Philip II of Taranto

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Coat of arms of Philip II of Taranto. They are the combination of the arms of Anjou and those of the Latin Empire of Constantinople.

Philip II of Taranto (1329 – November 25, 1374) of the Angevin house, was Prince of Achaea and Taranto, and titular Emperor of Constantinople (as Philip III) from 1364 to his death in 1374.

[edit] Life

He was the son of Prince Philip I of Taranto and Empress Catherine II of Valois. His paternal grandparents were King Charles II of Naples and Maria of Hungary. His maternal grandparents were Count Charles of Valois and his second wife, Empress Catherine I of Courtenay.

Upon the execution of his cousin Charles, Duke of Durazzo in 1348, he succeeded as King of Albania. In April, 1355 he married Maria of Calabria, daughter of Charles, Duke of Calabria, and Mary of Valois. This made him the brother-in-law of Queen Joan I of Naples.

In 1364, he succeeded as titular Emperor of Constantinople, and Prince of Achaea and Taranto on the death of his older brother, Robert.

His wife Maria died in 1366. On October 20, 1370 Philip took as his second wife Elisabeth of Slavonia, daughter of Stephen of Hungary, Duke of Transylvania, Slavonia, Croatia and Dalmatia, and Margaret of Bavaria. In 1373, he resigned his rights to the Principality of Achaea to Queen Joan I of Naples. He died on November 25, 1374 in Taranto.

All his children had died young. His heir was his sister's son James of Baux, Duke of Andria.

[edit] Family

By his first wife, Maria of Calabria, Philip had five children:

• Philip (1356)
• Charles (1358)
• Philip (1360)
• a child, (1362)
• a child, (1366)

By his second wife, Elisabeth of Slavonia, Philip had:

• Philip (1371)

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