Louis I, Duke of Anjou

Louis of Anjou (* 1339, † September 20, 1384 in Bisceglie near Bari ) was an unrecognized king of Naples from the recent House of Anjou.

He was the second son of King John II of France and his wife, Bonne of Luxembourg (also Guta of Bohemia Luxembourg or called ), a daughter of the Bohemian King John of Luxembourg, the father of the future Emperor Charles IV. He was Count and Duke of Anjou, Count of Maine, Duke of Touraine, King of Naples and Jerusalem, Count of Provence and Forcalquier.

Louis fought in 1356 in the battle of Maupertuis, under the command of his brother Charles V (also called Dauphin ). It was hard fought and in the middle of the confrontation, the whole group fled. They thus escaped being captured by the English. King John II and younger brother of Louis Philip II, however, were captured by Edward, the " Black Prince ". On May 8, 1360 was the peace treaty of Brétigny between France and England. The negotiated contract certain that John II was to be released on payment of a ransom. As a guarantee for the payment of the ransom 40 noble hostages should be passed. Ludwig, who was Duke of Anjou, was in this group and sailed in October 1360 to England. But France was not in a good economic situation and further debt rates have been postponed. As a result, Louis took English prison much longer than the expected six months. He tried his freedom in a private negotiation with Edward III. negotiated by England and, as this failed, he decided to flee. On his return to France, his father gave him before his unritterliches behavior. John II felt dishonored; his ransom payments that were in arrears, forced him to England in captivity to return, to regain his honor.

From 1380 to 1382 Louis ruled with his brothers, John of Berry and Philip of Burgundy in the government of the dukes of his nephew, King Charles VI. of France; but he left France to claim the throne of Naples after the death of Queen Joanna I. Since she had no children and did not want to leave their legacy of close relationship, they adopted him. While Louis of Anjou had managed to her after her murder ( 1382 ) by Charles II of Durazzo to follow (her second cousin ) as Count of Provence and Forcalquier, he did not make it to the lost kingdom of Naples Karl recover. Pope Clement VII, who resided in Avignon, excommunicated as a result of Charles of Durazzo and crowned his hand, Louis of Anjou as the new king of Naples and Sicily. Ludwig marched with 15,000 men over Avignon and Lombardy to the south, part of the army remained for the time being in Tuscany to keep the hostile Republic of Florence in Chess. The bulk of the French troops under Amadeus of Savoy, the "Green Count " reached Naples in the autumn of 1382. In February 1383 an epidemic also the Count of Savoy spread through the mountains above Naples in Angevin armies at which died on March 1. Ludwig also went out of his money from the hinterland, he was cut off by mercenary troops under Sir John Hawkwood in Puglia, his starving army was poorly supplied by sea, began now but completely dissolve. Louis himself died in 1384 of an epidemic at his headquarters in Bari, he appointed yet Sire Enguerrand of Coucy to his viceroy in Italy. His claim to the throne he left his son Louis II.

In 1360 he married Marie of Châtillon- Blois († 1404). They had the following children: