Eleanor of Anjou

Eleanor of Anjou (August 1289 – 9 August 1341) was Queen of Sicily as the wife of King Frederick II of Sicily. She was a member of the Capetian House of Anjou by birth.

Eleanor of Anjou
Eleanor with her sisters in the Bible of Naples
Queen consort of Sicily
Tenure	17 May 1302 – 25 June 1337
Born	August 1289
Died	9 August 1341 (aged 51–52)
Spouse	Philip de Toucy Frederick II of Sicily
Issue Among Others	Peter II of Sicily Manfred, Duke of Athens and Neopatria Constance, Queen of Cyprus Elisabeth, Duchess of Bavaria William, Prince of Taranto John, Duke of Randazzo
House	Capetian House of Anjou
Father	Charles II of Naples
Mother	Mary of Hungary

She was the third daughter of Charles II of Naples and Mary of Hungary.[1]

Eleanor was firstly married in 1299 to Philip II de Toucy, son of Narjot de Toucy and Lucia of Tripoli. Their marriage was dissolved on 17 January 1300 by Pope Boniface VIII because they were related and had not sought permission from the pope to marry.

On 17 May 1302, Eleanor married secondly to Frederick II of Sicily.[2] Her father and her new husband had been engaged in a war for ascendancy in the Mediterranean Sea and especially Sicily and the Mezzogiorno. The marriage was part of a diplomatic effort to establish peaceful relations which would lead to the Peace of Caltabellotta (19 August 1302).

The peace divided the old Kingdom of Sicily into an island portion and a peninsular portion. The island, called the Kingdom of Trinacria, went to Frederick, who had been ruling it, and the Mezzogiorno, called the Kingdom of Sicily contemporaneously, but called the Kingdom of Naples by modern scholarship, went to Charles II, who had been ruling it. Thus, the peace was formal recognition of an uneasy status quo.

Eleanor and Frederick had nine children:

• Peter II of Sicily (1304–1342), successor[3]
• Roger (born 1305), died young
• Manfred, Duke of Athens and Neopatria (1306–1317), Duke of Athens and Neopatria[4]
• Constance, married on December 29, 1331 to Leo IV of Armenia
• Elisabeth (1310–1349),(also known as Isabella), married (1328) Stephen II of Bavaria
• William, Prince of Taranto (1312–1338), Prince of Taranto, Duke of Athens and Neopatria[4]
• Giovanni di Randazzo (1317–1348), Duke of Randazzo, Duke of Athens and Neopatria,[4] Regent of Sicily (from 1338)
• Catherine (1320–1342)
• Margaret (1331–1377), married (1348) Rudolf II of the Palatinate

Eleanor died on the 9 August 1341 at the Monastery of San Nicolo di Arena (Catania), she had been a widow since 1337. She was buried at a Franciscan monastery in Catania.

References

1. Musto 2003, p. 78.
2. Dunbabin 2011, p. xii.
3. Hulme 1915, p. 561.
4. Grierson & Travaini 1998, p. 256.

Sources

• Dunbabin, Jean (2011). The French in the Kingdom of Sicily, 1266–1305. Cambridge University Press.CS1 maint: ref=harv (link)
• Grierson, Philip; Travaini, Lucia (1998). Medieval European Coinage. Volume 14, South Italy, Sicily, Sardinia. Cambridge University Press.CS1 maint: ref=harv (link)
• Hulme, Edward Maslin (1915). The Renaissance: The Protestant Revolution and the Catholic Reformation in Continental Europe. The Century Co.CS1 maint: ref=harv (link)
• Musto, Ronald G. (2003). Apocalypse in Rome: Cola di Rienzo and the Politics of the New Age. University of California Press.CS1 maint: ref=harv (link)