Alfonso the Magnanimous

Abstract

Abstract This is a biography of one of the most brilliant 15th century monarchs, Alfonso V of Aragon, who won from his contemporaries the title ‘the Magnanimous’. The book follows him from childhood in the chivalric world of Castile, to the newly-acquired states of Aragon, and his subsequent accession to the Aragonese throne. Pulled by powerful dynastic interests towards intervention in the turbulent world of Castilian politics, Alfonso eventually broke free to pursue his own ambitions in the central Mediterranean. Here he conquered Naples, bent the papacy to his will, broke the power of Genoa and planted his standards against Turkish advance in the Balkans. The book shows that Alfonso was also a shrewd politician, who made himself at home in the diplomatic jungle of Renaissance Italy, a merchant prince acutely aware of the power of commerce and one of the greatest patrons of the early Renaissance. Alfonso the Magnanimous brought humanism to life in Southern Italy, and made his court the most brilliant in Europe. Based on extensive archival research, this biography of Alfonso also covers political and cultural developments during his reign.

Cite this work

No public copy is stored for this record, so only the metadata is cited.

Stored only when both papers are in the corpus — 153 citations exist upstream.