In the Shadow of the Vesuvius
Introduction
The History of the Kings of Sicily from the War of the Sicilian Vespers to the end of the Napoletan Wars of Succession
Introduction
The History of the Kings of Sicily from the War of the Sicilian Vespers to the end of the Napoletan Wars of Succession
The fourteenth century was drawing it’s curtain over Europe and over the Kingdom of Naples. This century started promising for the Southern Italian kingdom. Despite losing the island of Sicily to the Aragonese in the late 13th century, the kingdom retained it’s prominence in Italian politics.
The first two Angevin monarchs, Charles I (1266-1285) and Charles II (1285-1309), father and son, embarked on ambitious quests, the first one trying to restore both the Latin Empire and the Kingdom of Jerusalem under his rule and the second to recover the island of Sicily, lost by his father during the Sicilian Vespers. Neither one was fully successful in their adventures, so when Charles II’s son, Robert I (1309-1343) inherited the kingdom, the economic and cultural level of Naples had never been lower, from the cultural progress under the Normans up to the financial powerhouse of the Hohenstaufens.
Known as Robert the Wise, he transformed the kingdom from a bellicose state to a center of culture and learning. Under his patronage the University of Naples flourished, attracting students from all over Italy. He also granted rights to Tuscan merchants, improving the economy of Naples. The city itself witnessed the prosperity of Robert’s rule, as superb building, monuments and statues being erected, changing King Robert's capital from a dirty seaport to a city of elegance and medieval splendor.
Although being concerned by the economic and cultural aspects of his kingdom, Robert didn’t neglect the political and military scene of Italy. Having opposed two Emperors who tried to invade Italy (Henry VII of Luxembourg and Louis IV of Bavaria), intervening in Papal and Florentine politics, ruling wide possessions in Piedmont and becoming Lord of Genoa (1318-1334) and Brescia (1319) Robert gained the nickname of “the peace-maker of Italy”.
His biggest disappointment though, was his inability to provide a male heir for the kingdom. His son Charles, styled Duke of Calabria during his life, predeceased him in 1328, leaving his eldest daughter Joan as heir. Joan I inherited Naples in 1343, after the death of her grandfather, King Robert. After Robert’s enlightened rule, which made Naples the biggest player in Italy, Joan’s reign would almost destroy the kingdom.
Joan's first husband, Andrew, who was planning to claim the throne for himself, was assassinated in 1345 by a group of noble conspirators, probably at the Queen’s orders. This brought the darkest event in the history of Naples, the kingdom being invaded and conquered by Andrew’s brother, King Louis the Great of Hungary, also a member of the Angevin House.
Eventually Joan would reclaim Naples, as Louis’ forces were struck by plague in 1352. Peace was signed the same year restoring the status quo ante bellum, but the humiliating defeat of their kingdom would haunt the Neapolitans for a long time. Queen Joan would marry for three more times (with Louis of Taranto, James IV of Mallorca and Otto, Duke of Brunscwick) but neither one of the marriages would produce any heirs. Although an Angeving branch was still alive in the person of Charles, Duke of Durazzo, Joan would adopt Louis I of Anjou, a younger son of John II of France.
Having allied herself with France, and thus supporting the Avignonese Antipope, in 1380 Pope Urban VI declared her a heretic and stripped her of her kingdom (the Kingdom of Naples was nominally a papal fief), bestowing Naples upon Charles of Durazzo. The Queen reacted by switching the inheritance to Louis of Anjou. For the second time in 30 years, Naples was again overcome by Hungarians, as Charles of Durazzo invaded Southern Italy with Hungarian support. He entered Naples on 26 July 1381 and besieged Joan in the Castel dell’Ovo. Joan was forced to surrender after his husband, Otto of Brunswick tried to relieve her but he was crushed and made prisoner.
Charles had Joan killed on 12 May 1382; she was smothered with pillows, in revenge for the method of assassination inflicted upon Andrew. The Neapolitan kingdom was left to decades of recurring wars of succession between the senior branch of the Angevin line, the Anjou-Durazzo dynasty and a cadet branch of the same line, the Anjou-Valois. After Joan’s murder Charles of Durazzo became King of Naples as Charles III, while Louis, already Duke of Anjou and Count of Maine, inherited the counties of Provence and Forcalquier, in Southern France, previously ruled by Joan I and her predecessors, the Angevin Kings of Naples.
Louis of Anjou immediately pressed his claims over Naples. The invasion force Charles III had to face, counted more than 40000 men, including those of Amadeus VI of Savoy. Later a French army would join the expedition, under Enguerrand VII, Lord of Coucy. Charles III’s forces, around 14000 men, were able to divert the French from Naples to other regions of the kingdom and to harass them with guerrilla tactics, until the unexpected death of Louis of Anjou, in 1384, when the French abandoned the campaign.
With the French threat removed, Charles III was able to pursue other goals. By 1385, his relations with Urban VI had strained, the Pope excommunicating the King, who replied by sending an army, under Alberico da Barbiano to besiege the Pope in Nocera. Urban was freed after six months by two Neapolitan barons who had sided with Louis of Anjou, Raimondello Orsini and Tommaso di Sanseverino.
While Urban took refuge in Genoa, Charles left the Kingdom to move to Hungary. Here, on the death of Louis the Great of Hungary, he had claimed the crown of Hungary as the senior Angevin male and ousted Louis’ daughter Mary of Hungary in December 1385, but on 7 February 1386, Elisabeth of Bosnia, Mary’s mother, arranged to have him assassinated. He died from wounds on 24 February. Mary and her husband, Sigismund of Luxembourg succeeded him in Hungary, while in Naples the nine year old Ladislaus (named in honor of the King-Knight Saint Ladislaus of Hungary) became King.
Under his mother’s (Margaret of Durazzo) regency, Ladislaus' rule was under constant threat. At the time the kingdom saw a rebellion of the barons (fomented by Urban VI), and there was a risk of a French invasion, since in 1385 the pope had assigned the throne to Louis II of Anjou, the son of Louis I of Anjou, and the head of the junior Angevin line.
In 1389 Louis II finally took the throne of Naples from Ladislaus. A war lasting 10 years between the two Angevin branches followed, culminating with Ladislaus retaking Naples in 1399. Louis II returned to rule his lands in France (Anjou, Maine, Provence and Forcalquier), while Ladislaus was crowned King of Naples.
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