JOANNA II  . (1371-1435), queen of Naples, was descended from Charles II. of Anjou through his son John of Durazzo . She had been married to William, son of Leopold III. of Austria, and at the death of her brother King Ladislaus in 1414 she succeeded to the Neapolitan crown . Her life had always been very dissolute, and although now a widow of forty-five, she chose as her lover Pandolfo Alopo, a youth of twenty-six, whom she made seneschal of the kingdom . He and the constable Muzio Attendolo Sforza completely dominated her, and the turbulent barons wished to provide her with a husband who would be strong enough to break her favourites yet not make himself king . The choice fell on James of Bourbon, a relative of the king of France, and the marriage took place in 1415 . But James at once declared himself king, had Alopo killed and Sforza imprisoned, and kept his wife in a state of semi-confinement; this led to a counter-agitation on the part of the barons, who forced James to liberate Sforza, renounce his kingship, and eventually to quit the country . The queen now sent Sforza to re-establish her authority in Rome, whence the Neapolitans had been expelled after the death of Ladislaus; Sforza entered the city and obliged the condoltiere Braccio da Montone, who was defending it in the pope's name, to depart (1416) . But when Oddo Colonna was elected pope as Martin V., he allied himself with Joanna, who promised to give up Rome, while Sforza returned to Naples . The latter found, however, that he had lost all influence with the queen, who was completely dominated by her new lover Giovanni (Sergianni) Caracciolo . Hoping to re-establish his position and crush Caracciolo, Sforza favoured the pretensions of Louis III. of Anjou, who wished to obtain the succession of Naples at Joanna's death, a course which met with the approval of the pope . Joanna refused to adopt Louis owing to the influence of Caracciolo, who hated Sforza; she appealed for help instead to Alphonso of Aragon, promising to make him her heir .

War broke out between Joanna and the Aragonese on one side and Louis and Sforza, supported by the pope, on the other . After much fighting by land and sea, Alphonso entered Naples, and in 1422 peace was made . But dissensions broke out between the Aragonese and Catalans and the Neapolitans, and Alphonso had Caracciolo arrested; whereupon Joanna, fearing for her own safety, invoked the aid of Sforza, who with difficulty carried her off to Aversa . There she was joined by Louis whom she adopted as her successor instead of the ungrateful Alphonso . Sforza was accidentally drowned, but when Alphonso returned to Spain, leaving only a small force in Naples, the Angevins with the help of a Genoese fleet recaptured the city . For a few years there was peace in the kingdom, but in 1432 Caracciolo, having quarrelled with the queen, was seized and murdered by his enemies . Internal disorders broke out, and Gian Antonio Orsini, prince of Taranto, led a revolt against Joanna in Apulia; Louis of Anjou died while conducting a campaign against the rebels (1434), and Joanna herself died on the 11th of February 1435, after having appointed his son Rene her successor . Weak, foolish and dissolute, she made her reign one long scandal, which reduced the kingdom to the lowest depths of degradation . Her perpetual intrigues and her political incapacity made Naples a prey to anarchy and foreign invasions, destroying all sense of patriotism and loyalty both in the barons and the people .