[12][21] Ferrante was solemnly crowned on February 4, 1459, in the Cathedral of Barletta and to thank the Pope, in 1461, he wanted Maria, his natural daughter, to marry Antonio Piccolomini nephew of Pius, giving her as a dowry the Duchy of Amalfi, the county of Celano and the office of Great executioner for her husband.

However, they had great difficulty in settling another plague, because Queen Maria, who was the wife of King Alfonso V, died in Catalonia and left her dowries, amounting to four hundred thousand ducats, to the heir John II.

While trying to suppress the first revolts in Apulia and Abruzzo, Ferrante received the notice that the Duke John with twenty-two galleys and four large ships had appeared in the marina di Sessa, between the mouth of the Garigliano and the Volturno.

Inanto, the gratitude that bound him to the Skanderbeg was not silent in Ferrante's heart and, wanting to give him a sign, he gave him to his own and perpetual heritage Trani, Siponto, and San Giovanni Rotondo, a city in Puglia and therefore opposite Albania.

In fact, in addition to the erected architectures and the impulse given to the university, during his reign a true Italian and Latin culture was formed in the kingdom, which counted among its major representatives the Panormita, the Sannazaro, the Pontano: literature that reflected life of the country, its tendencies, its needs, especially through the works of Diomede Carafa, of Galateo, of Tristano Caracciolo, and, as such, it was destined to survive even in the following centuries.

The successor, Pope Paul II, recognizing that his predecessor had neglected the collection of the income due to the papacy, began to urge Ferrante to pay all the taxes he owed to the Holy See, which had not been paid for several years.

The Pope, seeing how soured the mood of the King was, and not being able to resist him with the army or with other ways, immediately sent to Naples Cardinal Roverella to try to appease Ferrante, who then angrily ordered Alfonso his son to remove the Duchy of Sora to the Church.

In these years Naples had a flourishing golden age similar to the one it was in the reign of Charles II of Anjou for the promotion of art and for the many royals who adorned its palace, in fact Ferrante had numerous offspring like Carlo which increased its prestige.

But it was instead Ferrante's ambition that decreed the end of the alliance, when in 1473 he demanded the possession of the island of Cyprus, protectorate of the Serenissima, proposing in complete secrecy to marry his son Alfonso with a daughter of King James.

Wanting to prove his integrity - as it is said - Ferrante brought the saint to the parts of the current Piazza del Plebiscito and tempted him with a tray full of gold coins offered for the construction of a convent of the Minims in Naples, in the open space that today it is occupied by the colonnade of the Church of San Francesco di Paola.

[34] The peace was granted, although the fate of the arms had been favorable to the Aragonese, and happy circumstances, such as the internal unrest in Milan and the neutrality of Venice, authorized consideration as the most opportune moment for Naples to attempt the conquest of an effective dominance over Italy.

Furthermore, the magnificence of his court and the wealth of means at his disposal created him the reputation of a very rich sovereign; and finally his flashy diplomatic and war triumphs, his wise financial and administrative reforms, and the considerable aids given to writers and artists were able to give good hopes to the subjects who were favorable to his house.

Ferrante, in exchange for 10,000 ducats, returned to them all the lands he had conquered during the conflict against Florence (Colle Val d'Elsa, Poggibonsi, Monte San Savino, Poggio Imperiale, and other fortified places in the Chianti and Valdelsa).

The death of Mohammed II and the discord that arose between two of his sons, Cem Sultan and Bayezid, each of whom demanded the empire, prompted Ariaden to understand that the help he was waiting for would come very late, so he decided to surrender to Alfonso and, after having after concluding the peace negotiations, he embarked with the troops and set out for Constantinople.

The following spring, the Venetians put into the sea an army of one hundred and twenty woods with troops commanded by the Duke of Lorraine, René II, who occupied Gallipoli, Nardò, and Monopoli with resistance, as well as other smaller places in the Otranto area.

[12][59] Ferrante, with a Pragmatic entitled De scolaribus doctorandis, ordered his subjects to promote sciences in the capital and after Naples he wanted only the city of L'Aquila to be granted the privilege of license to open a Studium.

With an almost prophetic instinct, he warned the Italian princes against the calamity that was about to befall them, but the negotiations with Pope Alexander VI and Ludovico il Moro failed, and Ferrante died before having assured peace to his kingdom.

The move did not have the desired effects: the Aragonese lineage was by now dangerously vacillating and the imminent arrival of the French sovereign pushed many Neapolitan nobles to take sides with the invader, facilitating the future fall of the royals from the throne.

[13] Gaetano Canzano Avarna describes him as "selfish and ruthless, when he could promise himself some pleasure, he gladly obtained it, often at the expense of other people's unhappiness, not being scrupulous in this for that kind of hatred he had conceived for his fellow men, to whom he was happy to try those same goads that he himself had tried ".

He inherited his father's love for ceremonial and magnificence, as evidenced by the welcome given to a Burgundian embassy in 1472, one of the greatest manifestations of princely splendor of the time, according to Pontano, and the celebrations on the occasion of the marriage of the Duke of Calabria with Ippolita Maria Sforza.

Ferrante managed to lay the foundations for the formation of an embryo of a modern state thanks to the creation of new political institutions such as the Collateral Council and the consolidation of financial structures such as the Regia Camera della Sommaria.

[62] Furthermore, Ferrante managed to ensure that the university flourished through learned professors; and for this purpose he invited Costantino Lascaris with his gracious diploma to come and teach the Greek language, assigning him a large salary corresponding to the fame of his name.

[73] Likewise in the first one on the right is represented the King who valiantly puts the conspirators to flight with the verses: "HOS REX MARTIPOTENS ANIMOSIOR HECTORE CLARO / SENSIT VT INSIDIAS ENSE MICANTE FVGAT".

[74] The other paintings represent the siege with the taking of Troy and the surrender of Acquaviva, with the carved verses that say: TROIA DEDIT OUR REQVIEM FINEMQ (VE) LABORI / IN QVA HOSTEM FVDI FORTITER AC POPVLI ";[75] " HOSTEM TROIANIS FERNANDVS VICIT IN ARVIS / SICVT POMPEVM CESAR IN EHACTIS";[76] " HINC TROIAM VERSVS MAGNO CONCVSSA FEAR / CASTRA MOVENT HOSTES NE SVBITO PEREANT";[77] "AQVA DIA FORTEM CEPIT REX FORTIOR VRBEM/ ANDEGAVOS PELLENS VIRIBVS EXIMII".

[62] Ferrante erected the Porta del Carmine and that of San Gennaro and for this work he spent 28466 ducats, on his order the table bridges placed in front of each gate of the city were removed and on the side of the Carmelo church he had that door built that can be seen adorned of travertine stones, he had the Porta Capuana transported, which was near the Castel Capuano on the sides of the church of Santa Caterina in Formiello, where it was magnificently built with sculptures worked in marvelous fine marbles, he had an armory built such as to be able to contain weapons for sixty thousand soldiers, completed the famous tower that now serves as the bell tower of the Basilica of San Lorenzo Maggiore begun by Charles II, for his arrangement the cenacle of the friars of Santa Maria la Nova was painted by the brothers Pietro and Ippolito del Donzello and he also had many places of worship repaired, adorning them with precious furnishings.

[13] In 1486, Ferrante commissioned the architect and military engineer Francesco di Giorgio Martini to expand the fortress of Taranto built by the Byzantines, in order to replace the medieval type of towers conceived for the plumbing defense.

[62] The art for which Ferrante showed real enthusiasm, and in which his tastes were closest to those of Alfonso, was music : he continually sought out singers educated at the Burgundy school; expert organ builders received a warm welcome and in the early seventies Johannes Tinctoris arrived in Naples to complete the array of talents active in the court chapel and to develop the tradition of secular polyphony, so that the Neapolitan city excelled over the whole Italy for most of the century.

Furthermore, Ferrante established in Naples the first musical school in Italy and one of the first in Europe, which involved the major musicians of the time such as: Bernhard Hykaert, the aforementioned Tinctoris, Guglielmo Guarnier and Franchino Gaffurio, who from 1475 to 1478 covered the position of Master of the Chapel of the Royal Palace.

Historian Jacob Burckhardt described Ferrante's recreational activities as follows: "his pleasures were of two kinds: he liked to have his opponents near him, either alive in well-guarded prisons, or dead and embalmed, dressed in the costume which they wore in their lifetime."

He also appears as a character in the novel " The Duchess of Milan" by Michael Ennis (1992), as well as in comics: On 29 September 1465 Ferrante founded the famous Order of the Ermine, which was awarded to the same sovereign, his son Alfonso, his nephew Ferrandino and many other important personalities, such as Ercole I d'Este, Galeazzo Maria Sforza, Ludovico il Moro, Federico from Montefeltro and Charles I of Burgundy.