The first full-length study of Robert of Naples’ reign in over seventy years, this volume analyzes Robert’s policies and image in the context of larger shifts in rulership from the Middle Ages to the early modern period.
Treating kingship as a joint enterprise of king and court, it draws on an interdisciplinary range of sources from chronicles, sermons, popular poetry, and works of art to diplomatic and archival records, to reassess the major issues of his reign and underscore the importance of image-making and negotiation to his rule. The final chapter tracks the legacy of his image as “the Wise,” adopted by later fourteenth-century kings of France, Bohemia, and England before its eclipse in favour of princely prudence in the Renaissance.