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House of Valois-Anjou
Cadet branch of the House of Valois From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
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The House of Valois-Anjou (French: Maison de Valois-Anjou, Italian: Casa Valois-Angiò) was a noble French family and cadet branch of the House of Valois. Members of the house served as rulers of the Duchy of Anjou in the Kingdom of France, the County of Provence in the Holy Roman Empire, and also as monarchs of the Kingdom of Naples, as well as lords of several other territories.
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The house was founded in during the reign of king John II of France (1350-1364), the second monarch in the Valois line of House of Capet. His paternal grandmother, countess Margaret of Anjou and Maine (d. 1299), had been a princess of the Capetian House of Anjou. She was the eldest daughter of King Charles II of Naples and married Charles, Count of Valois, thus bringing the County of Anjou to their son, future king Philip VI of France (1328-1350). In 1356, Philip's son and heir, king John II, gave the County of Anjou to his brother Louis, who thus became the founder of the House of Valois-Anjou.
In 1382, Louis' cousin Joanna I, queen of Naples and countess of Provence, also of the senior Angevin line, realized that she would remain childless. Although there were extant heirs of the senior branch, for example, the Anjou-Durazzo cadet line, she decided to adopt Louis of Anjou as her final heir, both in Naples and Provence.
Thus, the two Angevin lines, senior and junior, now began to contest with each other for the possessions of the Kingdom of Naples and the County of Provence. The Anjou-Durazzo line was initially successful in securing control of Naples, but the Valois House of Anjou, headed since 1394 by Louis II of Anjou, managed to secure the County of Provence, and also continued to contest the throne of Naples.
The extinction of the line of the House of Anjou-Durazzo in 1435 temporarily secured Naples for the Valois House of Anjou, but they were driven from Naples by Alfonso V of Aragon in 1442.
Duke René of Anjou, of the Valois-Angevin line, died in 1480, and was succeeded by his nephew, as duke Charles IV of Anjou, but he died already in 1481. Thus, the Duchy of Anjou reverted to the French crown, while the County of Provence was passed, under special provisions, to the French royal House of Valois.[1]
The Valois-Angevin pretensions to the throne of Naples were continued intermittently by the House of Lorraine, which descended from René's eldest daughter, Yolande. Notably, the Valois-Habsburg War of 1551 to 1559 saw Duke Francis of Guise, a member of a cadet branch of the House of Lorraine, lead an unsuccessful French expedition against Naples.
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