Giovanna I d’Angiò

Joanna I of Anjou went down in history as the first woman to reign independently over the Kingdom of Naples. Born in Naples in 1326, daughter of Charles, Duke of Calabria, and Margaret of Valois, she became heir to the Angevin crown upon her father's death in 1328. She was crowned queen in 1343, upon the death of her grandfather, Robert of Anjou, known as the Wise, one of the most illustrious rulers of the South. Joan, still seventeen, thus ascended the throne of one of the most important kingdoms in Europe and the Mediterranean, bringing with her all the expectations and tensions of a monarchy linked to the Holy See and disputed between internal and external powers. Joan was not queen by marital right, but by legitimate dynastic succession. To consolidate the Angevin line, she was forced into an engagement with Andrew of Hungary, a cousin and member of the Hungarian branch of the dynasty, as a child. The marriage was celebrated in 1343, but soon became the subject of tensions: Andrew, ambitious and supported by Hungarian circles, sought the title of king in his own right, while Joan intended to exercise power alone. The conflict was resolved in blood: in 1345, Andrea was murdered in Aversa in circumstances that were never fully clarified, but for which many believed the queen herself was involved. Public opinion was appeased only with the execution of a few conspirators. Andrew's death triggered a violent reaction from his brother, Louis I of Hungary, who twice invaded the Kingdom of Naples. Joan was forced to flee and defend herself even in front of a trial in Avignon, then the seat of the papacy. She emerged acquitted and managed, in 1352, to stipulate a peace with Louis, maintaining the throne. Meanwhile, she remarried Louis of Taranto (1347), who however overshadowed her authority, treating her, according to chroniclers of the time, more like a servant than a sovereign. Upon Louis' death in 1362, Joan was finally able to exercise more direct power, and experienced a phase of enlightened and stable government, although marked by further marriages: first with James IV of Majorca, who however lived far from Naples, then with Otto of Brunswick, who tried, in vain, to defend the kingdom from the last dynastic threat. Despite the political turmoil, Joan was able to impress upon her own kingdom a strong cultural and religious identity. She was deeply devout, even bearing the title Queen of Jerusalem, and was a patron of sacred, artistic, and charitable works. She was responsible for the construction of the Certosa di San Martino sul Vomero, and the church of the Incoronata, conceived as a hospital-church and enriched by a cycle of frescoes with the Sacraments attributed to Roberto d'Oderisio. It was, in fact, a church-hospital that had the privilege of preserving an important relic donated by Saint Louis of France, a thorn from the crown of Christ from the Sainte-Chappelle deposit in Paris, hence the name “Spinacorona” with which the church is known to the Neapolitan tradition. Politically, he was a figure of international prominence: he supported the Avignon Papacy, was awarded the Golden Rose by Pope Urban V in 1368, and played a key role in the 1372 Treaty of Avignon, which sanctioned a truce with the Aragonese of Sicily. He also attempted to bring the Papal Curia back to Italy, although he preferred it to be established in Naples rather than Rome. The final crisis of his reign came with the Western Schism (1378), which saw two rival popes vying for legitimacy: Urban VI in Rome and Clement VII in Avignon. Joan chose to support Clement VII, considered antipope by the Roman front. This cost her dearly: Pope Urban VI excommunicated Joan and blessed the invasion of the Kingdom by Charles of Durazzo, her nephew. In 1381, Giovanna was captured, imprisoned in the castle of Muro Lucano and, the following year, strangled on Charles' orders. She was not even granted a Christian burial: she died excommunicated, stripped of her crown and dignity.