Louis I of Naples
| Louis I | |
|---|---|
Catherine of Valois |
Louis I (Italian: Luigi, Aloisio, or Ludovico ; 1320 – 26 May 1362), also known as Louis of Taranto, was a member of the
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
A member of the
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
Louis and Joanna married in Naples on 22 August 1347,
Ascension to power
The couple fled to Provence, which Joanna ruled as countess, after
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
In 1350, the King of Hungary launched another invasion, forcing Louis and Joanna to flee to
The death of their supporter, Clement VI, was a blow to Louis and Joanna. His successor,
Louis' attempt in 1360 to dethrone
Death and legacy
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",
Family tree
| Charles II of Naples[9] | Mary of Hungary[9] | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Eleanor of Naples[15] | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Catherine of Valois[14] | Philip I of Taranto[14] | Louis of Gravina[18] | Peter II of Sicily[15] | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Robert of Taranto | Charles III of Naples | Frederick III of Sicily | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
See also
- Jure uxoris, principle by which a man owns the property of his wife
- James II, Count of La Marche, husband of Joanna II of Naples who tried to usurp her authority
References
- ISBN 185043977X.
- ^ ISBN 9004194894.
- ^ ISBN 978-1136775192.
- ^ ISBN 0521582318.
- ^ ISBN 0521362903.
- ^ ISBN 0851157955.
- 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.
- 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.
- ^ JSTOR 1005798.
- ^ a b Grierson & Travaini, p. 256
- ISSN 0237-7934.
- ^ ISBN 978-0-8027-7770-6.
- ^ Goldstone, p. 202
Bibliography
- Giornale araldico-genealogico-diplomatico dell'Accademia araldica italiana. Vol. 4. Pisa: La direzione del giornale araldico. 1877.
- ISBN 9788889313282. Archived from the original (PDF) on 21 October 2018. Retrieved 30 October 2018.)
{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link
External links
Media related to Louis I of Naples at Wikimedia Commons
- Louis (king of Naples), article on Encyclopædia Britannica
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