ALFONSO THE MAGNANIMOLIS AND THE FALL OF ANJOUAngevin policies, in the days of Charles I and his immediate
successors, and the continuities in foreign policy across the
centuries are certainly a distinctive feature of south Italian
politics.^28 For Alfonso was not rejecting the Angevin past out
of hand; he claimed to be the rightful successor to Joanna
II, and he and his own successors wore the Angevin lilies of
France on their elaborate coat of arms. Another, wider,
recognition of the Catalan imperium in the Mediterranean
can be found in mid-to late fifteenth-century Catalan liter-
ature; two early novels, Curial and Guelfa and Tirant lo Blanc,
built their romantic plots around tales of war and conquest
as far afield as Sicily and Greece, the former taking as its
time frame the War of the Sicilian Vespers, the latter devel-
oping the fourteenth-century tale of Guy of Warwick into a
massive evocation of Mediterranean warfare that would later
move Cervantes.^29
Alfonso's ambitions led to the neglect of Spanish affairs;
Aragon, Catalonia and Valencia were governed on his be-
half by viceroys, a system that worked most effectively when
they were members of the royal family, such as his estranged
queen.^30 His brother John, king of Navarre, became Lieu-
tenant-General in the Spanish mainland territories for some
years. On the other hand, the non-royal governor of Cata-
lonia Galcenin de Requesens was given a hard ride by the
Catalans, a point which confirmed the residual loyalty to the
royal family, even when Alfonso seemed completely engaged
with Italian affairs. Good claims have been made that under
Alfonso a central council emerged which saw as its brief
the administration of the entire Aragonese-Catalan common-
wealth; but the problem became (after 1442) the difficult
one of governing Spain from Naples, and it was always the
Italian territories that were most fully and consistently rep-
resented on the council, while provincial councils under
- For Alfonso and the Balkans, see also M. Spremic, Dubrovnik e gli
Aragonesi (1442-1495) (Palermo, 1986), pp. 50-55. - P. Waley, trans!. Curial and Guelfa (London, 1982); D.H. Rosenthal,
trans!., Tirant lo Blanc (London, 1984); see alsoP. Waley, 'Historical
names and titles in Curiale Giielfa', in A.D. Deyermond, ed., Medieval
Hispanic Studies presented to Rita Hamilton (London, 1976), pp. 245-56. - For one important aspect of Alfonso's Spanish policy, see L.M. Sanchez
Aragones, Cortes, Monarquia y Ciudades en Aragon, durante el reinado de
Alfonso el Magnanimo (Saragossa, 1994).