Background
Beccadelli was the son of Antonino Beccadelli and Giulia di Sangro, and grandson of the famous humanist Antonio Beccadelli, known as Panormita.
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Antonio Beccadelli
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Despite belonging to the city aristocracy, and his impressive personal qualities, Beccadelli was not of sufficient social status to aspire to the hand of a woman of royal blood such as Giovanna d"Aragona. Beccadelli became the estate manager of Frederick, King of Naples from 1494. When Frederick surrendered to the French (1501), Beccadelli retired to private life in Naples with an annual pension of about a thousand ducats.
By 1498 he was working as the estate manager of Giovanna d"Aragona, the young widow of Alfonso I, Duke of Amalfi, who had a young son born after her husband"s death.
The Duchess chose to make the marriage public in November 1510, when she travelled with a large retinue on a pigrimage to Santa Maria of Loreto. In fact the Duchess went to Ancona to join Antonio.
When the marriage became known to Giovanna"s brother, Cardinal Luigi d"Aragona he made his disapproval of the relationship sufficiently clear that the Duchess and her family chose to travel to Siena. Foreign some time he remained under the protection of Silvio Savelli.
He then entered the service of Gian Francesco Acquaviva, Marquis of Bitonto.
Finally he was assassinated by three murderers sent by the Cardinal, led by Daniele Bozolo. lieutenant is unclear whether this happened in Milan or Padua. The tragic story has inspired many literary works, taking their account of events from Matteo Bandello"s version.
These include:
The Palace of Pleasure, 1566, by William Painter
The Duchess of Malfi, by John Webster
El mayordomo de la Duquesa Amalfi by Lope de Vega.
