Aragon in English > book > History Aragon
[212] Attempts to conclude the Great Schism. Expedition to Sardinia and Sicily. Attack on Corsica. Affairs in Naples. Alliance with Juana II. Alfonso at war with Juana. Returns to Aragon. War with Castile. Alvaro de Luna. Five years' armistice. Juana captures Naples. Alfonso returns to Italy. Alliances with Northern cities. Death of Juana. Claimants to the kingdom of Naples. Alfonso defeated by the Genoese. Alliance with Milan. René of Anjou in possession of Naples. Alfonso captures the town. Discontent in Aragon. Intrigues of the King of Navarre. Defeat of Aragon at Olmedo. Alfonso in possession of Naples. Carlos de Viana. Death of Alfonso.
Ferdinand was succeeded by his eldest son, Alfonso V, the date of whose birth is disputed, but who seems to have been twenty-two years of age, and nearly a year previously had married Maria of Castile, the eldest daughter of Henry III, and the sister of John III, the King of Castile. After celebrating his father's funeral at Poblet, he met the Catalan Cortes in Barcelona, gave the usual promises to observe the constitution and proceeded to continue his father's policy for dealing with the pressing question of the unity of the Church. A general Church Assembly was summoned to Barcelona, where he advised his prelates to attend the Council of Constance which had deposed Pope John XXIII in 1415 and was to provide for the election of a pope who should represent a united church. The majority of the clergy were on the side of Benedict and declined to admit that the papacy was vacant. The King, however, refused to accede to their views, and sent his own ambassadors to the Council of Constance, who were instructed to state that the King had sent them to co-operate in the work of extirpating heresy, ending the Schism, reforming the Church and electing a supreme pontiff. They also asked that the ecclesiastical revenues of Sardinia and of Sicily might be placed at the King's disposal, in view of the expenses [213] to which he had been put by his action in supporting the General Council. In 1417 the Council of Constance elected Cardinal Odo Colonna, who took the title of Pope Martin V. Alfonso recognized him as such, and thus confirmed the sentence of the Council declaring Benedict XIII to be a schismatic. The new Pope gave Alfonso the pecuniary concessions which he demanded, and asked him to exile Benedict from Peñíscola by way of return. This Alfonso declined to do. His policy aroused much discontent in the kingdom, and the Catalan Estates met at Molins in 1418 where they were joined by those of Zaragoza and Valencia, and sent a deputation to the King, requesting him to remove all Castilians from his household and following and to change his policy in accordance with their desires. Alfonso informed them that the only Castilians in his service were a few old servants of his father whom he certainly did not propose to dismiss, while as regards his general policy he was prepared to take advice but to act in accordance with his own judgment. When the deputation followed him to Valencia, he received the Catalan members apart and reminded them that they had no constitutional right to combine with the representatives of other towns and certainly not with those of other orders, and, having thus shelved the dispute for the moment, he turned the energies of his subjects in another direction by preparing for an expedition to Sardinia and to Sicily, in both of which islands the prevailing disorder demanded his presence. He left the government in charge of Queen Maria, who was supported by a council, and took with him those of the nobility who were likely to embarrass the government in his absence. He proposed to recover the maritime supremacy which his predecessors had lost and to crush the Genoese who were harassing Catalan traders both in the Levant and nearer home. In 1420 he appeared off Sardinia with a considerable fleet and speedily subjugated the refractory elements in the island. He then proceeded to Naples where Queen Juana required his help against the Duke of Anjou and Genoa. She proposed to endow him with her right of succession and to give him a footing in Calabria without delay.
After his conquest of Sardinia Alfonso determined to exercise the rights which had given Corsica also to the [214] Aragonese Crown. The island had been in the possession of the Genoese ever since 1360, but, like Sardinia, was disturbed by the quarrels of party factions, of whose dissensions the King hoped to take immediate advantage. He began by attacking the fortified town of Calvi in 1420, which speedily surrendered, but an assault upon San Bonifacio, which was followed by a siege, remained unsuccessful. The Genoese were able, after desperate efforts, to throw reinforcements into the fortress, upon the possession of which depended that of the whole island and the safety of their communications also. Alfonso, therefore, gave up the attempt in the following year, and sailed for Sicily to deal with affairs in that island and in Naples.
King Robert of Naples had left his possessions in 1343 to his granddaughter, Juana I, who was then sixteen years of age, since which time the affairs of the kingdom had been brought to the uttermost confusion by the clash of contending parties and interests. From these disturbances emerged about the beginning of the fifteenth century the figure of Ladislaus, the son of Duke Charles of Durazzo, an enterprising and ambitious ruler, who seemed likely to control the reactionary and contending parties within his kingdom. He, however, died in 1413. His sister and heiress, Juana II, was generally recognized as Queen, and married Jacopo de Borbon, Count of La Marche, as her second husband, who took the title of Duke of Calabria and the position of Prince Consort. With this he was dissatisfied, and attempted to assume the title and powers of a king, when a general rising of the people who were dissatisfied with his aggressive attitude obliged him to take refuge in his own country, where he ended his career as a Franciscan monk at Besançon. Juana strengthened her position by an understanding with Pope Martin V, who was induced to crown her as Queen in 1419, and, as she had succeeded in reconciling the two powerful leaders, the Grand Constable, Sforza de Tennebello, and the Grand Seneschal, Juan Caraccioli, in whose hands the ordinary business of the kingdom lay, her possession of it seemed to be assured. There was, however, another claimant to the throne of Naples, namely Louis III of Anjou, whose grandfather had been adopted by Juana I in 1382, as her heir, and whose father, Louis II, had made vain attempts to exercise [215] the rights of inheritance thus acquired; in 1420 Louis III (who had claimed the throne of Aragon and been rejected by the Parliament of Caspe) secured the ear of Pope Martin V, who was inclined to support his claims. In 1419 the Pope had named Sforza as Gonfalonier of the Church, in other words Commander-in-Chief of the papal forces, with the idea of reconquering, with his support, the papal possessions held by Braccio di Monteone, the lord of Perugia. He also expected the support of Naples in his enterprise, but Caraccioli, who hated his rival Sforza, induced the Queen to refuse her assistance. The Pope was therefore secretly inclined to favour the claims of the Duke of Anjou, while Sforza made no concealment of his support. He marched against the capital in the Duke's name, while risings, incited by the partisans of Anjou, broke out in other parts of the country. Sforza is perhaps the most famous of the Italian condottieri, and, at this time, becomes one of the chief figures in Italian history. He was one of those professional soldiers who organized his own countrymen into a military force to replace the lawless bands of mercenaries who had ravaged Italy after the system of citizen militia had declined. Of these foreign captains, the last and the best-known was the famous Englishman, Sir John Hawkwood, who died at Florence in 1394; but, when native companies were formed, the soldiers of which were united by other ties than the mere hope of plunder, discipline became stricter, and the laws of warfare were better observed, in fact so well observed that commanders spent their energies in attempts to outmaneuvre an opponent, and pitched battles and slaughter were avoided. The first leader who initiated this change was Alberigo da Barbiano, and under his command Sforza had received his early training. His real name was Muzio Attendolo; Sforza was a nickname, derived from his violent attitude when Alberigo attempted to interfere in a dispute concerning the division of some booty. Born in 1369, he served under Alberigo, formed a band of his own and fought for Florence against Pisa. He served Pope John XXIII until they quarrelled, when he took the side of Ladislaus of Naples, and had hitherto remained in the service of that country.
Juana, thus suddenly threatened by a formidable enemy, sent her minister, Antonio Caraffa, to the Pope, who soon [216] discovered the true inclinations of the papacy. He visited Alfonso of Aragon, and told him that the Queen would adopt him as son and heir, on condition of securing his assistance at the earliest possible moment. Alfonso and his councillors hesitated for some time. They apparently knew that Juana's political principles were as unstable as her morality, and that her subjects were no more reliable than herself. The Pope also strove to dissuade Alfonso from the enterprise, but, as he refused to break off his relations with the Genoese, the King of Aragon determined to make the attempt. He went to Palermo, and, when the negotiations with Juana had been satisfactorily settled, he sent a formal defiance to Louis of Anjou, declaring war upon him, not only as the adopted son of the Queen, but also as possessing a definite claim to Naples by his descent from King Manfred. Early in July 1421 he appeared off Naples with his fleet. The troops of Anjou, who were besieging the town, immediately retired, and Alfonso was received with great joy by the inhabitants. Pope Martin did his utmost to raise further support for the Duke of Anjou, sending ambassadors to the rulers of Milan, Florence and other Italian towns; but in October Alfonso won a brilliant naval victory off Pisa over the Genoese, who were obliged to place themselves under the supremacy of the Duke of Milan. Alfonso also appointed Braccio di Monteone to the position of Grand Constable, or Commander-in-Chief to his armies, and, as Monteone was regarded as the best of the Italian generals next to Sforza, it was hoped that the Aragonese would be as successful on land as they had been by sea. In the following year, Louis, who had lost a number of important positions, was obliged to conclude an armistice, which the Pope himself negotiated, as he was afraid that Alfonso would restore his favour and support to the Aragonese Pope, Pedro de Luna, and for this reason he was inclined to recognize the adoption of the King and to confirm his rights to the Crown of Naples.
However, at this time a series of differences between Alfonso and Juana began. Alfonso had taken possession of the towns which he had captured from the Duke of Anjou, and Juana suspected that he meant to reduce her to a position of complete inferiority, a suggestion which was made to the Queen by her Seneschal, Caraccioli, whose influence over her [217] was considerable. The Duke of Milan also began an intrigue against Alfonso, and suggested to the Pope that a league might be formed for driving the Aragonese out of Italy altogether. The Pope, whose preference for Louis of Anjou remained unshaken, gave serious consideration to this idea, and did his best to allay any suspicions that might be aroused in the mind of Alfonso. Alfonso has been criticized for his failure to push his advantage with greater energy, but the fact was that he was anxious to return to Spain, where domestic affairs urgently required his presence; the ambition of his brother, Enrique, to marry Catalina, the Infanta of Castile, and the opposition of the third brother, Juan, to this project, brought discord into the kingdom. Alfonso found it impossible to allay the suspicions of the Queen, and when an attempt was made upon his own person, he determined to take Juana prisoner. She anticipated him by taking refuge in Castello di Capuana where Alfonso besieged her. Sforza came to her relief with an army, defeated the Aragonese and secured possession of the town. He also captured the greater part of Naples, and shut up the Aragonese in Castello Nuovo, until the arrival of a Catalan fleet in June 1423 relieved the situation. Sforza showed incredible bravery, but a series of attacks in different quarters distracted his attention, and he was obliged to retire with the Queen and some of the leading citizens to Aversa, leaving Alfonso once more in possession of the whole of Naples. Juana then, at the Pope's advice, revoked her act of adoption, on the ground that Alfonso had shown himself ungrateful and untrustworthy, and replaced him by Duke Louis of Anjou, on whom she conferred the dukedom of Calabria, as her son and heir. The Duke, reinforced by the Duke of Milan, and in conjunction with Sforza, advanced upon Naples and defeated the Aragonese, but Alfonso was unable to continue the struggle for the moment. His presence in his own kingdom was imperatively necessary, and he entrusted the defence of his possessions in Naples to his brother, Pedro, with as large a force as he could afford to leave behind.
The relations between Aragon and Castile provided the urgency for Alfonso's recall. Castile had been governed by Enrique III and, after his death, by his widow, Catalina, and his brother, Fernando, in comparative peace, until the death [218] of the Queen in 1418 brought about a period of dissension and disorder. The King's brothers, Enrique and Juan, the Infantes of Aragon, were at the same time vassals of Castile by hereditary right. Each of them formed parties of their own and attempted to secure ascendancy over King Juan II, who was only fourteen years of age, though they were themselves, in respect both of age and experience, totally unqualified to conduct the affairs of any kingdom. In 1420 Enrique secured possession of the King's person in Tordesillas, and attempted to negotiate a marriage with his sister, Catalina, in the hope of consolidating his own position; but the King escaped, enlisted the help of the Infante Juan and other nobles, began war against Enrique, and in 1422 obliged him to surrender his person at Madrid. Alfonso had attempted to compose the quarrel, but it was obvious in 1423 that his personal interference was required if his brother were to be released from virtual imprisonment. On his homeward voyage he attacked the important town of Marseilles, the most valuable possession of his opponent, Louis of Anjou. The defences of the harbour were forced by a bri]liant operation conducted by the Catalan admiral, and the chain which formed its chief defence was carried away as a trophy. The town was sacked and reduced for the most part to ashes, but Alfonso made no attempt to occupy it, and continued his voyage to Barcelona which he reached early in December. He then began negotiations with the King of Castile, which were to go on for another twelve months.
Alfonso's attempts to secure a meeting with the King of Castile came to nothing owing to the opposition of Juan's councillors, and in particular of Alvaro de Luna, and Alfonso began to consider that an invasion of Castile was the only means of securing a personal interview with the King. Charles III of Navarre intervened, but, in spite of his pacific representations, Alfonso declared in 1425 at Zaragoza that he intended to invade Castile, to put an end to the tyranny of Álvaro de Luna and release the King from his domination, which was the cause of civil disturbances throughout the country. He was approaching the Castilian frontier when his brother, Juan, who had recently become King of Navarre, on the death of his step-brother, Charles, again intervened between the two kings and persuaded them to submit their quarrel [219] to his decision. He induced them to agree that the Infante Enrique should be set at liberty, recover his previous possessions and swear allegiance to the King of Castile as a feudal vassal. The opposition between the parties of Álvaro and the Infante of Aragon none the less continued. Álvaro's opponents secured his banishment from the court, but his domination over the King enabled him to return in no long time, while the interference of Alfonso on his brother's behalf induced the supporters of Álvaro to believe that he was himself forming an opposition party in Castile. King Juan was therefore induced by Alvaro to enter into relations with Count Fadrique de Luna, who had been an unsuccessful claimant to the Crown of Aragon. Alfonso had vainly attempted to satisfy his disappointment by kind treatment and marks of high respect. His party was also supported by the Archbishop of Zaragoza, Alfonso de Argüello, and some leading citizens in the town. The King of Aragon, however, took adequate precautions to prevent any outbreak in his own kingdom. The Count was carefully watched while elaborating his plans, and the citizens and the Archbishop were arrested. The Archbishop died shortly afterwards in prison, and rumours were speedily circulated that he had met with a violent end. The King, in conjunction with his brother, Juan, then marched against Castile in June 1429 at the head of a strong army, declaring once again that his relationship with the King of Castile obliged him to insist upon an interview for the purpose of convincing him of the true interests of his kingdom and the ruinous influence of some of his advisers.
The King of Castile vainly attempted to decline this undesirable offer of assistance, and sent Álvaro with a force to oppose the advance of his cousins. The armies were already in battle array, and the Cardinal de Foix was vainly preaching peace, when another pacificator appeared, in the person of Queen Maria of Aragon. She immediately ordered her tent to be pitched exactly between the two armies and, after a lengthy interview, induced the Castilian barons to declare that no attempt would be made to occupy territory belonging to the King of Navarre nor to damage the interests of the Infante Enrique, and when this had been settled the armies were induced to withdraw. Juan of Castile, however, shortly [220] afterwards arrived with reinforcements, and was so dissatisfled with this convention that he immediately occupied the possessions of the Infante Enrique whom he accused of conspiracy with the enemies of Castile, and drove him to take refuge in Aragon. Queen Maria, his sister, with great trouble persuaded him to declare his readiness to stop his military operations, if Alfonso would promise to abandon his support of his brothers and not to attempt to defend them in their Castilian possessions. The King of Aragon declined to accept this condition, and Juan's forces advanced, but the Aragonese declined a pitched battle, his supplies failed him and he therefore retreated to prepare for a campaign in the following year. In the meantime, he attempted to arouse dissension between Alfonso and his subjects by issuing a proclamation to the Estates of the three realms of Aragon, declaring that he had taken up arms only in defence of his just cause, whereas the Aragonese King was prosecuting unjustified claims and wrongfully interfering in the domestic concerns of a foreign country. This propaganda produced no effect. The Estates granted the necessary sums for military preparations and the Count de Luna found himself in a short time deprived of all his possessions on his return to Castile in the spring of 1430. The outbreak of hostilities was for some time delayed, partly owing to the fact that the papal legate succeeded in arranging a short armistice between the contending parties, and also because the Kings of Aragon and Navarre discovered that their subjects were getting tired of the war and were unwilling to provide the necessary reinforcements. Alfonso was also anxious to re-establish his tottering power in Italy. He and his brother, therefore, sent ambassadors to the King of Castile, who was also ready to make peace, as he proposed to attack the Moors in Granada, and in July 1430 an armistice for five years was concluded. It was agreed that those who had abandoned their country to join the hostile party should not be allowed to return, and that the Infantes of Aragon, Enrique and Pedro, should withdraw from Castile. Other points in dispute were to be settled by a court of fourteen judges appointed by either side. Such a peace was obviously not likely to be of long duration so long as the ambitions of the Infante Enrique remained unsatisfied. But Alfonso considered that the peace and security of his dominions in [221] Spain were sufficiently assured to enable him to return to the conduct of affairs in Italy.
In this year was also concluded the great papal schism. In 1429 the Cardinal de Foix induced Gil Muñoz, who had succeeded Benedict XIII in Peñíscola with the title of Clement VIII, to abandon his shadowy claim to papal authority and to accept the Bishopric of Mallorca. In 1430 Alfonso agreed to recognize Martin V as Pope.
Queen Juana and Duke Louis had combined with Pope Martin V to drive the Aragonese out of Italy, while the Duke of Milan, who saw an opportunity of becoming the dominant power in the peninsula, promised his support, and induced the Genoese to equip a fleet for the same purpose. The party had lost their famous leader, Sforza, who had been drowned in the River Pescara early in 1424 while attacking Braccio, who was then besieging Aquila, but his position and responsibilities were taken over by his son, whose reputation was already almost equal to that of his father, and upon whom his father's possessions in Naples were conferred. Juana first conquered Gaeta. A formidable party, supporting herself and Louis, rose in the town, and forced the Aragonese to capitulate, on terms which allowed them a free departure. The island of Procida was captured, and the allies then began the siege of Naples, and Alfonso's Italian general, Jacopo Caldora, handed over the town in April, on a promise of security for the property of the inhabitants and a considerable grant of money for arrears of pay. Many Aragonese and Catalans were captured by this unexpected advance of the enemy, and the remainder retreated with the Infante Pedro to the fortresses of Castello dell' Oro and Castello Nuovo. By the end of June little more than these two fortresses were left to Alfonso. Braccio had been completely defeated and killed at Aquila, most of the towns had submitted to the Queen and the competence and liberality of the Duke had won the favour of the Neapolitans. Alfonso was, therefore, particularly anxious to secure allies in Italy itself. He concluded an alliance with the Doge of Venice, Tomasso Campofregoso, and his supporters, who had been driven out of Genoa by the Duke of Milan. The Duke, who was hard pressed by Florence and Venice and feared an Aragonese attack after the conclusion of the differences with [222] Castile, invited Alfonso to an alliance which was concluded in 1426. The King undertook to exclude from his territories exiles from Genoa, to support the Duke's dominion over that town, and allow him to enlist troops in his own territories. The Duke undertook to hand over the Genoese possessions in Corsica, and hoped to secure the consent of Genoa to that arrangement. He had, however, entirely overestimated his power in that town, while the war in Upper Italy so far occupied his forces that Alfonso could expect no help from him. Alfonso, therefore, postponed his attempt upon Naples until more favourable prospects in the Neapolitan kingdom seemed probable. Within a short time the fickleness and selfishness of the Neapolitan lords, who hoped by intrigue to gain individual advantages, brought about a change in the situation. In September 1430 ambassadors appeared in Valencia from the Prince of Tarentum, inviting the King to undertake the conquest of Naples in the name of several other barons. Jacopo Caldora, who was regarded as the most competent of the Italian generals, declared himself ready to return to the Aragonese service, if the past were forgotten, and even Pope Martin V, who had hitherto been an energetic supporter of Duke Louis, was beginning to waver. The Pope died in 1431, and his successor, Eugenius IV, was not favourably disposed to the claims of Aragon, but Alfonso none the less considered that the situation justified preparation for his enterprise. In 1432 he renewed an early alliance with Portugal, began to collect an enormous fleet in his harbours, for the ostensible purpose of conquering the island of Gerba from Tunis, and then returned to Sicily to await the most favourable moment.
The Queen of Naples had already quarrelled with Duke Louis, whose powers she had restricted to the government of Calabria, while she allowed the Grand Seneschal Caraccioli to conduct the government of the country as he pleased. He thus brought down upon himself the hatred of many nobles and eventually of the Queen, with whose approval he was finally assassinated. The removal of their bitterest enemy allowed Alfonso's friends at court to make their influence felt, and to suggest that, instead of handing over the government to the Duke, negotiations should be resumed with the King of Aragon, who was then in Zaragoza, Shortly afterwards [223] a convention was concluded, by which Juana revoked her adoption of the Duke and reaffirmed her adoption of the King, who undertook to drive his opponent out of Calabria, to hand over such parts of Neapolitan territory as he still possessed, and not to enter the Neapolitan kingdom without permission; but a very short experience convinced him that the Queen was only using him as a means of defeating the claims of Louis, and that most of his so-called adherents were more inclined to support the Queen than himself. The Pope was also busy forming a union between Florence, Venice, the Duke of Milan and the German Emperor to drive the Aragonese out of Italy, and Alfonso therefore retired to Sicily after concluding an armistice for ten years.
For the moment Alfonso's cause was threatened with complete destruction, and Juana induced Duke Louis and the Prince of Tarentum, Jacopo Caldora, to pursue the war with such energy that they besieged Alfonso in his own capital; but the situation was changed in 1434 by the death of the Duke, who appears to have been a very popular character, while in the following year Queen Juana also died, and Alfonso was thus relieved of his most powerful enemy. The kingdom of Naples was thus left vacant, and three claimants came forward. The Pope, Eugenius IV, regarded the country as a fief of the apostolic chair, and sent an army to support his claims. The next claimant was Duke René of Anjou, the brother of Louis III and a son of Violante of Aragon, whom Juana had named as her heir and successor. At that moment he happened to be a prisoner in the hands of the Duke of Burgundy, and was thus not an immediate cause of anxiety to Alfonso, most of whose supporters were derived from the enemies of the Anjou party. The Prince of Tarentum and the Duke of Sessa were brought over to his side by promises and gifts, and with their support Alfonso landed at Gaeta and began to besiege the town in May 1435. Francesco Spinola, a Genoese, was in command of the town, and, when provisions began to fail, drove out all the women and children, whom Alfonso received in his camp, and provided them with food and transport elsewhere, in spite of the protestations of his troops, who urged that they should have been sent back to the city. This act of generosity enabled the town to hold out until a Genoese fleet arrived for [224] its relief. Alfonso decided to intercept it at sea, and in the ensuing battle off the island of Ponza he suffered a complete defeat. He was himself taken prisoner with his brothers, Juan and Enrique, and with other Italian and Spanish nobles, while most of his ships were either captured or burned. The Pope and the Venetian party greeted this victory with mixed feelings, as they feared the ambitions of the Duke of Milan and the possibility that he might disturb the whole of Italy. The Genoese commander conducted Alfonso to Milan, instead of handing him over to the Genoese authorities, and the Duke treated him rather as a friend and an ally than as a prisoner. In a short time Alfonso succeeded in persuading the Duke that the true interests of Milan were best served by an alliance between themselves directed against René of Anjou. To put a Frenchman upon the throne of Naples would sooner or later open the doors for the extension of French dominion throughout the Italian peninsula, and the territories of the Duke would be the first to suffer. On the other hand, if he himself were established at Naples, France would have no footing in the country, and he would be prepared to join the Duke in resistance to any form of French aggression. The Duke was speedily persuaded by these arguments to set the King and his knights at liberty and to open an offensive and defensive alliance without delay, notwithstanding the protestations offered by Genoa.
When Alfonso returned to Naples, he found that his brother, Pedro, had secured possession of Gaeta. The party of Anjou was led by the wife of René, Isabella of Lorraine, an energetic and capable woman, whom the Pope, Eugenius IV, was prepared to support, while a revolt on the part of the Genoese and of the Florentines who had joined them attracted the energies of the Aragonese allies elsewhere. Alfonso, however, relying upon his own resources, began and carried on the war for some three years. He fought as much with diplomacy as with military force, securing allies by threats and by favours, and introducing dissension among his adversaries by the same means. The Church Council of Bâle and the election of an opposition Pope gave him an opportunity of dealing with Eugenius IV, and he was well aware that the Italian barons and princes were only bound to himself by selfinterest. In 1488 René of Anjou secured his freedom by [225] ransom, and arrived at Naples. He succeeded in collecting an army of some 8,000 or 10,000 men, but his ransom had apparently exhausted his pecuniary resources, and, when his allies found that their connection with him brought more honour than profit, they gradually fell away. By the end of a year, Alfonso was able to blockade the capital by land and sea. The Infante, Don Pedro, was killed by a chance shot in the course of the siege, to the great grief of his brother. The reluctance of his allies to make a vigorous attack so late in the season, and the badness of the weather, obliged him to postpone the undertaking until the following year. Alfonso continued his intrigues together with his military operations. He informed the Pope, Eugenius, that he should support the nominee of the Council of Bâle, who had taken the name of Felix V, if Eugenius did not see his way to invest him with the kingdom of Naples. At the end of 1441, he succeeded in capturing the town of Puzzolo, and this victory enabled him to resume the siege of Naples. The defenders offered a vigorous resistance and professed unwavering loyalty to Duke René; and Alfonso began to doubt the possibility of success, when two prisoners informed his son Ferdinand that there was a way into the town through an open drain, which happened to be dry at that season of the year. On June 1, 1442, 300 well-armed men entered the town by this means, captured one of the main gates and let in the army. The town was captured after some hours' fighting, and sacked. René escaped to Florence, and Alfonso made his triumphal entry into the capital after clearing the surrounding country of the bands of Sforza and Caldora. His only enemy in Italy was thus the Pope, who threatened to issue a declaration that he was in unlawful possession of Naples, Sicily, Corsica and Sardinia, while Alfonso declared that he would support the Council of Bale, and that Felix V would invest him if Eugenius declined to do so. Eugenius, therefore, determined to give way, and, after a great expenditure of diplomacy, it was agreed that the King of Aragon should recognize him as the genuine Pope, should withdraw his Church representatives from the Council of Bâle and should send a contingent to the papal fleet intended for action against the Turks. The Pope was prepared to recognize Alfonso as the King of Naples, to invest him with that position and to declare him free of [226] other obligations to the Holy See. In 1444 Alfonso received an embassy from Genoa, asking him for friendship and protection. The King of Bosnia also recognized his authority, but the Duke of Milan began to fear that the Aragonese monarch would consider himself master of Italy, and found an excuse for dissolving the alliance which had hitherto been effective.
Meanwhile, Alfonso's lengthy absence had caused considerable dissatisfaction in the kingdom of Aragon, which was left under the government of Maria, the Queen, supported by Juan, the King of Navarre, a restless and ambitious character, who was more anxious to stir up intrigues in Castile with the hope of interfering in her politics to his own advantage than to secure the peace and prosperity of his own dominions, and thus to support Alfonso in his foreign enterprise. In 1442 Juan lost his wife, Blanca, who left him a son and two daughters. The daughter who bore her mother's name, Blanca, had married Enrique, the eldest son of the King of Castile. The other daughter, Juana, married Gaston, Count of Foix. The son, who was twenty-one years of age at the time of his mother's death, was Carlos, the Prince of Viana, who was to play his part in the history of Aragon at a later date. His mother had appointed him her heir to the Estates of Navarre and Nemours, as she was entitled to do under the contracts of her marriage. The Prince did not, however, assume the royal title, but was content to act as the heir and viceroy of his father, who continued to style himself King of Navarre. Juan considered that the death of his wife provided him with a further opportunity of strengthening his influence in Castile, and married Juana Enríquez, the daughter of the King of Castile. Similarly, Enrique, the Infanta of Aragon, whose wife, Catalina, the sister of the King of Castile, had recently died, proceeded to marry a sister of the Count of Benavente. Thus these two princes hoped to form a party of Castilian nobles, sufficiently powerful to overthrow Alvaro de Luna, and their ambitions in this direction were one of the causes of the civil war in Castile. Meanwhile, the Aragonese states remained peaceful, though the prolonged absence of the King aroused irritation and discontent in all classes. Embassies were sent, urging him to return, and were put off with promises which the [227] condition of affairs in Italy prevented the King from fulfilling. The Aragonese were naturally affronted, and considered that the King regarded them as a colony and was anxious to move the seat of Aragonese government to Naples. In 1445 the Justicia of Aragon, Ferrer de Lanuza, went to Naples in person to urge the return of the King, a request supported by the King of Navarre, who hoped that Alfonso's return would enable him to enlist the influence of Aragon on the side of his anti-Castilian party. Alfonso's interest in the affairs of Castile had somewhat diminished with the death of Catalina; he appears, however, to have been convinced by the Justicia's arguments, when, at that moment, he received the news of the battle of Olmedo. This important conflict was fought by the King of Navarre, the Infante Enrique and their respective supporters, against the King of Castile, his son, Prince of Asturias, and the Constable, Alvaro de Luna. The King of Navarre thus found himself fighting against his own son-in-law. The Aragonese were completely defeated; the Infante Enrique died of his wounds on the following day, while the King of Navarre succeeded in saving his life with the loss of his possessions and his influence in Castile. For the next two or three years he spent his time in plots and intrigues to recover his lost ground. He attempted to use the Aragonese as the instruments of his vengeance, and to persuade his subjects of Navarre that their national honour was at stake. Neither country was willing to support him, and their respective Cortes openly declared their anxiety to live in peace and harmony with Castile. From this moment appears to begin the resentment which Juan began to feel for his son, Carlos de Viana, a resentment productive of serious consequences in later years. Juan continued to enlist such reinforcements as he could collect in Navarre and Aragon for the purpose of making war upon the King of Castile, in the conviction that Alfonso would support his cause if he could only be persuaded to return home. Alfonso preferred Italy to Aragon; in his beloved Naples he could pursue his political designs unhampered by the mistrust of interfering Cortes, and could enjoy Italian art and culture in its purest forms. Thus these intrigues went on from 1446 to 1448, King Juan attempting to drag the King of Aragon into war with Castile, the Aragonese [228] striving to avoid any struggle of the kind, and hoping that the return of their ruler would avert the troubles which seemed to be threatening the Crown. In 1448 the King of Navarre succeeded in inducing Alfonso to agree to a breach with Castile, and to an alliance with the discontented factions in that country. Another struggle thus began, which did not, however, produce any consequences of immediate moment, as the only interests at stake were the personal ambitions of the King of Navarre.
Alfonso made his triumphal entry into Naples in February 1443. He thus appeared to have reached the crown of his ambition, in the pursuit of which he had certainly displayed unusual energy and perseverance; the victory had been won by his refusal to accept defeat, to be deterred by adverse circumstances or by unfavourable times and seasons, and his own invincible assurance of success had repeatedly inspired his troops to victory. In the hour of triumph, he also distinguished himself by moderation, liberality and kindness, and these qualities, together with his known respect for the Church, secured for him the general admiration of his subjects. It might have been possible for him to spend some time in peaceful enjoyment of the dominions he had won, but his own restless energy and the unstable conditions of Italian politics involved him in new adventures. Negotiations between himself and the Pope ended in an agreement by which he recognized Eugenius IV as the one and only true head of the Church, and in return was invested by the Pope with the kingdom of Naples, under the same conditions as those under which Charles I of Anjou had held it. His son, Ferdinand, whom he had already appointed Duke of Calabria, was recognized as his legitimate successor. He had, however, promised to support the Pope in an attempt to recover the territory of Ancona from Francesco Sforza, and was, therefore, obliged to take over the command of an army which had been assembled in the papal states for this purpose. Florence and Venice, alarmed by this enterprise, united in support of Sforza. Alfonso continued the war during the year, but Sforza won a victory which secured for him a favourable peace, and enabled him to retain most of the territory in dispute. Shortly afterwards, Alfonso concluded the Peace of Genoa, promising to withdraw his support from the enemies [229] of the Genoese, and restoring the commercial privileges which they had enjoyed under previous kings of Naples. The ambitions of the Duke of Milan soon disturbed the peace, and a war broke out between the Duke and Sforza, in which Florence and Venice were involved. The Duke, however, died in 1447, appointing Alfonso as his heir. The Aragonese troops were able, for a moment, to take possession of Milan, but the general dissatisfaction of the other towns in the district, the claims of Sforza and the hostility of the Venetians, convinced Alfonso that it would be impossible to maintain his hold of the country, and Sforza became the leader, and afterwards the Duke, of the Milanese. In 1448 Alfonso invaded Tuscany, but vigorous resistance prevented him from capturing more than a few castles, and before Piombino his progress was definitely checked. The war was ended in 1450, by the mediation of Pope Nicholas V, who had succeeded Eugenius and was anxious to secure a general peace. Their commercial privileges were returned to the Florentines, who undertook to pay an annual tribute to the Aragonese monarch. At the same time, a similar peace was concluded with Venice, and it appeared that quieter prospects for the country were in sight. These were disturbed by dislike of Sforza's actions as Duke of Milan, and by commercial quarrels between Florence and Venice; nor could the intervention of Frederick III, the newly-crowned Emperor, in 1452 relieve the prevailing tension. In March of that year, he came to Rome for his coronation; the Venetians seized the opportunity to attack the Duke, and Ferdinand of Calabria was ordered by his father to advance against the Florentines with a formidable army. Little result was achieved, as the bravery of the Florentines and the competence of their leader, Malatesta, defeated the efforts of the Aragonese.
Even the surprising fact of the conquest of Constantinople by the Turks in 1453 did not induce Alfonso to accept the general opinion that Christians had better abandon their private quarrels and combine against the Unbeliever. Nor was he moved by the destruction of the Catalan states in Attica and Bceotia, which were overrun by the Turks, and appealed in vain to Aragon for help. Further complications began with the arrival of René of Anjou, whom Sforza had [230] induced to intervene; he arrived in Italy in 1454, with 3000 horse, and left his son, Jean, behind him to continue operations after his return. Meanwhile the Pope, Nicholas V, had been working to secure a general peace with the hope of taking measures to confront the Turkish danger. Venice and Milan were induced to agree, and Alfonso, in 1455, also consented to a peace, in spite of the annoyance which he felt at the fact that he had not been consulted at the outset of negotiations. He made it a definite condition that the town of Genoa should not be included in the agreement. Once again points of difference had arisen, and Alfonso felt that he could not trust either the Genoese or their doge, Campo Fregoso. The successor of Nicholas V, Calixtus III, invited him to take the cross, but Alfonso refused to entertain this possibility, and even employed a crusade fleet which the Archbishop of Tarragona had collected, as the papal legate in Spain, for the purpose of devastating the territory of his enemies. The Genoese found no support in Italy, and turned for help to France. Charles VII sent them Duke Jean of Anjou as their Governor, with the idea of recovering the kingdom of Naples, should opportunities occur for that purpose. Alfonso was aroused to greater efforts by this development, and had almost completed his preparations for besieging Genoa by land and sea when he unexpectedly died in 1458, an event which seemed to bring the prospect of peace somewhat nearer to the Italian peninsula.
During Alfonso's absence, Juan II of Navarre continued his attempts to embroil his country and Aragon with Castile, the King of which country invaded Navarre in 1451 and besieged the town of Estella. Carlos, the Prince of Viana, who ruled Navarre, but had not assumed the royal title, which his father Juan retained, was in no position to offer resistance; he sought an interview with the invader and explained that neither he nor the people of Navarre desired war with Castile and that they should not be held accountable for the machinations of Juan. The Castilian leaders accepted this explanation and retired after concluding a treaty of peace with the Prince of Viana. His father, enraged at the failure of his plans, sent his wife, Juana Enríquez, to Navarre with authority to supervise the Prince's methods of government. The inevitable result was a succession of quarrels [231] and the formation of two national parties, led respectively by the families of Agramont who supported the Queen, and Beaumont who declared for Carlos. In the following year was fought the battle of Ayvar between stepfather and son, in which the Prince of Viana was defeated and taken prisoner; the intervention of Aragon enabled him to regain his freedom in 1453, but there was no prospect of securing peace for Navarre. In the previous year the Queen had given birth to a son, Ferdinand, who, though the son of Castile's bitterest enemy, was eventually destined to marry a daughter of the Castilian royal house and to unite the kingdoms of Aragon and Castile in permanent union. For the moment, Queen Juana was more than ever estranged from the Prince of Viana, whom she regarded as depriving her own son of the right of succession. The matter was further complicated by the action of Enrique, the Prince of the Asturias, who had married Blanca, the sister of Carlos, Prince of Viana Enrique, who hated profoundly his father-in-law and all his connections, repudiated his wife on a charge of witchcraft and married Juana of Portugal, whose imprudence brought trouble upon him, when he became Enrique IV in 1454. Blanca joined her brother, Carlos, and incurred her father's wrath in consequence. The change of rulers in Castile became the occasion of a fresh treaty between that kingdom and Aragon, and Queen Maria of Aragon made every effort to arrange a peace between Navarre and Castile and to compose the domestic quarrels of the Navarrese. No conditions, however, could appease the animosity of Juan. In December 1455, he made a treaty with the Count of Foix, under the terms of which the Count was to invade and subjugate Navarre, while Juan undertook to disinherit Carlos and Blanca and to transfer their rights to the Count ; the fact that the Count had married Juan's second daughter, Leonor, was the only available excuse for so monstrous a pact, under which Juan proposed to dispose of an inheritance and of rights which he had never possessed. Meanwhile Alfonso, who had begun at length to appreciate the character of his brother's policy, informed him that his persecution must stop, or he would himself espouse the cause of the Prince of Viana and remove Juan from his participation in the government of Aragon. Carlos was more than willing to leave his case in the hands of [232] Alfonso and went to meet him in Italy, where he was kindly received by the King of Aragon, who found that the young Prince shared his own interest in art and literature. In spite of the malignancy of Juan, the covetousness of the Count of Foix and the interference of the King of France, Alfonso might have ended the dispute, had not the negotiations been cut short by his death.
Alfonso's exploits were apparently inspired by the ambition to form an empire which should dominate the Western Mediterranean. For a brief moment his hopes were realized; his policy brought him a wide reputation for himself, but aroused little enthusiasm among his subjects, who objected to a transference of the centre of power from Aragon to Naples. His continuous absence from his kingdom, and the dissatisfaction which it caused, enabled the turbulent and disorderly elements to combine, with the results which were more perceptible in the following reign. On the other hand, it may be argued that the absence of so restless and adventurous a character was in some sense a positive advantage. Alfonso's energies confined within the narrow bounds of a constitutional monarchy might have caused more trouble in Aragon than his continual absence afterwards produced. He enjoyed a high reputation in Europe; when Frederick III came to Rome for coronation as Emperor in 1452, he paid a special visit to Alfonso who received him with great magnificence. He maintained a brilliant court at Naples which was distinguished as a centre of literature and learning. He himself is said to have read Livy and Cicero as his favourite authors, and to have translated Seneca's Letters into Spanish; translations of Aristotle's Natural History and Xenophon's Cyropædia were made at his command. Poets and scholars were his constant visitors, a fact which no doubt largely contributed to strengthen the influence of Italian learning upon the literature of Spain. Two classes of literature were developed at his court: that produced by Italian humanists such as Eneas Silvio Piccolomini and Spaniards or Catalans who followed their lead, of whom the royal historiographer Pedro Miguel Carbonell is the best-known figure: he belongs also to the other school, that of poetry in both courtly and popular lyric, examples of which were collected in the Cancionero de Stúñiga, a collection similar [233] to the more famous Cancionero de Baena and reflecting the life both of camp and court under Alfonso's rule. Torrellas, a Catalan who had been tutor to the Prince of Viana, Carvajal, the first Spanish poet who wrote in Italian, and Lope de Stúñiga, the enemy of Alvaro de Luna, were the outstanding personalities. This body of court poetry shows the rapid development of the Spanish vernacular of Aragon side by side with the Catalan language.
This work was originally published by Methuan Publishing Ltd. in 1933.
Pagination of the original edition is indicated set off in brackets, as in [19].
If you want to extend your information on Aragon you can begin crossing another interesting route is the Mudejar, Patrimony of the Humanity, also you can extend your cultural knowledge on Aragon examining its municipal and institutional heraldry without forgetting, of course, some of its emblematics figures as Saint George Pattern of Aragon also book of Aragon.
Also Aragon enjoys a diverse and varied Nature where passing by plants, animals or landscapes we can arrive at a fantastic bestiario that lives in its monuments.
The information will not be complete without a stroll by its three provinces: Zaragoza, Teruel and Huesca and his shines, with shutdown in some of its spectacular landscapes like Ordesa, the Moncayo or by opposition the Ebro.
Also you can dedicarte to the intangible ones: from the legend compilation that also does to universal Aragon you can persecute the presence of del Santo Grial in Aragon.
Huesca |
Teruel |
Zaragoza |
Aragon |
Maps |
Fauna |
Flora |
Geology |
Fungi |
Tourism |
Mudejar |
Goya |
Alphabetical Index |
Thematic
A History of Aragon and Catalonia. Alfonso V. books.
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