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288 Italy: Naples of Siena, where he himself was born, received the majority of his education, and, when he grew up, devoted himself to the study of canon law.837 After burying his parents, he came to the realization that the seductions of this world are deceptive and its promises empty; he then distributed his belongings among Christ’s poor, entered the order of St. Francis, and scrupulously observed the rule prescribed for him. Turning down larger communities, he became a leader and teacher of those called the Observant Friars. However, it was in instructing the common people that he showed the greatest zeal. Rich in eloquence and noted for his erudition, he was listened to by all with a concentration beyond belief and, as if he was a second Paul, admired and revered as the “vessel of election.”838 Three populations—those of Urbino, Ferrara, and Siena—selected him as their bishop. But he chose not to confine to one city a tongue that could minister to all of Italy. 65 ITALY: NAPLES 261. LET ME now enter the kingdom of Naples and turn my pen to the prosperous and amazing career of Alfonso.839 After the unsuccessful naval war which he waged against the Genoese, Fortune seemed to have recognized her error in thwarting so great a leader and, changing her step-motherly hatred into 837. Aeneas is eager to claim Bernardino as a native and noble of Siena, given his own connection to the city and his admiration for Bernardino, but the saint was in fact born at Massa Marittima while his father was serving as governor; see New Catholic Encyclopedia, vol. 2: 320–21. 838. Acts 9:15. 839. Alfonso I, king of Naples (r. 1442–58); Alfonso V, king of Aragon (r. 1416–58). He was named heir by Joanna II of Naples (r. 1414–35) in 1420 and entered the city in 1421. After a falling out with Alfonso, she named Louis III of Anjou as her heir in 1423. Upon Louis’s death in 1434, his brother, René of Anjou, became her heir. When Joanna died the following year, René’s imprisonment provided Alfonso a good opportunity to make his bid for Naples. See Ryder, Kingdom of Naples, 25 ff. Italy: Naples 289 maternal love, she became as favorable toward him as she had once been hostile. For when the king was brought in captivity to Duke Filippo of Milan, Filippo recognized that he, the victor, was far inferior to the one he had vanquished and immediately exchanged enmity for friendship. He ordered the king to be freed, formed an alliance with him on equal terms, presented him with generous gifts, and released him.840 262. Meanwhile, Isabella, the wife of Duke René of Lorraine, a rival of Alfonso’s for the kingdom of Naples, who was then being held in captivity by Duke Philip of Burgundy,841 had come with her two small sons to Gaeta and, after strengthening it with a garrison , continued on to Naples.842 But Pedro of Aragon, Alfonso’s brother, who had escaped from the naval battle with a few galleys and repaired his fleet in Sicily, was unexpectedly invited by another faction in Gaeta and took possession of the city after making his way there by night.843 Having expelled the enemy’s garrison, he imposed his own and sent ships to Alfonso to bring him from Portovenere . Soon after, Alfonso put in at Gaeta with the same ships.844 He then made for Capua, which, despite being fiercely attacked in the meantime by Isabella and Jacopo Caldora,845 had nevertheless remained loyal to him owing to the courage of its governor, 840. Alfonso and over one hundred nobles from Spain, Italy, and Sicily were captured in a naval battle near Ponza by the Genoese (August 4, 1435); see para. 178. Filippo , who had as recently as September 21, 1435, signed a pact with René of Anjou, supporting his claim to Naples, concluded a treaty of alliance with Alfonso on October 8, supporting Alfonso’s claim and offering every assistance in return for promises of mutual aid; see Ryder, Alfonso, 207–8. 841. René was held captive by Alfonso’s ally, Philip the Good, from 1431–32 and late 1434–37 over territorial disputes regarding Lorraine and, later, Anjou and Provence. René was released after paying a heavy ransom and conceding territorial losses in 1437. 842. Isabella arrived in Naples on October 18, 1435. The daughter...

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