Ladislas of Naples

Ladislas the Magnanimous (14 July 1376 or 11 February 1377 – 6 August 1414) was King of Naples and titular King of Jerusalem and Sicily, titular Count of Provence and Forcalquier (1386 – 1414), and titular King of Hungary and Dalmatia (1390 – 1414). He was the last male of the senior Angevin line. He became a skilled political and military leader, protector and controller of the Papacy of Innocent VII. He profited from disorder throughout Italy t... more

Ladislas the Magnanimous (14 July 1376 or 11 February 1377 – 6 August 1414) was King of Naples and titular King of Jerusalem and Sicily, titular Count of Provence and Forcalquier (1386 – 1414), and titular King of Hungary and Dalmatia (1390 – 1414). He was the last male of the senior Angevin line. He became a skilled political and military leader, protector and controller of the Papacy of Innocent VII. 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 born in Naples, the son of Charles III and Margherita of Durazzo. He became the King of Naples from the age of nine (1386) under his mother's regency. Through the 1390s he was constantly opposed by Antipope John XXIII as well as by Louis II of Anjou, then head of the junior Angevin line, who contested the throne. Louis successfully seized Naples from him in 1390, and Ladislas was forced to spend several years in the fortress of Gaeta. He... less