ALPHONSO V. king of Arragon and Naples, succeeded his father in the year 1416. As the father had formerly been honoured with the appellation of Just, so the son was honoured with that of Magnanimous. The conspiracy of some of his own nobles against his life, together with the insolence of Pope Benedict XIII., greatly disturbed the tranquillity of his reign. Fortunately, this conspiracy was discovered just when it was about to be carried into execution; and, instead of proceeding with rigour against the conspirators, he generously tore a paper containing their names, without reading it, and added, that "he would at least force them to acknowledge that he had a greater regard for their lives than they had for his." After quelling a disturbance in Sardinia, and while employed in making preparations to advance to Sicily, Joan of Naples offered, if he would assist her against the pope, the duke of Anjou, and the constable Sforza, who had formed a confederacy to depose her, to adopt him as her son and heir. He readily accepted the proposal, and with a powerful army soon raised the siege of Naples, and was immediately declared heir apparent of her kingdom, and duke of Calabria. The queen refusing to fulfil her engagements, Alphonso took possession of Naples, and expelled her from it; but when the duke of Anjou again entered her territories, and made himself master of great part of them, she was obliged to renew her solicitations to Alphonso, who, in the year 1434, involved himself in a quarrel with the duke of Milan and the republic of Genoa, by besieging Gaeta in a second attempt to conquer Naples. In an engagement with the Genoese fleet, all his ships were dispersed or destroyed, and himself taken prisoner; but such was the address of this prince, that when carried to Milan a prisoner, he there ingratiated himself so much into the duke's favour, that he became his friend and ally, and soon rose to greater power than ever.
He got possession of Naples in 1443; and in an assembly of the states held at Beneventum, and afterwards transferred to Naples, his sovereignty was recognised, and his son Don Ferdinand declared successor to the throne; and, in consequence of this elevation, he was deemed the sole arbiter of peace and war through all Italy. Naples became the residence of Alphonso during the remainder of his life; but his declining years were much disquieted by political dissensions and intrigues. Suspicion, the frequent attendant of old age, at last seized him; and, in consternation and dread, he was removed from one castle of Naples to another, until he breathed his last on the 22d of June 1468, bequeathing to his natural son Ferdinand the kingdom of Naples, and to his brother Don Juan, king of Navarre, the kingdoms of Arragon, Valencia, Majorca, Sardinia, Sicily, and the principality and dependencies of Catalonia. Alphonso was not only deemed the ablest statesman and the most renowned military commander
in that age, but also the greatest prince that ever occupied the throne of Arragon.