ABSTRACT
Alfonso left his hereditary kingdoms in Spain and the Mediterranean to his brother Juan and his newly won kingdom of Naples to his illegitimate son Ferrante. Both Pope Eugenius IV and Pope Nicholas V had recognized Ferrante as the heir to the kingdom. On the day Alfonso died, Ferrante, according to the custom of the time, rode through the streets of Naples to receive the cheers of the people. When Calixtus received a letter from Ferrante announcing his father’s death, the peevish octogenarian exploded with rage because Ferrante referred to himself as king. The honorable estate of marriage was as confining to Ferrante as to most of the ruling princes of Renaissance Italy. There were numerous women in his life, some of them the wives of his noble subjects. There is no doubt that Ferrante was one of the great villains of the Renaissance.
