Charles II, also known as Charles the Lame (; ; 1254 – 5 May 1309), was King of Naples, Count of Provence and Forcalquier (1285–1309), Prince of Achaea (1285–1289), and Count of Anjou and Maine (1285–1290); he also was King of Albania (1285–1294), and claimed the Kingdom of Jerusalem from 1285. He was the son of Charles I of Anjouone of the most powerful European monarchs in the second half of the 13th centuryand Beatrice of Provence. His father granted Charles the Principality of Salerno in the Kingdom of Sicily (or Regno) in 1272 and made him regent in Provence and Forcalquier in 1279.
After the uprising known as the Sicilian Vespers against Charles's father, the island of Sicily became an independent kingdom under the rule of Peter III of Aragon in 1282. A year later, his father made Charles regent in the mainland territories of the Regno (or the Kingdom of Naples). Charles held a general assembly where unpopular taxes were abolished and the liberties of the noblemen and clerics were confirmed. He could not prevent the Aragonese from occupying Calabria and the islands in the Gulf of Naples. The Sicilian admiral Roger of Lauria captured him in a naval battle near Naples in 1284. As he was still in prison when his father died on 7 January 1285, his realms were ruled by regents. The remainder of his rule was spent seeking a resolution to the Sicilian war, diplomatic moves concerning his inheritance, and administrating the new Kingdom of Naples.
Early life
Born in 1254, Charles was the son of Charles I of Anjou and Beatrice of Provence. He was the sole heir of his father's vast dominion. By the time of Charles's birth, his father had seized Provence and Forcalquier (in the Holy Roman Empire), Anjou and Maine (in France), and the Kingdom of Sicily (a fief of the Holy See). In the 1270s, his father also proclaimed himself King of Albania (in reference to his conquests along the Eastern coast of the Ionian Sea), partially asserted his claim to the Kingdom of Jerusalem, and inherited Achaea (in the Peloponnese). Charles's mother died in 1267, but his father's determination to keep his empire intact deprived Charles of his maternal inheritance during his father's lifetime.
Charles I arranged a double marriage alliance with Stephen V of Hungary in 1269. Stephen's daughter, Maria was engaged to Charles, and Charles's sister, Isabelle to Maria's brother, Ladislaus. Charles fell seriously ill in late 1271. To encourage prayers for his recovery, his father donated Charles's wax sculptures to churches frequented by pilgrims in the whole kingdom. After Charles recovered, his father made a pilgrimage at the shrine of Saint Nicholas in Bari and sent gifts to the sanctuary of Mary the Virgin at Rocamadour.
Charles was dubbed with his brother, Philip, count of Taranto and some 100 Italian and French noble scions at the feast of Pentecost in 1272. On this occasion, his father Charles I granted him as appanage the Principality of Salerno, a fief customarily held by the heirs apparent to the throne by the previous royal house the Hauteville. The grant to Charles further stipulated that he could not claim more territories as a prince, thus keeping the area of Provence under direct royal rule.
Regency
However, by late 1279 his father appointed him to administer Provence. In December 1280 the duke accompanied his cousin, king Philip III of France, to Toulouse where he met with Peter III of Aragon. Peter III was the son-in-law of Manfred of Sicily who had lost the Kingdom of Sicily to Charles's father in 1266 after the battle at Benevento. Peter insolently ignored Charles during the meeting, although both Philip III and James II of Majorca, who was also present, reminded Peter that Charles was closely related to him.
Meanwhile pope Nicholas III attempting to deter Charles I's future power ambitions in Italy, not least to carve for his family a duchy, went in negotiations with Rudolf I the Holy Roman emperor for a reinstatement of the Kingdom of Arles that was to be given to Charles Martel, Charles I's grandson. The dowager queen of France, Margaret of Provence, sister of Beatrice, wife of Charles I, opposed sharply to their plans. However, Charles I's claims on territories of Alphonse of Poitiers on the latter's death would increase substantially his rule on Provence. Pope Martin IV, a staunch supporter of Charles I, published the bull of that convention on the 24th of May 1281, where it prescribed that the erstwhile kingdom's territories, along the duchies of Dauphiné, and Savoy with their vicinities were to be given to child couple, Charles Martel and Clemence, daughter of Rudolf, as appanage and Charles I's son, Charles, duke of Salerno would be its regent. Margaret of Provence pursued the matter further and called the duke Robert ΙΙ of Burgundy, count Otto IV of Burgundy along with some lesser lords to a new meeting at Troyes in autumn of 1281, but as Charles I was preoccupied with the preparations for the full scale crusade against the Byzantine empire and the ruling of the court whether or not he was to inherit Alphonse's lands, he had acknowledged his wife's extent of territories and for the rest of the Burgundian land that they were held in fief, thus appeasing the duke Philip II and the matter ended there.
The heavy taxation, forced loans and purveyance were among the reasons that had caused much discontent within the Italian subjects of Charles I, especially in Sicily, and that precipitated out of a seemingly insignificant cause the eruption of a civic unrest of magnitude that led to a generalised anti-French riot, known today in modern historiography as the Sicilian Vespers, in Palermo on 30 March 1282. The revolt having spread quickly put an end to the Angevin rule on the island, but since they needed a royal overlord they turned to Peter III of Aragon and Constance. Peter arrived in Sicily with a large fleet in late August and was declared king on the 4th of September 1282.
Peter III's army arriving on Sicily meant going in war with Angevin and presumably his unbeknown arrival compelled the partial withdrawal of Charles I's troops from the island. Peter's advance allowed him to send forces to Calabria to attempt ousting the Angevin from the mainland too. However, the duke of Salerno headed a military reinforcement and met his father Charles I at Reggio Calabria. More troops arrived by his two nephews, Robert II, Count of Artois and Peter I of Alençon and checked the Aragonese advance. In late December 1282 Charles I challenged Peter III to a judicial duel to end their conflict on Sicily and it was agreed to take place in six months at Bordeaux. Before leaving in January 1283 Charles I appointed his son Charles, the duke of Salerno as regent of the kingdom. The inexperience of the duke led him to a chain of wrong decisions that by the time Charles I returned to Naples the kingdom was on the brink of collapsing. The news of the duke's capture lit a flame of riot in Naples, but the papal legate Gerard of Parma crushed it at its beginning. Charles I tried to undo the situation and marched with his troops to Calabria and even besieged the town but on the Aragonese relief forces arrival he withdrew to San Martino di Taurianova.
A general assembly was held at the king's camp near San Martino with the barons, prelates and envoys of the towns and it was decided that the royal monopoly on salt and exchanges of the petty coinage were to be abolished. The assembly also decided that the monarchs were allowed to levy the subventio generalis, a very unpopular tax only after having consulted with representatives of their subjects. The liberties of the noblemen and the clergy were reconfirmed, while the commoners' obligations to contribute in a corvée fashion to the maintenance of the royal fortresses and flee were reduced. The reforms adopted at the assembly made the continuation of his father's active foreign policy impossible.
Charles in his father absence strengthened his ties with native aristocracy by appointing members of the Aquinas, Ruffo and Sanseverino families to his royal council. He also tried to make his father's most unpopular officials scapegoats for some of the abuses that were made during the latter's reign. In June 1283, he ordered the imprisonment of all male members of the della Marre and Rufouli families, two prominent noble families that had often been entrusted with the collection of the taxes and custom duties in Charles I's reign. While the heads of those two families were executed to silence the popular voice, the rest of the incarcerated male members were held to ransom, the release of whom cost huge amounts of money to their relatives.
Charles as a regent could not finance a lengthy war and he resorted to borrowing some thousands of ounces of gold from the Holy See, the kings of France and England, the ruler of Tunis, Tuscan bankers, and from the rest of the towns of the mainland, known as the Regno. Gerard of Parma also persuaded the Southern Italian prelates to cede a part of their revenues to Charles for the war against the rebels and their supporters. He could then equip 40 new galleys in Provence. The Aragonese fleet had meanwhile imposed a blockade on the island of Malta. Charles dispatched his new fleet to the island, but the Sicilian admiral, Roger of Lauria, attacked and almost annihilated the Provençal galleys in the Battle of Malta. Lauria soon occupied the islands of Capri and Ischia, which enabled him to make frequent raids against the Bay of Naples, whereas the capturing of another islet that of Nisida, allowed for the imposion of a blockade in Naples.
Captivity
The inhabitants of Naples urged Charles I to expel the Aragonese from Nisida. Although his father had forbidden him to attack the Aragonese until his arrival, Charles decided to invade the islet. Believing that most Aragonese ships had left the Bay of Naples, he sailed for Nisida on 5 June 1284, but the Aragonese galleys soon surrounded and defeated his fleet. During the battle, Charles fell into captivity. He was first taken to Messina where the crowd demanded his execution in revenge for Conradin (Manfred of Sicily's young nephew, who had been beheaded at Charles I's order in 1268). To save Charles's life, Constance of SicilyPeter III of Aragon's wifeimprisoned him at the fortress of Cefalù.
Charles I died on 7 January 1285. On his deathbed, he had made Robert of Artois regent for the minor Charles Martel who would rule as vicar general until Charles was released from captivity. The Provençal delegates held a general assembly at Sisteron and decided to do their utmost to secure Charles's release. Pope Martin IV partially ignored Charles I's last will. He did not acknowledge the right either of the captive Charles or of his minor son to rule, claiming that an interregnum followed the king's death. The pope confirmed Artois' regency, but he made Cardinal Gerald co-regent, authorizing them to administer the kingdom on behalf of the Holy See. The regents appointed the most powerful ruler of the Peloponnese, William I de la Roche, Duke of Athens, bailiff of Achaea to secure the local lords' loyalty. Odo Poilechienwho had been made baillif during Charles I's reigncontinued to rule Acre which was the only town to acknowledge Charles's rule in the Kingdom of Jerusalem.
Pope Martin died on 29 March 1285. The crusade that he had declared against Aragon started in late May, but Peter III's resistance forced the crusaders to withdraw in September. At Peter's order, Charles was moved from Cefalù to Catalonia. Peter died on 10 November; his eldest sons, Alfonso III and James succeeded him in Aragon and Sicily, respectively. Henry II of Cyprus, who was regarded the lawful king of Jerusalem by most local lords, forced Odo Poilechien to leave Acre in June 1286. Since the Knights Templar and Hospitallers supported Henry, their estates were confiscated in the Regno.