Opinions were divided as to her character. Angelo de Perugia qualified
her as “santissima,” and spoke of her as “l’onore del mundo, la
luce dell’Italia”; Petrarch greatly admired her; and recently,
Mistral has composed a poem in which she is painted as a blameless
and misrepresented personage. Her sister Maria was almost as bad as
herself. She also had her husband, Robert des Baux, murdered. It is
true that she had been married to him against her will. When she got
the power in her hands she flung him into prison, and, entering the
dungeon, along with four armed men, had him assassinated before her
eyes, and the body cast out of a window and left without burial, till
Joanna heard of her sister’s action, when she sent and had the body
decently interred.[10]
After that Joanna had been put to death, Marie, natural daughter of
Robert of Naples, and aunt of Joanna, was tried and executed as having
been privy to the plot to murder Andrew. This Marie had carried on an
intrigue with Boccaccio, and is believed to be the Fiammetta of the
_Decameron_; but according to others, Fiammetta was intended for Joanna
herself.
The Pope’s nephew, who was to be invested with the Principality of
Capua as the price of Urban’s assistance, soon after this broke into a
convent and ravished a nun of high birth and great beauty. Complaints
were made to the Pope. He laughed it off as a venial outburst of youth;
but Butillo was forty years old. The new king’s justice would not,
however, endure the crime. A capital sentence was passed on Butillo.
Pope Urban annulled the sentence, and Butillo was, if not rewarded,
bought off by being given a wife, the daughter of the justiciary, and
of the king’s kindred, with a dowry of 70,000 florins a year, and a
noble castle at Nocera. Thus satisfied, Urban excommunicated Louis
of Anjou, declared him accursed, preached a crusade against him, and
offered plenary indulgence to all who should take up arms against him.
The War of Inheritance ensued after the death of Joanna, devastating
alike Naples and Provence.
Charles of Durazzo, whom Urban had crowned, had married his cousin
Margaret, daughter of his uncle Charles, who had been executed in 1348
by Louis of Hungary, for having counselled the murder of his cousin
Andrew. The father of Charles had been, as already intimated, poisoned
by Joanna. Louis, King of Hungary, died in 1382; whereupon Charles
claimed that kingdom, but was taken by Elizabeth, widow of Louis,
thrown into prison, and murdered there by her orders. Charles left a
son, Ladislas, and a daughter, Joanna. Ladislas was poisoned in 1414,
as was supposed, and then Joanna II. became Queen of the Two Sicilies.
Although twice married, she had no family, and she adopted Réné of
Anjou and Provence as her heir, and died in 1435.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Elsewhere in the archive
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account