1.
Granada
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Granada is the capital city of the province of Granada, in the autonomous community of Andalusia, Spain. Granada is located at the foot of the Sierra Nevada mountains, at the confluence of four rivers, the Beiro, the Darro, the Genil and the Monachil. It sits at an elevation of 738 m above sea level, yet is only one hour by car from the Mediterranean coast. Nearby is the Sierra Nevada Ski Station, where the FIS Alpine World Ski Championships 1996 were held, about 3. 3% of the population did not hold Spanish citizenship, the largest number of these people coming from South America. Its nearest airport is Federico García Lorca Granada-Jaén Airport, the Alhambra, a Moorish citadel and palace, is in Granada. It is the most renowned building of the Andalusian Islamic historical legacy with its cultural attractions that make Granada a popular destination among the touristic cities of Spain. The Almohad influence on architecture is preserved in the Granada neighborhood called the Albaicín with its fine examples of Moorish. Granada is also well-known within Spain for the University of Granada which has about 80,000 students spread over five different campuses in the city, the pomegranate is the heraldic device of Granada. The region surrounding what today is Granada has been populated since at least 5500 BC and experienced Roman, the most ancient ruins found in the city belongs to an Iberian oppidum called Ilturir, in the region known as Bastetania. This oppidum eventually changed its name to Iliberri, and after the Roman conquest of Iberia, the Umayyad conquest of Hispania, starting in AD711, brought large parts of the Iberian Peninsula under Moorish control and established Al-Andalus. In the early 11th century, after a war that ended the Caliphate, the Berber, Zawi ben Ziri, established an independent kingdom for himself. Jewish people were established in another close to Illiberis, called Gárnata or Gárnata al-Yahūd. Granadas historical name in the Arabic language was غرناطة, the word Gárnata possibly means hill of strangers. Because the city was situated on a low plain and, as a result, difficult to protect from attacks, in a short time this town was transformed into one of the most important cities of Al-Andalus. By the end of the 11th century, the city had spread across the Darro to reach the hill of the future Alhambra, the Almoravids ruled Granada from 1090 and the Almohad dynasty from 1166. With the Reconquista in full swing after the conquest of Córdoba in 1236, according to some historians, Granada was a tributary state to the Kingdom of Castile since that year. It provided connections with Muslim and Arab trade centers, particularly for gold from sub-Saharan Africa and the Maghreb, the Nasrids also supplied troops from the Emirate and mercenaries from North Africa for service to Castile. Ibn Battuta, a traveler and an authentic historian, visited the Kingdom of Granada in 1350
2.
War of the Castilian Succession
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France intervened in support of Portugal, as they were rivals with Aragon for territory in Italy and Roussillon. The newly gained prestige was used to win support from their allies …. The war between Castile and Portugal alone continued and this included naval warfare in the Atlantic, which became more important, a struggle for maritime access to the wealth of Guinea. In 1478, the Portuguese navy defeated the Castilians in the decisive Battle of Guinea, Joanna lost her right to the throne of Castile and remained in Portugal until her death. This conflict has also called the Second Castilian Civil War. Some authors refer to it as the War of Portugal, however, at other times the term Peninsular War has been used, but it is easily confused with the Peninsular War of 1808–1814, part of the Napoleonic Wars. Some authors prefer the neutral expression War of 1475–1479, Joanna la Beltraneja, born in 1462, the first and only daughter of King Henry IV of Castile, was of Asturias. A rumour spread that Princess Joanna was not actually the daughter of King Henry but rather of Beltrán de la Cueva, Joanna was thus nicknamed la Beltraneja, as a mocking reference to her assumed father. Pressure from members of the nobility forced the King to strip her of the title and name his half-brother Alfonso as heir, in 1465, a group of nobility assembled in Ávila and overthrew King Henry, replacing him with Alfonso. That led to a war that ended in 1468 with the death of the 14-year-old Alfonso, Henry IV regained the throne, but the title of heir became disputed between Joanna, his daughter, and Isabella, his half-sister. That was resolved via the Treaty of the Bulls of Guisando, Isabella secretly married Ferdinand in 1469 at the age of 17, ignoring Henry IVs wishes. When Henry IV died in December 1474, both candidates for the throne were proclaimed Queen of Castile by their respective supporters, the Kingdom of France and the Crown of Aragon maintained a long-held rivalry for the control of Roussillon and, more recently, for hegemony in Italy. In June 1474, French troops invaded Roussillon and the Aragonese were forced to retreat, on the possibility that the heir to the throne of Aragon would also become King of Castile, Louis XI of France officially positioned himself on the side of Joanna and Afonso in September 1475. France was simultaneously at war with the Duchy of Burgundy and that made Burgundy into theoretical allies of Isabellas supporters, but in practice, it continued its war against France without coordinating their actions with the Isabella alliance. Edward IV accepted a truce of nine years, in exchange for significant economic compensation, the Kingdom of Navarre was experiencing an intermittent civil war, and the Muslim Kingdom of Granada remained neutral despite Portuguese efforts to draw it into the war. Throughout the 15th century, merchants, explorers and fishermen of Portugal, the possession of the Canary Islands was a point of contention between the two Crowns. Later on, the control of commerce with the territories of Guinea and Elmina, rich in gold and slaves, grew to a dispute of even greater importance. During the first half of the century, Castile staged the conquest of a few of the Canary Islands by feudal pacts, first with Norman knights, Portugal opposed Castilian authority on the islands and continued the exploration of Guinea, with significant commercial benefits
3.
Granada War
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It ended with the defeat of Granada and its annexation by Castile, ending all Islamic rule on the Iberian peninsula. The ten-year war was not an effort, but a series of seasonal campaigns launched in spring. The Granadans were crippled by internal conflict and civil war, while the Christians were generally unified, the war also saw the effective use of artillery by the Christians to rapidly conquer towns that would otherwise have required a long siege. On January 2,1492 Muhammad XII of Granada surrendered the Emirate of Granada, the city of Granada, the war was a joint project between Isabellas Crown of Castile and Ferdinands Crown of Aragon. The bulk of the troops and funds for the war came from Castile, the Crown of Aragon was less important, apart from the presence of King Ferdinand himself, Aragon provided naval collaboration, guns, and some financial loans. Aristocrats were offered the allure of new lands, while Ferdinand, New Christians came to be accused of crypto-Islam and crypto-Judaism. Spain would go on to model its national aspirations as the guardian of Christianity, the fall of the Alhambra is still celebrated every year by the City Council of Granada, and the Granada War is considered in traditional Spanish historiography as the final war of the Reconquista. At the same time, and uniquely in the Reconquista, the Granada War itself is never called the reconquest of Granada, Granada had never been Christian before the reconquista. The Emirate of Granada had been the last Muslim state in Iberia for more than two centuries by the time of the Granada War, the other remnant al-Andalus states of the once powerful Caliphate of Córdoba had long been conquered by the Christians. Still, Granada was wealthy and powerful, and the Christian kingdoms were divided, Granadas problems began to worsen after Emir Yusuf IIIs death in 1417. Succession struggles ensured that Granada was in an almost constant low-level civil war, clan loyalties were stronger than allegiance to the Emir, making consolidation of power difficult. Often, the territory the Emir really controlled was the city of Granada itself. At times, the emir did not even all the city, but rather one rival emir would control the Alhambra, and another the Albayzín. This internal fighting greatly weakened the state, the economy declined, with Granadas once world-famous porcelain manufacture now disrupted and challenged by the Christian town of Manises near Valencia, in Aragon. Despite the weakening economy, taxes were imposed at their earlier high rates to support Granadas extensive defenses. Ordinary Granadans paid triple the taxes of Castilians, the heavy taxes that Emir Abu-l-Hasan Ali imposed contributed greatly to his unpopularity. These taxes did at least support an army, Hasan was successful in putting down Christian revolts in his lands. The frontier between Granada and the Castilian lands of Andalusia was in a constant state of flux, neither in peace nor in war, raids across the border were common, as were intermixing alliances between local nobles on both sides of the frontier
4.
Italian Wars
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Ludovico Sforza of Milan, seeking an ally against the Republic of Venice, encouraged Charles VIII of France to invade Italy, using the Angevin claim to the throne of Naples as a pretext. For several months, French forces moved through Italy virtually unopposed, Charles VIII made triumphant entries into Pisa on November 8,1494, Florence on November 17,1494, and Rome on December 31,1494. Upon reaching the city of Monte San Giovanni in the Kingdom of Naples, Charles VIII sent envoys to the town, the garrison killed and mutilated the envoys and sent the bodies back to the French lines. This enraged the French army so that reduced the castle in the town with blistering artillery fire on February 9,1495 and stormed the fort. This was the sack of Naples. News of the French Armys sack of Naples provoked a reaction among the city-states of Northern Italy, the League was specifically formed to resist French aggression. The League was established on 31 March after negotiations by Venice, Milan, Spain and the Holy Roman Empire. Later on the League consisted of the Holy Roman Empire, the Duchy of Milan, Spain, the Papal States, the Republic of Florence, the Duchy of Mantua and this coalition, effectively, cut Charles army off from returning to France. After establishing a government in Naples, Charles started to march north on his return to France. However, in the town of Fornovo he met the League army. In contemporary tradition, though, the battle counted as a Holy League victory, because the French forces had to leave, to the Italian coalition, however, it was at best a pyrrhic victory, in that its strategic outcome and long-term consequences were unfavorable. Although the League managed to force Charles VIII off the battlefield, it suffered much higher casualties and could not prevent the opposing army crossing the Italian lands as it returned to France. As a result of Charles VIIIs expedition, the states of Italy were shown once. In fact, the individual Italian states could not field armies comparable to those of the feudal monarchies of Europe in numbers. Thus, Charles VIII lost all that he conquered in Italy, King Charles VIII died on April 7,1498 and was succeeded to the throne of France by his cousin, Louis II, Duke of Orléans, who became Louis XII of France. Ludovico Sforza retained his throne in Milan until 1499, when Charless successor, Louis XII of France, invaded Lombardy, Louis XII justified his claim to the Duchy of Milan by right of his paternal grandfather, Louis duc dOrléans having married Valentina Visconti in 1387. Valentina Visconti was the heir to the Duchy of Milan in the Visconti dynasty, the marriage contract between Valentina Visconti and Louis, duc dOrléans, guaranteed that in failure of male heirs, she would inherit the Visconti dominions. However, when the Visconti dynasty died out in 1447, the Milanese ignored the Orleans claim to the Duchy of Milan, however, bitter factionalism arose under the new republic which set the stage for Francisco Sforza to seize control of Milan in 1450
5.
Henry IV of Castile
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Henry IV of Castile, King of the Crown of Castile, nicknamed the Impotent, was the last of the weak late medieval kings of Castile. During Henrys reign the nobles increased in power and the nation became less centralised and he was born in 1425 in the Casa de las Aldabas in Teresa Gil street of Valladolid. He was the son of John II of Castile and Maria of Aragon and he displaced his older sister, Eleanor, and became heir apparent to the Castilian throne as the Prince of Asturias. At the time of his birth, Castile was under control of Álvaro de Luna, Duke of Trujillo, the companions of his own age included Juan Pacheco, who became his closest confidant. The struggles, reconciliations and intrigues for power among the aristocracy, Álvaro de Luna, on 10 October 1444, he became the first and only prince of Jaén. In 1445 he won the First Battle of Olmedo, defeating the Infantes of Aragon, after the victory at Olmedo, Álvaro de Lunas power waned, and Prince Henry and Juan Pachecos influence grew. John II died on 20 July 1454, Henry was proclaimed king the following day. One of his first priorities was the alliance with Portugal and he achieved this by marrying a second time, to Joan of Portugal in 1455, and by meeting Afonso V of Portugal in Elvas in 1456. His other main concerns were the possibility of intervention from John II of Navarre, establishing peace with France and Aragon, Henry convened the Cuéllar Courts to launch an offensive against the Emirate of Granada. The campaigns of 1455 and 1458 developed into a war of attrition based on punitive raids and it was not popular with the aristocracy or the people. Juan Pacheco, the Marquis of Villena, and his brother Pedro Girón were put in charge of government decisions, the king also took other advisors, such as Beltrán de la Cueva, Miguel Lucas de Iranzo and Gómez de Cáceres to balance against their influence. In 1458, Alfonso V of Aragon died and was succeeded by his brother, John resumed his interference in Castillian politics, supporting the aristocratic opposition to Juan Pachecos ambitions. With the support of the king, Pacheco moved to seize Álvaro de Lunas assets and this process resulted in the formation of a League of Nobles in March 1460. They raised a number of noblemen, took control of expenditure, and gained the acceptance of Alfonso of Castille. To counteract John II of Aragons politicking Henry IV reacted by invading Navarre in support of Charles, Charles was heir to Navarre, and he revolted against his father in 1450 when he refused to cede the throne of Navarre. John II of Aragon was in conflict with the Principality of Catalonia, and on the death of Johns son, Charles of Viana, Henry IVs intervention was framed as a rivalry between him and John, making Catalonia an unstable point in the Crown of Aragon. But Henry IV was unsuccessful, and the Castillian economy would suffer from an enmity with France, Henry therefore agreed to a settlement in the Judgment of Bayonne, resulting in the abandonment of the Catalans. Prince Henry celebrated his marriage to the infanta Blanche in 1440, the cardinal Juan de Cervantes presided over the official ceremony
6.
Order of Santiago
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The Order of Santiago, also known as The Order of St. James of the Sword, was founded in the 12th century, and owes its name to the national patron of Galicia and Spain, Santiago. Its initial objective was to protect the pilgrim of St. James Way, the first Republic suppressed the Order in 1873 and, although the Restoration was re-established, it was reduced to a nobiliary institute of honorable character. It was ruled by a Superior Council dependent on the Ministry of War, the Orders insignia is a red cross resembling a sword, with the shape of a fleur-de-lis on the hilt and the arms. The knights wore the cross stamped on the standard and white cape. The cross of the standard had a Mediterranean scallop in the center and another one at the end of each arm. The three fleurs-de-lis represent the honor without stain, which is in reference to the features of the Apostles character. The sword represents the character of the apostle St. James and his martyr ways. It can also symbolize taking the sword in the name of Christ and it is said that its shape originated in the era of the Crusades, when the knights took with them small crosses with sharpened bottoms to stick them in the ground and carry out their daily devotions. Santiago de Compostela, in Galicia, the centre of devotion to this Apostle, is neither the nor the principal seat of the order. Two cities contend for the honour of having given it birth, León in the kingdom of that name, at that time the royal dynasty was divided into two branches, the rivalry of which tended to obscure the beginnings of the order. Hence arose long disputes which ended in 1230 when Ferdinand III. The order received its first rule in 1171 from Cardinal Jacinto and this first Grand Master was Pedro Fernández de Castro, also known as Pedro Fernández de Fuentecalada, a soldier of King Ferdinand II and a former crusader. Unlike the contemporary orders of Calatrava and Alcántara, which followed the rule of the Benedictines of Cîteaux. At León, they offered their services to the Canons Regular of Saint Eligius in that town for the protection of pilgrims to the shrine of St. James and this explains the mixed character of their order—hospitaller and military—like that of St. John of Jerusalem. They were recognized as religious by Pope Alexander III, whose Bull of 5 July 1175, was confirmed by more than twenty of his successors. These pontifical acts, collected in the Bullarium of the order, secured all the privileges. The mildness of this rule furthered the spread of the order, which eclipsed the older orders of Calatrava and Alcántara. The first Bull of confirmation, that of Pope Alexander III, at its height Santiago alone had more possessions than Calatrava and Alcántara together
7.
Ferdinand II of Aragon
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Ferdinand II, called the Catholic, was King of Sicily from 1468 and King of Aragon from 1479 until his death. As a consequence of his marriage to Isabella I, he was King of Castile as Ferdinand V from 1474 until her death in 1504 and he was recognised as regent of Castile for his daughter and heir, Joanna, from 1508 until his own death. In 1504, after a war with France, he became King of Naples as Ferdinand III, reuniting Naples with Sicily permanently, in 1512, he became King of Navarre by conquest. Ferdinand is today best known for his role in inaugurating the discovery of the New World, since he and that year he also fought the final war with Granada which expunged the last Islamic state on Iberian soil, thus bringing to a close the centuries-long Reconquista. At his death he was succeeded by Joanna, who co-ruled with her son, Charles V, Ferdinand was born in Sada Palace, Sos del Rey Católico, Kingdom of Aragon, as the son of John II of Aragon by his second wife, Juana Enríquez. He married Infanta Isabella, the half-sister and heiress of Henry IV of Castile, on 19 October 1469 in Valladolid, Kingdom of Castile, Isabella also belonged to the royal House of Trastámara, and the two were cousins by descent from John I of Castile. They were married with a prenuptial agreement on sharing power. He became jure uxoris King of Castile when Isabella succeeded her brother in 1474 to be crowned as Queen Isabella I of Castile. The two young monarchs were initially obliged to fight a war against Joan of Castile, the purported daughter of Henry IV. When Ferdinand succeeded his father as King of Aragon in 1479, the Crown of Castile, for the first time since the 8th century, this union created a single political unit referred to as España, the root of which is the ancient name Hispania. The various states were not formally administered as a single unit, the completion of the Reconquista was not the only significant act performed by Ferdinand and Isabella in that year. That document was signed with the defeated Moorish Emir of Granada Muhammad XII and it allowed Mudéjar Moors and converso Marrano Jews to stay, while expelling all unconverted Jews from Castile and Aragon. 1492 was also the year in which the monarchs commissioned Christopher Columbus to find a maritime route for access to Asia. In 1494 the Treaty of Tordesillas divided the world beyond Europe between Portugal and Castile for conquest and dominion purposes – by a north–south line drawn down the Atlantic Ocean. Ferdinand violated the 1492 Alhambra Decree peace treaty in 1502 by dismissing the clearly guaranteed religious freedom for Mudéjar Muslims, Ferdinand forced all Muslims in Castile and Aragon to convert, converso Moriscos, to Catholicism, or else be expelled. Some of the Muslims who remained were mudéjar artisans, who could design and this was also practised by the Spanish inquisitors on the converso Marrano Jewish population of Spain. The main architect behind the Spanish Inquisition was King Ferdinand II, Ferdinand destroyed over ten thousand Arabic manuscripts in Granada alone, burning them. The latter part of Ferdinands life was taken up with disputes with successive Kings of France over control of Italy
8.
Guerrilla warfare
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The term, the diminutive form of war in Spanish, is usually translated as little war, and the word, guerrilla, has been used to refer to the concept since the 18th century, and perhaps earlier. In correct Spanish usage, a person who is a member of a guerrilla is a guerrillero if male, the term guerrilla was used in English as early as 1809, to refer to the fighters, and also to denote a group or band of such fighters. However, in most languages guerrilla still denotes the style of warfare. The use of the diminutive evokes the differences in number, scale, guerrillas usually carries positive connotations, and is often used by such fighters themselves and by their sympathizers, while their foes in many cases call them terrorists. Making an objective definition of the difference between a guerrilla and a terrorist has proven a difficult task, the strategy and tactics of guerrilla warfare tend to focus around the use of a small, mobile force competing against a larger, more unwieldy one. The Guerrilla focuses on organizing in small units, depending on the support of the local population, tactically, the guerrilla army would avoid any confrontation with large units of enemy troops, but seek and eliminate small groups of soldiers to minimize losses and exhaust the opposing force. Not limiting their targets to personnel, enemy resources are preferred targets. All of that is to weaken the strength, to cause the enemy eventually to be unable to prosecute the war any longer. It is often misunderstood that guerrilla warfare must involve disguising as civilians to cause enemy troops to fail in telling friend from foe, however, this is not a primary feature of a guerrilla war. This type of war can be practiced anywhere there are places for combatants to cover themselves, at least one author credits the ancient Chinese work The Art of War with providing instruction in such tactics to Mao. The Chinese general and strategist Sun Tzu, in his The Art of War or 600 BC to 501 BC, was the earliest to propose the use of guerrilla warfare and this directly inspired the development of modern guerrilla warfare. Guerrilla tactics were employed by prehistoric tribal warriors against enemy tribes. Evidence of conventional warfare, on the hand, did not emerge until 3100 BC in Egypt. Since the Enlightenment, ideologies such as nationalism, liberalism, socialism, because of the innovative tactics he used during his command, he made himself the name of Terror Romanorum. A counter-insurgency or counterinsurgency operation involves actions taken by the government of a nation to contain or quell an insurgency taken up against it. Counter-insurgency operations are common during war, occupation and armed rebellions, the two most influential of scholars of counter-insurgency have been Westerners whose job it had been to fight insurgents. Robert Thompson fought during the Malayan Emergency and David Galula fought during the Algerian War, together these officers advocated multi-pronged strategies to win over the civilian population to the side of the counter-insurgent. The widely distributed and influential work of Sir Robert Thompson, counter-insurgency expert of the Malayan Emergency, thompsons underlying assumption was that the counter-insurgent was committed to improving the rule of law and bettering local governance
9.
Frederick of Naples
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Frederick, sometimes called Frederick IV or Frederick of Aragon, was the last King of Naples of the Neapolitan branch of the House of Trastámara, ruling from 1496 to 1501. He was the son of Ferdinand I, younger brother of Alfonso II. A combination of King Louis XII of France and Fredericks famous cousin King Ferdinand II of Aragon had continued the claim of Louiss predecessor, King Charles VIII of France, to Naples and Sicily. Born in Naples to Ferdinand I and his first wife, Isabella of Clermont, Princess of Taranto, he succeeded his childless nephew Ferdinand II after the early death in 1496. He was baptized on April 19,1452 in Castel Capuano and his godfather was the Emperor Frederick III and he left Naples on 18 March 1465 with 320 riders and learned while en route on March 30 about the death of his mother. He was received at Rome on April 2,1465 by Pope Paul II who presented him with the golden rose and he then went to Siena and Florence, where he was received on April 17 by Lorenzo the Magnificent. He then journeyed to Milan, and stayed until June 7 and he followed the same route when he was stopped by the Duke of Milan, who threatened to break up the wedding in Siena until diplomacy was opened up. He returned to Naples on 14 September and he also participated in the diplomatic activity that his father led, especially in receiving the lords the King of Naples wished to enter into an alliance with. He welcomed in March 1472 in Aversa and Naples, Jean della Rovere, prefect of Rome, lord of Senigallia and nephew of Pope Sixtus IV, as one of the richest heiresses of her time, many nobles were attempting to marry Mary of Burgundy. Her suitors included many 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, 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. Frederick’s sister Eleanor expressed confidence in the idea that the Duke of Burgundy sought to join in alliance before Easter, Mary gave her consent to the promise of marriage on June 13,1472 and Nicolas sent her his Mons-en-Hainaut the same day. In October 1472, a new Burgundian embassy arrived at Naples reassuring about the arrangement of Mary of Burgundy, on leaving, they left behind two squires responsible for teaching Frederick better French. Charles the Bold used the marriage of his daughter as an instrument of his diplomacy. The engagement of Mary and Nicholas never came to fruition, on November 5,1472, at the camp of Charles the Bold in Beaurevoir, Nicholas waived his promise of marriage without jeopardizing the alliance between the two dukes. Mary renounced her betrothal on 3 December and he also raised the possibility of a marriage with a daughter of Luca Sanseverino, Prince of Bisignano, before returning to his original wedding arrangements. 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. On November 28, Alphonse, Duke of Calabria, was confirmed as an ambassador for the negotiations by his father, Frederick left Naples on October 26,1474, with a princely retinue and many visits in Italy, awaited the opportunity to go to Dijon
10.
Ferdinand I of Naples
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Ferdinand I of Naples should not be confused with Ferdinand I of the Two Sicilies, a later king of Naples. Ferdinand I, also called Ferrante, was the King of Naples from 1458 to 1494 and he was the son of Alfonso V of Aragon and his mistress, Giraldona Carlino. She was a granddaughter of Mary of Enghien, who had been queen consort of Naples between 1406 and 1414, Ferdinands wife was the heiress presumptive of remarkable feudal possessions in Southern Italy. He used the title Ferdinand I, King of Naples and Jerusalem, in accordance with his fathers will, Ferdinand succeeded Alfonso on the throne of Naples in 1458, when he was 35 years old. Pope Calixtus III, however, declared the line of Aragon extinct, Calixtus died before he could make good his claim, and the new Pope Pius II within the year publicly recognized Ferdinands titles. In 1459, Ferdinands rule was threatened by a revolt of the barons. Among the leaders of revolt were Giovanni Antonio Orsini, prince of Taranto, the rebels joined to offer the crown to John of Anjou, a son of the former king René. With the help of the Genoese, John brought a fleet and landed, on July 7,1460, Ferdinand was defeated by John in the plain beside the mouth of the Sarno River south of Mount Vesuvius. Ferdinand was nearly captured and escaped with a guard of only twenty men, Isabella appears to have been responsible for dissuading Orsini from supporting John and Genoa removed their assistance. His fleet was finally demolished by the forces of Ferdinand. By 1464, Ferdinand had re-established his authority in the kingdom, in 1478 he allied himself with Pope Sixtus IV against Lorenzo de Medici, but the latter journeyed alone to Naples where he succeeded in negotiating an honorable peace with Ferdinand. Isabella became also the holder of Brienne rights to the Kingdom of Jerusalem, Ferdinands wife Isabellas had died in 1465, and by 1476, Ferdinand had remarried Joanna of Aragon, his first cousin. In 1482, abandoning his position of paladin of the Papal States, he fought alongside Ferrara and Milan against the alliance of Sixtus IV. Coppola and Antonello Petrucci were arrested during a wedding at Castel Nuovo, ultimately this uprising was crushed, many of the nobles, notwithstanding Ferdinands signing of a general amnesty, were afterwards jailed and executed at his command. In December 1491 Ferdinand was visited by a group of pilgrims on their return from the Holy Land and this group was led by William I, Landgrave of Hesse. With almost prophetic instinct he warned the Italian princes of the calamities in store for them, but his negotiations with Pope Alexander VI and Ludovico Sforza failed. He died on 25 January 1494, worn out with anxiety, he was succeeded by his son, Alphonse, Duke of Calabria, the cause of his death was determined, in 2006, to have been colorectal cancer, by examination of his mummy. His remains show levels of carbon 13 and nitrogen 15 consistent with reports of considerable consumption of meat
11.
Charles VIII of France
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Charles VIII, called the Affable, French, lAffable, was a monarch of the House of Valois who ruled as King of France from 1483 to his death in 1498. He succeeded his father Louis XI at the age of 13 and his elder sister Anne of France acted as regent jointly with her husband Peter II, Duke of Bourbon until 1491 when the young king turned 21 years of age. During Annes regency, the great lords rebelled against royal centralisation efforts in a known as the Mad War. Preoccupied by the succession in the Kingdom of Hungary, Maximilian failed to press his claim. Upon his marriage, Charles became administrator of Brittany and established a union that enabled France to avoid total encirclement by Habsburg territories. The coalition formed against the French invasion of 1494-98 finally drove out Charles army, Charles died in 1498 after accidentally striking his head on the lintel of a door. Since he had no heir, he was succeeded by his cousin Louis XII of France from the Orléans cadet branch of the House of Valois. Charles was born at the Château dAmboise in France, the surviving son of King Louis XI by his second wife Charlotte of Savoy. Charles succeeded to the throne on 30 August 1483 at the age of 13 and he was regarded by his contemporaries as possessing a pleasant disposition, but also as foolish and unsuited for the business of the state. She would rule as regent, together with her husband Peter of Bourbon, Charles was betrothed on 22 July 1483 to the 3-year-old Margaret of Austria, daughter of the Archduke Maximilian of Austria and Mary, Duchess of Burgundy. The marriage was arranged by Louis XI, Maximilian, and the Estates of the Low Countries as part of the 1482 Peace of Arras between France and the Duchy of Burgundy. Margaret brought the Counties of Artois and Burgundy to France as her dowry, in 1488, however, Francis II, Duke of Brittany, died in a riding accident, leaving his 11-year-old daughter Anne as his heiress. The Regent Anne of France and her husband Peter refused to countenance such a marriage, however, since it would place Maximilian and his family, the Habsburgs, on two French borders. The French army invaded Brittany, taking advantage of the preoccupation of Frederick III and his son with the succession to Mathias Corvinus. Anne of Brittany was forced to renounce Maximilian and agree to be married to Charles VIII instead, in December 1491, in an elaborate ceremony at the Château de Langeais, Charles and Anne of Brittany were married. The 14-year-old Duchess Anne, not happy with the arranged marriage, however, Charless marriage brought him independence from his relatives and thereafter he managed affairs according to his own inclinations. Queen Anne lived at the Clos Lucé in Amboise, there still remained the matter of Charles first betrothed, the young Margaret of Austria. Although the cancellation of her betrothal meant that she by rights should have returned to her family, Charles did not initially do so
12.
Ostia (Rome)
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Ostia is a large neighbourhood in the X Municipio of the commune of Rome, Italy, near the ancient port of Rome, named Ostia, which is now a major archaeological site known as Ostia Antica. Ostia is also the only municipio or district of Rome on the Tyrrhenian Sea, with about 85,000 inhabitants, Ostia is the first or second-most populated frazione of Italy, depending on whether Mestre is counted. The town is located on the Tyrrhenian coast, close to Acilia, the neighbourhood was founded in 1884 near the remains of Ostia Antica, the port city of ancient Rome. This was possible after reclamation of the marshland, which was infested by malaria. The first inhabitants were peasants coming from Ravenna, in Romagna, due to the opening of the urban Roma-Ostia railway in 1924, the new village soon became the favourite sea resort of the Romans, while many Art Nouveau houses were built on the waterfront. The new village was connected to central Rome through the new Via Ostiense, during the Fascist period, the government massively expanded the neighbourhood, which got its ultimate architectural character thanks to many new buildings in Stile Littorio. New infrastructures, like a road to Rome, the promenade. After World War II, many bathing establishments were built on the sea side, the new Cristoforo Colombo avenue connected Ostia with the EUR district in Rome. However, sea pollution, which became apparent during the 1970s, the building of the Leonardo da Vinci Airport in Fiumicino in 1956 made Ostia an attractive district for airport and airline workers. Italian intellectual, film director and poet Pier Paolo Pasolini was assassinated near the airport on 2 November 1975. In 1976 Ostia became part of the XIII Municipio of the Comune of Rome, nowadays, due to the expansion of the city, only the Park of Castelfusano separates Ostia from the other quarters of Rome. The regional Rome-Lido railway line, which carries over 90,000 passengers a day, connects Ostia to the centre of Rome, the full length of the line is 28.359 kilometres. It has 13 stops, and the time is roughly 37 minutes. The Roman terminal is at Roma Porta San Paolo station, very close to the Piramide stop, rail stops in Ostia are Ostia Antica, Ostia Lido Nord, Ostia Lido Centro, Ostia Stella Polare, Ostia Castel Fusano and Ostia Cristoforo Colombo. Ostia Online Site of the Centro Studi Storici Ambientali Ostia and of Genius Loci Publisher Le Date della storia di Ostia Met. Ro
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