El soldado políticoel Gran Capitán y la Italia de los Reyes Católicos

Abstract

In 1503 the conquest by the Great Captain, Gonzalo Fernandez de Cordoba completed the aggregation of the Kingdom of Naples to the monarchy of the Catholic Monarchs and in 1504 becoming the legal government of the first viceroy, but continued a historical trajectory of a politic soldier, initiated in 1495 with de first war of Naples in support of the local branch the House of Aragon. The Spanish conquest executed by the new military techniques under the Great Captain in his victory over the military might of France was generally interpreted by the contemporary Florentines Machiavelli and Guicciardini in function of the princely and noble ambition, rivalry and political calculation. But the aggregation of the Kingdom of Naples to the new Monarchy of Spain extended its expansive horizon. The defense of the inherited patrimony, in which the ultra farum kingdom of Sicily occupied a fundamental role despite its apparent distance, was to be secured by the control of the kingdom of citra Farum Sicily, Naples, that Ferdinand the Catholic endeavored to reinstate to the central branch of the house of Aragon after separation at the death of Alfonso V in 1458. From then on, Naples was the pivot of a great Mediterranean strategy, and the rest of Italy the rearguard of the Kingdom, turned into a base together with Sicily, to contain the Turkish advance and, where appropriate, to undertake new territorial challenges in Africa. This struggle was part also of a political program that legitimated Spanish expansion in the Mediterranean by stressing both commercial interests and the traditional ideals of Crusades. The Catholic King became the arbiter of Italian balance and the already strong presence of his subjects and agents in the papal court was further reinforced, creating an axis between Naples and Rome that would be decisive for the political and cultural future of the Monarchy. In this horizon, the political action of the Great Captain end in an irresolvable conflict with Ferdinand of Aragon during the period of his regency in Castile.