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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, he was held prisoner by Louis I of Hungary until 1352. After his release, he took refuge with his uncle the Cardinal de Périgord in Avignon, which had just been sold to the Papacy by Joan I of Naples.
His uncle attempted to arrange a marriage for him with the niece of Giovanni Visconti, lord of Milan, but on his journey to Milan, Robert was arrested by James of Piedmont. James' wife, Sibylle des Baux, was convinced that Robert and his Durazzeschi kin had arranged the recent murder of her nephew Robert, Count of Avellino. (Robert had married, by force, Maria of Calabria; but falling into the hands of Louis of Taranto, was murdered by his wife's orders in the Castel dell'Ovo.) Robert was not released until 18 March 1355, through the efforts of his uncle and Pope Innocent VI, and was made to swear to take no revenge on his captors. He immediately broke the promise by seizing the fortress of Les Baux on 6 April 1355. This was the Provençal seat of Raymond des Baux, brother and successor of the murdered Robert. The Pope was outraged; Robert was defended by his uncle in the papal curia, but did not escape excommunication. After an unsuccessful attempt at mediation by Walter VI of Brienne and others, local levies besieged the castle, and by July, Robert was compelled to surrender it to its rightful owner.
He accompanied the Cardinal to the Battle of Poitiers. Before the battle, the Cardinal attempted to mediate between the English forces under Edward, the Black Prince and the French forces under John II of France. Robert, like many of the Cardinal's men, joined the fight on the French side, and was killed there. This violation of the neutrality which ought to adhere to a churchman and mediator so provoked Edward the Black Prince that he had Robert's body borne on a shield to the Cardinal as a mocking salute.
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Louis I, also Louis the Great ; or Louis the Hungarian, was King of Hungary and Croatia from 1342 and King of Poland from 1370. He was the first child of Charles I of Hungary and his wife, Elizabeth of Poland, to survive infancy. A 1338 treaty between his father and Casimir III of Poland, Louis's maternal uncle, confirmed Louis's right to inherit the Kingdom of Poland if his uncle died without a son. In exchange, Louis was obliged to assist his uncle to reoccupy the lands that Poland had lost in previous decades. He bore the title of Duke of Transylvania between 1339 and 1342 but did not administer the province.
Charles V, called the Wise, was King of France from 1364 to his death. His reign marked an early high point for France during the Hundred Years' War, with his armies recovering much of the territory held by the English, and successfully reversed the military losses of his predecessors.
Charles II, also known as Charles the Lame, was King of Naples, Count of Provence and Forcalquier (1285–1309), Prince of Achaea (1285–1289), and Count of Anjou and Maine (1285–1290); he also styled himself King of Albania and claimed the Kingdom of Jerusalem from 1285. He was the son of Charles I of Anjou—one of the most powerful European monarchs in the second half of the 13th century—and Beatrice of Provence. His father granted Charles the Principality of Salerno in the Kingdom of Sicily in 1272 and made him regent in Provence and Forcalquier in 1279.
Joanna I, also known as Johanna I, was Queen of Naples, and Countess of Provence and Forcalquier from 1343 to 1382; she was also Princess of Achaea from 1373 to 1381. Joanna was the eldest daughter of Charles, Duke of Calabria and Marie of Valois to survive infancy. Her father was the son of Robert the Wise, King of Naples, but he died before his father in 1328. Three years later, King Robert appointed Joanna as his heir and ordered his vassals to swear fealty to her. To strengthen Joanna's position, he concluded an agreement with his nephew, King Charles I of Hungary, about the marriage of Charles's younger son, Andrew, and Joanna. Charles I also wanted to secure his uncle's inheritance to Andrew, but King Robert named Joanna as his sole heir on his deathbed in 1343. He also appointed a regency council to govern his realms until Joanna's 21st birthday, but the regents could not actually take control of state administration after the King's death.
Charles the Short or Charles of Durazzo 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.
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.
Philip I of Taranto, of the Angevin house, was titular Latin Emperor of Constantinople by right of his wife Catherine of Valois–Courtenay, Despot of Romania, King of Albania, Prince of Achaea and Taranto.
Louis I, also known as Louis of Taranto, was a member of the Capetian House of Anjou who reigned as King of Naples, Count of Provence and Forcalquier, and Prince of Taranto.
Louis of Durazzo was Count of Gravina and Morrone. He was the son of John of Durazzo and Agnes of Périgord.
Mary of Hungary, of the Árpád dynasty, was Queen consort of the Kingdom of Naples. She was a daughter of Stephen V of Hungary and his wife Elizabeth the Cuman. Mary served as Regent in Provence in 1290–1294 and in Naples in 1295–96, 1296–98, and 1302, during the absences of her consort.
Catherine II, also Catherine of Valois or Catherine of Taranto, was the recognised Latin Empress of Constantinople from 1307–1346, although she lived in exile and only had authority over Crusader States in Greece. She was Princess consort of Achaea and Taranto, and also regent of Achaea from 1332–1341, and Governor of Cephalonia from 1341–1346.
John of Gravina, Count of Gravina 1315–1336, Prince of Achaea 1318-1332, Duke of Durazzo 1332–1336 and ruler of the Kingdom of Albania, was a younger son of Charles II of Naples and Maria of Hungary.
Charles of Durazzo was a Neapolitan nobleman, the eldest son of John, Duke of Durazzo and Agnes of Périgord.
Humbert II de la Tour-du-Pin was the Dauphin of the Viennois from 1333 to 16 July 1349. Humbert was the last dauphin before the title went to the French crown, to be bestowed on the heir apparent.
Margaret of Durazzo was Queen of Naples and Hungary and Princess of Achaea as the spouse of Charles III of Naples. She was regent of Naples from 1386 until 1393 during the minority of her son Ladislaus of Naples.
The Capetian House of Anjou was a royal house and cadet branch of the direct French House of Capet, part 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. Later the War of the Sicilian Vespers forced him out of the island of Sicily, leaving 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 becoming defunct in 1435.
Maria of Calabria 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.
Agnes of Durazzo was the wife of James of Baux, titular Latin Emperor of Constantinople. She was the last woman to claim the title of empress of the Latin Empire.
Francis of Baux was the first Duke of Andria, Count of Montescaglioso and Squillace, and Lord of Berre, Mison, and Tiano. He was the son of Bertrand III of Baux, Count of Andria and Montescaglioso and his second wife, Marguerite d'Aulnay. Francis's father was a Senator of Rome, Captain General of Tuscany, and Justiciar of Naples. The half-royal Baux family was one of the greatest families of the kingdom after the Duke's marriage to Marguerite of Taranto in 1348.
Agnes of Périgord 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 influential. Following the death of Robert, King of Naples in 1343, she organised a marriage for her eldest son to Robert's granddaughter, who was second-in-line to the Neapolitan throne. Agnes's ambition was to bring her family closer to the line of succession.