Hungarians, with Andreas's brother, King Ludwig of Hungary, at their
head, now appealed to the Papal Court of Avignon for a Bull commanding
the joint coronation of Andreas and Giovanna, which would be tantamount
to placing the government in the hands of Andreas. The Neapolitans,
headed by the Princes of the Blood--who, standing next in succession,
had also their own interests to consider clamoured that Giovanna alone
should be crowned.

In this pass were the affairs of the kingdom when Charles of Durazzo,
who had stood watchful and aloof, carefully weighing the chances,
resolved at last to play that dangerous game of his. He began by the
secret abduction of Maria of Anjou, his own cousin and Giovanna's
sister, a child of fourteen. He kept her concealed for a month in his
palace, what time he obtained from the Pope, through the good offices
of his uncle the Cardinal of Perigord, a dispensation to overcome the
barrier of consanguinity. That dispensation obtained, Charles married
the girl publicly under the eyes of all Naples, and by the marriage--to
which the bride seemed nowise unwilling--became, by virtue of his wife,
next heir to the crown of Naples.

That was his opening move. His next was to write to his obliging
uncle the Cardinal of Perigord, whose influence at Avignon was very
considerable, urging him to prevail upon Pope Clement VI not to sign the
Bull in favour of Andreas and the joint coronation.

Now, the high-handed action of Charles in marrying Maria of Anjou had
very naturally disposed Giovanna against him; further, it had disposed
against him those Princes of the Blood who were next in the succession,
and upon whom he had stolen a march by this strengthening of his own
claims. It is inevitable to assume that he had counted precisely
upon this to afford him the pretext that he sought--he, a Neapolitan
prince--to ally himself with the Hungarian intruder.

Under any other circumstances his advances must have been viewed with
suspicion by Andreas, and still more by the crafty Friar Robert. But,
under the circumstances which his guile had created, he was received
with open arms by the Hungarian party, and his defection from the Court
of Giovanna was counted a victory by the supporters of Andreas. He
protested his good-will towards Andreas, and proclaimed his hatred of
Giovanna's partisans, who poisoned her mind against her husband. He
hunted and drank with Andreas--whose life seems to have been largely
mad