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| Carobert |
Unwanted Relations
Charles of
Artois’ direct heir by primogeniture had been Carobert[i], son of Robert’s deceased elder
brother Charles Martel. Carobert was seven years old and
unable to hold his throne. Instead the throne had been given to Robert, an
adult who could more than hold his own. Now Carobert was a grown man and king of Hungary; he was determined to contest what he saw as his birthright.
When the 13
year old Carobert arrived in Hungary in 1301 his coronation by Gregory Bisckei was disputed by local barons who had their own candidate;
the 12 year old Wenceslaus, son of Wenceslaus, King of Bohemia. Carobert was assisted by his Hapsburg relatives, Albert,
King of Germany and Rudolf, Duke of Austria. The barons and the young Wenceslaus were
sent packing.
It was not
until Carobert and his men had conquered much of central Hungary that he was
crowned with the Holy Crown of Hungary on 27th August 1310. Even
so Carobert faced more opposition from the Hungarian nobility and it took a
further ten years to consolidate his power.
With his
marriage to his third wife Elizabeth[ii], a Polish princess in 1320, Carobert now found a
ruthless power-hungry spouse, ready to fight for her children’s rights. An alliance
with Poland brought powerful benefits for Carobert, who had always protested
his loss of Naples.
Papal Interference
 |
| Pope John XXII |
Pope John
XXII was ready to throw his influence behind Carobert’s claims as a counter to
the Holy Roman Emperor, Louis, whose Italian fiasco had not reduced his threat
to papal interests. Louis supported a number of outspoken theologians, who held
strong views on apostolic poverty in direct opposition to the pope who amassed
a great fortune of his own, shocking Petrarch;
‘Here reign the successors
of the poor fishermen of Galilee; they have strangely forgotten their origin. I
am astounded, as I recall their ancestors, to see these men loaded with gold
and clad in purple, boasting of the spoils of prices and nations.’[iii]
John also
held unorthodox views on saints[iv]. In January 1329, in Pisa, Louis and his anti-pope, Nicholas V, in the presence of William of Wykeham[v] and Michael of Cesena[vi], formally condemned Pope John on a
charge of heresy.
Carobert,
who persecuted the Spiritual Franciscans protected at Robert’s court, was seen
as a loyal son of the church. Robert was often in arrears with his annual
payments to the Papal Treasury, while Carobert had amassed a large fortune;
something which the miserly Pope John could not have failed to notice.
An Agreement Between Relations
 |
| Andrew with his mother and brothers |
John wrote
to Robert the Wise suggesting that he make amends to Carobert, a request that
Robert dismissed. John pressed Robert to marry Joanna to one of Carobert’s sons
and let the eldest child of their union inherit the throne of Naples.
Robert’s
sister-in-law Catherine tried to inveigle her brother King Philip of France into pressing for marriages between Catherine’s
eldest sons and Joanna and Marie. Pope John wrote to her informing her that the
two sisters were promised to their Hungarian cousins. He issued a bull to that
effect on 30th June 1332. Robert and Sancia capitulated at this
point and came to terms with Carobert.
Carobert’s
five year old second son Andrew would marry Joanna and become Duke
of Calabria immediately the couple were betrothed. He would be crowned King of
Naples when he reached his majority. Maria would marry Carobert’s eldest son Crown
Prince Louis; if Joanna died Andrew would marry
Maria instead. In either event Andrew’s children would rule in Naples after
himself.
‘Maria was bound to wed one
or the other….in view of mishap to her sister, to whom she was
heiress-presumptive, she was….looked upon as a reserve claim for Hungary in
rebinding itself to the House of Naples.’[vii]
Robert
always intended that Andrew would be crowned as King Consort, not de facto king as the Hungarians wanted. Errors in the
communications between the two countries hid this vital flaw in the agreement
A Family Wedding
 |
| Casimir III |
Carobert and
Andrew travelled down from Hungary for the wedding; Queen Elizabeth and Louis
stayed at home. The situation in Poland was fluid as Elizabeth’s father had
recently died and her brother Casimir was new to his throne. Carobert and
Andrew arrived in Naples on 18th September 1333. The wedding took
place nine days later; Joanna was now Duchess of Calabria.
The new Duke
of Calabria, age 6, was effectively adrift in a foreign country, whose language
he did not speak. Occasionally he played with Joanna or her cousins, but much
of the time he was on his own. As a result Andrew became surly and rude. The
cosmopolitan Neapolitans did not hide their disdain for this young unhappy
child or his Hungarian retinue.
A tutor was
appointed by Sancia appointed a Spiritual Franciscan to be Andrew’s tutor.
Friar Robert, who turned out to be not spiritual at all; soon gained ascendancy
over Andrew’s household. Petrarch wrote of him to his friend Cardinal Giovanni Colonna;
‘Alas, what a shame, what a
monster! May God remove this kind of plague from Italian skies…..he disdains
most haughtily not only your words but also those of the Pope.’[viii]
Changing Times
Joanna
learned the art of ruling at her grandfather’s knee, but what she learned did
not take account of the changes the years had wrought. Over the years Robert’s authority
had waned and by 1335 his influence over much of the provinces surrounding
Naples had decreased. Pope John died on 4th December 1334 and his
successor was Benedict XII, a pope who preferred to keep the
governance of the papal fiefs in his own hands.
 |
| Silver gigliato of Robert's reign |
Crime in the
kingdom increased dramatically throughout Joanna’s teenage years. There was a
core of very wealthy nobles at court but, along with the peasantry, much of the
nobility was impoverished; crop failures brought down many landowners. Nobles
were used to responding to any petty argument with violence and as a result
bands of armed men roamed the countryside swearing vendetta against perceived
enemies. In response Robert issued a decree;
‘That men of the city may
not disturb its tranquillity, nor carry prohibited weapons by day or night, nor
congregate in crowds……nor commit violence on peers or inferiors, open or
stealthily, in public or private places.’[ix]
The decree
did not receive military support and by the end of the decade Robert’s
administration was being called corrupt.
In despair
Robert withdrew to the comfort of his sermonising and his books. In March 1341 after
three days of wildly fêted examination Robert approved Petrarch as poet laureate[x] and made him his chaplain as well. Joanna
attended the examination. These three glorious days marked the beginning of the
end of Robert’s reign.
Further west
the Hundred Year’s War was about to erupt, as Edward III cast covetous eyes on the lost
Angevin lands in France. Edward had the support of Charles IV, the Holy Roman Emperor and the
Flemings, while Philip relied on the support of the pope, 60% of whose income
derived from France, and his sister’s brother-in-law, Robert of Naples.
Worsening Relations
By the
summer of 1342 Joanna’s marriage was still unconsummated; Joanna was now
sixteen, well past the age of maturity for women as calculated in the Middle
Ages[xi]. Andrew was 15 and
apparently a slow developer. Robert declared that Andrew would lead an
expedition into Sicily in the early spring of 1342 and after his return he
would be knighted and the marriage would be formally consummated.
The
expedition was delayed several times; apparently its leader was reluctant to
leave Naples. A further delay was caused by the Carobert’s death on 16th
July 1342; his widow had her eldest son Louis crowned within the week.
Elizabeth had never been keen on marrying Louis to Maria, preferring to
strengthen local alliances. To this end she married Louis off to Margaret
of Bohemia[xii].
Robert
reacted angrily to this casting off of Maria and, on 16th January
1643, the now bed-ridden king dictated his last will and testament confirming
Joanna as his heir and in the event of Joanna’s dying childless, the crown was
to go to Maria. Andrew was cut out of the inheritance. There was no mention of
his becoming even King Consort. If Maria failed to marry Louis, she was to
marry the heir to the French throne, or one of his brothers. To entice Philip
Maria’s portion was increased by a value of 10,000 florins, in addition to a
dowry of 30,000 florins[xiii].
A special
council was set up, under the leadership of Sancia, to govern until Joanna was
25. The will recognised the pope’s authority and recommended Joanna and Maria
for papal protection.
‘The before mentioned duke
and duchess and the duchess’ sister Maria, affirming themselves as adult….have
promised and sworn by corporeal touch of the Holy Gospel, in the presence of
ourself, the ruler and King, and of our judge and notary, and the undersigned
witnesses to keep firmly and inviolably [the terms of the will].’[xiv]
Within four
days, before he could be persuaded of the wisdom or otherwise of his will,
Robert was dead.
Bibliography
Chronicles –
Froissart, Penguin Classics 1968
The Holy
Roman Empire – Friedrich Heer, Phoenix 1995
Joanna –
Nancy Goldstone, Phoenix 2010
Absolute
Monarchs – John Julius Norwich, Random House 2011
A Distant
Mirror – Barbara Tuchman, MacMillan London Ltd 1989
www.wikipedia.en
[i]
Also known as Charles; Carobert or Caroberto is a shortening of the names
Charles Robert
[iii]
Absolute Monarchs - Norwich
[iv]
General belief was that saints ascended direct to Heaven; in a series of
sermons in the winter of 1331-2 John claimed that this was untrue and they
would not be given full recognition until the Day of Judgement
[vi]
General of the Franciscan Order
[vii]
Joanna - Goldstone
[viii]
Ibid
[ix]
Ibid
[x]
Petrarch was given his laurels in Rome on 8th April 1341
[xi]
Usually assessed at 13
[xii]
Second daughter of the Holy Roman Emperor
[xiii]
The total of 40,000 florins in 2013 the relative: historic standard of
living value of that income or
wealth is £33,650,000.00 economic status
value of that income or wealth is £1,377,000,000.00 economic power value of that income or wealth is £9,169,000,000.00 www.measuringworth.com
[xiv]
Joanna - Goldstone
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