LADISLAS, or LADISLAUS (e.1 375-1414) King of Naples from 138(1 to 1414. of the House of Anjou. Ile was the son of Charles 111. (of Durazzo), and on his father's death succeeded to the crown under the regency of his mother. From the beginning he was forced to contend against a faction among the nobility. led by the powerful family of Sarnsererini. who set up Louis 11. of Anjou as a rival candidate for the throne.
In 1391 Louis invaded Naples, but after eight years of warfare was driven out by Ladislas, who from an early age had evinced remarkable military talents and a restless energy. Ile had succeeded, besides, in gaining the support of Pope Boniface IX., and winning over the Angevin Party. Once freed from his rival, Ladislas turned neon the turbulent nobility and crushed them into non-resistance. Ile then gave his attention to for eign conquests, for which Central Italy. rent by the Great Schism, offered a fair field. Play Mg both with the Pope and the people of Rome, Le succeeded in inciting the populace against Innocent V11., who in 1405 was forced to flee from the city. Rome was sacked in the same year by the forces of Giovanni Colonna, but Ladislas's attempt to gain possession of the city failed, and in 1406 he was forced to come to terms with the Pope. In 141)S he made himself mas
ter of Rome without meeting resistance, and forced Gregory XII. to sell to hint for 25.000 florins the States of the Church with Rome itself. In 1409 a league was formed against him by Pope Alexander V.. Florence. Siena. and Louis of Anjou. and in the following year Ladislas was expelled from Borne. The war against. the King of Naples was carried on vigorously by Pope John XXIII., whose forces, under the corn maml of Paolo Orsini. defeated Ladislat, at Roe easecca in May, 14II. The King, neverthe h,s, succeeded in detaching Florence from the and made his peace with the Pope. This was but to gain time. in June, 1413, he took Rome and eompelled .Tohn XXIII. to flee. His plans for establishing a powerful Italian king dom seemed well on the way toward realization when he was struck clown hy disease and died at Casteltmovo, August ti. 1414. In 1403 he had been crowned King I if Hungary at Zara. a title which had soon to he laid down. Consult Creigh ton, History of the Papricy (Boston, 1882).