Introduction

In historical discussion of the kingdom of Naples, for hundreds of years the political framework for the south of Italy, the prevailing judgement is often one of immobility, as if the political and social structures of this part of the peninsula have not changed over the centuries. In order to limit the influence of this view, observations on historiography will be reserved until the end of this chapter. The reader will first be given an outline of the succession of events which will lead to an exploration of: the constants; the points of change; the institutions, remarkably stable, despite serious conflicts; the complex relations between the different territorial and economic powers in the Regno – monarchy, feudality, city and foreign merchants.

Anjou and Aragon: the 200-year war

From the end of the thirteenth century to the beginning of the sixteenth, the political history of the kingdom of Naples was marked by a struggle between two dynastic and territorial European powers, the Angevins and the Aragonese, for control of the western Mediterranean. The conflict, ending with the succession to the throne of Ferdinand the Catholic (1503), king of Aragon and consort of Isabella of Castile, continued on into the sixteenth century between the Habsburg empire and France, successors to the Aragonese and Angevins respectively.