, the question of the succession to the Neapolitan throne was made difficult first by difficulties that arose with the queen herself, which obliged him to return to his homeland, and, after the death of Joanna II (1435), by the hostility of the Italian states and of the Holy See, which had ranged themselves in favor of René of Anjou, 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. followed a policy dictated by self-interest, and while in the face of Martin V, favorable to the Angevins, he ranged himself on the side of Peter of Luna (Benedict XIII), under Eugene IV, A., after having for some years wavered between the Pope and the Council of Basel, ended by coming to 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 field was preponderant. In part it was due to him, among other things, that Callistus III was elected in 1455. 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, did not suffice to conceal the unpopularity of a reign that remained always that of a conqueror, a foreigner into the bargain.

Mario Scaduto