Charles III of Naples
Charles the Small or Charles of Durazzo (1345 – 24 February 1386) was King of Naples and the titular King of Jerusalem from 1382 to 1386 as Charles III, and King of Hungary from 1385 to 1386 as Charles II. In 1381, Charles created the chivalric Order of the Ship. In 1383, he succeeded to the Principality of Achaea on the death of James of Baux. Life Childhood and youth (1354/1357 – 1370) He was the only child of Louis of Durazzo and his wife, Margaret of Sanseverino. Louis of Durazzo was a younger son of John, Duke of Durazzo, who was the youngest son of King Charles II of Naples and Mary of Hungary. Charles's date of birth is uncertain: he was born in 1354, according to historian Szilárd Süttő, and in 1357, according to Nancy Goldstone. Charles was born in Durazzo. Louis of Durazzo rebelled against his cousins, Joanna I of Naples, and her husband, Louis of Taranto in the spring of 1360, but he was defeated. He was also compelled to send the child Charles as a hostage to Queen Joanna I's court in Naples. After Charles's father died in prison in the summer of 1362, Queen Joanna ordered that Charles was to be treated "with all honours due to the royal household and to maintain him in a royal state". Charles's distant cousin, Louis I of Hungary, who had not fathered a son, decided to invite Charles to Hungary. Charles came to Hungary in 1364 or 1365. King Louis initially planned to arrange a marriage between Charles and Anne, who was a daughter of Charles IV, Holy Roman Emperor. However, the negotiations of their marriage were broken off because the relations between Louis I and Charles IV had deteriorated. Next, Louis proposed a marriage between Charles and Charles's cousin, Margaret of Durazzo, who was the youngest daughter of Queen Joanna's younger sister, Maria of Calabria. Although the queen was opposed to the marriage, Pope Urban VI granted the papal dispensation that was necessary for the marriage on 15 June 1369. Their marriage took place in Naples on 24 January 1370. Louis made Charles governor of Slavonia, Croatia and Dalmatia with the title of duke in 1371. War for Naples (1379–1381) Queen Joanna I of Naples officially acknowledged Clement VII as the lawful pope against Urban VI on 22 November 1378. She even gave shelter to Clement VII, who had been expelled from Rome, and helped him to leave Italy for Avignon in May 1379. In retaliation, Pope Urban VI excommunicated the queen and declared her deprived of her kingdom in favor of Charles of Durazzo and his wife Margaret on 17 June. The conflict between Joanna and Pope Urban VI caused the Pope (as feudal overlord of the kingdom) to declare her dethroned in 1381 and give the kingdom to Charles. He marched on the Kingdom of Naples with a Croatian army, defeated her husband Otto, Duke of Brunswick-Grubenhagen, at San Germano, seized the city and