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Birth:          21 Mar 1227 Paris, France
Death:          7 Jan 1285 Foggia Castle, Foggia, Apulia, Italy
Burial:         Naples, Italy

Notes
also Count of Maine and Anjour, Count of Provence
posthumous child
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charles_I_of_Naples
Charles I (21 March 1227 – 7 January 1285), known also as Charles of Anjou, was the 
King of Sicily by conquest from 1266,[1] though he had received it as a papal grant in 
1262 and was expelled from the island in the aftermath of the Sicilian Vespers of 
1282. Thereafter, he claimed the island, though his power was restricted to the 
peninsular possessions of the kingdom, with his capital at Naples (and for this he is 
usually titled King of Naples after 1282, as are his successors).

Charles was the seventh child[2] and youngest son of Louis VIII of France and 
Blanche of Castile, and hence younger brother of Louis IX of France and Alfonso II of 
Toulouse. He conquered the Kingdom of Sicily from the Hohenstaufen and acquired 
lands in the eastern Mediterranean. However, the War of the Sicilian Vespers forced 
him to abandon his plans to reassemble the Latin Empire.

By marriage to Beatrice of Provence, heiress of Raymond Berengar IV of Provence, he 
was Count of Provence and Forcalquier from 1246. In 1247, his brother Louis IX made 
him Count of Anjou and Maine, as appanages of the French crown. By conquest and 
self-proclamation, he became King of Albania in 1272 and by purchase King of 
Jerusalem in 1277. By the testament of William II of Villehardouin, he inherited the 
Principality of Achaea in 1278.
Early life[edit]

Charles was born in March 1227, four months after the death of his father, King Louis 
VIII. Like his immediate older brother, Philip Dagobert, he did not receive a county as 
appanage, as had their older brothers. In 1232, his brothers Philip Dagobert and John, 
Count of Anjou and Maine, died; Charles became the next in line to receive the 
Counties,[2] but was formally invested only in 1247.[3] The affection of his mother 
Blanche seems largely to have been bestowed upon his brother Louis, and Louis 
tended to favour his other younger brothers, Robert of Artois and Alphonse of 
Toulouse. The self-reliance this engendered in Charles may account for the drive and 
ambition he showed in later life.[4]
Accession in Provence[edit]

Upon his accession as Count of Provence and Forcalquier in 1246, Charles rapidly 
found himself in difficulties. His sisters-in-law felt cheated by their father's will,[further 
explanation needed] and his mother-in-law, the Dowager Countess Beatrice of Savoy, 
claimed the entire county of Forcalquier and the usufruct of Provence as her jointure. 
Furthermore, while Provence was technically a part of the Burgundy and hence of the 
Holy Roman Empire, in practice it was free of central authority. Recent counts had 
governed with a light hand, and the nobilities and cities had enjoyed great liberties. 
Three cities, Marseille, Arles, and Avignon were Imperial cities technically separate 
from the county. Charles was disposed toward rigid administration;[5] he ordered 
inquests in 1252 and again in 1278 to ascertain his rights[6] Charles broke the 
traditional powers of the major towns (Nice, Grasse, Marseille, Arles, Avignon)[citation 
needed] and aroused considerable hostility by his punctilious insistence on enjoying 
his full rights and fees. In 1247, while Charles was in France to receive the counties 
of Anjou and Maine, the local nobility (represented by Barral of Baux and Boniface of 
Castellane) joined with Beatrice and the three Imperial cities to form a defensive 
league against him. Unfortunately for Charles, he had promised to join his brother on 
the Seventh Crusade. For the time being, Charles compromised with Beatrice, allowing 
her to have Forcalquier and a third of the Provençal usufruct.[7]

Rich Provence provided the funds that supported his wider career. His rights as 
landlord were, on the whole, of recent establishment, but his rights as sovereign 
entitled him to revenues on the gabelles (mainly salt), from alberga (commutation of 
gîte) and cavalcata (commutation of the duties of military service) and quista ("aids") 
(Baratier 1969). From the Church, unlike his brothers in the north, he received virtually 
nothing. Charles' agents were efficient, the towns were prosperous, the peasants were 
buying up the duties of corvée and establishing self-governing consulats in the 
villages: Provence flourished.

Seventh Crusade and return[edit]

Charles sailed with the rest of the Crusaders from Aigues-Mortes in 1248[7] and fought 
at Damietta and in the struggle around Mansourah, Egypt. However, his piety does not 
seem to have matched that of his brother (Jean de Joinville, according to a tale about 
Louis catching him gambling on the voyage from Egypt to Acre), and he returned with 
his brother Alphonse in May 1250.[citation needed] During his absence, open rebellion 
had broken out in Provence. Charles moved to suppress it, and Arles, Avignon, and 
Barral of Baux had surrendered to him by June 1251. Marseille held out until July 
1252, but then sued for peace. Charles imposed a lenient peace, but insisted on the 
recognition of his full rights, and acknowledgement of his suzerainty by Marseille.[8]
Death and legacy[edit]

On his death, Charles left all of his domains to his son Charles, then a prisoner in 
Catalonia. For the time being, these were held in joint regency by a papal legate and 
Robert II of Artois. Charles spent his life striving to assemble a Mediterranean empire 
out of whatever land he could get through law or force of arms. He did so, it seems, 
with a clear conscience; he regarded himself as God's instrument to uphold the 
Papacy and punish the Hohenstaufen. He ruled justly, but with the rigidity and severity 
that might be expected in one of his convictions. Ultimately, his unbending austerity 
could not inspire the devotion needed to hold his conquests together.

Still, he left a substantial legacy to his heirs. Henry II of Cyprus reclaimed the Kingdom 
of Jerusalem after his death, for the few years left to it, but his other possessions 
remained with the Angevin dynasty he founded, or its descendants. Both the Angevins 
and their Aragonese rivals were to claim the title of "King of Sicily"; but the Angevins, 
confined to the mainland, would be known to history as "Kings of Naples". But the 
style of "King of Sicily" persisted, and when the two realms were reunited it was under 
the style of "King of the Two Sicilies".

Charles of Anjou contributed to the early medieval revival of learning, often referred to 
as the "Latin" Renaissance, by employing several Jewish scholars at the Universities 
of Salerno and Naples who were expert translators. The most famous of these, Moses 
of Palermo, he arranged to have taught Latin, so that Moses could translate Arabic-
language medical works into Latin. The Jewish scholars translated dozens of 
philosophical and medical treatises into Latin, bringing the heritage of classical 
antiquity and the great contemporary Muslim culture to pre-Renaissance Europe.[14]
[15]

However, Charles' wars resulted in even more serious consequences than the partition 
of the Kingdom of Sicily. Pope Martin IV hopelessly compromised the papacy in his 
cause; and the botched secular "Crusades" against Sicily and (after Charles' death) 
Aragon greatly tarnished its spiritual power. The collapse of its moral authority and the 
rise of nationalism rang the death knell for crusading, and would ultimately lead to the 
Avignon Papacy and the Western Schism. Charles was an able soldier and a good 
administrator, but his failure to understand the qualities of his diverse subjects, and 
his grasping, if pious, ambition, ultimately led him to failure.

In the Divine Comedy Dante sees Charles outside the gates of Purgatory "singing in 
accord" with his former rival, Peter.

Marriage and children[edit]

Charles was wed to Beatrice of Provence on 31 January 1246, in Aix-en-Provence. 
Beatrice was the youngest daughter of Ramon Berenguer IV, Count of Provence and 
Forcalquier, who had died on 19 August 1245 by his wife Beatrice of Savoy. As his 
elder three daughters had all married kings and received substantial dowries, Ramon 
settled his entire inheritance upon Beatrice, making Charles Count of Provence and 
Forcalquier. They had the following children:
Louis (1248, Nicosia)
Blanche (1250 – July 1269), married 1265 Count Robert III of Flanders
Beatrice of Sicily (1252–1275), married 15 October 1273 at Foggia to Philip of 
Courtenay, titular Emperor of Constantinople
Charles II of Naples (1254–1309)
Philip of Sicily (1256 – 1 January 1277), titular King of Thessalonica from 1274, married 
28 May 1271 to Isabella of Villehardouin
Robert (1258–1265)
Elizabeth of Sicily (1261 – c. 1300), married bef. September 1272 to Ladislas IV of 
Hungary

After the death of Beatrice, he married Margaret of Burgundy in 1268. They only had 
one child:
Margaret (after 1268 – c. 1276), died in infancy of unknown causes.

Parents
____ Louis VIII "the Lion" (3 Sep 1187 - 8 Nov 1226)
DE CASTILE Blanche (Blanca) Alphonsa (BEF 4 Mar 1188 - 27 Nov 1252)

Siblings
____ Louis IX "Saint Louis" (25 Apr 1215 - 25 Aug 1270)
____ Robert I (25 Sep 1216 - 9 Feb 1250)
____ Charles I (21 Mar 1227 - 7 Jan 1285)

Marriage To DE PROVENCE (DE SAVOY) Beatrice (1234 - 23 Sep 1267)
    m. Jan 1246 his 1st

Notes

Parents
BERENGER Raimund V (IV) (ABT 1195 - 19 Aug 1245)
DE SAVOY Beatrice (ABT 1198 - Dec 1266)

Children by DE PROVENCE (DE SAVOY) Beatrice 1234 - 23 Sep 1267
____ Charles II "le Boiteux" ("the lame") (1248 - 5 May 1309)

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