Ludwig I. (Anjou)

Ludwig's original coat of arms as Duke of Anjou corresponded to the coat of arms of his ancestor, Prince Karl von Valois . After his brother, King Charles V, limited the number of lilies in the royal coat of arms to three, Ludwig changed his coat of arms accordingly (see below). After his adoption in 1382 he extended his coat of arms to include that of the older house of Anjou.

Ludwig von Anjou (* July 23, 1339 , † September 20, 1384 in Bisceglie near Bari ) was an unrecognized king of Naples from the younger house of Anjou .

Life

He was the second son of King John II of France and his wife Bonne of Luxembourg (also known as Guta of Luxembourg or Bohemia), a daughter of the Bohemian King John of Luxembourg , the father of the later Emperor Charles IV. He was a count and duke of Anjou , Count of Maine , Duke of Touraine , King of Naples and Jerusalem , Count of Provence and Forcalquier .

Ludwig fought in the Battle of Maupertuis in 1356 under the command of his brother Charles V (also called Dauphin ). The fighting was fierce and in the middle of the confrontation the whole group fled. They thus avoided being captured by the English. King John II and Ludwig's younger brother Philip II, on the other hand, were captured by Edward , the "Black Prince". On May 8, 1360, the Brétigny peace treaty between France and England was signed. The negotiated contract stipulated that Johann II should be released against payment of a ransom . Forty noble hostages were to be handed over as a guarantee for the payment of the ransom. Ludwig, who was already Duke of Anjou, was in this group and sailed for England in October 1360. But France was in a bad economic situation and further debt installments were postponed. As a result, Ludwig's English imprisonment lasted much longer than the expected six months. He tried to secure his freedom in a private negotiation with Edward III. negotiated by England and, when that failed, he decided to flee. When he returned to France, his father accused him of being unknightly. Johann II felt dishonored; his ransom payments, which were in arrears, forced him to return to captivity in England to regain his honor.

From 1380 to 1382 Ludwig ruled with his brothers Johann von Berry and Philip of Burgundy in the government of the dukes for his nephew, King Charles VI. of France ; but he left France to claim the throne of Naples after Queen Joan I's death . Since she was childless and did not wish to leave her inheritance to close relatives, she adopted him. While Louis of Anjou had managed to follow her after her murder (1382) by Charles II of Durazzo (her second cousin) as Count of Provence and Forcalquier , he did not manage to regain the Kingdom of Naples, which had been lost to Charles . Pope Clement VII , who resided in Avignon, excommunicated as a result of Karl von Durazzo and in turn crowned Louis of Anjou as the new king of Naples and Sicily. Ludwig marched south with 15,000 men via Avignon and Lombardy, part of the army initially remained in Tuscany to keep the hostile Republic of Florence in check. The main part of the French troops under Amadeus of Savoy , the "Green Count", reached Naples in autumn 1382. In February 1383 an epidemic in the army of Anjou spread in the mountains above Naples, from which the Count of Savoy died on March 1st. Ludwig also ran out of his money, he was cut off from the hinterland by mercenary troops under Sir John Hawkwood in Apulia, his starving army was poorly supplied at sea, but now began to dissolve completely. Ludwig himself succumbed to an epidemic in his headquarters in Bari in 1384 , and he appointed Sire Enguerrand von Coucy to be his viceroy in Italy. He bequeathed his claim to the throne to his son Ludwig II.

In 1360 he married Marie von Châtillon-Blois († 1404). They had the following children:

1. Marie (* 1370; † after 1383)
2. Ludwig II of Anjou (* 1377; † 1417)
3. Karl (* 1380; † 1404 in Angers ), Prince of Taranto , Count of Roucy , Étampes and Gien

See also : List of the rulers of Naples

predecessor	Office	successor
Crown domain	Count of Poitou 1350-1354	Charles V
Crown domain	Count then Duke of Anjou from 1360 Duke 1351–1384	Ludwig II.
Crown domain	Earl of Maine 1351–1384	Ludwig II.
Charles of Blois	Lord of Guise (de iure uxoris ) 1360–1384	Ludwig II.
Johanna I.	Count of Provence titular king of Naples and Jerusalem 1382–1384	Ludwig II.
Isabella	Count of Roucy 1370–1384	Ludwig II.

This article is based on a text in the public domain from Meyers Konversations-Lexikon , 4th edition from 1888 to 1890.

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