Joanna I of Naples

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Joanna I of Naples bigraphy, stories - Queen of Naples

Joanna I of Naples : biography

1326 – 12 May 1382

Joanna I (1326 – 27 July 1382), born Joanna of Anjou, was Queen of Naples from 1343 until her death. She was also Countess of Provence and Forcalquier, Queen consort of Majorca and titular Queen of Jerusalem and Sicily 1343–82, and Princess of Achaea 1373/5–81.

Assassination

Preoccupied by the coronation of Louis at the hands of Antipope Clement VII, and by Louis’ military power, Charles had Joanna killed on 27 July 1382 at the age of 56; she was smothered with pillows, in revenge for the method of assassination inflicted upon Duke Andrew. Her body was brought to Naples where for several days it was put on display to the public; afterwards it was tossed into a deep well on the grounds of Santa Chiara Church. The Neapolitan kingdom was left to decades of recurring wars of succession. Louis of Anjou was able to retain the mainland counties of Provence and Forcalquier. James of Baux, the nephew of Philip II of Taranto, claimed the Principality of Achaea after her deposition in 1381.

Early family and political life

Born on an unrecorded date in the first half of 1326, Joanna was the eldest surviving child of Charles, Duke of Calabria (eldest son of King Robert of Naples), and Marie of Valois (a sister of King Philip VI of France). The Duke of Calabria died the same year his youngest daughter Maria was born, leaving behind a pregnant widow. His death made Joanna, his eldest child, first in line to the throne; she received homage as such on 4 November 1330. She was proclaimed Duchess of Calabria in 1333 and Princess of Salerno on 26 June 1344.

At the age of eight (1334), she was betrothed to her six-year-old second cousin Prince Andrew () of the Hungarian branch of the House of Anjou, the son of Charles I of Hungary and younger brother of Louis I. Through his father he had a claim to Naples, which could be argued to be superior to that of Robert and consequently also to that of Joanna. Coat of arms of the House of Anjou-Naples.

When King Robert died in 1343, in his last will and testament, he formally bequeathed his kingdom to Joanna, and made no mention of Andrew, even as a consort, and tried to exclude him from rule. In the event of Joanna’s death without children, the crown would fall to her younger sister Maria and not to him.

With the approval of Pope Clement VI, Joanna was crowned as sole monarch of Naples in August 1344. Fearing for his life, Andrew wrote to his mother Elizabeth that he would soon flee the kingdom. She intervened, and made a state visit; before she returned to Hungary, she bribed Pope Clement to revert his decision and permit the coronation of Andrew. She also gave a ring to Andrew, which was supposed to protect him from death by blade or poison, and returned with a false sense of security to Hungary.

Joanna lost an important ally when her stepgrandmother, Sancha of Majorca, withdrew into a monastery, but kept resisting more papal interference in the kingdom. Due to her letters to the pope, he agreed that though Andrew would be crowned, only her coronation would be ‘Blessed by God’.

When Joanna fell ill in the summer of 1344, Andrew caused great controversy when he released the Pipini brothers. They had been locked up by Robert the Wise after having been convicted for murder, rape, pillage, treason and several other offenses. Their possessions had been given to other nobles, which now became increasingly hostile to Andrew.

Role in literature

  • Alexandre Dumas, père wrote a romance, Joan of Naples, part of his eight-volume series Celebrated Crimes (1839–40).
  • A fictionalised account of her life can also be found in the novel Queen of the Night by Alan Savage.
  • László Passuth wrote a novel Napolyi Johanna (Joanna of Naples, 1968) about her life.

Ancestry

Issue

In total, Joanna had three children from her first two marriages:

From her first marriage to Andrew, Duke of Calabria, Joanna had one son:

  • Charles Martel of Naples (Naples, 25 December 1345 – Hungary aft. 10 May 1348)