Des guerres en Italie avant les Guerres d’Italie

The antecedents of the French invasion of Italy in 1494 have long been known but why were French princes involved in Italy in the decades around 1400? The immediate cause was the implosion of the Angevin dynasty of Naples and Provence, a spectacularly violent and turbulent one, riven by furious rivalries between its Hungarian, Tarento and Durazzo branches. The childless Queen Giovanna I, having chosen as her heir Charles of Durazzo, a cousin and also son-in-law of her sister, then alienated him. The Great Schism had split the Universal Church and Giovanna, overshadowed by the Roman Pontiff Urban VI, opted for Clement VII at Avignon, who advised her to adopt Louis I duke of Anjou (descended distantly from the Capetian house of Anjou) as her heir instead. She duly did so in 1380 but was besieged by Charles, backed by Hungarian Angevin forces, captured, imprisoned and finally smothered to death in 1382.

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