The University was founded under the royal prerogative granted by King Alfonso V of Aragon, in Naples, on 3 November 1450. For forty-nine years prior to this, however, the city had a fledgling medical school (or "Estudi General", as the universities were known at that time), founded by King Martin of Aragon, but neither the "Consell de Cent" (Barcelona's Council of One Hundred) nor the city's other leading institutions had given it their official recognition, considering it an intrusion on their respective jurisdictions. Alphonse the Magnanimous’ prerogative, though, was granted at the petition of the "Consell de Cent", and so the council was always to consider the "Estudi General" created in 1450 as the city's true university, since it was very much under its control and patronage.