Everything about Alfonso Ii Of Naples totally explained
Alfonso II of Naples (
November 4,
1448 –
December 18,
1495), also called
Alfonso II d'Aragon, though he was
King of Naples only from
January 25,
1494 to
1495—with the title King of Naples and
Jerusalem—was a patron of Renaissance poets and builders during his long tenure as the heir to the throne of Naples, with the title
duca di Calabria.
Biography
Born at Naples, Alfonso was the oldest child of
Ferdinand I of Naples and his first wife,
Isabel de Claremont, the daughter of
Tristan, Count of Capertino and
Caterina Orsini. He was the cousin of
Ferdinand II of Aragon, king of
Aragon and the first (
co-)ruler of a unified
Spain. His teacher was the humanist
Giovanni Pontano, whose
De splendore describes the proper virtues and manner of life becoming to a prince.
When his mother Isabella of Clermont died (
1465), he succeeded to her feudal claims, which included the
Brienne claim to the Kingdom of Jerusalem.
In 1463, when Alfonso was fifteen, his great-uncle
Giovanni Antonio del Balzo Orsini,
Prince of Taranto, died, and he obtained some lands from the inheritance. Alfonso had shown himself a skilled and determined soldier, helping his father in the suppression of the Conjure of the Barons (
1485) and in the defence of the Kingdom's territory against the
Papal claims.
As a condottiero, he fought in the most important wars of the age, such the war following the Pazzi Conspiracy (1478-1480) and the War of Ferrara (1482-1484).
Alfonso's reign was destined to be short. When his father died, the kingdom's finances were exhausted and the invasion of King
Charles VIII of France was imminent; Charles (instigated by
Lodovico Sforza, who wished to stir up trouble to allow him to seize power in
Milan) had decided to reassert the
Angevin claim to Naples and the accompanying title of
King of Jerusalem.
Charles invaded Italy in September,
1494. Alfonso managed to gain back the support of Pope
Alexander VI, who invited Charles to devote his effort against the Turks instead. Alfonso received the official Papal coronation as
Rex Siciliae on
May 8,
1494.
However, the King of France didn't relent, and by early
1495 was approaching
Naples, after having defeated Florence and Neapolitan fleet under Alfonso's brother,
Frederick of Calabria at
Porto Venere. Alfonso, terrified by a series of portents, as well as unusual dreams (perhaps attributable to memories of his victims), abdicated in favour of his son,
Ferdinand or Ferrantino, and fled, entering a Sicilian monastery. He died in
Messina later that year.
As Crown Prince, Alfonso had participated in the brilliant Renaissance culture that surrounded his father's court. His lasting contribution to European culture was the example set at his villas of
La Duchesca and especially
Poggio Reale just outside Naples, which so captivated
Charles VIII of France during his brief sojourn at Naples during February-June 1495, that he was inspired to emulation of the "earthly paradise" he encountered Poggio Reale, which Vasari said was designed by
Giuliano da Maiano and which was laid out in the 1480s, has utterly disappeared and no extensive description has survived; Decades later Vasari reported, "At Poggio Reale [Giulianoda Maiano] laid out the architecture of that palazzo, always considered a most beautiful thing; and to fresco it he brought there Piero del Donzello, a Florentine, and Polito his brother who was considered in that time a good master, who painted the whole palazzo, inside and out, with the history of the said king." There are no archives to connect Giuliano or his brother Benedetto with the project; for documentation only a section and plan, reproduced with apologies for its inaccuracy, by
Sebastiano Serlio seems to show an idealized plan, identical on all four sides, ranged round a court with a double arcading. It is clear that the Aragonese court at Naples introduced the Moorish garden traditions of
Andalusia, with its shaded avenues and baths, sophisticated hydraulics that powered splendid waterworks, formal tanks, fishponds and fountains, as a luxurious and secluded setting for court life, and combined them with Roman features: Alfonso's Poggio Reale was built around three sides of an arcaded courtyard with tiers of seating round a sunken centre that could be flooded for water spectacles; on the fourth side it opened onto a garden that framed a spectacular view of Vesuvius. It was all unlike anything experienced by the French king, who retreated from Italy, loaded with tapestries and works of art, and filled with building and gardening ambitions.
Ancestors
Marriages and children
Like his father, Alfonso married twice. His first wife was
Ippolita Maria Sforza, whom he married on
October 10,
1465, in
Milan. His second wife was
Trogia Gazzela.
He had three children with Hippolyta:
and two with Troggia:
Sancha of Aragon (born 1478 in Gaeta)
Alfonso of Aragon, Prince of Salerno (born 1481, in Naples)Further Information
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