Charles III of Naples
Charles the Small or Charles of Durazzo (1345 – 24 February 1386) was King of Naples and the titular King of Jerusalem from 1382 to 1386 as Charles III, and King of Hungary from 1385 to 1386 as Charles II. In 1381, Charles created the chivalric Order of the Ship. In 1383, he succeeded to the Principality of Achaea on the death of James of Baux. Life Childhood and youth (1354/1357 – 1370) He was the only child of Louis of Durazzo and his wife, Margaret of Sanseverino. Louis of Durazzo was a younger son of John, Duke of Durazzo, who was the youngest son of King Charles II of Naples and Mary of Hungary. Charles's date of birth is uncertain: he was born in 1354, according to historian Szilárd Süttő, and in 1357, according to Nancy Goldstone. Charles was born in Durazzo. Louis of Durazzo rebelled against his cousins, Joanna I of Naples, and her husband, Louis of Taranto in the spring of 1360, but he was defeated. He was also compelled to send the child Charles as a hostage to Queen Joanna I's court in Naples. After Charles's father died in prison in the summer of 1362, Queen