William II, Duke of Athens

William (1312 – 22 August 1338) was the third son of Frederick III of Sicily and Eleanor of Anjou. He inherited the Duchy of Athens after the death of his elder brother Manfred on 9 November 1317.

William II
prince of Sicily
Coat of arms of Aragonese Sicily
Duke of Athens & Neopatria
Reign1317 - 1338
PredecessorManfred, Duke of Athens
SuccessorJohn, Duke of Randazzo
Born1312
Died22 August 1338
Trapani
BuriedDominican church of Trapani
Noble familyof Barcelona
Spouse(s)María Álvarez de Jérica
FatherFrederick II of Sicily
MotherEleanor of Anjou
ReligionCatholic Church

During his minority, his Greek possessions were governed by his illegitimate elder brother Alfonso Frederick, who in 1319 added the Duchy of Neopatria to the Catalan domains. In 1330, Alfonso returned from Greece and William ceded the counties of Malta and Gozo to him. Nicola Lanza replaced him in Greece.

In 1335, he married María Álvarez de Jérica, a descendant of Roger of Lauria, without papal dispensation, as both John XXII and Benedict XII wanted to check the power of Frederick his father.[1]

In 1337, his father willed him the Principality of Taranto, the county of Calatafimi, the honour of Monte Sant'Angelo, and various castles and lands in Noto, Spaccaforno, Capo Passero, and Avola when his mother, Eleanor, daughter of Charles II of Naples, died. She died in 1341, but William died first on 22 August 1338. He left his library to the Dominicans of Palermo[2] and was buried in the cathedral there.

Ancestry

Notes
  1. Fiske, p 837 n507.
  2. Testamentum ducis Willelmi.

Sources
  • Fiske, H. Acta Aragonensia. Berlin-Leipzig, 1908.
  • Ghisalberti, Alberto M. Dizionario Biografico degli Italiani: III Ammirato – Arcoleo. Rome, 1961.


Preceded by
Manfred		 Duke of Athens
1317–1338		 Succeeded by
John of Randazzo
New title Duke of Neopatria
1319–1338

gollark: How America.
gollark: Bottled water is heretical heresy in places where tap water works, which is at least 3.
gollark: The modded server actually uses an Alpine instance I bootstrapped on there via an incredibly accursed process, for efficiency, but close enough.
gollark: They have some documentation here: https://blogs.oracle.com/developers/post/how-to-set-up-and-run-a-really-powerful-free-minecraft-server-in-the-cloud
gollark: Also, the Oracle Cloud networking configuration panel is beyond human comprehension.
This article is issued from Wikipedia. The text is licensed under Creative Commons - Attribution - Sharealike. Additional terms may apply for the media files.