Alfonso V Conquers Naples

1442

The Aragonese king-poet entered Naples through an aqueduct, took the Angevin throne, and united Sicily, Sardinia, and southern Italy under one crown for the first time in centuries. His court became an early Italian Renaissance center where Catalan, Neapolitan, and Latin mingled over shared humanist manuscripts. His court hosted Lorenzo Valla, who proved the Donation of Constantine a forgery, undermining papal claims to temporal authority.