Ferdinand I of Naples

Ferdinand I (or Ferrante I) of Naples (June 2, 1423-Naples, January 25, 1494) was the bastard son of Alfonso V of Aragon and I of Naples and Sicily, and his Neapolitan lover, Gueraldona Carlino.

Trying to ensure a good future for his illegitimate son, Alfonso had Ferdinand marry Isabella of Chiaromonte in 1444, niece and heiress presumptive of the Prince of Taranto, Giovanni Antonio Orsini del Balzo, successor to the Briennes' rights to the throne of Jerusalem.

Access to the throne

Neapolitan crown of Fernando I, 1458.

Sculpture of his coronation as king of Naples.

As his father had established, Ferdinand acceded to the throne of Naples in 1458 at the age of 35, but Pope Callixtus III declared the House of Aragon extinct and proclaimed the kingdom the property of the Catholic Church. However, the pontiff died in August of that same year, and his successor, Pius II, set aside the claim, and recognized Ferdinand as the legitimate sovereign. Despite this, Juan de Anjou, taking advantage of the discontent of the Neapolitan barons, decided to try to reconquer the throne of his ancestors, lost by his father, and invaded Naples.

The defeat of Sarno

Ferdinand was defeated by the Angevins and the rebels in the battle on the Sarno River on July 7, 1460. On that occasion, he was saved by the intervention of men-at-arms "provvisionati" (salaried militias) and "coscritti" (people's militias) from the city of Cava de' Tirreni led by Giosuè and Marino Longo, who arrived at the town at the mouth of the Sarno, descended from the mountain, and attacked the Angevins who, surprised and unable to determine the entity of the attack, fell back and gave Fernando the possibility of fleeing towards Naples, leaving by way of Nola.

Luckily for him, that battle was not decisive, and he later got help from Alessandro Sforza, Pope Pius II, and the Albanian leader Giorgio Castriota Scanderbeg, a debtor to the king for the protection Alfonso gave him when he fled. Thus Fernando managed to defeat his enemies and, in 1464, managed to reestablish his authority in the kingdom. In 1478 he allied himself with Pope Sixtus IV against Lorenzo de' Medici, who managed to personally negotiate peace with Ferdinand, in the city of Naples.

The original attempt to be prince of Taranto had fizzled out, although this fief continued to be one of Ferrante's great sources, when, in 1463, his wife became titular, inheriting the title from her uncle Giovanni Orsini del Balzo. Isabel went on to hold the rights of the Briennes on the throne of Jerusalem, although she died in 1465. It would take twelve years for her husband to marry her first cousin, the Infanta Juana of Aragón.

Alliances and wars

Ferdinand's alliances rested mainly on the Sforza dukes of Milan, and the Este dukes of Modena and Ferrara. In 1480, the Ottoman troops, under the command of Mehmed II, occupied Otranto, massacring most of the population. The following year the city would be reconquered by King Alfonso II of Naples, Duke of Calabria and son of Ferdinand.

Esortazione di insorgere contro i baroni ribelli1486.

Ferdinand's government provoked an attempted revolt in 1485, known as the Congiura dei Baroni (Plot of the Barons), provoked by Neapolitan nobles and led by Francesco Coppola, Count of Sarno, and Antonio Sanseverino, Prince of Salerno, and supported by Pope Innocent VIII. The insurrection was put down, but many nobles who did not believe Ferdinand's promise of a general amnesty were assassinated by Ferdinand's direct decision.

In 1493, Charles VIII of France, encouraged by Duke Ludovico Sforza of Milan, prepares to invade Italy and conquer Naples. Fernando realizes that this would be the most dangerous confrontation he would ever have to face in his life. With an almost prophetic instinct, he warned the Italian princes of the calamity that was about to befall them, but his attempts to dissuade Pope Alexander VI and Ludovico Sforza were in vain.

Ferdinand died on January 25, 1494. The throne is succeeded by his son Alfonso II of Naples, who will be quickly deposed after the French invasion of Charles VIII, which his father had feared so much.

Fernando was endowed with great courage and remarkable political skill, although his methods of government were unproductive and disastrous. His financial management was based on oppressive and dishonest monopoly, he was also severe and excessively fierce against his enemies. At the same time, he was a monarch contrary to the superstitious customs so widespread at that time among the popular classes, probably as a consequence of a false miracle with which they had tried to trick him into starting a persecution against the Jews; he also had a false fasting man unmasked. On the cultural level, he protected writers such as Masuccio Salernitano, whose anticlerical Novelle (with dedications to Fernando himself and his son Prince Alfonso), which ridiculed the vices of the clergy of the time, could be published under his reign.

Married couples and children

Fernando married twice: In 1444 he married Isabel of Taranto , with whom he had six children:

• Alfonso (4 November 1448–18 December 1495), king of Naples with the name of Alfonso II;
• Leonor (22 June 1450-11 October 1493), duchess of Ferrara, wife of Hercules I of East;
• Frederick (19 April 1452–9 November 1504), king of Naples with the name of Federico III;
• John (25 June 1456-17 October 1485), Archbishop of Taranto, Archbishop of Estrigonia and Cardinal;
• Beatriz (16 November 1457–23 September 1508), Queen of Hungary, wife of Matías Corvino and then Ladislao II of Bohemia and VII of Hungary;
• Francis (16 December 1461–26 October 1486), Duke of Sant’Angelo.

On September 14, 1476, he married Juana de Aragón as his second wife, with whom he had two children:

• Juana (15 April 1479–27 August 1518), queen consorte de Nápoles, married to Fernando II.
• Carlos (1480–26 October 1486).

Fernando also had a large number of illegitimate children with his concubine Diana Guardato:

• María de Aragón (1440-1460/61), wife of Antonio Todeschini Piccolomini d'Aragona, Duke of Amalfi;
• Juana de Aragón (1455-1501), wife of Leonardo della Rovere, Duke of Arce and Sora.
• Fernando (1460-1543), Duke of Montalto, contracted first nupcias with Anna Sanseverino, and second nupcias with Castellana Folch de Cardona (1470-1518), descendants of his second marriage;

With his concubine Eulalia Ravignano:

• María Cecilia de Aragón (1473-1513), married in 1493 with Gian Giordano Orsini, lord of Bracciano.

With Giovanna Caracciolo, daughter of Giacomo Caracciolo, 1st Duke of Caggiano and 2nd Count of Brienza (son of Petraccone Caracciolo, 1st Count of Brienza, and his first wife, Figula Minutolo), and of Lucrezia del Balzo (daughter of Giacomo del Balzo, Count of Alessano, and of Covella Tocco):

• Fernando de Aragón, Count of Arsena;
• Enrique de Aragón (1478), Marquis de Gerace, married to Polissena de Centelles (son of Antonio de Centelles, Marquis de Crotone and Count of Collesano, and Enrichetta Ruffo dei Conti di Catanzaro); he was the father of Cardinal Luis de Aragón;
• Alfonso de Aragón (1460-1510), bishop of Chieti and pretender to the thrones of Cyprus and Jerusalem, with the title of Prince of Galilee;
• Cesar de Aragón (1501), Marquis de Sant'Agata, married to Caterina della Ratta:
• Leonor de Aragón, deceased in childhood;
• Lucrezia de Aragón, married in 1493 with Onorato III Caetani dell'Aquila, Count of Morcone, Duke of Fondi, and Prince of Altamura.

Ancestry

Succession

Predecessor: Alfonso I

King of Naples 1458-1494

Successor: Alfonso II