Finally after far too long I’ve got another extended profile for you all!! I’ve actually got a few profiles coming up that I’m excited for you to read. Today’s profile is about Joanna I Queen of Naples.
Now first thing you need to know about Joanna is that her life was a pretty depressing, VERY dramatic tale of devious court scheming, stupid men making stupid decisions, high romances gone very wrong, grisly bloody murder, men wanting to be King and willing to screw over just about anyone including their wife, mother and daughter to get there and a ton of the plague. I did consider including Joanna in one of my Dear Hollywood posts, because her life was practically made for the silver screen but ultimately I decided this girl right here deserved her own extensive profile. Now, Joanna was born in 1326 to Charles, Duke of Calabria and heir to the Kingdom of Naples, and Marie of Valois a French princess & sister to Philip IV; at the time of her birth her grandfather Robert the Wise was King of Naples. Although she was Charles and Marie’s fourth child, her three elder siblings died before her birth and so at the point she was born, Joanna was second in line to the throne after her father. Now Joanna’s royal pedigree was impeccable; both of her grandfather’s were powerful (one as King of Naples and the other as the Count of Valois, Alençon, Perche, Anjou & Maine and titular Latin Emperor of Constantinople) and both grandmothers came from exemplary blue blooded backgrounds (one was a Princess of Aragon and the other was from one of France’s most powerful families). She was a member of the Capetian House of Anjou which had been founded by her great-great grandfather Charles Duke of Anjou (see below) who was the youngest son of Louis VIII King of France and younger brother of Louis IX King of France later known as Saint Louis. As the youngest of his parent’s thirteen children (although only five survived to adulthood) Charles, a man described by Nancy Goldstone as having “little scruples and great ambition” [1], was initially of very little importance and the plan was that he would pursue a career in the church however like many younger brothers of kings, he had a bit of a chip on his shoulder about living in his sainted elder brother’s shadow (sainted isn’t hyperbole, his older brother Louis IX literally became a Saint). Determined to carve out an empire of his own for him and his bloodline, he married Beatrice the ruling Countess of Provence & Forcalquier (Beatrice was one of the four famous Provence sisters all of whom were beautiful, rich and married to kings; she married Charles, Margaret married Charles’ brother Louis IX King of France, Eleanor married Henry III King of England and Sanchia married Henry’s brother Richard King of Germany) and promptly started empire building; he seized the Kingdom of Sicily from the Hohenstaufens (with the help of the Pope) which included the island of Sicily and Southern Italy and was crowned in 1266. A year later he acquired the legal right to the Principality of Achaea and in 1277 he brought the rights to the Kingdom of Jerusalem (if history has taught us anything it’s that gold gets you just about anything). Although he never quite built the empire he dreamed of (Byzantine 2.0), he did leave his descendants, Robert the Wise and Joanna, a very nice inheritance. Now I absolutely should remind you how bonkers politics on the Italian Peninsula was at this point in history; unlike today when it’s one unified country, Italy was in the 1200’s, a geographical designation not a political entity, and the peninsula was made up of a number of different warring states that couldn’t stand each other and fought about EVERYTHING. The most prominent of these states included the Republic of Venice, the Republic of Florence, Milan (which was ruled by the self-styled Lords of Milan – the Visconti’s) and the Papal States (ruled by the Pope); Naples however carried a certain level of prestige that the other Italian states did not – it was the only one that had a King (or later on Queen). It was also one of the largest cities in the world at the time and one of only four cities in Europe that had over one hundred inhabitants (Venice, Milan, Paris and Naples). Fun fact: London only had around sixty thousand at this point [2].
Now remember when I mentioned that her empire-building ancestor Charles (the grandfather of her grandfather) had a brother who was a literal saint? Well Louis was not the only saint in the family; Joanna’s great-uncle Louis of Toulouse was beatified whilst she was also descended from Saint Elizabeth of Hungary. Joanna was also the great-great-great-great-great granddaughter of the icon, the legend, the goddess Eleanor of Aquitaine (to be fair most of European royalty at this point was descended from Eleanor). Joanna by all accounts clearly inherited her ancestor’s ambition, beauty and intelligence; she also unfortunately inherited Eleanor’s terribly bad luck when it came to the men they found themselves related/married to. Joanna’s father died when she was just eight months old leaving Joanna sort of the heir to the throne. I say sort of because despite the fact Joanna was not yet 1, her mother was actually pregnant. Medieval obstetrics was not exactly stellar in those days funnily enough, and so because they were unsure if it was a boy or girl, Joanna was in an odd limbo of almost heir but not quite until the birth. The baby in question turned out to be a girl and so Joanna succeeded her father as heir to the throne. Now this in the grand scheme of things was a problem; although Neapolitan law did not prevent women from inheriting the throne (there had been an agreement between the Holy See & her ancestor Charles which explicitly gave Charles’ female descendants the right to rule although there was another stipulation which said if the Queen in question married, then her husband had to rule instead). Ahhhhh good old fashioned sexism. Adding to the potential messiness of the succession situation was the fact that another branch of the family was also gagging for the throne; when her grandfather had become King in 1296, he had become king instead of his nephew (his dead older brother’s son) Charles I of Hungary who had been disinherited and who had not abandoned his claim to the Kingdom of Naples (I’d like to point that out he’d inherited Hungary from his mother but apparently one kingdom is not enough for some people) . He had beseeched the Pope for help against Robert the Wise on a number of occasions however the Pope had always refused; at the point of Joanna’s birth however tensions between the Papacy and Naples were at an all time high and there was the risk that if the Pope felt particularly enraged he could back Charles instead of Joanna. The fact that the course of history has so frequently been changed by pure pettiness will never not amuse me. There was also Joanna’s great-uncles Philip the Prince of Taranto and John Duke of Durazzo who also posed a threat to Joanna’s place as heir. Too many men in my humble opinion. Robert however was absolutely determined to see his own descendants on the throne after him and staged a big old dramatic ceremony in which he emphasised that his precious Joanna would be Queen, come hell or high-water. His brother John and his wife Agnes of Perigord accepted the decision (probably because they were hoping to convince Robert to marry Joanna to one of their sons) and attended the ceremony, publicly swearing fealty to the little princess, however their other brother Philip proved to be an absolute shit and outright refused, egged on by his wife Catherine who was actually the sister of Joanna’s mother Maria. So much for sisterly solidarity. Now Joanna’s mother died in 1331 leaving Joanna and her sister in the care of her grandfather Robert and step-grandma Sanchia both of whom clearly doted on Joanna and her sister. As I mentioned previously, Robert was known as “Robert the Wise” and was considered quite the statesman and a very successful king whose reign was a prosperous time for Naples. He was also a learned patron of the arts, culture and higher learning, well loved by the Neapolitan people and some might say an excellent role model for young Joanna; he evidently attempted to impart some of his wisdom onto his young granddaughter, taking a vested interest in her education; his wife Sanchia aka Joanna’s step-grandmother also took a particular interest in Joanna’s religious education and the two were very close.
Now Robert being as wise as his nickname suggests, evidently came to the conclusion that before he died, he needed to deal with the Hungarian problem so that when he did die, his young, inexperienced granddaughter would not have to deal with the fallout. To this end he decided to arrange a betrothal between Joanna and Charles I King of Hungary’s son Andrew. Since becoming King of Hungary Charles had managed to vastly increase his influence especially from 1320 onwards when he had married the exceptionally determined and very strong willed Elizabeth of Poland thus forging an alliance between Hungary and Poland; with a host of powerful allies, immense financial resources and the ear of the pope Charles was carving out quite a mini-empire for himself so much so that the Pope John XXII all of a sudden started championing an alliance between Hungary and Naples, urging Robert to reconcile with his nephew. For a bit of context the Pope was doing all of this to get himself out of a sticky political situation; at the time the Papacy was struggling to contain the ambitions of the Holy Roman Emperor Louis of Bavaria – evidently the Pope hoped that he if he gave Charles what he wanted, Charles would use his growing influence to counteract Louis. The Pope did everything he could possibly think of to convince Robert to agree to the match, even roping in Robert’s wife Sanchia knowing that she had enough influence to nudge Robert in the right direction. Although not Charles’ biggest fan, Robert evidently recognised the pro’s of such a marriage, namely Charles was almost 100% less likely to try and invade Naples if his son was married to the heir to the throne. Of course for such a high stakes marriage, there were several stipulations to the marriage treaty. The first was the stipulation that although he would be Joanna’s husband, Andrew himself would never rule Naples nor would he play any role in government; according to the treaty Andrew would never be anything more than a consort; it would be Joanna, Robert declared, that would retain ultimate power. The second stipulation was that any children born of the marriage would one day succeed her having been raised solely in Naples; this second stipulation was seen as a biggie due to the fact that part of the reason the people of Naples were not so fond of ya boy Charles was that despite being the son of a Prince of Naples, Charles was considered too Hungarian. The Neapolitans were not big fans of the Hungarians, believing them to be rude, hairy barbarians; the idea of a Hungarian on the throne made them clutch their pearls in horror. You may wonder why Charles previously very determined to become King of Naples would accept the deal which was more favourable to Robert than to him? I tend to agree with Nancy Goldstone who wrote, “although the Hungarians later claimed to have been ignorant of Robert’s true intent, Charles likely did understand that the agreement with Naples was intended to redress his rights through the medium of the next generation and not the current one – that it would be the King of Hungary’s grandson not son that would rule. Charles may well have chosen to gloss over this condition knowing that, for the moment, this was the best deal he was likely to get” [3]. Another reason he probably agreed to the marriage was the third stipulation in the treaty; to tie a nice pretty bow on the new Hungary-Naples alliance it was decided that Joanna’s younger sister Maria would become betrothed at a later date to Charles’ other son Louis the Crown Prince of Hungary, although it was agreed that if Joanna died prematurely without an heir Andrew would marry Maria instead. Now Charles, Robert and the Pope it would seem were the only ones who were happy at the betrothal – the families of Robert’s brothers – The Taranto’s and the Durazzo’s were pretty pissed at the plans; if you recall Robert’s brother and sister in law John Duke of Durazzo and Agnes of Perigord had willingly pledged allegiance to Joanna three years earlier, not out of a sense of loyalty but with the hope that Robert would reward them for their obeisance by marrying one of their sons to either Joanna or Maria (preferably Joanna). Similarly Catherine the Latin Empress of Constantinople and widow of Robert’s other brother Philip of Taranto had spent the two years since her husband’s death working tirelessly to secure a marriage between one of her sons and Joanna; she’d even pressured her brother Philip the King of France to intervene in the matter. A marriage between Joanna and Andrew rendered all their hopes and dreams, null and void and they were not exactly thrilled. Despite their anger, the betrothal were thus arranged and on September 27th 1333 in a ceremony even grander than the one he’d put on three years earlier when naming Joanna his heir, Robert hosted a grand ceremony in which 7-year-old Joanna and 6-year-old Andrew became officially and legally betrothed – Andrew was also given the Duchy of Calabria and the Principality of Salerno as the cherry on top of the icing. Now I’d like to put Robert forward as the party planner extraordinaire of the year because the festivities he arranged were spectacular; the magnitude of the ramifications of the marriage were reflected in the magnificence of the celebrations which lasted over a week and were full of jousts, competitions, balls and feasts. At the centre of the festivities were two lil cute kids who probably had no idea what the hell was going on. Now Robert believed that the betrothal was the perfect opportunity for a bit of performative family unity and so unlike the events of three years earlier when his brother Philip had feigned a bout of gout to avoid attending Joanna’s investiture as the heir to the throne of Naples, Robert didn’t let anyone in his family back out and everyone was forced to attend through gritted teeth. He encouraged them to put on their finest glad rags and try to at least appear like a happy family; The Durazzo’s showed up per his request bejewelled in their finest diamonds and pearls and looking a million bucks which unfortunately for Robert did the exact opposite of painting a picture of family unity; if anything their magnificence was interpreted by everyone present, as an act of aggression, a direct challenge to the magnificence of Robert and his Queen. Evidently their anger over the Joanna-Andrew betrothal was not exactly a secret to everyone present. Eventually after a week of probably-pretty-exhausting partying and political negotiating, the treaty was signed and Charles was forced to return to Hungary to deal with a number of sticky political situations, leaving his extremely young, extremely inexperienced, somewhat shy six-year-old son in a kingdom he knew nothing about surrounded by people he did not know. From Robert’s perspective keeping his new grandson-in-law close was a shrewd political move; not only did it give Andrew the chance to learn the customs of the Neapolitan court but it also meant he was less influenced by his father who Robert was fully aware still harboured dreams of conquering Naples. Now although Andrew had a huge household (even bigger than Joanna’s), the Hungarian’s that surrounded him were staff, not family and it appears that he was pretty much starved of affection unlike Joanna who was doted on by her grandparents, worshipped by her younger sister and adored by the Neapolitan people. Although Robert assigned a number of Neapolitan and Provençal barons to act as companions and advisors to Andrew, they can’t have been all that helpful to him because the boy spoke only a tiny amount of Italian whilst they did not speak a word of Hungarian. He had next to no companions of his own age although it’s believed that occasionally Joanna and her cousins played marbles with him (we know this because accounts mention that one month he owed Joanna three tarins after betting on the outcome of a game which he evidently lost and she clearly won). He thus grew up in a very difficult environment; isolated, lonely and forced to endure the anti-Hungarian sentiment of the Neapolitan people, he quickly went from being a quiet, misunderstood and sympathetic little boy to a rude, surly, miserable, stubborn teenager who had quite a significant chip on his shoulder, lacked any significant intellectual capabilities, was indecisive and unsure of himself, was apparently devoid of any real charm and was easily influenced particularly by his confessor Friar Robert. Contemporaries at the time seem to suggest that the young man was intellectually and emotionally lacking compared to his future Queen. He also wasn’t the most handsome of young men with Andrew Baddeley writing that Andrew was likely “heavy jawed, dull of eye and clumsy of figure” [4]. This contrasted SIGNIFICANTLY with Joanna and their other cousins the Taranto boys who after a number of years in Greece, rocked up to the Neapolitan court looking like a dream as three very handsome, very charming, very athletic and very impressive young men who were described by Boccaccio as having remarkable beauty. Similarly it was a universally agreed fact that Joanna had also inherited the beauty genes – Domenico da Gravino a contemporary of hers who in later years was extremely hostile to her, admitted that both her and her sister Maria had been blessed with incredible beauty. She was also intelligent, full of life, charming and extremely well cultured. Basically Andrew was the ugly duckling in a pond full of very beautiful swans, which I can only imagine added to his resentment of the court and everyone in it.
In 1342 the official marriage between Joanna and Andrew took place; it didn’t go unnoticed to the rest of the court that despite being hormonal teenagers, the two had yet to consummate their marriage; Joanna at this point was sixteen and several years past the legal age of consent (13). It’s likely that Andrew was both physically and emotionally immature and that was why the marriage had yet to be consummated. Robert feeling a tad disappointed at the whole situation made several attempts to bolster both a) Andrew’s reputation in the eyes of the Neapolitan people and b) Andrew’s own self-confidence, by arranging for him to lead an expedition to Sicily on his behalf. Andrew was scheduled to depart Naples in the Spring of 1342 however after several delays, the entire expedition was unexpectedly called off. It’s believed it was called off due to Andrew’s reluctance and inability to get his shit together. Luckily for him, his father died in July 1342 which allowed Robert to use that as the official excuse for the failure of the expedition to even begin. A week after his father’s death Andrew’s brother Louis was crowned. Now this is where everything falls apart; you see Louis was only a teenager and he allowed his mother Elizabeth of Poland the bulk of power in Hungary. She had, let’s say delusions of grandeur and fully expected that upon Robert’s death, Andrew would be crowned King of Naples (ignoring the hugely important part of the Hungary-Naples peace treaty that pretty much unequivocally stated Joanna would be in charge and Andrew would be nothing more than a consort – Robert, I should add also made it pretty clear that Joanna would be the one to rule by commissioning the Anjou Bible [5] which depicted Joanna wearing the crown not Andrew). Elizabeth thus saw no reason to fulfil the second part of the treaty which concerned a marriage between Louis and Joanna’s younger sister Maria and arranged a marriage between Louis and Margaret of Bohemia. Robert was pretty insulted over the slight and despite being on his deathbed mustered up the strength to hit back; he did so by dictating a new will that ignored certain aspects of the treaty – not only did Robert in his new will emphasise that Joanna was his sole heir and successor (“Rex….instituit sibi haeredem universalem joannam ducissam Calabriae, memptem ejus primogenitam”) [6] but he also declared that should she die childless, the throne would go straight to Maria, bypassing Andrew and the Hungarians altogether and that Maria should marry either the heir to the throne of France or one of his younger brothers (to make sure such a marriage went ahead, Robert demanded that Maria be granted a phenomenal inheritance making her one of the richest heiresses in Europe behind her sister). Robert also called for the establishment of a special council led by his wife Sanchia to guide the young Joanna in ruling Naples until she reached her 25th birthday whilst Sanchia and Robert’s illegitimate son Charles were named as Joanna and Maria’s guardians. The only mention of Andrew in the entire document was Robert pointing out that Andrew was also a minor and thus he was not allowed to enter into any legal contracts without the permission of Joanna and the special council. Literally there was no other mention of him; the will was quite clearly Robert’s way of publicly and embarrassingly excluding Andrew from all mattes of state. Andrew was to be a husband and father and nothing more. Although I’m pretty sure Robert’s thinking was something along the lines of “if Elizabeth can ignore bits of the treaty, then I will too”, it was a ballsy and risky move that effectively dis-regarded a decade of diplomacy that had prevented war. The will was pretty much a ticking time tomb. A ticking time bomb that exploded just four days after it was signed, when Robert the Wise, King of Naples decided leaving his teenage granddaughter Queen of Naples. The death of Robert the Wise would have a devastating effect on Joanna who was heartbroken at the death of the man who had been the closest thing she’d had to a father; her reverence for her grandfather is evident in the spectacular tomb which was built in the Santa Chiara church (where it remains might I add). The tomb was by far the largest and most lavish tomb erected for a member of her family and “the scale of the commission also served as an announcement of Joanna’s intention to build in the grand tradition of her ancestors, to leave her own imprint on the kingdom through the erection of important monuments” [7]. As soon as her grandfather died, everyone jumped into action – Andrew was hastily knighted in preparation for his new role as consort whilst the two were also forced to consummate the marriage; any qualms either of them had about sex had to quickly be put to bed (no punt intended). The fact this happened literally within a week of her grandfather’s demise demonstrates just how stressed everyone was, to make sure that Joanna’s place as Queen was indisputable.
Indisputable clearly quite wasn’t the word, the rest of the family intended on using to describe Joanna’s rule because within roughly 10 minutes of her grandfather’s death, everyone started making moves to gain themselves more power. Remember the Durazzo side of the family who had loyally pledged obeisance to Joanna hoping that such loyalty would bring about a marriage between Joanna and one of their sons only to be bitterly disappointed when Joanna and Andrew were betrothed? Well they had not spent the last few years sitting idly stewing in their resentment; in fact Robert’s sister in law Agnes of Perigord had dedicated her rather considerable resources to pursuing the throne for her eldest son Charles of Durazzo. Upon Robert’s death, she recognised that if she not could get Joanna for her son, then Maria would have to do. There was however one minor wrinkle in the plan – in Robert’s will, he had explicitly said that Maria must marry a French prince and the only two people that could technically overrule that bit of the will was either Joanna or the Pope. Agnes thought Joanna was unlikely to do so. The Pope was a slightly more do-able option and luckily for Agnes of Perigord she had someone in her corner who was close enough with the new Pope to advocate on her behalf – her brother Cardinal Talleyrand of Perigord one of the most influential cardinals at the court of Avignon (he was so influential that Petrarch himself referred to Talleyrand as “the maker of Popes”[8]). If you recognise the name Talleyrand and instantly think of the Talleyrand that caused all sorts of trouble during the End of the Ancien Regime, the French Revolution and the Napoleonic period, then you’d be somewhat correct; the latter Talleyrand was a descendant of Agnes’ family. Now the Perigord family luckily for Agnes had fairly good leverage against the French – Perigord was a key part of the kingdom that Edward III of England and Philip VI of France were fighting over, and Philip knew he needed to maintain the Perigord family’s loyalty if he wanted to triumph over his English cousin. This was why he enthusiastically encouraged the promotion of Cardinal Talleyrand who in turn advocated on his sister’s behalf. Agnes was given a bit of a boost by having the co-operation of both Maria herself and Joanna’s step-grandmother/de facto mother Sanchia. We don’t know the exact reasons why Maria and Sanchia favoured Maria marrying one of the Durazzo boys rather than a French princess and it’s extremely odd that someone like Sanchia who was well known to have been a devoted wife would be so willing to ignore her late’s husband dying wishes but there was likely a few things at play – firstly Maria was a very young girl and the idea of being shipped off to either Hungary or France (two faraway kingdoms she had never visited) without her sister or grandmother probably wasn’t high on her list of desires, secondly Charles and Maria do genuinely seem to have had at least some affection for one another and thirdly Sanchia had always been close with Agnes (when she died Agnes was executor of her will) whilst she abhorred Catherine of Valois (the matriarch of the Taranto side of the family). A marriage between Maria and Charles would have limited Catherine’s influence within Naples, something that would have been most pleasing to Sanchia. With Sanchia and Maria, on board Agnes got to work on Joanna. The three women did pretty much everything they could to wear the young Queen down and convince her to ignore her dead grandfather’s wishes. I actually feel pretty sorry for Joanna – everyone around her was scheming non stop and regardless of what she decided someone was gonna end up pissed. Maria evidently made it clear to Joanna that she had genuine feelings for Charles and wished to marry and Joanna not wanting to break her little sister’s heart, agreed to the marriage. Joanna adored her sister SO much and the fact they were once so close makes what happens later all the more upsetting. On March 26th 1343, Joanna and Sanchia hosted the formal celebrations of the engagement which the Pope agreed to – Catherine of Valois was unsurprisingly livid and asked her brother the King of France to intervene. Agnes however had clearly anticipated that the King of France would be dragged into the fiasco and so had her son kidnap Maria and take her to their family estate where they were married in the presence of a priest who had been invested with the power to oversee the marriage in accordance with a secret papal bull Agnes had received from the Pope. To make sure the marriage could not be annulled, Charles and Maria then consummated the marriage. The thing is, in all contemporary reports from the period, the word kidnap is thrown around, the accusation being that Charles kidnapped Maria and forced her into the marriage. Maria however was very into Charles and was almost certainly in on the apparent kidnap. Joanna apparently was not. To say the incident caused a scandal is an understatement; not only were the public shocked but the marriage provoked the Taranto branch of the family to change their course of action from behind the scenes political manoeuvring to full on warfare; Louis of Taranto, Catherine’s second son organised a small military army which attacked some of the Durazzo castles. This in turn caused the Durazzo’s to form their own army. Within roughly 15 minutes, Naples was on the verge of civil war. Although Joanna had made a political mis-calculation she wasn’t stupid and realised her mistake pretty quickly; she also hadn’t given her consent to the so called kidnap and so was not happy. The problem is that it’s a fairly huge mistake to try and backtrack but boy did she try. She suddenly refused to recognise the marriage, wrote to the Pope demanding the Durazzo’s be punished, insisted that the Papacy reverse it’s acceptance of the marriage and decided to take yet another risk and ally herself with her great-aunt Catherine – she figured that being allies with Catherine also meant being allies with her brother the King of France. Joanna also believed that her mother in law the Queen of Hungary would maybe also back her decision – she was right it turned out – if you remember Robert’s original will (the one written years before not the one written weeks before his death) had dictated that should Joanna die without an heir, Andrew would marry Maria. The Queen of Hungary decided to hedge her bets and back her daughter in law writing to the Pope that she was not a happy bunny about the marriage and echoed Joanna’s demand that it should be annulled. Letters a plenty were exchanged between the Pope and the various parties – poor fella had to try and appease the pretty pissed Joanna, the irate Catherine, the unimpressed King of France, the disapproving Queen of Hungary and the relentless Agnes. By the time everyone had calmed down, and civil war was no longer on the horizon, Maria was quite clearly pregnant and so everyone was forced to swallow their annoyance and accept the marriage. Joanna agreed to pay Maria’s dowry but took her sweet time doing so (she stalled paying for years) demonstrating her deep unhappiness at the situation. Agnes, Maria, Charles and Sanchia may have emerged somewhat victorious but they also lost Joanna in the process. She would never again trust Agnes, her relationship with Maria was destroyed and Sanchia once the person who had always been Joanna’s most trusted advisor, lost all influence over her granddaughter. Joanna then began searching for her own allies deliberating choosing counsellors outside of the spheres of both Agnes and Sanchia’s influence; these counsellors included her half-uncle Charles of Artois (illegitimate son of King Robert) and Robert of Cabannis.
In the aftermath of those shenanigans it became clear Andrew wasn’t exactly happy playing a supporting role to Joanna and emphasised to his mother that he wanted to be King. This wasn’t to be fair the most surprising turn of events, when you consider the fact that Andrew’s parents had told him over and over and over that Naples was rightfully his. When Robert had been alive, his desire to be King had been kept firmly under control; with Robert dead, there was what his family perceived to be a power vacuum, one that Andrew had every intention of filling. The thing is I don’t think he actually cared all that much about actually ruling. Reports from the period seem to suggest he wanted the trappings of power i.e the titles, the wealth and a coronation but he doesn’t appear to have made much of an effort to take on any government responsibilities unlike Joanna who seems to have been devoted to her duties. Mother Dearest Elizabeth the Dowager Queen of Hungary however wanted her son to take a greater role in affairs of state and beseeched the pope to make Andrew King – she also paid Andrew and Joanna a painfully awkward visit in which she was appalled to discover just how bad things were between her son and daughter in law. Although she’d always known there was a distance between them, she wasn’t aware of just how little time they spent together. In fact apart from religious ceremonies and state events, they didn’t see each other at all. They prayed separately, ate separately, holidayed separately, had entirely different groups of companions and slept in completely different parts of the palace – in fact it was a well known fact that Andrew had to ask permission to enter his wife’s bedroom and this was to put it bluntly, a very rare occurrence. Elizabeth it seems to improve their marital relations sought Sanchia’s help – Sanchia however was no longer exactly in her granddaughter’s good books not to mention was beginning to suffer from failing health and so decided to stay out of it. When her matchmaking skills failed, Elizabeth hot-footed to Avignon where she urged the Pope to sanction Andrew’s coronation and spread some of her son’s probably false tales about Joanna (including the to be expected tales of her taking various lovers). Eventually things got so bad that Joanna had to send envoys to politely ask the Pope to stop discussing the state of affairs in Naples with the Hungarians especially her mother in law. In the months that followed Elizabeth began using some of her extensive fortune to bribe every Tom, Dick and Harry she could find to advocate on her son’s behalf. She appointed a Hungarian delegation led by Andrew’s cousin the Dauphin of Vienne to try and bribe the Pope into granting Andrew at least part of the powers of sovereignty in Naples. Robert the Wise had only been dead a few months and yet the Pope had been forced to be involved in the chaos of Naples ever since; clearly the man was tired of it all and was weighing the possibility of assigning a legate to oversee the situation in Naples. Joanna was not thrilled, in fact legates were generally quite hated by monarchs who resented the influence they had and who were well aware that papal legates and representatives were greedy bastards who had a reputation for pretty much stealing from the kingdoms they were assigned to. Joanna more so than other monarchs would have been even more annoyed by the Pope assigning a legate, fearing that the legate might be swayed by Hungarian gold and therefore favour her husband’s family over her own. To try and keep Joanna at least somewhat amiable, the Pope in a rare moment of medieval male-female solidarity offered to throw Andrew a coronation and refer him to as King (he also gave him a few special gifts such as a special dispensation that allowed him to be the only person in Naples that could eat meat on fast days) but emphasised that Joanna would remain the boss, declaring that Joanna would rule Naples along as if she were a man. Andrew unsurprisingly was not chuffed at the Pope’s crumbs of authority he had given him and his mother continued scheming to help her son take over Naples – shortly after her trip to Rome she heard rumours that certain individuals in Naples wanted Andrew dead and she promptly told her son to return to Hungary. Joanna, her step grandmother Sanchia and her scheming grand-aunts Catherine and Agnes in a surprise moment of unity, all banded together to convince Andrew and his mother that no one wanted him dead and there was nothing to worry about. They were rightfully concerned that should Andrew leave, the next time he came back would be with an army to invade a kingdom he thought was rightfully his. The entire state of affairs in Naples was dire to say the least with Petrarch describing Joanna and Andrew as “two lambs entrusted to the care of a multitude of wolves, and I see a kingdom without a king” [9]. To make matters worse Naples’ enemies took advantage of the chaos – John II of Montferrat and the eternally untrustworthy Visconti family of Milan made several military moves against Naples including the capture of Alessandria and Asti in Piedmont and the forced submission of Tortona, Bari and Alba [10]. To add to the catastrophe of it all, an unprecedented financial criss took hold of Europe when towards the end of 1343 the families of Peruzzi, Bardi and Acciaiuoli all declared bankruptcy. These three families were three of the wealthiest bankers in Europe and the founders of Florentine-based super companies that specialised in commodity trading (especially grain). In order for these companies to be successful, heavy capital, sophisticated organisation, and an international network was required; in the early 1340’s however a series of circumstances had forced the companies into precarious positions. One of the biggest challenges of the decade had been the Hundred Years War between France and England and Edward III’s ever-increasing needs for funds; the Peruzzi, Bardi and Acciaiuoli had diversified their portfolio by extending their business into English wool however they had then found themselves effectively trapped them in a relationship with Edward that benefitted the English crown more than it benefitted them. As Nancy Goldstone puts it, “it took far more time for the super companies to collect the taxes and fees owed them by the crown than it did for Edward to spend their loans and once the loans were spent he wanted more” [11]. Edward was not their only problem but he was certainly one of their biggest. The reason this was so awful for Joanna was that back in 1341 Florence had asked Naples for military assistance owing to the close relationship between the two states – Joanna’s grandfather Robert however had been occupied with a potential Sicilian invasion and so had failed to intervene on Florence’s behalf leading to Florence asking the Holy Roman Emperor for help. This was a problem because this happened in the midst of the whole Guelph vs Ghibbeline debacle (the Guelph vs Ghibelline conflict had initially arisen from the division caused by the Investiture Controversy and had the Pope on one side and the Holy Roman Empire on the other). Florence and Naples had always been pro-Guelph however Naples refusing to help Florence resulted in Florence turning to it’s Ghibbeline rivals for help instead. Robert had then retaliated by seizing the Neapolitan assets of the super companies, a move copied by the Pope and all the other pro-Guelph factions. Although Florence reversed its path, the damage was well and truly done and everyone who had placed deposits with the super companies demanded their money back. Florence’s new leaders tried to steady the ship by declaring a three year moratorium on payments in order to buy time to collect money however Edward III launched a ton of audits which minimised the amount he owed them. Cue immense panic. These various circumstances thus created a mini financial catastrophe that culminated in the Bardi, Peruzzi and Acciauoli families declaring bankruptcy. Every country in Europe was effected (imagine the medieval equivalent of the financial crisis of 2007) however Naples was arguably the most effected; owing to the close relationship between Naples and Florence these super companies had basically functioned as the financial arm of the Neapolitan government and the prosperity that had been the hallmark of her grandfather’s reign had been less of a result of his wisdom and realistically more a result of immense luck combined with the financial support of the super companies. Initially there was some optimism that the damage to Naples would only be temporary. Unfortunately the financial turmoil caused by the fall of the super companies lasted decades and because Joanna was the one wearing the crown at the exact moment it all fell apart, she was blamed for it. The days of unlimited Angevin extravagance were over and the fact the Neapolitan government now had to be extremely tight with money was further laid at her door, despite the fact that there was quite literally nothing she could have done.
By the time the year anniversary of Joanna’s accession rolled around, things were to put it nicely, not going that great. In 12 short months there had been threats of civil war, papal interventions a plenty, scheming and clamouring for the throne galore, a husband who thought himself a king, a mother in law who thought the same, family members who had schemed behind her back and pretty much betrayed her for their own ends, and an unprecedented financial crisis that had thrown the kingdom into the financial abyss. To top it off even the weather had decided to conspire against her and for the next two years the kingdom suffered horrific conditions namely non stop rain and storms which destroyed the grain fields, reduced crop yields and made a sticky financial situation even stickier. The vibe in Naples I’m going to go out on a limb here was probably not one of hope and joy. Anxiety and foreboding is probably more like it. Unfortunately for our girl Joanna and I hate to say it, but things only got worse. So, so, so much worse. Check back soon for the next instalment of this profile and we’ll see just how disastrous things get for her!
REFERENCES
[1] Nancy Goldstone, “The Lady Queen: The Notorious Reign of Joanna I Queen of Naples, Jerusalem & Sicily”, (New York, Walker & Company, 2009), p. 8.
[2] Nancy Goldstone, “The Lady Queen: The Notorious Reign of Joanna I Queen of Naples, Jerusalem & Sicily”, (New York, Walker & Company, 2009), p. 10.
[3] Nancy Goldstone, “The Lady Queen: The Notorious Reign of Joanna I Queen of Naples, Jerusalem & Sicily”, (New York, Walker & Company, 2009), p. 40.
[4] Nancy Goldstone, “The Lady Queen: The Notorious Reign of Joanna I Queen of Naples, Jerusalem & Sicily”, (New York, Walker & Company, 2009), p. 62.
[5] Michelle M Duran, “The Politics of Art: Imagining Sovereignty in the Anjou Bible at Leuven”, in The Anjou Bible: A Royal Manuscript Revealed Naples 1340″, ed by Lieve Watteeuw & Jan Van der Stock, (Paris, Peeters Publishers Leuven, 2010). p. 72.
[6] Nancy Goldstone, “The Lady Queen: The Notorious Reign of Joanna I Queen of Naples, Jerusalem & Sicily”, (New York, Walker & Company, 2009), p. 65.
[7] Nancy Goldstone, “The Lady Queen: The Notorious Reign of Joanna I Queen of Naples, Jerusalem & Sicily”, (New York, Walker & Company, 2009), p. 68.
[8] Norman P Zacour, “Petrarch and Talleyrand”, Speculum, Vol 31, No.4, (October 1956), p 687.
[9] Elizabeth Casteen, “From She-Wolf to Martyr: The Reign and Disputed Reputation of Johanna I of Naples”, (New York, Cornell University Press, 2015), p 37.
[10] Eugene L Cox, “The Green Count of Savoy”, (New Jersey, Princeton University Press, 1967) p. 63.
[11] Nancy Goldstone, “The Lady Queen: The Notorious Reign of Joanna I Queen of Naples, Jerusalem & Sicily”, (New York, Walker & Company, 2009), p. 81-82.
Other Bibliography:
Louis S Greenbaum, “Talleyrand and his Uncle”, The Journal of Modern History, Vol 29, Issue 3, (September 1957), pp 226-236.
Theresa Earenfight, “Queenship in Medieval Europe”, (London, Palgrave Macmillan, 2013).
“Medieval Elite Women and the Exercise of Power 1300-1400”, ed by Heather J Tanner, (London, Palgrave Macmilian, 2019).
William Monter, “Gendered Sovereignty: Numismatics and Female Monarchs in Europe 1300-1800”, The Journal of Interdisciplinary History, Vol 41, No.4, (September 2011), pp 533-564.
David Abulafia, “Venice and the Kingdom of Naples in the Last Years of Robert the Wise 1332-1343”, Papers of the British School of Rome, Vol 48, (1980), pp 186-204.
The Monstrous Regiment of Women 