Philip I, Prince of Taranto

Philip I
Prince of Taranto, Prince of Achaea, King of Albania, Despot of Epirus, titular Emperor of Constantinople, Lord of Durazzo
Philip I of Taranto.
Born	10 November 1278
Died	23 December 1332 (aged 54)
Spouse	Thamar Angelina Komnene Catherine II of Valois
Issue	Charles of Taranto Philip, Despot of Romania Jeanne, Queen of Armenia Margaret of Taranto Blanche of Taranto Robert of Taranto Louis of Taranto Mary of Taranto Philip II of Taranto
House	House of Anjou-Sicily House of Anjou-Taranto (founder)
Father	Charles II of Naples
Mother	Maria of Hungary

Philip I of Taranto (10 November 1278 – 23 December 1332), of the Angevin house, was titular Latin Emperor of Constantinople (as Philip II), despot of Epirus, King of Albania, Prince of Achaea and Taranto, and Lord of Durazzo.

Born in Naples, Philip was a younger son of Charles II of Anjou, King of Naples, and Maria of Hungary, daughter of King Stephen V of Hungary.

On 4 February 1294, his father named him Prince of Taranto at Aix-en-Provence, and on 12 July 1294, Vicar-General of the Kingdom of Sicily. These dignities were a prelude to Charles' plan to bestow upon Philip an empire east of the Adriatic. The day he was invested as Vicar-General, he married by proxy Thamar Angelina Komnene, daughter of Nikephoros I Komnenos Doukas, Despot of Epirus. Threatened by the Byzantine Empire, Nikephoros had decided to seek Angevin patronage, and agreed to the marriage of Thamar and Philip. The two were married in person on 13 August 1294 at L'Aquila. Upon their marriage, Charles ceded to Philip the suzerainty of Achaea and the Kingdom of Albania, and all his rights to the Latin Empire and the Lordship of Vlachia. Nikephoros gave, as his daughter's dowry, the fortresses of Vonitsa, Vrachova, Gjirokastër and Naupactus, in the territory of Aetolia, to Philip, and agreed to settle the succession, on his death, upon his daughter rather than his son Thomas. Upon the death of Nikephoros (c. 1297), Philip took the title of "Despot of Romania", claiming Epirus, Aetolia, Acarnania, and Great Vlachia. However, Nikephoros' Byzantine widow, Anna Kantakouzene, had Thomas proclaimed Despot of Epirus and assumed the regency.