Jacques des Baux

Jacques des Baux (Italian: Giacomo del Balzo , German: Jakob von Baux ; † July 7, 1383 in Taranto ) was a prince of Taranto and Achaia and titular emperor of Constantinople . He was the son of François des Baux ( Francesco del Balzo ; † 1422) and his second wife Marguerite d'Anjou-Taranto.

Jacques came from the Baux family, originally from Provence . His ancestors came to Lower Italy with Charles of Anjou in the middle of the 13th century and rose to become the leading nobility in the Kingdom of Naples . However, the family's relationship with the crown found a break in the troubled times of Queen Joan I after Jacques' father was banished from Naples by the Queen in 1374 .

Jacques himself was related to the Anjou through his mother and after his uncle Philip II of Taranto died childless in 1374, Jacques was his main heir. He got the principality of Taranto as well as the empty title of Emperor of Constantinople. The principality of Achaia, however, was bequeathed to the queen by the uncle, which Jacques did not accept and took up the fight against the queen. In the struggle for the principality he recruited, among other things, the mercenaries of the Navarre company (1380), who devastated the Peloponnese . After Queen Joan's assassination in 1382, Jacques was recognized by the barons Achaias, but he now had to face the queen's murderer and successor, King Charles III. , and their last husband, Otto von Braunschweig .

Jacques died a year later and was buried in the Cathedral of San Cataldo . He was married to Agnes von Anjou-Durazzo but had no children. His sister Antonia was with King Friedrich III. married from Sicily but had no children either. For this reason, Jacques transferred his rights to Duke Ludwig I of Anjou before his death , but his legacy was to be contested. In Achaia, the Navarre company took over power and his cousins ​​from the Orsini del Balzo family made a claim on Taranto . The imperial title, however, expired on his death, although he also awarded it to the Duke of Anjou, who, like his descendants, never led it.

literature

• Salvatore Fodale:  Del Balzo (de Baux), Giacomo. In: Massimiliano Pavan (ed.): Dizionario Biografico degli Italiani (DBI). Volume 36:  DeFornari – Della Fonte. Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana, Rome 1988, pp. 313-315.
• Peter Lock: The Franks in the Aegean. 1204-1500. Longman, London et al. 1995, ISBN 0-582-05140-1 .

predecessor	Office	successor
Philip II	Prince of Taranto 1374-1383	Otto of Braunschweig
Joan I of Naples	Prince of Achaia 1381–1383	Charles III from Naples