D'Aragona was born in
Naples on June 25, 1456, the son of
Ferdinand I of Naples and his wife
Isabella of Clermont. He became a
protonotary apostolic on July 12, 1465. On November 10, 1477, he was named
apostolic administrator of the
see of Taranto, a post he held for the rest of his life. In the
consistory of December 10, 1477,
Pope Sixtus IV made him a
cardinal deacon. He received the
deaconry of
Sant'Adriano al Foro on December 12, 1477. The pope sent him the
red hat in Naples three months later. He served as apostolic administrator of the
see of Badajoz from January 20, 1479, to May 14, 1479. On April 10, 1479, the pope named him
legate a latere to the
Kingdom of Hungary; he left
Rome for his legation on January 31, 1480, and returned on August 31, 1480. On January 14, 1480, he opted for the order of
cardinal priests and his deaconry of Sant'Adriano al Foro was raised
pro illa vice to
titulus. On November 14, 1481, he was named apostolic administrator of the
metropolitan see of Cosenza, a post he held for the rest of his life. He was in Naples from April 23, 1482, until August 30, 1483, when he returned to Rome. He became apostolic administrator of the
metropolitan see of Salerno on January 13, 1483, and of the
metropolitan see of Esztergom on December 20, 1483, and held both of those offices until his death as well. On September 10, 1483, he was named
papal legate to Hungary and Germany. He returned to Rome on August 19, 1484, in order to participate in the
papal conclave of 1484 that elected
Pope Innocent VIII. His father, the king of Naples, then named him governor and
viceroy of the
Province of Bari. In early October 1485, his father despatched him on a mission to the pope. He arrived in Rome in the midst of a serious epidemic and soon died of
fever on October 17, 1485. He is buried in
Santa Sabina. ==References==