SICILY AND SOUTHERN ITALY IN AN AGE OF DISORDERpossible beneficiaries, not least Joanna, who by all accounts
detested her overbearing husband. Andrew's own expecta-
tions of a royal title were the subject of controversy. On the
other hand, the cadet line of Anjou-Taranto was well placed
to confirm its ascendancy over a young queen uncertain of
her aims.^7
The struggle among branches of the house of Anjou
began, however, with the fierce response of the Hungar-
ian king to his brother's murder. Ruler of a vast complex of
lands that very nearly stretched from the Baltic (or at least
the borders of pagan Lithuania, against which he crusaded)
to the Adriatic, where he ruled the kingdom of Croatia, Louis
the Great demanded of the pope, as Joanna's overlord, the
cession of the entire south Italian kingdom into Hungarian
hands.^8 Louis did not win over the pope; but he convinced
some south Italian barons, such as Lalle Camponeschi, master
of L'Aquila, that he was a viable prospect, entering the city
in May 1347; an even more dangerous ally was the Roman
dictator Cola di Rienzo, who saw in Hungarian support the
means to consolidate his own hold on Rome. Late 1347 and
early 1348 saw what appeared to be a smooth takeover by
Louis of Hungary of the northern provinces of the kingdom
of Naples, culminating in a troublesome occupation of the
capital itself just as the plague bacillus also began to occupy
the Italian peninsula. What seems to have gone wrong is
that Louis failed to win the confidence of the Neapolitan
baronage, acting ruthlessly against those suspected of com-
plicity in Andrew's murder.
These were not the only difficulties that piled up on Joanna
l's shoulders. Continuing disputes with Genoa over the lord-
ship of Ventimiglia were not settled until 1350; only deft
- For the years up to 1362, see E. Leonard, Histoire de jeanne !ere de
Naples, 3 vols (Monaco/Paris, 1927-37); for the remaining years of the
reign, see Leonard, Les Angevins de Naples (Paris, 1954); Italian edn, Gli
Angioini di Napoli (Milan, 1967), pp. 506-56. Lighter weight biographies
include V. and L. Gleijeses, La regina Giovanna d'Angid (Naples, 1990);
A. Perlingieri, Giovanna I Angie) tra storia e leggenda (Florence, 1991);
F. Froio, Giovanna I d'Angid (Milan, 1992), and taken together they
reveal a persistent fascination in Italy with this figure. - As well as B. Homan, Gli Angioini di Napoli in Ungheria, 1390-1403
(Rome, 1935) and 0. Halecki,Jadwiga of Anjou and the rise of east central
f<-urape (New York, 1991), see S.B. Vardy, G. Grosschmid, L.S. Domonkos,
Louis the Great, king of Hungary and Poland (Boulder/New York, 1986).