He was baptized on April 19, 1452, in Castel Capuano and his godfather was the Emperor Frederick III, who was then sent to Alfonso the Magnanimous on a diplomatic visit.

[3] His father ascended to the throne of Naples, upon the death of Alfonso the Magnanimous on June 27, 1458, and gave his son the best mentors: Andrea da Castelforte, Giovanni Elisio Calenzio, Girolamo Baldassare, and Offeriano Forti [3] In 1464, while residing in Taranto with his father, he was ordered to lead an escort for Ippolita Maria Sforza, eldest daughter of the Duke of Milan and fiancée of his brother Alfonso, from Milan to Naples.

[3] As early as April 1470, Charles the Bold proposed to marry his daughter and sole heiress Mary to Frederick, and the plans took shape in November 1471, after the signing of an alliance between the Duke of Burgundy and the King of Naples.

Her suitors included princes and lords such as Ferdinand the Catholic, Duke Nicholas I of Lorraine, Philibert of Savoy, George of England, and Charles de Guyenne.

Louis XI himself expressed interest in nominating a prince of Aragon or Naples, with whom he could exchange the claims of Anjou against the Burgundian territories he sought to inherit in Maine.

[5] In February 1472, King Ferdinand received Frederick with the aim to aid in the project, a Burgundian delegation insisted that Charles the Bold, for its part, had not stopped his choice.

[5] King Ferdinand decided to promote the possibility of marriage between Frederick and the daughter of Charles the Bold and sought any opportunity that would require the Duke of Burgundy to accept the offer.

On November 26, 1474, in Foggia, Ferdinand gave Francesco Bertini, Bishop of Capaccio, as ambassador to the court of Burgundy, full powers to conduct the negotiations.

He confided in his son with two major tasks: the first was to give to Charles the Bold the collar of the Order of the Ermine he had created, and welcome him to the Order of the Golden Fleece, the second was to replace, in the entourage of Charles, Nicola di Monforte Pietravalle, Count of Campobasso,[3] a former vassal of Ferdinand who served René of Anjou and had ties to John of Calabria, who recruited mercenaries in Piedmont, Lombardy and Emilia to serve in the army of Burgundy.

[6] While Frederick of Aragon arrived at the court of Burgundy, Antoine de Bourgogne, the half- brother of Charles the Bold, set off to Naples with his son Philippe, François d'Este, an illegitimate son of Lionel Este and Guillaume de Rochefort and a hundred men to submit to King Ferdinand the collar of the Order of the Golden Fleece in which he was admitted to the Chapter of Valenciennes in 1473 at the request of Charles the Bold.

Frederick had to call upon his cousin Ferdinand II, King of Aragon, to repel the French, but the latter, after defeating Louis XII, retained the kingdom for himself.

Stripped of his dominions, Frederick was forced to implore the generosity of the King of France, who had made him an annuity of thirty thousand pounds on the duchy of Anjou.

In August 1501, Naples fell to the invading French army forcing Frederick, now in Blois, to negotiate with Louis XII of France.

His first wife was Anne of Savoy—daughter of Amadeus IX, Duke of Savoy,[9] and Yolande of Valois, daughter of Charles VII, King of France—whom he married on September 11, 1478, in Milan.