King of Naples
Louis I
(Italian:
Luigi
,
Aloisio
, or
Ludovico
; 1320 ? 26 May 1362), also known as
Louis of Taranto
, was a member of the
Capetian House of Anjou
who reigned as
King of Naples
,
Count of Provence
and
Forcalquier
, and
Prince of Taranto
.
Louis gained the crown of Naples by marrying his half-first cousin/ first cousin-once removed,
Queen Joanna I
, whose prior husband,
Andrew
, had died as a result of a conspiracy that may have involved both of them. Immediately after securing his status as her co-ruler, Louis successfully wrested away all power from his wife, leaving her a sovereign in name only. Their disastrous marriage resulted in the birth of two daughters, Catherine and Frances, neither of whom survived their parents. During their joint reign, Louis dealt with numerous uprisings, attacks, and unsuccessful military operations; he is generally considered an inefficient monarch. Following his death, Joanna resumed her power and refused to share it with her subsequent husbands.
Background and family
[
edit
]
A member of the
Capetian House of Anjou
, Louis was born in
Naples
as the second son of
Philip I, Prince of Taranto
, and
Catherine of Valois
. He was a
patrilineal
first cousin once removed
of both
Queen Joanna I of Naples
and her husband
Andrew, Duke of Calabria
, in addition to being Joanna's maternal first cousin. Louis' older brother
Robert, Prince of Taranto
, was having an open affair with Queen Joanna. When the 17-year-old Andrew was assassinated on 18 September 1345 for seeking to co-reign with his wife, Joanna was immediately suspected of ordering the murder with the help of Louis and Robert.
[1]
Following her husband's death, the young queen was strongly influenced by Robert, but by October 1346, she had become closer to Louis.
[2]
The brothers' mother died the same month, leaving her claim to the
Latin Empire
to Robert, who in turn ceded the Principality of Taranto to Louis.
[3]
Marriage
[
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]
Louis and Joanna married in Naples on 22 August 1347,
[2]
without seeking
dispensation
from
Pope Clement VI
? necessary because of their being
closely related
.
[3]
The marriage was an attempt to secure the kingdom for Louis rather than to pacify the belligerent branches of the House of Anjou.
[4]
Ascension to power
[
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]
The couple fled to Provence, which Joanna ruled as countess, after
King Louis I of Hungary
invaded Naples
to avenge the murder of his brother Andrew.
[2]
They met Clement, feudal overlord of the Kingdom of Naples, in
Avignon
. To secure his acceptance of their marriage and support against the accusations of Andrew's murder, Joanna sold him the city.
[3]
The
Black Death
forced the Hungarians to retreat from Naples in August 1348. Louis and Joanna, who had just had their elder daughter, Catherine, immediately returned to the kingdom.
[3]
From early 1349 onwards, all documents for the kingdom were issued in the names of both husband and wife, and Louis was indisputably in control of military fortresses.
[2]
On coins issued during their joint reign, Louis' name always preceded Joanna's.
[4]
Although he was not officially recognised by Clement as king and co-ruler until 1352, it is likely that Neapolitans considered him their monarch from the moment he started acting as such.
[2]
Louis took advantage of the turmoil caused by yet another Hungarian attack to wrest complete royal authority from his wife.
[4]
He purged the court of her supporters,
[5]
and struck down her favourite, Enrico Caracciolo, whom he accused of adultery in April 1349 and very likely had executed.
[2]
Official reign
[
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]
In 1350, the King of Hungary launched another invasion, forcing Louis and Joanna to flee to
Gaeta
. Louis narrowly defeated Hungarian forces with Pope Clement's help. The Pope, however, reprimanded Louis for "treating the Queen as a prisoner and servant", and agreed to recognise Louis as king and co-ruler only on the condition that he accepted the fact that he held the crown in Joanna's right.
[5]
Their younger daughter, Francoise, was born soon thereafter. Louis received Clement's formal recognition as his wife's co-ruler in all her realms on 20
[3]
or 23 March 1352,
[6]
and was
crowned
king alongside her on
Pentecost
on 25
[3]
or 27 May 1352.
[6]
Francoise, by then the couple's only surviving child, died on their coronation day. Louis founded the
Order of the Knot
on the occasion of the coronation, most likely hoping to enhance the tarnished reputation he shared with Joanna.
[7]
In 1356, they were crowned in
Messina
as rulers of Sicily, but failed to capture the entire island, which had been seized from the House of Anjou by the
House of Barcelona
in 1285 and thereafter ruled as a separate kingdom.
[4]
The death of their supporter, Clement VI, was a blow to Louis and Joanna. His successor,
Innocent VI
,
excommunicated
them for failing to pay their annual tribute to the
Holy See
. The issue was resolved by a visit to Avignon in 1360.
[3]
Louis' attempt in 1360 to dethrone
Frederick the Simple
and regain Sicily ended in a failure, though he did manage to occupy much of the island (including
Palermo
, the capital) before its barons rebelled. At home, he faced opposition from his and his wife's cousins, the
House of Anjou-Durazzo
, who strongly resented his dominance, with
Louis of Gravina
stirring revolts in
Apulia
.
[3]
Death and legacy
[
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]
Louis died, probably of
bubonic plague
, in
Naples
on 26 May 1362.
[6]
Joanna immediately resumed authority in her realms.
[6]
Although she remarried twice more, to
James IV of Majorca
and
Otto of Brunswick-Grubenhagen
, Louis remained the only husband of hers whom she accorded status of co-monarch.
[4]
Taranto passed to his younger brother,
Philip II
. Upon Louis' death, the order he had created simply dissolved.
[6]
He was buried in the
Territorial Abbey of Montevergine
, next to his mother.
[8]
Though a chronicler wrote that the "death of Louis of Taranto caused great corruption in all the kingdom",
[5]
his contemporaries unanimously thought him to be lacking in both ability and character.
Petrarch
, familiar with the members of the Neapolitan court, described him as "violent and mendacious, prodigal and avaricious, debauched and cruel", a person who "knew neither how to make his subjects love him" and who even had no "need of their love".
[6]
Louis I's greatest achievement was appointing
Niccolo Acciaioli
as
grand seneschal
, which provided Naples with a capable administrator and military leader.
[4]
Family tree
[
edit
]
See also
[
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]
References
[
edit
]
- ^
Engel, Pal (2005).
Realm of St. Stephen: A History of Medieval Hungary
. I.B.Tauris. pp. 159?160.
ISBN
185043977X
.
- ^
a
b
c
d
e
f
Kelly, Samantha (2005).
The Cronaca Di Partenope: An Introduction to and Critical Edition of the First Vernacular History of Naples (c. 1350)
. BRILL. p. 14.
ISBN
9004194894
.
- ^
a
b
c
d
e
f
g
h
Emmerson, Richard K. (2013).
Key Figures in Medieval Europe: An Encyclopedia
. Routledge. p. 375.
ISBN
978-1136775192
.
- ^
a
b
c
d
e
f
Grierson, Philip; Travaini, Lucia (1998).
Medieval European Coinage: Volume 14, South Italy, Sicily, Sardinia: With a Catalogue of the Coins in the Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge, Volume 14, Part 3
. Cambridge University Press. pp. 230, 511.
ISBN
0521582318
.
- ^
a
b
c
Jones, Michael; McKitterick, Rosamond (2000).
The New Cambridge Medieval History: Volume 6, C.1300-c.1415
. Cambridge University Press. p. 510.
ISBN
0521362903
.
- ^
a
b
c
d
e
f
Boulton, D'Arcy Jonathan Dacre (2000).
The Knights of the Crown: The Monarchical Orders of Knighthood in Later Medieval Europe, 1325?1520
. Boydell Press. p. 214.
ISBN
0851157955
.
- ^
Newton, Stella Mary (1980).
Fashion in the Age of the Black Prince: A Study of the Years 1340?1365
. Boydell & Brewer. pp. 50, 219.
ISBN
085115767X
.
- ^
Gunn, Peter (1969).
The companion guide to Southern Italy
. Collins. p. 134.
- ^
a
b
Musto, Ronald G. (2003).
Apocalypse in Rome: Cola di Rienzo and the Politics of the New Age
. University of California Press. p. 78.
- ^
Kristo, Gyula
(2002). "I. Karoly". In Kristo, Gyula (ed.).
Magyarorszag vegyes hazi kiralyai
[The Kings of Various Dynasties of Hungary]
(in Hungarian). Szukits Konyvkiado. p. 24.
ISBN
963-9441-58-9
.
- ^
O'Connell, Monique; Dursteler, Eric R (2016).
The Mediterranean World: From the Fall of Rome to the Rise of Napoleon
. The Johns Hopkins University Press. p. 158.
- ^
Housley, Norman,
The later Crusades, 1274?1580: from Lyons to Alcazar
, (Oxford University Press, 1992), 53.
- ^
"The Cultural Context of the French Prose "remaniement" of the Life of Edward the Confessor by a nun of Barking Abbey", Delbert W. Russell,
Language and Culture in Medieval Britain: The French of England, C.1100-c.1500
, ed. Jocelyn Wogan-Browne, (Boydell & Brewer, 2013), 299.
- ^
a
b
c
Zacour, Norman P. (1960). "Talleyrand: The Cardinal of Perigord (1301-1364)".
Transactions of the American Philosophical Society
. New Series.
50
(7). American Philosophical Society: 32.
doi
:
10.2307/1005798
.
JSTOR
1005798
.
- ^
a
b
Grierson & Travaini, p. 256
- ^
Kristo, Gyula
(2005).
"Karoly Robert csaladja [Charles Robert's family]"
(PDF)
.
Aetas
(in Hungarian).
20
(4): 27.
ISSN
0237-7934
.
- ^
a
b
Goldstone, Nancy (2009).
The Lady Queen: The Notorious Reign of Joanna I, Queen of Naples, Jerusalem, and Sicily
. Walker&Company. p. 15.
ISBN
978-0-8027-7770-6
.
- ^
Goldstone, p. 202
Bibliography
[
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]
External links
[
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]
Media related to
Louis I of Naples
at Wikimedia Commons
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