THE WESTERN MEDITERRANEAN KINGDOMS 1200-1500a captive in French hands) had won for himself by means of
his subtle political skills.^19 It has been seen that these skills
were in a sense so subtle that he nearly brought disaster on
himself in 1494-95.
The king of Aragon had an eye open for his own oppor-
tunities too, seeking in the longer term to draw southern
Italy more closely under his influence. One complication
was that Charles VIII of France agreed to return to Aragon
the lost Catalan counties of Roussillon and Cerdagne, which
had been occupied by Louis XI of France in 1463, during
the Catalan civil war; it would obviously be improper for
Ferdinand to repay his French neighbour by taking a prom-
inent role in the defence of Italy against the French hordes.
Clever diplomatic manoeuvres, such as an Anglo-Aragonese
alliance which sent Ferdinand's daughter Catherine to Eng-
land as wife to the heir to the throne, made the French aware
that the return of Roussillon was a small price to pay for an
improvement in relations with both Aragon and Castile.~^0
Ferdinand the Catholic kept his eyes open, anxious to protect
his interests in the island of Sicily; by 1497, when an agree-
ment was signed at Alcala de Henares between the French
and the Spaniards, Ferdinand had manoeuvred Charles VIII
into a position where the French agreed to the partition of
southern Italy. At first Ferdinand of Aragon was to receive
only Calabria, the toe of Italy adjoining his existing posses-
sion of Sicily; but the Treaty of Granada with King Louis
XII of France (1500) promised the valuable south-east of
Italy, Apulia, as well. When in the next few years the French
attempted to assert their claims, the Aragonese literally stood
in their way; by the end of 1503 southern Italy was in Catalan-
Aragonese hands, that is, the hands of Ferdinand and not
of the local Aragonese dynasty, whose ruler, Federigo, had
been pensioned off_2^1 Among the victims of the war were the
south Italian jews, many of whom who were ordered to leave
- F. Baumgartner, Louis XII (Stroud, Glos./New York, 1994); B. Quilliet,
Louis XII, pere du peuple (Paris, 1986). , - J. Calmette, La question des Pyrenees et la Marche d'l:spagne au Moyen A!ie
(9th edn, Paris, 194 7). - For the last members of the house of Aragon-Naples, see A. Chaste!,
I"e cardinal Louis d'Amgon. Un voyageur princiPT de la Renaissance (Paris,
1986); D. Chiomenti Vassalli, Giovanna d'Aragona tra baroni, principi f
sovrani del Rinascimento (Milan, 1987).