Chapter 16: The end of the Neapolitan rebellion and the Mediterranean pacification (1496-1499).
Chapter 16: The end of the Neapolitan rebellion and the Mediterranean pacification (1496-1499)
The Neapolitan embassy reached Atienza on August 15, 1495, the same day that a despondent Giovanni Borgia was found dead after a heavy drinking session with his few loyal captains at Puzzuoli. After being offered the crown to his son, Margarita replied that, before the offer could be accepted, the Royal Council of Castille had to be consulted. Eight days later, the council advised the queen to accept the offered crown. After this, the queen decided to send 2,500 knights and foot soldiers to Naples. On September 13, the Aragonese troops laid siege again to Naples, but it became a failure and the siege was raised on October 3. Ricardo then withdrew and attempted to conquer Benevento, but without luck. Then he attacked and sacked Foggia (October 9) and after this he took Bari (October 31), which became the stronghold of the royalist forces. There Ricardo I settled his Neapolitan court and the administration of the kingdom. By then, the king only controlled Bari, Tarento and Potenza. On November 12, he returned to Barcelona to face the likely Castilian invasion. His father, Richard of Gloucester, who had taken care of the kingdoms in his son's absence, was sent to Bari.
In late November, the Castilian forces, under the command of Íñigo López de Mendoza y Quiñones, Marquis of Mondéjar and count of Tendilla, invaded Aragon, taking Belchite. When Ricardo arrived at Zaragoza at the head of his forces, de Mendoza withdrew back to Castille and, in January 1496, both kingdoms reached a fragile truce. Meanwhile, Richard of Gloucester left Bari at the head of a powerful army and laid siege to Foggia in March, taking the city on July 6. This disaster for the rebels forced the Castilian court to hurriedly send reinforcements to Italy. That same month the rebels suffered a new disaster when the governor of Salerno, Guidobaldo da Montefeltro, defected to the royalist side, shocking the rebel council at Naples. After this, the condottiero Bertoldo Del Balzo Orsini and the Castilian commander, Rodrigo Téllez Girón, mustered their forces to meet the loyalist offensive. Thus, when Gloucester laid siege to Benevento, Del Balzo and Téllez Girón departed to face him on the battlefield. To their surprise, Gloucester found them first, at Tressanti (November 28). Gloucester had with him 60 knights, 600 light cavalry and 1,000 infantry. Against these forces his enemies formed 130 knights, 500 light cavalry and 2,000 infantry in close ranks. Soon Gloucester daringly using his cavalry, soon had his enemies surrounded and forced them to capitulate. Even if Téllez Girón escaped, most of the enemy army and his captains were captured after the battle. The war was lost, but the rebel council refused to give in. When the moderate faction demanded to open peace talks with Gloucester, they were purged by the war faction led by Francesco de Chiaromonte.
Then Caserta surrendered to the loyalists and Margarita of Castile made a peace offer to Aragón (January 30, 1497). In Naples, the defeats and the economic crisis led many to raise their voices against the war. Those who had not dared to defy the radical war faction now began to talk openly about peace. Thus, on February 15, Ricardo I proposed to the city of Naples the same terms that he had offered to Caserta. They were rejected by the city council of the city, controlled by the radicals. Then, on March 2, the French ambassadors told the council that Louis XII was in no position to keep supporting them. When the royal army conquered Nocera, panic engulfed the city. Its demoralized inhabitants claimed for peace and desertions reduced the rebel army to a shell of its former self. Finally, Naples surrendered on March 27. To the surprise of many, Ricardo I did not punish the rebels as it was feared and expected, but for the main leaders. He had the royal estates returned, indeed and then, in September, he called the Neapolitan Parliament, where he thus ended the war without winners or losers, but had the Parliament to approve a loan of 100,000 silver pounds to the king, who used this money to compensate the loyalists for their losses and for the conquered lands that they had to return to their former owners. In addition to this, the king established that both losers and winners would have to pay the taxes (the "censales"), but with some differences that "would redress the former while not damaging the latter".
Once Naples was pacified and the trade route to Alexandria was once more running safe, Ricardo turned West, both to give a new breath to the trade with England and Flanders and to begin in earnest the discovery of a new way to Catay. Using Melilla and Mazalquivir as a starting point, the Aragonese explorers Pere Margarit and Miguel Ballester surveyed the Moroccan Atlantic coast but found their way blocked by the Portuguese navy and settlements in the area and the Castilian Canary islands. Thus, when he was informed of this setback, Ricardo began to plan a way to remove both crowns out of his way.
Meanwhile, after the success of the Taules de Canvi created in the first decade of the 15th century, which became small public banks by the late 1450s, became the first source of loans to the crown and the cities and, by the early 1490s, half of the citizens of Barcelona, Valencia and Zaragoza trusted their savings to those Taules, which gave them the chance of increase the size and the scope of their business. The victory of the Sicilian and Neapolitan rebels had allowed Aragon to reassert its dominion on the local markets, which during the war were again open to Genoa, whose merchants and government had supported the rebels. Now, Genoa was excluded again from the south of Italy, even if Ricardo would open, later on, a friendly policy towards la Superba that would last almost to the end of his life (from 1499 to 1512). The Aragoneses were ready to take profit of its financial expertise, with some kind of success as some Taules de Canvi would be reformed following the model of the Bank of Saint George and the Banca Carige. However, this rapprochement would collapse in the 1520s, as we shall see. However, by then the Aragonese economy had not only expanded but also modernized thanks to the relation with the Genoese bankers.
The Neapolitan embassy reached Atienza on August 15, 1495, the same day that a despondent Giovanni Borgia was found dead after a heavy drinking session with his few loyal captains at Puzzuoli. After being offered the crown to his son, Margarita replied that, before the offer could be accepted, the Royal Council of Castille had to be consulted. Eight days later, the council advised the queen to accept the offered crown. After this, the queen decided to send 2,500 knights and foot soldiers to Naples. On September 13, the Aragonese troops laid siege again to Naples, but it became a failure and the siege was raised on October 3. Ricardo then withdrew and attempted to conquer Benevento, but without luck. Then he attacked and sacked Foggia (October 9) and after this he took Bari (October 31), which became the stronghold of the royalist forces. There Ricardo I settled his Neapolitan court and the administration of the kingdom. By then, the king only controlled Bari, Tarento and Potenza. On November 12, he returned to Barcelona to face the likely Castilian invasion. His father, Richard of Gloucester, who had taken care of the kingdoms in his son's absence, was sent to Bari.
In late November, the Castilian forces, under the command of Íñigo López de Mendoza y Quiñones, Marquis of Mondéjar and count of Tendilla, invaded Aragon, taking Belchite. When Ricardo arrived at Zaragoza at the head of his forces, de Mendoza withdrew back to Castille and, in January 1496, both kingdoms reached a fragile truce. Meanwhile, Richard of Gloucester left Bari at the head of a powerful army and laid siege to Foggia in March, taking the city on July 6. This disaster for the rebels forced the Castilian court to hurriedly send reinforcements to Italy. That same month the rebels suffered a new disaster when the governor of Salerno, Guidobaldo da Montefeltro, defected to the royalist side, shocking the rebel council at Naples. After this, the condottiero Bertoldo Del Balzo Orsini and the Castilian commander, Rodrigo Téllez Girón, mustered their forces to meet the loyalist offensive. Thus, when Gloucester laid siege to Benevento, Del Balzo and Téllez Girón departed to face him on the battlefield. To their surprise, Gloucester found them first, at Tressanti (November 28). Gloucester had with him 60 knights, 600 light cavalry and 1,000 infantry. Against these forces his enemies formed 130 knights, 500 light cavalry and 2,000 infantry in close ranks. Soon Gloucester daringly using his cavalry, soon had his enemies surrounded and forced them to capitulate. Even if Téllez Girón escaped, most of the enemy army and his captains were captured after the battle. The war was lost, but the rebel council refused to give in. When the moderate faction demanded to open peace talks with Gloucester, they were purged by the war faction led by Francesco de Chiaromonte.
Then Caserta surrendered to the loyalists and Margarita of Castile made a peace offer to Aragón (January 30, 1497). In Naples, the defeats and the economic crisis led many to raise their voices against the war. Those who had not dared to defy the radical war faction now began to talk openly about peace. Thus, on February 15, Ricardo I proposed to the city of Naples the same terms that he had offered to Caserta. They were rejected by the city council of the city, controlled by the radicals. Then, on March 2, the French ambassadors told the council that Louis XII was in no position to keep supporting them. When the royal army conquered Nocera, panic engulfed the city. Its demoralized inhabitants claimed for peace and desertions reduced the rebel army to a shell of its former self. Finally, Naples surrendered on March 27. To the surprise of many, Ricardo I did not punish the rebels as it was feared and expected, but for the main leaders. He had the royal estates returned, indeed and then, in September, he called the Neapolitan Parliament, where he thus ended the war without winners or losers, but had the Parliament to approve a loan of 100,000 silver pounds to the king, who used this money to compensate the loyalists for their losses and for the conquered lands that they had to return to their former owners. In addition to this, the king established that both losers and winners would have to pay the taxes (the "censales"), but with some differences that "would redress the former while not damaging the latter".
Once Naples was pacified and the trade route to Alexandria was once more running safe, Ricardo turned West, both to give a new breath to the trade with England and Flanders and to begin in earnest the discovery of a new way to Catay. Using Melilla and Mazalquivir as a starting point, the Aragonese explorers Pere Margarit and Miguel Ballester surveyed the Moroccan Atlantic coast but found their way blocked by the Portuguese navy and settlements in the area and the Castilian Canary islands. Thus, when he was informed of this setback, Ricardo began to plan a way to remove both crowns out of his way.
Meanwhile, after the success of the Taules de Canvi created in the first decade of the 15th century, which became small public banks by the late 1450s, became the first source of loans to the crown and the cities and, by the early 1490s, half of the citizens of Barcelona, Valencia and Zaragoza trusted their savings to those Taules, which gave them the chance of increase the size and the scope of their business. The victory of the Sicilian and Neapolitan rebels had allowed Aragon to reassert its dominion on the local markets, which during the war were again open to Genoa, whose merchants and government had supported the rebels. Now, Genoa was excluded again from the south of Italy, even if Ricardo would open, later on, a friendly policy towards la Superba that would last almost to the end of his life (from 1499 to 1512). The Aragoneses were ready to take profit of its financial expertise, with some kind of success as some Taules de Canvi would be reformed following the model of the Bank of Saint George and the Banca Carige. However, this rapprochement would collapse in the 1520s, as we shall see. However, by then the Aragonese economy had not only expanded but also modernized thanks to the relation with the Genoese bankers.
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jokes aside, being mostly Catalan, I would not mind if those names are in Aragonese. However, you write Girona, so there is some equilibrium.