The Capetian House of Anjou, or House of Anjou-Sicily, was a royal house and cadet branch of the Capetian dynasty. It is one of three separate royal houses referred to as , meaning "from Anjou" in France. Founded by Charles I of Anjou, the youngest son of Louis VIII of France, the Capetian king first ruled the Kingdom of Sicily during the 13th century. The War of the Sicilian Vespers later forced him out of the island of Sicily, leaving him with the southern half of the Italian Peninsula, known as the Kingdom of Naples. The house and its various branches would go on to influence much of the history of Southern and Central Europe during the Middle Ages until it became extinct in 1435.
Historically, the house ruled the Counties of Anjou, Maine, Touraine, Provence and Forcalquier; the Principalities of Achaea and Taranto; and the Kingdoms of Sicily, Naples, Hungary, Croatia, Albania and Poland.
Rise of Charles I and his sons
A younger son of the House of Capet king Louis VIII of France the Lion, Charles was first given a noble title by his brother, Louis IX of France who succeeded to the French throne in 1226. Charles was named Count of Anjou and Maine; the feudal County of Anjou was a western vassal state of the Kingdom of France, which the Capetians had wrested from the House of Plantagenet only a few decades earlier. Charles married an heiress of the County of Provence named Beatrice of Provence. She was a member of the House of Barcelona; this meant Charles' holdings were growing as Count of Provence. After fighting in the Seventh Crusade, Charles was offered the Kingdom of Sicily by Pope Clement IV. At the time this included not only the island of Sicily but also the southern half of the Italian Peninsula. Pope Clement IV offered it to Charles because of a conflict between the papacy and the Holy Roman Empire, and the latter was represented by the ruling House of Hohenstaufen.
It was at the Battle of Benevento that the Guelph Capetians gained the Sicilian kingdom from the Ghibelline Swabians, this was cemented after victory at Tagliacozzo. In keeping with the political landscape of the period, Charles is described by scholars as shrewd, energetic and highly ambitious. He signed the Treaty of Viterbo in 1267 with Baldwin II of Courtenay and William II of Villehardouin,Abulafia, 148. "He reached an agreement with the dispossessed Latin Emperor Baldwin, his son and heir Philip of Courtenay and William of Villehardouin ... The resultant treaties ... signed in the papal palace at Viterbo in May 1267, would have made Charles of Anjou the effective controller of a restored Latin emperor ..." the political alliance gave many of the rights of the Latin Empire to Charles and a marriage alliance for his daughter Beatrice of Sicily. The Byzantines had taken back the city of Constantinople in 1261 and this was a plan to take it back from Michael VIII Palaiologos.Hazzard, The Fourteenth and Fifteenth Centuries, 35. It also recognised Charles' possession of Corfu and cities in the Balkans such as Durazzo, as well as giving him suzerainty over the Principality of Achaea and sovereignty of the Aegean islands aside from those already held by the Republic of Venice.Abulafia, 533. "The principality of Morea and its dependencies should be transferred to [Charles of Anjou] ... granted to Charles suzerainty over the islands of the Aegean, Corfu and all Latin possession in Epiros."Abulafia, 793. "[Charles of Anjou] took charge of Durazzo ..." For a while Charles was preoccupied helping his French brother in the unsuccessful Eighth Crusade on Tunis. After this he once again focused on Constantinople, but his fleet was wrecked in a freak storm off the coast of Trapani. With the elevation of Pope Gregory X, there was a truce between Charles and Michael in the form of the Council of Lyons, as Christians focused on improving ecumenical relations, with hopes of regaining the Kingdom of Jerusalem back from the Muslims.Hazzard, The Fourteenth and Fifteenth Centuries, 37.
Charles had fully solidified his rule over Durazzo by 1272, creating a small Kingdom of Albania for himself, out of previously Despotate of Epirus territory; he was well received by local chiefs.Van Antwerp Fine, The Late Medieval Balkans, 184.
Charles's regime was driven out of Sicily after Sicilian Vespers in 1282, but his house ruled Naples until 1435, when René of Anjou inherited the kingdom.
Charles II and division of the inheritance
This House of Anjou included the branches of Anjou-Hungary, which ruled Hungary (1308–1385, 1386–1395) and Poland (1370–1399), Anjou-Taranto, which ruled the remnants of the Latin Empire (1313–1374) and Anjou-Durazzo, which ruled Naples (1382–1435) and Hungary (1385–1386).
The senior line of the House of Anjou-Durazzo became extinct in the male line with the death of King Ladislaus of Naples in 1414, and totally extinct with the death of his sister Joanna II in 1435.
Cadet branches
Hungary
During the Middle Ages, there were several marriages between the Árpád dynasty and the House of Capet. Charles I, founder of the House of Anjou-Sicily, with his first wife, Beatrice of Provence fathered his eldest son, Charles II of Naples. (Their youngest daughter, Elizabeth was given in marriage to the future Ladislaus IV of Hungary in 1269, but Ladislaus preferred his mistresses to her, and the marriage remained childless). In 1270, Charles II married Mary of Hungary, daughter of Stephen V of Hungary and Elizabeth the Cuman. They had fourteen children which provided the House of Anjou-Sicily with a secure position in Naples.
The childless Ladislaus IV of Hungary (1262–1290), was succeeded by Andrew III as King of Hungary. He was the son of Stephen the Posthumous, considered by Stephen's much older half-brothers (Béla IV of Hungary, Coloman of Halych, Andrew II of Halych) a bastard son of infidelity. For this reason, after the death of Ladislaus IV some of the Árpád dynasty's cognates sought the family as extinct. In Naples, Charles Martel of Anjou, the eldest son of Mary of Hungary announced his claim to the Hungarian crown, backed by his mother, and the Pope. He started to style himself King of Hungary, but he never managed to gain enough support from the Hungarian magnates to realize his claim.
With Andrew III's death (1301), the "last golden branch" of the tree of King Saint Stephen's family ended. The Hungarian diet was determined to keep the blood of Saint Stephen (first king of Hungary) on the throne in the maternal line at least. In the upcoming years, a civil war followed between various claimants to the throne. After the short period of rule of Wenceslaus of Bohemia (1301–1305), and Otto of Bavaria (1305–1307) the civil war ended with Charles Robert's (1308–1342) victory, the son of Charles Martel of Anjou, but he was forced to continue fighting against the powerful Hungarian lords up to the early 1320s.
I. Charles I of Anjou 1226/7–1285 king of Sicily(-Naples) = Beatrice of Provence II. Blanche (died 1269) = Robert lord of Béthune II. Beatrice 1252–1275 = Philip titular Latin Emperor of Constantinople II. Elisabeth 1261–1303 = Ladislaus IV of Hungary II. Charles II of Naples the Lame 1254–1309 = Mary of Hungary III. Charles Martel (1271–1295), titular King of Hungary = Clemence of Austria IV. Charles I (1288–1342), King of Hungary = 1. Maria of Galicia (?), 2. Mary of Bytom, 3. Beatrice of Luxembourg, 4. Elisabeth of Poland V. (1.) Catherine (died 1355) = Henry II, Duke of Świdnica V. (4.) Charles (1321–1321/3) V. (4.) Ladislaus (1324–1329) V. (4.) Louis I of Hungary (1326–1382) = 1. Margaret of Bohemia, 2. Elizabeth of Bosnia VI. (2.) Catherine (1370–1378) VI. (2.) Mary of Hungary 1371–1395 = Sigismund of Luxembourg VI. (2.) Jadwiga of Poland 1373/4–1399 = Władysław II Jagiełło V. (4.) Andrew, Duke of Calabria (1327–1345) = Joanna I of Naples VI. Charles Martel, Duke of Calabria (1345–1348) V. (4.) Elizabeth (?) (b. 1327/1332) = Boleslaus II of Troppau V. (4.) Stephen (1332–1354) duke of Slavonia = Margaret of Bavaria VI. Elizabeth 1352–1380 = Philip II, Prince of Taranto, titular Emperor of Constantinople VI. John (1354–1360), duke of Croatia, Dalmatia and Slavonia V. Coloman (1317–1375), Bishop of Győr – illegitimate son with daughter of Gurke Csák IV. Beatrice (1290–1354) = Jean II de La Tour du Pin, Dauphin du Viennois IV. Clementia of Hungary (1293–1328) = Louis X of France III. Margaret (1273–1299) = Charles of Valois III. Saint Louis of Toulouse (1274–1298), Bishop of Toulouse III. Robert the Wise (1275–1343), King of Naples = 1. Yolanda of Aragon, 2. Sancia of Majorca IV. (1.) Charles (1298–1328), Duke of Calabria, Viceroy of Naples = 1. Catherine of Habsburg (1295–1323), 2. Marie of Valois (1309–1332) V. (2.) Eloisa (1325–1325) V. (2.) Joanna I of Naples (1326–1382) = Andrew, Duke of Calabria (1327–1345) V. (2.) Charles Martel (1327–1327) V. (2.) Maria of Calabria (1329–1366) = 1. Charles, Duke of Durazzo 2. Robert of Baux, Count of Avellino 3. Philip II, Prince of Taranto IV. (1.) Louis (1301–1310) IV. (i.) Charles d'Artois , grand chamberlain for Queen Joanna I – illegitimate with Cantelma Cantelmo IV. (i.) Maria d'Aquino (Boccaccio's Fiammetta) – illegitimate IV. (i.) Hélène of Anjou (13??–1342), Countess of Mat – illegitimate = Andrea I Thopia, Count of Mat V. Karl Thopia (1331–1388), Prince of Albania = Voisava Balsha VI. Gjergj Thopia (fl. 1388 – d. 1392), Prince of Albania and Lord of Durrës = Teodora Branković VI. Helena Thopia (fl. 1388 – 1403), Princess of Albania and Lady of Krujë = 1. Marco Barbarigo, 2. Kostandin Balsha VI. Voisava Thopia, Princess of Albania and Lady of Lezhë = 1. Lord Isaac Cursachio, 2. Progon Dukagjini VI. (i.) Niketa Thopia (fl. 1388 – d. 1415), Lord of Krujë after capturing the city from his half-sister Helena illegitimate = Komnen Arianiti's daughter VI. (i.) Maria Thopia, Baroness of Botrugno illegitimate = Filippo Maramonte III. Philip I 1278–1331, Prince of Taranto and Achaea = 1. Thamar Angelina Komnene 2. Catherine of Valois–Courtenay IV. (1.) Charles of Taranto 1296–1315, vicar of Romania IV. (1.) Joan of Anjou 1297–1323 = 1.Oshin of Armenia 2. Oshin of Korikos IV. (1) Margarete 1298–1340 = Walter VI, Count of Brienne titular duke of Athens IV. (1.) Philip, Despot of Romania 1300–1330 = Violante (daughter of James II of Aragon) IV. (1.) Maria 1301/4–1368, abbess in Conversano IV. (1.) Blanche 1309–1337 = Ramon Berenguer infante of Aragon, count of Prades (son of James II of Aragon) IV. (1.) Beatrice = Walter II of Brienne. IV. (2.) Margaret = Francis de Baux duke of Adria IV. (2.) Robert, Prince of Taranto 1326–1365, titular Latin emperor of Constantinople IV. (2.) Louis, Prince of Taranto 1327/8–1362, king of Naples as husband of Joanna I of Naples IV. (2.) Philip, Prince of Taranto 1329–1374, prince of Achaea, titular Latin emperor of Constantinople = 1. Maria of Calabria 2. Elisabeth of Slavonia III. Blanche of Anjou (1280–1310) = James II of Aragon III. Raymond Berengar (1281–1307), Count of Provence, Prince of Piedmont and Andria = Margaret of Clermont III. John (1283–1308), a priest III. Tristan (1284–bef. 1288) III. Eleanor of Anjou, (1289–1341) = Frederick III of Sicily III. Maria of Naples (1290–c. 1346) = 1. Sancho I of Majorca, 2. Jaime de Ejerica III. Peter Tempesta (1291–1315), Count of Gravina III. John (1276–1335), Duke of Durazzo, Prince of Achaea, and Count of Gravina = 1. Matilda of Hainaut (1293–1336), 2. Agnes of Périgord (d. 1345) IV. (2.) Charles, Duke of Durazzo (1323–1348) = Maria of Calabria V. Joanna, Duchess of Durazzo 1344–1387 = 1. Louis, Count of Beaumont 2. Robert IV of Artois, Count of Eu V. Agnes of Durazzo 1345–138 = Cansignorio della Scala lord of Verona 2. James of Baux V. Margaret of Durazzo 1347–1412 = Charles III of Naples IV. (2.) Louis, Count of Gravina (1324–1362) = Margaret of Sanseverino V. Louis (1344–d. young)