Elisabeth of Slavonia

Elisabeth of Slavonia (1352 - before 1380) was the second Empress consort of Philip II of Taranto, titular Latin Emperor of Constantinople.

Family

She was the only daughter of Stephen, Duke of Slavonia and Margarete of Bavaria. Her only known sibling was Jan of Slavonia (1354 - 1363). Jan was designated heir presumptive to their granduncle Casimir III of Poland on 24 June, 1355. He predeceased Casimir III. [ [http://fmg.ac/Projects/MedLands/HUNGARY.htm#Erszebetdiedbefore1380 Profile of Elisabeth in "Medieval Lands" by Charles Cawley] ]

Their paternal grandparents were Charles I of Hungary and his third wife Elizabeth of Poland. Their maternal grandparents were Louis IV, Holy Roman Emperor and Margaret II, Countess of Hainault. [ [http://fmg.ac/Projects/MedLands/BAVARIA.htm#Margaretadied1374 Profile of Margarete in "Medieval Lands" by Charles Cawley] ]

Marriage

In October, 1370, Elisabeth married Philip II of Taranto. He was titular Emperor of the Latin Empire since 1364. His previous wife Maria of Calabria had died on 20 May, 1366. Philip had just concluded a civil war against his former sister-in-law Marie of Bourbon. The two were struggling for control over the Principality of Achaea. Marie sold her rights to Philip II for 6,000 gold pieces. [Mihail-Dimitri Sturdza, "Dictionnaire historique et Généalogique des grandes familles de Grèce, d'Albanie et de Constantinople" (1983), p. 500.]

Philip was forty-one-years-old at the time of his second marriage, Elisabeth only eighteen. Philip had survived his children by his previous marriage and was in need of heirs. As a marriage gift, Philip granted her Corfu as her personal fiefdom. [ [http://fmg.ac/Projects/MedLands/HUNGARY.htm#Erszebetdiedbefore1380 Profile of Elisabeth in "Medieval Lands" by Charles Cawley] ] They only had one known son:

*Philip of Taranto (1371). Died young.

uccession

In 1373, Philip II resigned his rights to the Principality of Achaea to Queen Joan I of Naples. He died on November 25, 1374 in Taranto. Elisabeth survived him seems to have died before the end of the 1370s.

Their heir in the Principality of Taranto and the Latin Empire was James of Baux, a nephew of Philip II.

References