Born in Naples in 1477, Joan of Aragon was the noble daughter of the ill-fated Henry of Aragon, marquis of Gerace, who died of poisoning in 1478.

At only 20 years old, the granddaughter of the king of Naples Ferrante I of Aragon, married the second Duke of Amalfi Don Alfonso Todeschini Piccolomini, nephew of Pope Pius III. Unfortunately, the marriage was short-lived due to his untimely death, so she found herself having to administer the family estate alone.

In this difficult time she was helped by the court butler, the Neapolitan patrician Antonio Beccadelli of Bologna, with whom she soon fell in love. Despite the social conventions of the time they married clandestinely and had two children.

Unfortunately, Joan's brother, Cardinal Louis of Aragon discovered them. To stifle the shameful affair he had the poor wretch locked up in the Ziro Tower along with his sons, on the stretch of road connecting Amalfi and Atrani, specifically in Pontone, a hamlet in the municipality of Scala in the province of Salerno. He also sent assassins to kill Beccadelli in Milan, where he had taken refuge.

The story was told by the writer and bishop Matteo Bandello in his novelle since he was close friends with Beccadelli. Giovanna is said to have been killed walled up alive along with her children in 1510, a rumor fueled by the absence of doors in the tower.

Joan the madwoman? Problems of nomenclature

There have been many queens bearing this name, especially in the history of the Kingdom of Naples, as Joan II, known as the Queen of Hearts. However, the Joan in question is often mistakenly referred to as. Joan the Mad. The unpleasant epithet referring to the queen's mental insanity, whether real or alleged, refers instead to Joan of Trastámara, namely Joan of Aragon and Castile, known precisely as Juana la Loca, virtually her contemporary and equally entangled in palace intrigue.

Joan of Aragon in art and literature

The story of Joan locked up in the Tower of Ziro caused quite a stir and inspired several literary works, including several 16th-century novellas and, in the following century, the tragedies The Duchess of Malfi by J. Webster and El Mayordomo de la Duquesa Amalfi by Lope de Vega. It is also very likely that she is indeed the woman depicted in an oil-on-canvas painting attributed to the school of Raphael Sanzio, dated around 1518 and kept in the Louvre Museum in Paris.