THE V\'ESTERN MEDITERRA.I\'EA.N KINGDOMS 1200-1.500to the cult of Arthur and the medieval heroes as he was to
the classical humanism expounded by his brilliant staff of
Italian advisers, men such as Beccadelli and Lorenzo Valla.
That this involvement in Italy and even further afield
led to a neglect of Spanish affairs seems obvious. And yet
the tradition of ruling the separate kingdoms of the Crown
of Aragon through viceroys, generally close relatives, was
already established. Still, Alfonso was unable to achieve
within his Spanish lands the economic improvements that
he desired: the policies of the Busra remained unenforced,
and the unfree Catalan peasants remained unenfranchised.
Conventionally, this is regarded as a period of severe eco-
nomic crisis in Catalonia, but it is also plain that Alfonso's
conquests had a regenerating effect on the economy of
the Crown of Aragon, enabling Barcelona to forge newly
intense links to conquered Naples, and generally stimulat-
ing trans-Mediterranean traffic in primary materials such as
foodstuffs and in luxury goods. As, gradually, the popula-
tion of Europe began to recover from the worst ravages of
plague, the territories he ruled, notably Sicily and southern
Italy, were well placed to experience economic revival; and
one of the great success stories of his reign, and indeed of
the fifteenth-century European economy, was the expansion
of the sheep flocks of the Italian South. Here too the crown
was able to benefit, by taxing the movement of sheep and
creating for itself a constantly growing and very substantial
source of income. The question that remained open was
how these successes would be affected when the Kingdom
of Naples was transferred by Alfonso's will to his illegitimate
son Ferrante, while the rest of his lands went to Alfonso's
younger brother John.