Ambitions in The Latin Empire
After the defeat of Manfred at Benevento, Charles immediately began to plan his expansion into the Mediterranean. Historically, the Kingdom of Sicily had at times controlled parts of the eastern Adriatic seaboard, and Manfred possessed the island of Corfu and the towns of Butrinto, Avlona and Suboto, which had formed the dowry of his wife Helena. Charles seized these at the end of 1266. From thence, he passed on to intrigue with the remaining nobility of the Latin Empire. In May 1267, he concluded the Treaty of Viterbo with the exiled Baldwin II of Constantinople and William II Villehardouin (through his chancellor Leonardo of Veruli). Taking advantage of the precarious situation of the remains of the Empire in the face of rising Greek power, he obtained confirmation of his possession of Corfu, the suzerain rights over Achaea, and sovereignty over most of the Aegean islands. Furthermore, the heirs of both the Latin princes were to marry children of Charles, and Charles was to have the reversion of the Empire and Principality should the couples have no heirs. With few options to check the Byzantine tide, he was well placed to dictate terms.
Charles' wife Beatrice died on 23 September 1267, and he immediately sought a new marriage to Margaret, daughter of Bela IV of Hungary. However, Margaret wished to be a nun (and was later canonized); Charles instead married (on 18 November 1268), Margaret, Countess of Tonnerre (1250 – 4 September 1308, Tonnerre), the daughter of Eudes of Burgundy. However, he was able to make a marital alliance with the Hungarians: his son Charles, Prince of Salerno married Maria, daughter of crown prince Stephen, while Charles' daughter Elizabeth married Stephen's son Ladislas.
Read more about this topic: Charles I Of Naples
Famous quotes containing the words ambitions, latin and/or empire:
“All ambitions are lawful except those which climb upward on the miseries or credulities of mankind. All intellectual and artistic ambitions are permissible, up to and even beyond the limit of prudent sanity. They can hurt no one.”
—Joseph Conrad (1857–1924)
“He tries by a peculiar speech to speak
The peculiar potency of the general,
To compound the imagination’s Latin with
The lingua franca et jocundissima.”
—Wallace Stevens (1879–1955)
“On 16 September 1985, when the Commerce Department announced that the United States had become a debtor nation, the American Empire died.”
—Gore Vidal (b. 1925)