The eastern policy of Alfonso V of Aragon.

Documentary sources

Abstract

The relations of King Alfonso V of Aragon and I of Naples with the Albania of Skanderbeg during the last part of his reign, in the forties and fifties of the fifteenth century, cannot be understood regardless of what has been called in historiography for more than a century his "Eastern policy". This was precisely the title of the pioneering work of Francesco Cerone in 1903 and the same one that Constantin Marinescu and Alan Ryder subsequently used1. It is no coincidence that none of them were Spanish scholars. Spanish and specifically Catalan historiography has until recently ignored this issue and more generally the figure of Alfonso V. Regarding the presence of the Crown of Aragon in the eastern Mediterranean, interest has focused on the fourteenth century and especially in the famous episode of the conquest of the duchy of Athens and Neopatria and its incorporation to the Crown between 1379 and 13882. Possibly, Alfonso's perception as an alien king, due to his origin from the Castilian dynasty of Trastámara,
and more interested in Italy than in Catalonia, has influenced this trend. Therefore, his oriental policy has been considered more linked to the kingdom of Naples than to the traditional lines of action of the Crown of Aragon.