John of Gravina (1294 – 5 April 1336), also known as John of Anjou, was
Count of Gravina
The counts of Gravina, later the dukes of Gravina, were medieval rulers of Gravina in Puglia, in the old Kingdom of Sicily and the Kingdom of Naples. The county was settled on various royal favorites, and was held by members of the Neapolitan royal ...
1315–1336,
Prince of Achaea
The Prince of Achaea was the ruler of the Principality of Achaea, one of the crusader states founded in Greece in the aftermath of the Fourth Crusade (1202–1204). Though more or less autonomous, the principality was never a fully independent sta ...
1318–1332,
Duke of Durazzo 1332–1336 and ruler of the
Kingdom of Albania (although he never used a royal title). He was the youngest son of King
Charles II of Naples
Charles II, also known as Charles the Lame (french: Charles le Boiteux; it, Carlo lo Zoppo; 1254 – 5 May 1309), was King of Naples, Count of Provence and Forcalquier (1285–1309), Prince of Achaea (1285–1289), and Count of Anjou and Mai ...
and
Mary of Hungary
Mary, also known as Maria of Anjou (, , ; 137117 May 1395), reigned as Queen of Hungary and Croatia (officially 'king') between 1382 and 1385, and from 1386 until her death. She was the daughter of Louis the Great, King of Hungary and Poland ...
.
He was a younger brother of (among others)
Charles Martel of Anjou
Charles Martel ( hu, Martell Károly; 8 September 1271 – 12 August 1295) of the Angevin dynasty was the eldest son of king Charles II of Naples and Mary of Hungary, the daughter of King Stephen V of Hungary.
__NOTOC__
The 18-year-old Charles Ma ...
,
Saint Louis of Toulouse,
Robert of Naples
Robert of Anjou ( it, Roberto d'Angiò), known as Robert the Wise ( it, Roberto il Saggio; 1276 – 20 January 1343), was King of Naples, titular King of Jerusalem and Count of Provence and Forcalquier from 1309 to 1343, the central figure of I ...
and
Philip I of Taranto
Philip I of Taranto (10 November 1278 – 26 December 1331), of the Angevin house, was titular Latin Emperor of Constantinople (as Philip II) by right of his wife Catherine of Valois–Courtenay, Despot of Romania, King of Albania, Prince of A ...
.
On 3 September 1313 he was named Captain-General of
Calabria
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. In 1315, he succeeded his brother
Peter, Count of Gravina after the latter was killed at the
Battle of Montecatini
The Battle of Montecatini was fought in the Val di Nievole on 29 August 1315 between the Republic of Pisa, and the forces of both the Kingdom of Naples and the Republic of Florence. The army of Pisa, commanded by Uguccione della Faggiuola, won ...
.
The death of
Louis of Burgundy
Louis of Burgundy (1297 – August 2, 1316) was a member of the Capetian House of Burgundy who ruled the Principality of Achaea and claimed the defunct Kingdom of Thessalonica.
Louis was a younger son of Duke Robert II of Burgundy and Agnes o ...
in 1316 widowed
Matilda of Hainaut,
Princess of Achaea. Her suzerain, John's brother Philip I of Taranto, had her brought by force to
Naples
Naples (; it, Napoli ; nap, Napule ), from grc, Νεάπολις, Neápolis, lit=new city. is the regional capital of Campania and the third-largest city of Italy, after Rome and Milan, with a population of 909,048 within the city's adm ...
in 1318 to marry John, a design intended to bring the Principality of Achaea into the Angevin inheritance. The marriage, celebrated in March 1318, failed of its objective: Matilda refused to surrender her rights to Achaea to her husband and ultimately contracted a
secret marriage
Clandestinity is a diriment impediment in the canon law of the Roman Catholic Church. It invalidates a marriage performed without the presence of three witnesses, one of whom must be a priest or a deacon.
History
It was promulgated in the 1 ...
with
Hugh de La Palice
Hugh may refer to:
*Hugh (given name)
Noblemen and clergy French
* Hugh the Great (died 956), Duke of the Franks
* Hugh Magnus of France (1007–1025), co-King of France under his father, Robert II
* Hugh, Duke of Alsace (died 895), modern-day ...
. This violated the marriage contract of her mother Isabelle, which had pledged that Isabelle and all her female heirs should not marry without permission of their suzerain. On these grounds, Philip stripped her of Achaea and bestowed it upon John: the marriage was annulled for non-consummation, and Matilda was imprisoned in the
Castel dell'Ovo
Castel dell'Ovo ("Egg Castle") is a seafront castle in Naples, located on the former island of Megaride, now a peninsula, on the Gulf of Naples in Italy. The castle's name comes from a legend about the Roman poet Virgil, who had a reputation in ...
.
On 14 November 1321, John took a second wife,
Agnes of Périgord
Agnes of Périgord (died 1345) was Duchess consort of Durazzo, through her marriage to John of Gravina, Duke of Durazzo, who was also the ruler of the Kingdom of Albania. Although Agnes was never styled as Queen consort, she became politically ...
, daughter of Helie VII, Count of Périgord and Brunissende de Foix. They had three sons:
*
Charles, Duke of Durazzo (1323–1348). Married
Maria of Calabria.
*
Louis of Durazzo
Louis of Durazzo (1324 – 22 July 1362) was Count of Gravina and Morrone. He was the son of John of Durazzo and Agnes of Périgord.
In 1337, he was named Vicar- and Captain-General of the Kingdom of Albania. During the ascension of the Durazz ...
(1324–1362), Count of Gravina
*
Robert of Durazzo
Robert of Durazzo (1326 – 19 September 1356, Poitiers) was the third son of John, Duke of Durazzo and Agnes de Périgord.
He was the lord of Cappacio, Muro, and Montalbano in the Kingdom of Naples. Captured in 1350 at the siege of Aversa, ...
(1326–1356)
In a tardy reaction to the
Byzantine advances in the central Morea, in 1325 John launched a military expedition, financed by the Acciaiuoli, to Achaea. While he re-established his authority in
Cefaphonia and Zante, he was unable to recapture
Skorta
Skorta ( el, τὰ Σκορτὰ, french: Escorta) was a name used in the 13th and 14th centuries, during the period of Frankish rule in the Peloponnese, to designate the mountainous western half of the region of Arcadia, which separated the coa ...
from the control of the
Byzantine Empire
The Byzantine Empire, also referred to as the Eastern Roman Empire or Byzantium, was the continuation of the Roman Empire primarily in its eastern provinces during Late Antiquity and the Middle Ages, when its capital city was Constantinopl ...
.
In 1332, Philip of Taranto died and was succeeded by his son
Robert of Taranto, who became the new suzerain of Achaea. Not wishing to swear fealty to his nephew, John arranged to surrender Achaea to him in exchange for Robert's rights to the
Kingdom of Albania and a loan of 5,000 ounces of gold raised upon
Niccolo Acciaiuoli, and thenceforth adopted the style of "Duke of Durazzo".
References
Sources
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{{DEFAULTSORT:John, Duke of Durazzo
Durazzo, John, Duke of
Durazzo, John, Duke of
House of Anjou-Durazzo
Princes of Achaea
Dukes of Durazzo
Counts of Gravina
Counts palatine of Cephalonia and Zakynthos
Burials at the Basilica of San Domenico, Naples
Sons of kings