Charles, Duke of Durazzo

Coat of arms of Charles of Durazzo.

Charles of Durazzo (1323 – 23 January 1348) was a Neapolitan nobleman, the eldest son of John, Duke of Durazzo and Agnes de Périgord.

Life

He succeeded his father as Duke of Durazzo and Count of Gravina in 1336.

On 21 April 1343, he married Maria of Calabria, Countess of Alba, in Naples. She was the younger daughter of Charles, Duke of Calabria and sister of Joan I of Naples, and had been intended as a bride for Louis I of Hungary or John II of France, but was abducted by Charles and his mother to make a marriage that would place Charles closer to the throne of Naples.

Keeping carefully aloof from the conspiracy that murdered Joan's husband Andrew, Duke of Calabria, he led a faction opposing Joan and Louis of Taranto. He contacted the Hungarian court, seeking their support. He hoped to turn the invasion of Louis of Hungary and the flight of Joan to his own ends: but he was seized and beheaded by the Hungarians at Aversa.

In Popular Culture

Alexandre Dumas, père, in his romance Joan of Naples, makes Charles a master of intrigue and treachery who engineers the death of Andrew and then of his murderers, only to meet his death at the hands of the King of Hungary.

Issue

Charles and Maria had five children:

• Louis (December 1343 – 14 January 1344)
• Joanna (1344–1387), Duchess of Durazzo; married first in 1366 Louis of Navarre, Count of Beaumont (d. 1372), married second Robert IV of Artois, Count of Eu (d. 1387)
• Agnes (1345–1388, Naples), married first on 6 June 1363 Cansignorio della Scala, Lord of Verona (d. 1375), married second James of Baux (d. 1383)
• Clementia (1346–1363, Naples)
• Margaret (28 July 1347 – 6 August 1412, Mela), married in February 1368 Charles III of Naples

References

• Goldstone, Nancy (2010). Joanna, The Notorious Queen of Naples, Jerusalem and Sicily. Weidenfeld & Nicholson. 

Italian nobility
Preceded by John	Duke of Durazzo 1336–1348	Succeeded by Joanna
	Count of Gravina 1336–1348	Succeeded by Louis