Joanna, Duchess of Durazzo

Joanna
Duchess of Durazzo
Reign	1348–1368 1376–1383
Co-rulers	Louis (1365–1368, 1376) Robert (1376–1383)
Born	1344
Died	20 July 1387 (aged 42 or 43) Castel dell'Ovo, Naples
Burial	San Lorenzo Maggiore, Naples
Spouses	Louis of Navarre Robert IV of Artois, Count of Eu
House	House of Anjou-Durazzo
Father	Charles, Duke of Durazzo
Mother	Maria of Calabria

Joanna of Durazzo (1344 – 20 July 1387) was the eldest daughter and eldest surviving child of Charles, Duke of Durazzo, and his wife, Maria of Calabria.^[1] She succeeded as duchess on the death of her father in 1348 when she was only a child of four years old. Joanna was a member of the House of Anjou-Durazzo.

She reigned as Duchess of Durazzo^[2] from 1348-1368. She married twice; firstly to Louis of Navarre and then to Robert IV of Artois, Count of Eu.

Life

Joanna's father died in 1348 and Joanna succeeded him, being the eldest surviving child. However, Joanna remained in Naples rather than going to Durazzo.^{[citation needed]} It was here she was betrothed to her cousin Charles Martel, Duke of Calabria, son of Queen Joanna. Charles Martel was heir in Hungary due to a lack of male heirs. The boy was moved to Hungary, however the engagement was broken when the young boy died around 1348 in Hungary.^{[citation needed]}

In 1365 aged twenty one, Joanna married her first husband Louis of Navarre, who became Duke of Durazzo in right of his wife. He was the son of Joan II of Navarre. In 1368 Durazzo was captured by the Albanian Topia dynasty under the leadership of Prince Karl Thopia.^[3] Joanna and her husband immediately began planning the reconquest of not only Durazzo, but all the lands of the former Angevin Kingdom of Albania.^[4] They were successful in rallying the support of Louis' brother Charles II the Bad and Charles V King of France in this undertaking.^[5][6] In 1372, Louis brought over the Navarrese Company of mercenaries, who had fought with him during the war in France, to assist them in taking Durazzo.^[7][8] Their ranks swelled considerably in 1375 with new recruits directly from Navarre. Many documents survive telling us of the complex nature of the military planning and engineering which was undertaken to ensure success. This they attained, taking the city in midsummer 1376 during the Durrës Expedition.^{[9][10][11][12]} Louis died shortly after.^{[13][14][15][16][17]} Louis and Joanna had no children.^[18] Joanna kept control of Durrës from 1376 with her new husband Robert IV of Artois, Count of Eu, until Karl Thopia regained the city in 1383.^[19][20][21]

Around 1376 Joanna remarried to Robert, Count of Eu.^[22][23] This marriage was also childless. Robert was not Count of Eu for long, he and Joanna were not informed of his father's death in 1387. Joanna and Robert were staying at Castel dell'Ovo in Naples where they were both poisoned on July 20, 1387^[24] on the orders of Joanna's sister Margaret, queen dowager and regent of Naples.

Joanna is buried in San Lorenzo Maggiore, Naples.

References

1. Zacour 1960, p. 32.
2. Women In Power (1300-1350)
3. J. M. Hussey. The Cambridge medieval history. Volume IV. Part I, The Byzantine empire. Byzantium and its neighbours. University Press. p. 419. ISBN 978-0-5210-4535-3. ...In 1368, however, Albania , together with Durazzo, had fallen to the Albanian lord Charles Topia, who took the title of king...
4. Setton, Kenneth. A History of the Crusades: The fourteenth and fifteenth centuries, edited by Harry W. Hazard. University of Wisconsin Press. p. 215. ISBN 978-0-2990-6670-3. ...In 1368 the kingdom of Albania, together with the city of Durazzo, had fallen to the Albanian lord Charles Topia, and Louis of Évreux was faced with no inconsiderable task if he would give effect to his right to rule over the "kingdom" he had thought to possess through his marriage to the heiress Joanna...
5. Setton, Kenneth. A History of the Crusades: The fourteenth and fifteenth centuries, edited by Harry W. Hazard. University of Wisconsin Press. p. 215. ISBN 978-0-2990-6670-3. ...Louis received much assistance from his royal brother of Navarre and from Charles V of France. ...
6. Rodd, Rennell. The Princes of Achaia and the Chronicles of Morea: A Study of Greece in the Middle Ages, Volume 2. Forgotten Books. p. 292. ISBN 978-0-6561-3237-9. ...when there is evidence that a supreme effort was made to re-establish his ascendency in Albania with the support of his brother the King of Navarre...
7. John V. A. Fine (jr.), John Van Antwerp Fine. The Late Medieval Balkans A Critical Survey from the Late Twelfth Century to the Ottoman Conquest. University of Michigan Press. p. 384. ISBN 978-0-4720-8260-5. ...Interested in realizing these rights, Louis hired four companies of knights from Navarre, who are usually referred to as the Navarrese Company, and took Durazzo, probably in 1376. ...
8. Setton, Kenneth. A History of the Crusades: The fourteenth and fifteenth centuries, edited by Harry W. Hazard. University of Wisconsin Press. p. 215. ISBN 978-0-2990-6670-3. ...In 1372 very active recruiting added to the numbers of the new Navarrese Company, but the chief contingents and most important leaders were engaged in 1375 and 1376, and they passed, for the most part, directly from Navarre to Albania. Extensive preparations were made for the expedition, and almost a score of names of military contractors have come down to us in the enrolment lists of 1375-1376. Of the details of Louis's Albanian expedition little is known...
9. Setton, Kenneth. A History of the Crusades: The fourteenth and fifteenth centuries, edited by Harry W. Hazard. University of Wisconsin Press. p. 216. ISBN 978-0-2990-6670-3. ...but Durazzo was apparently occupied in the midsummer of 1376...
10. John V. A. Fine (jr.), John Van Antwerp Fine. The Late Medieval Balkans A Critical Survey from the Late Twelfth Century to the Ottoman Conquest. University of Michigan Press. p. 384. ISBN 978-0-4720-8260-5. ...and took Durazzo, probably in 1376...
11. John L. La Monte. The world of the Middle Ages : a reorientation of medieval history. Appleton-Century-Crofts. p. 526. ISBN 978-0-8919-7473-4. ...the Navarrese Company, who attacked Albania and captured Durazzo in 1376...
12. J. M. Hussey. The Cambridge medieval history. Volume IV. Part I, The Byzantine empire. Byzantium and its neighbours. University Press. p. 419. ISBN 978-0-5210-4535-3. ...The Navarrese Company succeeded in occupying Durazzo, apparently in the midsummer of 1376...
13. Setton, Kenneth M. (general editor) A History of the Crusades: Volume III — The Fourteenth and Fifteenth Centuries. Harry W. Hazard, editor. University of Wisconsin Press: Madison, 1975.
14. John V. A. Fine (jr.), John Van Antwerp Fine. The Late Medieval Balkans A Critical Survey from the Late Twelfth Century to the Ottoman Conquest. University of Michigan Press. p. 384. ISBN 978-0-4720-8260-5. ... Shortly thereafter Louis died, probably still in 1376...
15. Setton, Kenneth. A History of the Crusades: The fourteenth and fifteenth centuries, edited by Harry W. Hazard. University of Wisconsin Press. p. 215. ISBN 978-0-2990-6670-3. ...Louis died about the same time, and shortly thereafter his widow Joanna married duke Robert of Artois...
16. Rodd, Rennell. The Princes of Achaia and the Chronicles of Morea: A Study of Greece in the Middle Ages, Volume 2. Forgotten Books. p. 221. ISBN 978-0-6561-3237-9. ...Louis himself appears to have died in 1376...
17. J. M. Hussey. The Cambridge medieval history. Volume IV. Part I, The Byzantine empire. Byzantium and its neighbours. University Press. p. 419. ISBN 978-0-5210-4535-3. ...But Louis died about this time, and when his wife Joanna promptly remarried...
18. Woodacre, Elena. Joan of Navarre: Infanta, Duchess, Queen, Witch? (Lives of Royal Women). Taylor & Francis. ISBN 978-0-4295-3661-8. ...though he had no legitimate offspring with his Angevin wife...
19. John V. A. Fine (jr.), John Van Antwerp Fine. The Late Medieval Balkans A Critical Survey from the Late Twelfth Century to the Ottoman Conquest. University of Michigan Press. p. 384. ISBN 978-0-4720-8260-5. ...The Angevins retained Durazzo for a time, for in 1379 Joanna's new husband, Robert of Artois, is found issuing to Dubrovnik a charter pertaining to Durazzo. Karlo Thopia, who held the territory both north and south of the city, soon, probably in 1383, regained possession of Durazzo...
20. Baker, Julian. Coinage and Money in Medieval Greece 1200-1430. Brill. p. 361. ISBN 978-9-0044-3434-9. ...The Navarrese then handed over the town to Robert of Artois, Joanna of Durazzo's second husband...
21. Fine (1994), p. 384.
22. Setton 1975, p. 216.
23. Setton, Kenneth. A History of the Crusades: The fourteenth and fifteenth centuries, edited by Harry W. Hazard. University of Wisconsin Press. p. 215. ISBN 978-0-2990-6670-3. ...Louis died about the same time, and shortly thereafter his widow Joanna married duke Robert of Artois...
24. Joanna of Durazzo

Sources

• Fine, John Van Antwerp (1994). The Late Medieval Balkans A Critical Survey from the Late Twelfth Century to the Ottoman Conquest. University of Michigan Press. ISBN 978-0-4720-8260-5.
• Setton, Kenneth M. (1975). "The Catalans in Greece". In Hazard, Harry W. (ed.). A History of the Crusades: The Fourteenth and Fifteenth centuries. Vol. III. University of Wisconsin Press.
• Zacour, Norman P. (1960). "Talleyrand: The Cardinal of Périgord (1301–1364)". Transactions of the American Philosophical Society. New Series. 50 (7). American Philosophical Society: 1–83. doi:10.2307/1005798. JSTOR 1005798.

Italian nobility
Preceded by Charles	Duchess of Durazzo 1348–1368	Succeeded by Karl Thopia as Prince of Albania