Notes |
- BIOGRAPHY
Charlotte was born about 1480, the eldest daughter and eventual heiress of Federigo IV of Aragón, king of Naples, with his first wife Anne de Savoie. Although her father was disposed of his kingdom, her descendants, the House of La Trémouille, maintained their dynastic claim in exile.
About 10 June 1500 Charlotte was married to Guy XV, comte de Laval, de Montfort et de St. Quintin, head of one of Brittany's most powerful noble families. Only one of her children, Anne, survived to childhood and left offspring of her marriage to François de La Trémouille, prince de Talmond, vicomte de Thouars, thereby passing the Neapolitan royal claim and princely Tarente title to the La Trémouille family in France.
In the year following Charlotte's marriage, her father lost his throne and freedom to France in war. Her half-brother Fernando of Aragón, duca di Calabria, principe de Tarente, fled to Spain in 1504, from where he did not return. When he died without legitimate descendants in Valencia in 1550, Charlotte had died long before on 16 October 1506, and France had lost the crown of Naples to another branch of the Aragónese dynasty. Nonetheless her descendants took up the fruitless pretence to the crown, while pursuing their interests in Brittany and France. To Charlotte has been posthumously attributed the title of Princesse de Tarente, which had been borne by Neapolitan heirs apparent in the eighteenth century annals of Père Anselme.
|