Joan II of Naples

From Freepedia

Joan II (1371-1435), was Queen of Naples from 1414 to 1435.

• used the title queen of Jerusalem, Sicily, Hungary etc.

Daughter of Charles III of Naples d 1386 and Margherita of Durazzo d 1412, she succeeded her brother Ladislas of Naples in 1414. Her reign was marked by power struggles of her various paramours and adoptive heirs. Chief figures in kingdom included Muzio Sforza, Pandolfello Alopo, Giovanni Caracciolo. She adopted Alfonso V of Aragon and Louis III of Anjou as heirs alternately, finally settling succession on Louis' son René of Anjou (later René I of Naples).

Married firstly her cousin Jadwiga of poland's rejected fiancée, William of Austria. When already queen, married secondly James of Bourbon, Count of La Marche, d 1438.

Childless.

She had to defend her kingship from Louis II of Anjou (d 1417) and then his son Louis III of Anjou, whom she however later adopted.

Joanna II adopted firstly 1420 Alfonso V of Aragon and secondly 1423 Louis III of Anjou. After Louis III's death in 1434, her adoption went to the next brother of the deceased, Rene of Anjou.

Her line of Durazzo, and the whole senior Angevin line of Naples itself went extinct with her own death in 1435. (The line of Durazzo had succeeded in being hers-general of Angevin kings of Jerusalem, Sicily and Hungary with the death of Jadwiga of Poland in 1399). Joanna's heir general in kingdoms of Jerusalem, Sicily and Hungary and the heir-general of the line of Charles I of Sicily was Charles VII of France.

Joan left her kingdom by testament to René of Anjou, of the junior line. She had previously adopted (and subsequently repudiated the adoption) her kinsman Alfonso V of Aragon and Sicily, who launched a conquest to have Naples.

René of Anjou united the claims of junior and senior Angevin lines. However, in 1441, control of the Kingdom of Naples was lost to Alfonso V of Aragon, who also claimed the Kingdom of Jerusalem thereby.

In addition, while René was 1480 succeeded in Bar by his grandson René of Vaudemont, René's nephew and heir male Charles IV of Anjou claimed the kingdoms of Sicily and Jerusalem, and he then testamented them to his cousin Louis XI of France.