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 The Capetian House of Anjou or House of Anjou-Sicily, was a royal house and cadet branch of the direct French House of Capet, part of the Capetian dynasty. It is one of three separate royal houses referred to as ''Angevin'', meaning "from Anjou" ...

who reigned as

King of Naples The following is a list of rulers of the Kingdom of Naples, from its first separation from the Kingdom of Sicily to its merger with the same into the Kingdom of the Two Sicilies. Kingdom of Naples (1282–1501) House of Anjou In 1382, the Kin ...

Count of Provence The land of Provence has a history quite separate from that of any of the larger nations of Europe. Its independent existence has its origins in the frontier nature of the dukedom in Merovingian Gaul. In this position, influenced and affected by ...

and

Forcalquier Forcalquier (; oc, Forcauquier, ) is a commune in the Alpes-de-Haute-Provence department in southeastern France. Forcalquier is located between the Lure and Luberon mountain ranges, about south of Sisteron and west of the Durance river. D ...

, and

Prince of Taranto The Principality of Taranto was a state in southern Italy created in 1088 for Bohemond I, eldest son of Robert Guiscard, as part of the peace between him and his younger brother Roger Borsa after a dispute over the succession to the Duchy of A ...

. Louis gained the crown of Naples by marrying his first cousin, Queen Joanna I, whose prior husband,

Andrew Andrew is the English form of a given name common in many countries. In the 1990s, it was among the top ten most popular names given to boys in List of countries where English is an official language, English-speaking countries. "Andrew" is freq ...

, 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

A member of the

, Louis was born in

Naples Naples (; it, Napoli ; nap, Napule ), from grc, Νεάπολις, Neápolis, lit=new city. is the regional capital of Campania and the third-largest city of Italy, after Rome and Milan, with a population of 909,048 within the city's adminis ...

as the second son of

Philip I, Prince of Taranto Philip I of Taranto (10 November 1278 – 26 December 1331), of the Angevin house, was titular Latin Emperor of Constantinople (as Philip II) by right of his wife Catherine of Valois–Courtenay, Despot of Romania, King of Albania, Prince of A ...

, and

Catherine of Valois Catherine of Valois or Catherine of France (27 October 1401 – 3 January 1437) was Queen of England from 1420 until 1422. A daughter of Charles VI of France, she was married to Henry V of England and gave birth to his heir Henry VI of Englan ...

. He was a

patrilineal Patrilineality, also known as the male line, the spear side or agnatic kinship, is a common kinship system in which an individual's family membership derives from and is recorded through their father's lineage. It generally involves the inheritan ...

first cousin once removed Most generally, in the lineal kinship system used in the English-speaking world, a cousin is a type of familial relationship in which two relatives are two or more familial generations away from their most recent common ancestor. Commonly, ...

of both

Queen Joanna I of Naples Joanna I, also known as Johanna I ( it, Giovanna I; December 1325 – 27 July 1382), was Queen of Naples, and Countess of Provence and Forcalquier from 1343 to 1382; she was also Princess of Achaea from 1373 to 1381. Joanna was the eldest dau ...

and her husband

Andrew, Duke of Calabria Andrew, Duke of Calabria (30 October 1327 – 18 September 1345) was the first husband of Joanna I of Naples, and a son of Charles I of Hungary and brother of Louis I of Hungary. Background and engagement Andrew was the second of three survivin ...

, in addition to being Joanna's maternal first cousin. Louis' older brother

Robert, Prince of Taranto Robert II of Taranto (1319 or early winter 1326 – 10 September 1364Peter Lock, ''The Franks in the Aegean: 1204-1500'', (Routledge, 1988), 129.), of the Angevin family, Prince of Taranto (1331–1346), King of Albania (1331–1364), Prin ...

, 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. Following her husband's death, the young queen was strongly influenced by Robert, but by October 1346, she had become closer to Louis. The brothers' mother died the same month, leaving her claim to the

Latin Empire The Latin Empire, also referred to as the Latin Empire of Constantinople, was a feudal Crusader state founded by the leaders of the Fourth Crusade on lands captured from the Byzantine Empire. The Latin Empire was intended to replace the Byzant ...

to Robert, who in turn ceded the Principality of Taranto to Louis.

Marriage

Louis and Joanna married in Naples on 22 August 1347, without seeking dispensation from

Pope Clement VI Pope Clement VI ( la, Clemens VI; 1291 – 6 December 1352), born Pierre Roger, was head of the Catholic Church from 7 May 1342 to his death in December 1352. He was the fourth Avignon pope. Clement reigned during the first visitation of the Bl ...

– necessary because of their being closely related. The marriage was an attempt to secure the kingdom for Louis rather than to pacify the belligerent branches of the House of Anjou.

Ascension to power

The couple fled to Provence, which Joanna ruled as countess, after

King Louis I of Hungary Louis I, also Louis the Great ( hu, Nagy Lajos; hr, Ludovik Veliki; sk, Ľudovít Veľký) or Louis the Hungarian ( pl, Ludwik Węgierski; 5 March 132610 September 1382), was King of Hungary and Croatia from 1342 and King of Poland from 1370. ...

invaded Naples to avenge the murder of his brother Andrew. 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. Louis I of Naples enthroned

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. 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. On coins issued during their joint reign, Louis' name always preceded Joanna's. 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. Louis took advantage of the turmoil caused by yet another Hungarian attack to wrest complete royal authority from his wife. He purged the court of her supporters, and struck down her favourite, Enrico Caracciolo, whom he accused of adultery in April 1349 and very likely had executed.

Official reign

Louis I of Naples surrounded by subjects

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. Their younger daughter, Françoise, was born soon thereafter. Louis received Clement's formal recognition as his wife's co-ruler in all her realms on 20 or 23 March 1352, and was crowned king alongside her on Pentecost on 25 or 27 May 1352. Françoise, 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. 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 The House of Barcelona was a medieval dynasty that ruled the County of Barcelona continuously from 878 and the Crown of Aragon from 1137 (as kings from 1162) until 1410. They descend from the Bellonids, the descendants of Wifred the Hairy. Th ...

in 1285 and thereafter ruled as a separate kingdom. The death of their supporter, Clement VI, was a blow to Louis and Joanna. His successor,

Innocent VI Pope Innocent VI ( la, Innocentius VI; 1282 or 1295 – 12 September 1362), born Étienne Aubert, was head of the Catholic Church and ruler of the Papal States from 18 December 1352 to his death in September 1362. He was the fifth Avignon pope a ...

excommunicated Excommunication is an institutional act of religious censure used to end or at least regulate the communion of a member of a congregation with other members of the religious institution who are in normal communion with each other. The purpose ...

them for failing to pay their annual tribute to the

Holy See The Holy See ( lat, Sancta Sedes, ; it, Santa Sede ), also called the See of Rome, Petrine See or Apostolic See, is the jurisdiction of the Pope in his role as the bishop of Rome. It includes the apostolic episcopal see of the Diocese of R ...

. The issue was resolved by a visit to Avignon in 1360. Louis' attempt in 1360 to dethrone

Frederick the Simple Frederick III (or IV) (1 September 1341 – Messina 27 July 1377Setton, Kenneth M. (1975) " Volume III: The fourteenth and fifteenth centuries", Edited by Harry W. Hazzard, page 214.), called the Simple, was King of Sicily from 1355 to 1377. H ...

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 A house is a single-unit residential building. It may range in complexity from a rudimentary hut to a complex structure of wood, masonry, concrete or other material, outfitted with plumbing, electrical, and heating, ventilation, and air condi ...

, who strongly resented his dominance, with Louis of Gravina stirring revolts in Apulia.

Death and legacy

Louis died, probably of bubonic plague, in

on 26 May 1362. Joanna immediately resumed authority in her realms. Although she remarried twice more, to

James IV of Majorca James IV of Majorca, also known as Jaume IV (c. 1336 – 20 January 1375) unsuccessfully claimed the thrones of the Kingdom of Majorca and the Principality of Achaea from 1349 until his death. He was also the king consort of Naples, but was excl ...

and Otto of Brunswick-Grubenhagen, Louis remained the only husband of hers whom she accorded status of co-monarch. Taranto passed to his younger brother,

Philip II Philip II may refer to: * Philip II of Macedon (382–336 BC) * Philip II (emperor) (238–249), Roman emperor * Philip II, Prince of Taranto (1329–1374) * Philip II, Duke of Burgundy (1342–1404) * Philip II, Duke of Savoy (1438-1497) * Philip ...

. Upon Louis' death, the order he had created simply dissolved. He was buried in the

Territorial Abbey of Montevergine The Territorial Abbey of Montevergine ( la, Territorialis Abbatia Montisvirginis) is a Roman Catholic territorial abbey located in the commune of Montevergine in the ecclesiastical province of Benevento in Italy. About 1120 William of Vercell ...

, next to his mother. Though a chronicler wrote that the "death of Louis of Taranto caused great corruption in all the kingdom", his contemporaries unanimously thought him to be lacking in both ability and character.

Petrarch Francesco Petrarca (; 20 July 1304 – 18/19 July 1374), commonly anglicized as Petrarch (), was a scholar and poet of early Renaissance Italy, and one of the earliest humanists. Petrarch's rediscovery of Cicero's letters is often credited ...

, 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". Louis I's greatest achievement was appointing

Niccolò Acciaioli Niccolò Acciaioli or Acciaiuoli (1310 – 8 November 1365) was an Italian noble, a member of the Florentine banking family of the Acciaioli. He was the grand seneschal of the Kingdom of Naples and count of Melfi, Malta, and Gozo in the mid- ...

as grand seneschal, which provided Naples with a capable administrator and military leader.

Family tree

References

Bibliography

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External links

Louis (king of Naples)
article on

Encyclopædia Britannica The (Latin for "British Encyclopædia") is a general knowledge English-language encyclopaedia. It is published by Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc.; the company has existed since the 18th century, although it has changed ownership various t ...

, - {{DEFAULTSORT:Louis 01 of Naples 1320 births 1362 deaths 14th-century monarchs of Naples 14th-century deaths from plague (disease) Claimant Kings of Jerusalem Counts of Provence House of Anjou-Taranto Jure uxoris kings Princes of Taranto Husbands of Joanna I of Naples