tells of the young page Tistet Vedene, _qui descendait le Rhône en
chantant sur une galère papale et s'en allait à la cour de Naples avec
la troupe de jeunes nobles que la ville envoyait tous les ans près de la
reine Jeanne pour s'exercer à la diplomatie et aux belles manières_ [who
descended the Rhône, singing, upon a papal galley, and went away to the
court of Naples with the company of young nobles whom the city (of
Avignon) sent every year to Queen Joanna for training in diplomacy and
fine manners]. There was further war with the Hungarians, it is true,
but peace was established, Sicily was added to Joanna's domain, and
there was general tranquillity.

Twice again did Joanna marry, urged to this course by her ministers, but
death removed her consort each time, and in the end she was put into
captivity by her relative and adopted child, Charles of Durazzo, who had
forsaken her to follow the fortunes of the King of Hungary, and who had
invaded Naples and put forth a claim to the throne, basing it upon some
scheming papal grant which was without legality. Charles had her taken
to the castle of Muro, a lonely fortress in the Apennines, some sixty
miles from Naples, and there, her spirit of defiance unsubdued, she was
murdered by four common soldiers in the latter part of May, 1382, after
a reign of thirty-nine years. So came to an end this brilliant queen,
the most accomplished woman of her generation, and with her downfall the
lamp of learning was dimmed for a time in southern Italy, where the din
of arms and the discord of civic strife gave no tranquillity to those
who loved the arts of peace.




Chapter III