He was born in
Naples, the son of
Charles III and
Margherita of Durazzo.
He became the King of Naples from the age of nine (
1386) under his mother's regency. Through the
1390s he was constantly opposed by
Antipope John XXIII as well as by
Louis II of Anjou, then head of the junior
Angevin line, who contested the throne. Louis successfully seized Naples from him in
1390, but was expelled again in
1399.
He endeavored to consolidate the royal power in Naples at the expense of the baronial, and brought about the murder of several members of the
Sanseverino family for frustrating his ends.
He became a skilled political and military leader, protector and controller of the Papacy of
Innocent VII. He profited from disorder throughout
Italy to greatly expand his kingdom and his power, appropriating much of the Papal States to his own use.
From
1390 he was also claimant to the throne of
Hungary and
Dalmatia.
His claim to the
kingdom of Hungary was opposed by
Sigismund of Luxemburg, while he sold his rights to the kingdom of
Dalmatia to the
Venetian Republic for 100,000
Ducats in
1409.
He was also the
prince of Taranto from
1406, having taken the Dowager Princess
Mary of Enghien (
1367–May 9, 1446), Countess of
Lecce etc, as his third wife and barred her son from the principality. King Ladislas first attempted to subjugate those fiefs by a war and besieging the lady, but did not succeed in capturing her castle. Therefore, he changed tactics, began negotiations, and succeeded in compelling her to marry him.
He seized the city of Florence in 1414 and planned to take over, except the plague took over the city and decimated his army and forced them out. This further pushed the Renaissance building campaign in Florence, especially with the continuation of the construction of Brunelleschi's dome on the Duomo.
He was widely reputed to have been
poisoned and died in
Naples on
August 6, 1414. He was succeeded by his sister
Joan II of Naples, the last member of the senior
Angevin line in Italy.
Significantly, when
Antipope John XXIII preached the
crusade against Ladislas,
Jan Hus opposed the sale of
indulgences to finance it in
Bohemia, which led to Hus's death and subsequently the
Hussite movement.
