Isabella of Aragón (1470–1524)

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Isabella of Aragón (1470–1524)
Sacristy of the Church of San Domenico Maggiore in Naples

Isabella of Aragón (also Isabella of Naples ; Italian Isabella d'Aragona ; * October 2, 1470 in Castel Capuano in ( Naples ); † February 11, 1524 in Naples) was Duchess of Milan from 1494 to 1499 and from 1499 to her Death of Duchess of Bari and Princess of Rossano .

Life

Isabella of Aragón was the daughter of the Duke of Calabria and later King Alfonso II of Naples and his wife Ippolita Maria Sforza . On February 2, 1489, at the age of 18, she married her cousin, Duke Gian Galeazzo Sforza of Milan, in order to strengthen the alliance between the Kingdom of Naples and the Duchy of Milan. The couple had a son and three daughters:

Isabella's husband was nominally Duke of Milan, but his uncle Ludovico Sforza exercised the actual rule in the duchy. When Gian Galeazzo Sforza died on October 21, 1494 at the age of only 25, Isabella, who had become a widow after only five years of marriage, suspected that he had fallen victim to a murder commissioned by his uncle. In addition, Isabella had already experienced humiliation from Ludovico Sforza. These circumstances, as well as her rivalry with the wife of Ludovico Sforza, Beatrice d'Este , ultimately led Isabella to call on the Aragonese's arms for help. However, it only brought about a faster expiry of those momentous events which their fatherly kingdom, the house of the Sforza and in this way, in fact, the entire Apennine peninsula surrendered to foreign powers.

From 1499 until her death in 1524 Isabella was Duchess of Bari and Princess of Rossano . Since her arrival in Bari, the castle there has been converted into a palace. Court life reached its climax under Isabella's daughter Bona Sforza, who used Bari as a widow's residence after the death of her husband Sigismund I.

Isabella of Aragón was buried in the sacristy of the Church of San Domenico Maggiore in Naples, where there are also 45 other Aragonese tombs of the family.

literature

personal data
SURNAME Isabella of Aragon
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Isabella d'Aragona
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Duchess of Milan
DATE OF BIRTH October 2, 1470
PLACE OF BIRTH Naples
DATE OF DEATH February 11, 1524
Place of death Naples