THE vv'ESTERN MEDITERRANEAN KINGDOMS 1200-1500empire. The island of Sicily had already, in the years around
1400, become an overseas possession of Spanish kings who
rarely thereafter visited what was in fact a valuable posses-
sion, strategically as well as economically. The south Italian
mainland was granted by the will of Alfonso V a chance to
flourish as an independent kingdom with a significant role in
the wider politics of the Italian peninsula; but the continu-
ing tension between the crown and the baronage weakened
the ability of the ruling family to resist foreign pretenders,
whether from France or from Spain. Ironically, the monarchy
was pursuing at this time a promising economic policy which
coincided with population growth and general recovery.^2
This recovery would not be brought to a halt by the wars
of conquest between 1494 and 1503, but the independent
Neapolitan monarchy would not be in place ready to reap
the benefits. The command centre now lay in Spain. After the
brief period of Alfonso the Magnanimous's rule in Naples,
the south Italian lands would no longer be the fulcrum of
Empire.
- Epstein, Island for itself; Sakellariou, 'Kingdom of Naples'. Even those
who accept Brese's strictures about the Sicilian economy in his Monde
mediterraneen must bear in mind that his discussion reaches only 1450,
while Epstein's more positive view encompasses the late fifteenth cen-
tury as well, a point which actually helps explain their radically differ-
ent results. On social conditions in Sicily proper, see A. Ryder, 'The
incidence of crime in Sicily in the mid-fifteenth century: the evidence
from composition records', in T. Dean, K. Lowe, eds, Crime, society and
the law in Renaissance Italy (Cambridge, 1994), pp. 59-73.