Life
In 1270, when Mary was only twelve years of age, she married the future Charles II of Naples (1254–1309), the eldest son and heir of Charles I of Sicily and his wife Beatrice of Provence.
On the 10 July 1290, Mary's brother, Ladislaus IV of Hungary died childless. The question now was who would succeed him: he had four sisters, three of them outlived him, all four had married powerful rulers and all four had had their own children. On the 21 September 1290, Mary claimed the throne of Hungary. She was up against her two sisters, Catherine and Elisabeth, and their children, plus the children of her younger sister Anna. Mary was crowned queen by a Papal legate in Naples 1291, but transferred her rights to her eldest son, Charles Martel of Anjou. The Pope confirmed her sole rights in Hungary on the 30 August 1295. However, Catherine's son, Stephen Vladislav II of Syrmia, was still a dangerous rival for Maria and Charles Martel. In the end, Charles Martel gave his cousin Slavonia as a compromise.
Charles Martel was only titular King of Hungary, it was Mary's grandson who became King, Charles I of Hungary. Ultimately the claims of the sisters Mary and Catherine were united in a common descendant when the pair's great-great-granddaughter, Mary of Hungary, ascended to the Hungarian throne in 1382. When the line of Charles Martel and the Angevins in Hungary died out, it was Sigismund, a remote descendant of Bela IV, whose family succeeded.
During 1290, Mary's sister Elisabeth fled from Bohemia with her son because her husband had lost favour and was executed, Mary allowed Elisabeth and her son to stay in Naples with her, before she became a nun, but escaped and remarried to Stephen Uroš II Milutin of Serbia (brother of Catherine's husband) Elizabeth's stay in Naples is documented during July 1300.
Mary's husband died in August 1309, Maria was now a widow. She lived in Naples for the rest of her life, where she died on 25 March 1323, she was buried in Naples at the Santa Maria Donna Regina.
Read more about this topic: Mary Of Hungary, Queen Of Naples
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