Robert, Prince of Taranto

Coat of arms of Robert of Taranto. They are the combination of the arms of Anjou and those of the Latin Empire of Constantinople.

Robert II of Taranto (1319 or early winter 1326 – 10 September 1364[1]), of the Angevin family, Prince of Taranto (13321346), King of Albania (1332–1364), Prince of Achaea (1333–1346), Titular Emperor of Constantinople (as Robert II, 1343/1346-1364).

He was the oldest surviving son of Prince Philip I of Taranto and Empress Catherine II of Valois.[1] His paternal grandparents were King Charles II of Naples and Maria of Hungary. His maternal grandparents were Count Charles of Valois and his second wife, Empress Catherine I of Courtenay.

In 1332, as a result of an exchange with his uncle John of Gravina, Robert became Prince of Achaea.[1] Because of his youth, authority was effectively exercised by his mother Catherine II of Valois until her death in 1346. At that point Robert inherited the throne of the Latin Empire, and was recognized as emperor by the Latin states of Greece. His actual power, such as it was, remained based upon his authority as prince of Achaea. In Naples, on 9 September 1347 he married Marie of Bourbon, the daughter of Louis I, Duke of Bourbon Constable of Cyprus,[2] but the marriage was childless. When he died on 10 October 1364, his widow attempted to keep the principality for herself and her son from her previous marriage. However, Robert's younger brother Philip II of Taranto succeeded as the legitimate heir. He died in Naples and was buried there.[3]

Ancestry

Notes

  1. 1 2 3 Peter Lock, The Franks in the Aegean: 1204-1500, (Routledge, 1988), 129.
  2. The Morea, 1311-1364, Peter Topping, A History of the Crusades: The Fourteenth and Fifteenth Centuries, Vol. III, ed. Kenneth Meyer Setton, (University of Wisconsin Press, 1975), 132.
  3. A History of the Crusades: The Fourteenth and Fifteenth Centuries, Vol. III, 141.

Sources

Robert, Prince of Taranto
House of Anjou-Taranto
Cadet branch of the Capetian House of Anjou
Born: 1319/1326 Died: 10 September 1364
Preceded by
Philip I of Taranto
Lord of the Kingdom of Albania
1332
Succeeded by
John of Gravina
as Duke of Durazzo
Prince of Taranto
1332–1346
Succeeded by
Louis of Taranto
Preceded by
Catherine of Valois
 TITULAR 
Latin Emperor of Constantinople
13461364
Succeeded by
Philip II of Taranto
Preceded by
John of Gravina
Prince of Achaea
13321364
Count Palatine of
Cephalonia and Zakynthos

13361357
Succeeded by
Leonardo I Tocco


This article is issued from Wikipedia - version of the 11/25/2016. The text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution/Share Alike but additional terms may apply for the media files.