Page:A Biographical Dictionary of the Celebrated Women of Every Age and Country (1804).djvu/459

Rh Joan recovered her dominions only to become more wretched; for on the death of Clement, the Italians raised Urban VI. to the pontificate, and the French chose Clement VII. This occasioned a civil war in Italy; but at length Urban prevailed, and Clement, being expelled, retired to Avignon, the former residence of the French pontiffs, and Joan first experienced the effects of the former's vengeance.

This princess had imprudently espoused the cause of Clement; had been four times married, on the death of the prince of Tarentum to the prince of Main, whom she beheaded for having a mistress, and then to Otho of Brunswick, with whom she lived happily; but had no children by any of her husbands; she therefore adopted Charles de Durazzo, the heir to her kingdom, and the only remaining descendant of the house of Anjou in Naples. But Durazzo, unwilling to wait for the crown till her death, associated himself with pope Urban; who crowned him king of Naples, at Rome, in 1380, on condition he should bestow the principality of Capua on his nephew; deposed Joan, and declared her guilty of heresy and high treason.

These steps being taken, the pope and Durazzo marched towards Naples in 1389. The church plate and lands were sold to facilitate the conquest. Joan, mean while, was destitute of both money and troops. In this extremity, she invited to her assistance Lewis of Anjou, brother to Charles V. of France. But Lewis, whom she had adopted in the room of the ungrateful Durazzo, arrived too late to defend his benefactress, or dispute the kingdom with his competitor. The pope and Durazzo entered Naples, after having defeated and taken prisoner Otho, the queen's husband. All resistance appeared vain, she attempted to flee, but fell into