The following is a list of rulers of the Kingdom of Naples , from its first separation from the Kingdom of Sicily to its merger with the same into the Kingdom of the Two Sicilies.
In 1382, the Kingdom of Naples was inherited by Charles of Durazzo, King of Hungary, great grandson of King Charles II of Naples. After this, the House of Anjou of Naples was renamed House of Anjou-Durazzo, when Charles married his first cousin Margaret of Durazzo, member of a prominent Neapolitan noble family.
Portrait | Coat of Arms | Name | Reign | Claim to the throne | Title | |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Charles I (Carlo I) | 30 March 1282 | 7 January 1285 | •Conquered the Kingdom of Sicily from Manfred as a part of the war between the Hohenstaufen dynasty & the Papacy •Following the Sicilian Vespers in 1282, the island of Sicily was lost to Peter III of Aragon | King of Sicily, Naples and Albania (Re di Sicilia, Napoli e Albania) | ||
Charles II, the Lame (Carlo II, lo Zoppo) | 7 January 1285 | 5 May 1309 | •Son of Charles I | King of Naples (Re di Napoli) | ||
Robert I, the Wise (Roberto I, il Saggio) | 5 May 1309 | 20 January 1343 | •Son of Charles II | King of Naples (Re di Napoli) | ||
Joanna I (Giovanna I) | 20 January 1343 | 12 May 1382 | • Granddaughter of Robert I | Queen of Naples (Regina di Napoli) | ||
Louis I (Luigi I) | August 1348 | 26 May 1362 | •Husband of Joanna I •Grandson of Charles II; member of the House of Anjou-Taranto | Jure uxoris King of Naples (Re di Napoli) | ||
After Joanna's death without legitimate issue, the heirs were her nieces, only one (Margaret) of whom left issue (with Charles, a member of the Durazzo branch of the House of Anjou). The next ones in line were the Durazzo branch itself (the Taranto branch, of which Louis I was part, had been extinguished), whose prominent figure, Charles, was Joanna's enemy. | ||||||
Charles III, the Short (Carlo III, il Breve) | 12 May 1382 | 24 February 1386 | • Great-grandson of Charles II and second cousin of Joanna I of Naples •Member of the House of Anjou-Durazzo | King of Naples (Re di Napoli) | ||
Ladislaus I, the Magnanimous (Ladislao I, il Magnanimo) | 24 February 1386 | Early 1390 | • Son of Charles III | King of Naples (Re di Napoli) |
Joanna of Naples had refused to name her enemy Charles of Durazzo as heir to the Neapolitan throne despite him ending up succeeding her anyway. If Charles' line was ignored, the subsequent heirs would be the descendants of Margaret, Countess of Anjou, a daughter of Charles II of Naples; the line pointed to the kings of France of the House of Valois. Joanna chose this line, though she named as heir, her second cousin once removed, Louis of Valois-Anjou, the second son of King John II of France, in order to avoid a personal union with France.
As Charles III had already seized the Neapolitan throne, initially the House of Valois-Anjou only had an empty claim. One of their members, Louis II, succeeded in ruling Naples for a time.
Time as claimant instead of actual rule will be shown in italic.
Portrait | Coat of Arms | Name | Reign | Relationship with Predecessor(s) | Title | |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Louis I of Anjou (Luigi I) | 1382 | 1384 | •Adopted son and heir of Joanna I •Great-great-grandson of Charles II through female line •Could not establish himself in Naples before his death | King of Naples (Re di Napoli) | ||
Louis II (Luigi II) | 1384 1389 | 1417 1399 | •Son of Louis I (adopted son of Joanna I) •Crowned in 1389 •Actually ruled in Naples only from 1390 until 1399 | King of Naples (Re di Napoli) | ||
Louis III of Anjou (Luigi III) | 1417 | 1434 | •Son of Louis II •He was recognised as Joanna II's heir in 1423. | King of Naples (Re di Napoli) |
Portrait | Coat of Arms | Name | Reign | Relationship with Predecessor(s) | Title | |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Ladislaus I, the Magnanimous (Ladislao I, il Magnanimo) | Late 1399 | 6 August 1414 | • Son of Charles III | King of Naples (Re di Napoli) | ||
Joanna II (Giovanna II) | 6 August 1414 | 2 February 1435 | • Daughter of Charles III | Queen of Naples (Regina di Napoli) |
Joanna II recognised Louis III of Anjou as heir in 1423, however he died in 1434 before succeeding to the throne. His brother René of Anjou succeeded to the claim and became king upon Joanna's death in 1435.
Portrait | Coat of Arms | Name | Reign | Relationship with Predecessor(s) | Title | |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
René I, the Good (Renato I, il Buono) | 2 February 1435 | 2 June 1442 | •Son of Louis II | King of Naples (Re di Napoli) |
Before Louis of Anjou, Queen Joanna II's adopted heir had been Alfonso V of Aragon. His father, Ferdinand I of Aragon had inherited both Aragon & Sicily from his maternal uncle Martin I of Aragon. Martin, in turn had claimed the throne of Sicily following the extinction of the Sicillian branch of the House of Barcelona, thereby bringing Sicily under the Aragonese crown. Alfonso refused to be disinherited and conquered Naples from René of Anjou in 1442. Although both Sicily & Naples were once again under the rule of the single monarch since the Sicillian Vespers, Alfonso passed the Aragonese throne (including Sicily) to his brother John, while Naples went to his illegitimate son Ferdinand.
Portrait | Coat of Arms | Name | Reign | Relationship with Predecessor(s) | Title | |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Alfonso I, the Magnanimous (Alfonso I, il Magnanimo) | 2 June 1442 | 27 June 1458 | •Adopted son of Joanna II; conquered | King of Aragon, Sicily and Naples (Re di Aragona, Sicilia e Napoli) | ||
Ferdinand I (Ferdinando I) | 27 June 1458 | 25 January 1494 | •Illegitimate son of Alfonso I | King of Naples (Re di Napoli) | ||
Alfonso II (Alfonso II) | 25 January 1494 | 23 January 1495 | •Son of Ferdinand I | King of Naples (Re di Napoli) | ||
Ferdinand II (Ferdinando II) | 23 January 1495 | 7 September 1496 | •Son of Alfonso II | King of Naples (Re di Napoli) | ||
Frederick I (Federico I) | 7 September 1496 | 1 August 1501 | •Son of Ferdinand I | King of Naples (Re di Napoli) |
Upon his death in 1480, René of Anjou transferred his claim to his nephew, Charles IV, Duke of Anjou. Charles died in 1481 and willed his claim to Louis XI of France. His son Charles VIII attempted to take Naples by force, but failed and died childless in 1498.
Charles VIII was succeeded by his 2nd cousin once removed Louis XII. Louis had no claim to the Neapolitan throne, but as successor to Charles VIII in France he nevertheless wanted to succeed him in Naples as well.
Naples was conquered in 1501 and became part of a personal union with the Kingdom of France. The local government was ruled by a French viceroy.
Portrait | Coat of Arms | Name | Reign | Relationship with Predecessor(s) | Title | |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Louis XII of France (Luigi XII) | 2 August 1501 | 31 January 1504 | •Succeeded to Charles VIII on the French throne; conquered Naples |
Ferdinand II of Aragon conquered Naples from the French in the Treaty of Granada. Naples, alongside Sicily entered in a personal union with the Kingdom of Aragon, which lasted for over 2 centuries. Over time, the Crown of Aragon and the Crown of Castile merged to form the Monarchy of Spain, known colloquially as the "Kingdom of Spain", though the constituent crowns (Castile, Aragon, Sicily, Naples) retained their own institutions, and were ruled officially as separate states in personal union rather than as a unified state. The local government was ruled by a Spanish viceroy. The royal houses were:
Portrait | Coat of Arms | Name | Reign | Relationship with Predecessor(s) | Title | |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Ferdinand III (Ferdinando III) | 31 January 1504 | 23 January 1516 | •Conquered Naples from Louis XII | |||
Joanna III (Giovanna III) | 23 January 1516 | 12 April 1555 | •Daughter of Ferdinand III |
Joanna III was kept confined under alleged insanity during her whole reign.
Portrait | Coat of Arms | Name | Reign | Relationship with Predecessor(s) | Title | |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Charles IV (Carlo IV) | 14 March 1516 | 25 July 1554 | •Son of Joanna III | |||
Philip I | 25 July 1554 | 13 September 1598 | •Son of Charles IV | |||
Philip II | 13 September 1598 | 31 March 1621 | •Son of Philip I | |||
Philip III | 31 March 1621 | 1647 | •Son of Philip II |
Officially a Republic, Naples was governed for a short time by the Duke of Guise, under the title of "Doge of Naples".
Portrait | Coat of Arms | Name | Reign | Relationship with Predecessor(s) | Title | |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Henry of Guise (Enrico di Guisa) | 22 October 1647 | 5 April 1648 | •Claimed a lineage with the House of Valois-Anjou | Doge of Naples (Doge di Napoli) |
Naples returned to its former status; in personal union with the Crown of Aragon and the Spanish monarchy.
Portrait | Coat of Arms | Name | Reign | Relationship with Predecessor(s) | Title | |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Philip III | 1648 | 17 September 1665 | •Son of Philip II | |||
Charles V | 17 September 1665 | 1 November 1700 | •Son of Philip III |
Portrait | Coat of Arms | Name | Reign | Relationship with Predecessor(s) | Title | |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Philip IV | 1 November 1700 | 11 April 1713 | •Great-nephew of Charles V |
Under the terms of the Peace of Utrecht the crown of Naples passed to the Austrian Habsburgs.
Portrait | Coat of Arms | Name | Reign | Relationship with Predecessor(s) | Title | |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Charles VI | 11 April 1713 | 1734/1735 | •Great-grandson of Philip I |
In 1734 Spanish troops conquered the Kingdom of Naples, which was surrendered to Charles of Bourbon under the Treaty of Vienna (1738).
Portrait | Coat of Arms | Name | Reign | Relationship with Predecessor(s) | Title | |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Charles VII (Carlo VII) | 2 June 1734 | 6 October 1759 | •Son of Philip IV; confirmed King with a treaty (1738). Abdicated, 1759 to assume the throne of Spain. | King of Spain, Naples and Sicily (Re di Spagna, Napoli e Sicilia) | ||
Ferdinand IV (Ferdinando IV) | 6 October 1759 | 23 January 1799 | •Son of Charles VII | King of Naples and Sicily (Re di Napoli e Sicilia) |
Nº | Portrait | Name (Birth–Death) | Term of Office | Political Party | Ref. | |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
1 | Jean Étienne Championnet (1762–1800) | 21 January 1799 | 24 February 1799 | Military | ||
Championnet was appointed to defend the Roman Republic, but despite the French Directory's directives, he also conquered Naples and created the Parthenopean Republic. After a short dictatorship, he was deposed and imprisoned by France itself. | ||||||
2 | Jacques MacDonald (1765–1840) | 24 February 1799 | 3 June 1799 | Military | [1] | |
After Championnet's deposition, MacDonald ruled Naples for some months, before moving his forces in Northern Italy. Naples was then reconquered by the Bourbons' loyalists. |
Portrait | Coat of Arms | Name | Reign | Relationship with Predecessor(s) | Title | |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Ferdinand IV (Ferdinando IV) | 13 June 1799 | 30 March 1806 | •Son of Charles VII | King of Naples and Sicily (Re di Napoli e Sicilia) |
Portrait | Coat of Arms | Name | Reign | Relationship with Predecessor(s) | Title | |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Joseph I (Giuseppe I) | 30 March 1806 | 8 July 1808 | •Appointed by Napoleon Bonaparte, abdicated 1808 to assume the throne of Spain. | King of Naples (Re di Napoli) |
Portrait | Coat of Arms | Name | Reign | Relationship with Predecessor(s) | Title | |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Joachim-Napoleon (Gioacchino Napoleone) | 1 August 1808 | 22 May 1815 | •Brother-in-law of Joseph I | King of Naples (Re di Napoli) |
Portrait | Coat of Arms | Name | Reign | Relationship with Predecessor(s) | Title | |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Ferdinand IV (Ferdinando IV) | 22 May 1815 | 8 December 1816 | •Son of Charles VII | King of Naples and Sicily (Re di Napoli e Sicilia) |
Naples was merged with Sicily to form Kingdom of Two Sicilies.
Alfonso the Magnanimous was King of Aragon and King of Sicily and the ruler of the Crown of Aragon from 1416 and King of Naples from 1442 until his death. He was involved with struggles to the throne of the Kingdom of Naples with Louis III of Anjou, Joanna II of Naples and their supporters, but ultimately failed and lost Naples in 1424. He recaptured it in 1442 and was crowned king of Naples. He had good relations with his vassal, Stjepan Kosača, and his ally, Skanderbeg, providing assistance in their struggles in the Balkans. He led diplomatic contacts with the Ethiopian Empire and was a prominent political figure of the early Renaissance, being a supporter of literature as well as commissioning several constructions for the Castel Nuovo.
Peter III of Aragon was King of Aragon, King of Valencia, and Count of Barcelona from 1276 to his death. At the invitation of some rebels, he conquered the Kingdom of Sicily and became King of Sicily in 1282, pressing the claim of his wife, Constance II of Sicily, uniting the kingdom to the crown.
Robert of Anjou, known as Robert the Wise, was King of Naples, titular King of Jerusalem and Count of Provence and Forcalquier from 1309 to 1343, the central figure of Italian politics of his time. He was the third son of King Charles II of Naples and Mary of Hungary, and during his father's lifetime he was styled Duke of Calabria (1296–1309).
Joanna I, also known as Johanna I, was Queen of Naples, and Countess of Provence and Forcalquier from 1343 to 1381; she was also Princess of Achaea from 1373 to 1381.
Charles of Durazzo, also called Charles the Small, was King of Naples and the titular King of Jerusalem from 1382 to 1386 as Charles III, and King of Hungary from 1385 to 1386 as Charles II. In 1381, Charles created the chivalric Order of the Ship. In 1383, he succeeded to the Principality of Achaea on the death of James of Baux.
The Kingdom of Naples was a state that ruled the part of the Italian Peninsula south of the Papal States between 1282 and 1816. It was established by the War of the Sicilian Vespers (1282–1302), when the island of Sicily revolted and was conquered by the Crown of Aragon, becoming a separate kingdom also called the Kingdom of Sicily. This left the Neapolitan mainland under the possession of Charles of Anjou. Later, two competing lines of the Angevin family competed for the Kingdom of Naples in the late 14th century, which resulted in the death of Joanna I by Charles III of Naples. Charles' daughter Joanna II adopted King Alfonso V of Aragon as heir, who would then unite Naples into his Aragonese dominions in 1442.
Ladislaus the Magnanimous was King of Naples from 1386 until his death and an unsuccessful claimant to the kingdoms of Hungary and Croatia. Ladislaus was a skilled political and military leader, protector and controller of Pope Innocent VII; however, he earned a bad reputation concerning his personal life. He profited from disorder throughout Italy to greatly expand his kingdom and his power, appropriating much of the Papal States to his own use. He was the last male of the Capetian House of Anjou.
Louis I, Duke of Anjou was a French prince, the second son of John II of France and Bonne of Bohemia. His career was markedly unsuccessful. Born at the Château de Vincennes, Louis was the first of the Angevin branch of the Valois royal house. His father appointed him Count of Anjou and Count of Maine in 1356, and then raised him to the title Duke of Anjou in 1360 and Duke of Touraine in 1370.
Louis II was Duke of Anjou and Count of Provence from 1384 to 1417; he claimed the Kingdom of Naples, but only ruled parts of the kingdom from 1390 to 1399. His father, Louis I of Anjou—the founder of the House of Valois-Anjou—was a younger son of King John II of France and the adopted son of Queen Joanna I of Naples. When his father died during a military campaign in Naples in 1384, Louis II was still a child. He inherited Anjou from his father, but his mother, Marie of Blois, could not convince his uncles, John, Duke of Berry and Philip II, Duke of Burgundy, to continue her husband's war for Naples. The Provençal nobles and towns refused to acknowledge Louis II as their lawful ruler, but Marie of Blois persuaded them one after another to swear fealty to him between 1385 and 1387.
Joanna II was reigning Queen of Naples from 1414 to her death, when the Capetian House of Anjou became extinct. As a mere formality, she used the title of Queen of Jerusalem, Sicily, and Hungary.
Yolande of Aragon was Duchess of Anjou and Countess of Provence by marriage, who acted as regent of Provence during the minority of her son. Yolande played a crucial role in the struggles between France and England, influencing events such as the financing of Joan of Arc's army in 1429 that helped tip the balance in favour of the French. She was also known as Yolanda de Aragón and Violant d'Aragó. Tradition holds that she commissioned the famous Rohan Hours.
Louis III was a claimant to the Kingdom of Naples from 1417 to 1426, as well as count of Provence, Forcalquier, Piedmont, and Maine and duke of Anjou from 1417 to 1434. As the heir designate to the throne of Naples, he was duke of Calabria from 1426 to 1434.
The War of the Sicilian Vespers, also shortened to the War of the Vespers, was a conflict waged by several medieval European kingdoms over control of Sicily from 1282 to 1302. The war, which started with the revolt of the Sicilian Vespers, was fought over competing dynastic claims to the throne of Sicily and grew to involve the Crown of Aragon, Angevin Kingdom of Naples, Kingdom of France, and the papacy.
Duke of Calabria was the traditional title of the heir apparent of the Kingdom of Naples after the accession of Robert of Naples. It was also adopted by the heads of certain Houses that had once claimed the Kingdom of Naples in lieu of the royal title.
The Capetian House of Anjou, or House of Anjou-Sicily, or House of Anjou-Naples was a royal house and cadet branch of the Capetian dynasty. It is one of three separate royal houses referred to as Angevin, 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, which left him with the southern half of the Italian Peninsula, 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.
The House of Valois-Anjou was a noble French family and cadet branch of the House of Valois. Members of the house served as monarchs of Naples, as well as several other territories.
Maria of Calabria, Countess of Alba, was a Neapolitan princess of the Capetian House of Anjou whose descendants inherited the crown of Naples following the death of her older sister, Queen Joanna I.