Ladislas of Naples
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King Ladislas of Naples, the Magnanimous (February 11, 1377–August 6, 1414), was King of Naples and titular King of Jerusalem and Sicily, titular Count of Provence and Forcalquier 1386–1414, and titular King of Hungary 1390–1414. He was the last male of the senior Angevin line.
Son of Charles III and Margherita of Durazzo, he became the King of Naples from the age of nine (1386) under his mother's regency. Through the 1390s he was constantly opposed by Antipope John XXIII as well as by Louis II of Anjou, then head of the junior Angevin line, who contested the throne. Louis successfully seized Naples from him in 1390, but was expelled again in 1399.
He endeavored to consolidate the royal power in Naples at the expense of the baronial, and brought about the murder of several members of the Sanseverino family for frustrating his ends.
He became a skilled political and military leader, protector and controller of the Papacy of Innocent VII. He profited from disorder throughout Italy to greatly expand his kingdom and his power, appropriating much of the Papal States to his own use.
From 1390 he was also claimant to the throne of Hungary and Dalmatia. His claim to the kingdom of Hungary was opposed by Sigismund of Luxemburg, while he sold his rights to the kingdom of Dalmatia to the Venetian Republic for 100,000 Ducats in 1409.
He was also the prince of Taranto from 1406, having taken the Dowager Princess Mary of Enghien (1367–May 9, 1446), Countess of Lecce etc, as his third wife and barred her son from the principality. King Ladislas first attempted to subjugate those fiefs by a war and besieging the lady, but did not succeed in capturing her castle. Therefore, he changed tactics, began negotiations, and succeeded in compelling her to marry him.
He was widely reputed to have been poisoned and died in Naples on August 6, 1414. He was succeeded by his sister Joan II of Naples, the last member of the senior Angevin line in Italy.
| Preceded by: Charles III | King of Naples 1386–1389 | Succeeded by: Louis II |
| Preceded by: Louis II | King of Naples 1399–1414 | Succeeded by: Joan II |
| Preceded by: Raimondo del Balzo Orsini | Prince of Taranto 1406–1414 | Succeeded by: James of Bourbon of La Marche |