Robert , King of Naples Robert of Anjou ( ) , known as Robert the Wise ( , 1277 – 20 January 1343 ) was King of Naples , titular King of Jerusalem and Count of Provence and Forcalquier from 1309 to 1343 , the central figure of Italian politics of his time . He was the third but eldest surviving son of King Charles II of Naples " the Lame " and Maria of Hungary . During his father ' s lifetime he was styled Duke of Calabria ( 1296 – 1309 ) . Biography . During the Sicilian Vespers ( 1282 ) , the child Robert was the hostage of Peter III of Aragon . After the death of his elder brother , Charles Martel of Anjou , he became heir to the crown of Naples ; to obtain the crown of neighbouring Sicily , he married King James of Sicily ' s sister Yolanda , in exchange for James ' s renouncing of Sicily . However , the Sicilian barons refused him and elected James ' brother , Frederick II . The war continued , and with the Peace of Caltabellotta ( 1302 ) Robert and the Angevin dynasty lost Sicily forever , their rule limited to the south of peninsular Italy . Robert inherited the position of papal champion in Italy ; his reign being blessed from the papal enclave within Robert ' s Provence , by the French Pope Clement V , who made him papal vicar in Romagna and Tuscany , where Robert intervened in the war of factions in Florence , accepted the offered signiory of that city , but had to abandon it due to Clement ' s opposition . The leader of the Guelph party in Italy , Robert opposed the sojourn of Emperor Henry VII in Italy ( 1311 – 13 ) and his occupation of Rome in 1312 . After Henry ' s death , the Guelf reaction against the Ghibelline leaders in northern Italy , Matteo Visconti and Cangrande della Scala , made it seem for a time that Robert would become the arbiter of Italy . Already ruler of wide possessions in Piedmont , Robert ' s prestige increased further when in 1317 the pope named him Senator of Rome , and when he became Lord of Genoa ( 1318 – 34 ) and Brescia ( 1319 ) and from 1317 onwards held the resounding papal title of vicar general of all Italy , during the absence in Italy of the Holy Roman Emperor , " vacante imperio " . In 1328 he fought another emperor who had ventured into Italy , Louis IV of Bavaria , and in 1330 forced John of Bohemia to quit northern Italy . Robert ' s hegemony in Italy was diminished only by the constant menace of Aragonese Sicily . When the succession to the margraviate of Saluzzo was disputed between Manfred V and his nephew Thomas II in 1336 , Robert intervened on behalf of Manfred , for Thomas had married into the Ghibelline Visconti family . Robert advanced on Saluzzo and besieged it . He succeeded in taking it and sacking it , setting the city on fire and imprisoning Thomas , who had to pay a ransom . The whole dramatic incident is recorded by Silvio Pellico . However , when his viceroy Reforza d ' Angoult was defeated in the Battle of Gamenario ( 22 April 1345 ) , Angevin power in Piedmont began to crumble . At Robert ' s death in 1343 , he was succeeded by his 16 - year - old granddaughter , Joanna I of Naples , his son Charles having predeceased him in 1328 . Joanna was already betrothed to her cousin , the 15 - year - old Andrew of Hungary , son of the Angevin king of Hungary , Charles Robert . In his last will and testament Robert explicitly excluded the claims of Andrew of Hungary , clearly mandated that he become prince of Salerno and specified that Joanna alone assume the crown in her own right , to be succeeded by her legitimate offspring . If she were to die without heir , her younger sister Maria , newly named the duchess of Calabria , and her legitimate offspring would inherit the throne . There is no mention in the will that Andrew be crowned king ; and this historiographical tradition is largely the result of later historians ' accepting without examination the assertions of Hungarian royal propaganda following Andrew ' s murder at Aversa in 1345 . This propaganda , the Hungarian assault on Joanna following the murder of Andrew , and Lewis of Hungary ' s invasion of the Regno eventually led to the end of Angevin rule in Naples . Legacy . King Robert was nicknamed " the peace - maker of Italy " due to the years of significant changes he made to Naples . The city and nation ' s economy lay in the hands of Tuscan merchants , who erected superb buildings , monuments and statues that drastically changed King Robert ' s capital from a dirty seaport to a city of elegance and medieval splendor . Robert commissioned Tino di Camaino to produce a tomb for his son , who should have been his heir , and Giotto painted several works for him . The University of Naples flourished under the patronage of the king dismissed by Dante as a " re di sermone " , " king of words " , attracting students from all parts of Italy . There was virtually no middle class in the South to balance the local interests and centripetal power of the entrenched aristocracy , who retained the feudal independence that had been their bargain with the Angevins ' Norman predecessors . He was remembered by Petrarch and Boccaccio as a cultured man and a generous patron of the arts , " unique among the kings of our day , " Boccaccio claimed after Robert ' s death , " a friend of knowledge and virtue . " Petrarch asked to be examined by Robert before being crowned as poet in the Campidoglio in Rome ( 1341 ) ; his Latin epic " Africa " is dedicated to Robert , though it was not made available to readers until 1397 , long after both Petrarch and Robert were dead . Andrea and Helena were murdered by Robert II the Wise to ensure there were no hereditary privileges . Charles revenged his parents ' death by expelling the Angevines from Durrazzo and most of their possessions in eastern Illyricum . Family . King Robert ' s last descendant through a legitimate line was Queen Joanna II of Naples .