Between old and new alliances

Ferrante of Aragon, the policy of rapprochement with the State of the Church and the European construction of the anti-French bloc (1471-1472)

Abstract

The essay aims to examine the political relationship between the Papal State and the Kingdom of Naples after the election of Pope Sixtus IV in 1471. The main filter through which the analysis will be conducted is the Sforza correspondence from Naples and Rome to Milan. Despite the new pope’s initial concessions, the breakthrough desired by Ferrante regarding certain disputes with the Papal States was subordinated to the papal demand to receive the ambassadorship of obedience. Ferrante’s refusal began a controversy that protracted for about three months during which the ambassadorship of obedience was declined from the king into an instrument of political bargaining with the Holy See and diplomatic mediation with the other States on the background of a dynamic political framework that saw the Kingdom of Naples allied with Venice and the Duchy of Burgundy in opposition to the Franco-Sforza block.