Naples : Conspiracy of the Barons, 1485-1487



A.) Prehistory of the War

King Alfonso V. of Aragon in 1442 had added the Kingdom of Naples to the Aragonese possessions; however, the previous Angevin dynasty still had significant support among the kingdpm's nobles. The Kingdom of Naples since 1458 was ruled by King Ferdinand (Ferrante), illegitimate son of King Alfonso V. of Aragon. He ruled with a strong hand, attempting to strengthen the position of the crown against the (largely pro-Angevin) barons, who revolted for a first time in 1459-1462. King Ferrante prevailed then.


B.) The Rebellion

In Italian referred to as La Congiura dei Baroni.
In 1485 the pro-Angevin nobles conspired against King Ferrante of Naples. The conspiracy resulted in a civil war; the rebels took the city of Aquila by siege and hoisted the papal flag - the rebels gained the support of the pope, while King Ferrante was supported by Italy's princes. On September 30th 1485 a temporary truce was signed at Miglionico in Lucania; on August 11th 1486 King Ferrante and Pope Innocent VIII. signed a permanent truce. The rebels thus had been deprived of their support; King Ferrante proceeded with suppressing the revolt, confiscating the property of the rebels and incarcerating the latter; by January 1487 the rebellion was suppressed.




EXTERNAL
FILES 		Anno 1485, from Cronologia, in Italian
Innocent VIII., from Catholic Encyclopedia
Innocent VIII., from Web Gallery of Art
DOCUMENTS
REFERENCE



This page is part of World History at KMLA
First posted on March 6th 2004, last revised on November 16th 2004

Click here to go Home
Click here to go to Information about KMLA, WHKMLA, the author and webmaster
Click here to go to Statistics