of the King of Naples in Capitanata, Terre de Bari and Terre d'Otrante, his roles receiving liege homage, overseeing the collection of taxes and enforcing trade agreements with the Republic of Venice. He also participated in the diplomatic activity that his father led, especially in receiving the lords the King of Naples wished to enter into an alliance with. He welcomed in March 1472 in Aversa and Naples, Jean della Rovere, prefect of Rome, lord of Senigallia and nephew of Pope Sixtus IV (della Rovere François), and on August 30, 1473, received Charles Manfredi, lord of Faenza. Diplomacy and marriage arrangements As early as April 1470, Charles the Bold proposed to marry his daughter and sole heiress Mary to Frederick, and the plans took shape in November 1471, after the signing of an alliance between the Duke of Burgundy and the King of Naples. As one of the richest heiresses of her time, many nobles were attempting to marry Mary of Burgundy. Her suitors included princes and lords such as Ferdinand the Catholic, Duke Nicholas I of Lorraine, Philibert of Savoy, George of England, and Charles de Guyenne. Louis XI himself expressed interest in nominating a prince of Aragon or Naples, with whom he could exchange the claims of Anjou against the Burgundian territories he sought to inherit in Maine. In February 1472, King Ferdinand received Frederick with the aim to aid in the project, a Burgundian delegation insisted that Charles the Bold, for its part, had not stopped his choice. Frederick's sister Eleanor expressed confidence in the idea that the Duke of Burgundy sought to join in alliance before Easter. But these hopes were shattered during the summer when they learned, at the court of Naples, of the engagement of Mary of Naples to Nicholas of Lorraine, a claimant to the Kingdoms of Naples and Aragon, resulting from the alliance concluded between the dukes of Burgundy and Lorraine, and Charles the Bold initialled by Arras on May 25, 1472, and signed by Nicholas, in turn, on May 27, 1472. Mary gave her consent to the promise of marriage on June 13, 1472, and Nicolas sent her his "Mons-en-Hainaut" the same day. In October 1472, a new Burgundian embassy arrived at Naples reassuring about the arrangement of Mary of Burgundy and the relationship between Charles the Bold and the King of Naples. On leaving, they left behind two squires responsible