- Ladislas of Naples
Ladislas the Magnanimous (also spelled "Ladislaus";
July 14 ,1376 /February 11 ,1377 –August 6 1414 ) wasKing of Naples and TitularKing of Jerusalem and Sicily, TitularCount of Provence andForcalquier (1386 – 1414), and Titular King of Hungary and Dalmatia, etc (1390 – 1414). He was the last male of the senior Angevin line.Biography
He was born in
Naples , the son of Charles III andMargherita of Durazzo .He became the King of Naples from the age of nine (1386) under his mother's regency. Through the 1390s he was constantly opposed by
Antipope John XXIII as well as byLouis II of Anjou , then head of the junior Angevin line, who contested the throne. Louis successfully seized Naples from him in 1390, but was expelled again in 1399.He endeavored to consolidate the royal power in Naples at the expense of the baronial, and brought about the murder of several members of the
Sanseverino family for frustrating his ends.He became a skilled political and military leader, protector and controller of the Papacy of Innocent VII. He profited from disorder throughout
Italy to greatly expand his kingdom and his power, appropriating much of the Papal States to his own use.From 1390 he was also claimant to the throne of
Hungary andDalmatia .His claim to the Crown of Hungary was opposed by Hungarian King Sigismund of Luxemburg, while he sold his rights to the kingdom ofDalmatia to theVenetian Republic for 100,000Ducat s in 1409.He was also the prince of Taranto from 1406, having taken Mary, Dowager Princess of Taranto and Countess of Lecce (1367–
May 9 ,1446 ) as his third wife and barred her son from the principality. King Ladislas first attempted to subjugate those fiefs by a war and besieging the lady, but did not succeed in capturing her castle. Therefore, he changed tactics, began negotiations, and succeeded in compelling her to marry him.He seized the city of Florence in 1414 and planned to take over, except the plague took over the city and decimated his army and forced them out. This further pushed the Renaissance building campaign in Florence, especially with the continuation of the construction of Brunelleschi's dome on the Duomo.
He was widely reputed to have been
poisoned and died inNaples onAugust 6 ,1414 . He was succeeded by his sisterJoan II of Naples , the last member of the seniorAngevin line in Italy.Significantly, when
Antipope John XXIII preached thecrusade against Ladislas,Jan Hus opposed the sale ofindulgences to finance it inBohemia , which led to Hus's death and subsequently theHussite movement.Marriages and children
Ladislas married three times:
*First to Costanza de Clermont in 1390. She was a daughter of Manfredo de Clermont, Conte di Motica. They were divorced in 1392.
*Second to Marie de Lusignan (1381 inGenoa –September 4 ,1404 inNaples and buried there) onFebruary 12 ,1403 inNaples . She was a daughter ofJames I of Cyprus . She died onSeptember 4 ,1404 .
*Third to Marie d'Enghien, Contessa di Lecce (1367 or 1370 –May 9 ,1446 ), daughter of Jean d'Enghien, Conte di Castro, in 1406. She survived him by thirty-two years.There were no children from either of his marriages. However Ladislas had at least two illegitimate children:
*Rinaldo di Durazzo, Titular "Prince of Capua ", buried inFoggia . Married and had children of his own:
**Francesco di Durazzo. Married and had a son:
***Rinaldo di Durazzo (1469 –September 1 ,1494 and buried inFoggia ), married to Camilla Tomacelli, without issue
**Caterina di Durazzo
**Camilla di Durazzo
**Ipolita di Durazzo
*Maria di Durazzo. Considered to have died young.External links
* [http://genealogy.euweb.cz/capet/capet19.html#LoN A listing of descendants of Charles I of Sicily]
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