Louis of Sicily

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Louis the Child (1337 – 16 October 1355) was king of Sicily, then called Trinacria, from 1342 to 1355.

His father was Peter II, whom he succeeded at the age of five, and his mother was Elisabeth of Carinthia. His reign began under the joint regency of his uncle Giovanni, the duke of Randazzo, and his mother.

He lived at Randazzo until 1347. In that year, the plague called the Black Death arrived. In 1348, the duke named Blasco II de Alagona, a Catalan, regent. Rivalry—before then mitigated by the duke—between the Italian noblesse (the families of Chiaramonte, Palizzi, and Scaloro degli Uberti; called the filoangioini) and the Catalan noblesse (the families of Peralta, Alagona, and Ventimiglia; called the filoaragonesi) degenerated into civil war. Louis, a Catalan by descent, sent the royal army after the Chiaramonte unto Milazzo. Only in 1350 did peace arrive.

In 1355, the king's cousin Frederick, lord of Aci and son of the duke of Randazzo, died. In an attempt to avoid the plague, Louis left the fortress Agira for the castle of Aci. He died in the Acese fortress on 16 October in that year, of the plague, and only seventeen years of age. He was buried in the cathedral of Catania next to Frederick II (III) and Giovanni, the old regent.