Giovanna Of NAPLES

Other Events and Attributes:

• Fact: Queen consort to her nephew Ferdinand II of Naples - who was actually her elder.

Other Events and Attributes:

• Also Known As: Don Ferrante

Notes:

In order to arrange a good future for Ferdinand, King Alfonso had him married in 1444 to a feudal heiress, Isabella of Taranto, who besides being the elder daughter of Tristan di Chiaramonte (Tristan de Clermont-Lodeve), Count of Capertino, and Catherine of Baux Orsini, was the niece and heiress presumptive of childless prince Giovanni Antonio del Balzo Orsini of Taranto. She was a granddaughter of Queen Mary of Enghien (mother of Giovanni and Catherine), who had been Queen Consort of Naples (Queen of Jerusalem and Sicily) in 1406-14.

Ferrante's wife was the heiress presumptive of remarkable feudal possessions in Southern Italy.

He used the title King of Naples and Jerusalem (Ferdinand I of Naples). In accordance with his father's will, Ferdinand succeeded Alfonso on the throne of Naples in 1458, when he was 35 years old, but Pope Calixtus III declared the line of Aragon extinct and the kingdom a fief of the church. But although he died before he could make good his claim (August 1458), and the new Pope Pius II recognized Ferdinand, John of Anjou, profiting by the discontent of the Neapolitan barons, decided to try to regain the throne of his ancestors that was lost by his father RenÈ, and invaded Naples.

Ferdinand was severely defeated by the Angevins and the rebels at Sarno in July 1460, but with the help of Alessandro Sforza and of the Albanian chief, Skanderbeg, who came to the aid of the prince whose father had aided him, he triumphed over his enemies, and by 1464 had re-established his authority in the kingdom. In 1478 he allied himself with Pope Sixtus IV against Lorenzo de 'Medici, but the latter journeyed alone to Naples where he succeeded in negotiating an honourable peace with Ferdinand.

The original intent of making Taranto as his and his heirs' main principality was not any longer current, but still it was a strengthening of Ferrante's resources and position that his wife in 1463 succeeded her uncle Giovanni Antonio del Balzo Orsini as possessor of Taranto fiefs. Isabella became also the holder of Brienne rights to the Kingdom of Jerusalem.

After Isabella's death in 1465, Ferrante married secondly Infanta Juana of Aragon, his own first cousin, in 1476.

In 1480, forces of the Ottoman Empire under orders of Mehmed II captured Otranto, and massacred the majority of the inhabitants, but in the following year it was retaken by Ferdinand's son Alphonso, duke of Calabria. His oppressive government led in 1485 to an attempt at revolt on the part of the nobles, led by Francesca Coppola and Antonello Sanseverino and supported by Pope Innocent VIII; the rising having been crushed, many of the nobles, notwithstanding Ferdinand's promise of a general amnesty, were afterwards treacherously murdered at his express command.

Coronato of Ferrante I of Naples.Encouraged by Ludovico Sforza of Milan, in 1493 King Charles VIII of France was preparing to invade Italy for the conquest of Naples and starting the Italian Wars, and Ferdinand realized that this was a greater danger than any he had yet faced. With almost prophetic instinct he warned the Italian princes of the calamities in store for them, but his negotiations with Pope Alexander VI and Ludovico Sforza failed.

He died on January 25, 1494, worn out with anxiety; he was succeeded by his son, Alfonso, Duke of Calabria, who was soon deposed by the invasion of King Charles which his father had so feared. The cause of his death was determined, in 2006, to have been colorectal cancer, by examination of his mummy.

Ferdinand also had a number of illegitimate children:

By his mistress Diana Guardato.
Ferdinand d' Aragona, Duke di Montalto.
Maria d'Aragona. Later consort to Antonio Todeschini Piccolomini, Duke of Amalfi, a nephew of Pope Pius II and brother of Pope Pius III.
Giovanna d' Aragona. Later consort to Leonardo della Rovere, Duke of Arce and Sora, a nephew of Pope Sixtus IV and brother of Pope Julius II.
By his mistress Eulalia Ravignano.
Maria d'Aragona. Later wife to Gian Giordano Orsini.
By his mistress Giovanna Caracciola.
Ferdinand d'Aragona, Count of Arsena.
Arrigo d'Aragona, Marquess of Gerace
Cesare d'Aragona, Marquess of Santa Agata.
Leonor d'Aragona.
Lucrezia d'Aragona, daughter of either Giovanna Caracciola or Eulalia Ravignano. She was consort to Onorata III, Prince of Altamura.
This article incorporates text from the EncyclopÊdia Britannica Eleventh Edition, a publication now in the public domain.

Ferdinand married Juana Of ARAGON on 14 Sep 1476. Juana (daughter of Juan II King Of Navarre And ARAGON and Juana ENRIQUEZ) was born in 1454; died in 1517. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]