John of Gravina
| John | |
|---|---|
| Duke of Durazzo, Prince of Achaea, Count of Gravina | |
 |
|
| Born | 1276 |
| Died | May 1335 (aged 59) |
| Spouse |
Matilda of Hainaut Agnes de Périgord |
| Issue |
Charles, Duke of Durazzo Louis of Durazzo Robert of Durazzo Stephen of Durazzo |
| House |
House of Anjou-Sicily House of Anjou-Durazzo (founder) |
| Father | Charles II of Naples |
| Mother | Maria of Hungary |
John of Gravina (1276 – May 1335),Count of Gravina 1315–1335, Prince of Achaea 1318-1332, Duke of Durazzo 1332–1335 and ruler of the Kingdom of Albania (although he never used a royal title), was a younger son of Charles II of Naples and Maria of Hungary.
He was a younger brother of (among others) Charles Martel of Anjou, Saint Louis of Toulouse, Robert of Naples and Philip I of Taranto.
On 3 September 1313 he was named Captain-General of Calabria. In 1315, he succeeded his brother Peter, Count of Gravina after the latter was killed at the Battle of Montecatini.
The death of Louis of Burgundy in 1316 widowed Matilda of Hainaut, Princess of Achaea. Her suzerain, John's brother Philip I of Taranto, had her brought by force to Naples in 1318 to marry John, a design intended to bring the Principality of Achaea into the Angevin inheritance. The marriage, celebrated in March 1318, failed of its objective: Matilda refused to surrender her rights to Achaea to her husband and ultimately contracted a secret marriage with Hugh de La Palice. This violated the marriage contract of her mother Isabelle, which had pledged that Isabelle and all her female heirs should not marry without permission of their suzerain. On these grounds, Philip stripped her of Achaea and bestowed it upon John: the marriage was annulled for non-consummation, and Matilda was imprisoned in the Castel dell'Ovo.
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