Eleanor of Anjou

Life

She was the third daughter of King Charles II of Naples and Mary of Hungary.

Eleanor was firstly married in 1299 to Philippe II de Toucy, son of Narjot de Toucy, Lord of Laterza, and Lucia of Tripoli. Their marriage was dissolved on 17 January 1300 by Pope Boniface VIII because they were related and had not sought permission from the pope to marry.

On 17 May 1302, Eleanor married secondly to the King of Sicily, Frederick III. Her father and her new husband had been engaged in a war for ascendancy in the Mediterranean Sea and especially Sicily and the Mezzogiorno. The marriage was part of a diplomatic effort to establish peaceful relations which would lead to the Peace of Caltabellotta (19 August 1302).

The peace divided the old Kingdom of Sicily into an island portion and a peninsular portion. The island, called the Kingdom of Trinacria, went to Frederick, who had been ruling it, and the Mezzogiorno, called the Kingdom of Sicily contemporaneously, but called the Kingdom of Naples by modern scholarship, went to Charles II, who had been ruling it. Thus, the peace was formal recognition of an uneasy status quo.

Eleanor died on the 9 August 1341 at the Monastery of San Nicolo di Arena (Catania), she had been a widow since 1337. She was buried at a Franciscan monastery in Catania.

Issue

Eleanor and Frederick had nine children:

• Peter II of Sicily (1304–1342), successor
• Roger (born 1305), died young
• Manfred, Duke of Athens and Neopatria (1306–1317), Duke of Athens and Neopatria
• Constance, married on December 29, 1331 to Leo IV of Armenia
• Elisabeth (1310–1349),(also known as Isabella), married (1328) Stephen II of Bavaria
• William, Prince of Taranto (1312–1338), Prince of Taranto, Duke of Athens and Neopatria
• Giovanni di Randazzo (1317–1348), Duke of Randazzo, Duke of Athens and Neopatria, Regent of Sicily (from 1338)
• Catherine (1320–1342)
• Margaret (1331–1377), married (1348) Rudolf II of the Palatinate

References

Sources