Joan of Anjou, Queen of Armenia

Joan of Taranto (died March 1323) was Queen of Armenia by marriage to Oshin, King of Armenia. As daughter of Philip I, Prince of Taranto, she was a member of the Capetian House of Anjou. Life Joan was daughter of Philip I, Prince of Taranto, and his first wife Thamar Angelina Komnene. Joan's parents did not have a good relationship: Philip suspected Thamar of acting in her family's interests over his during the two-year conflict that raged between the Capetian House of Anjou and Epirus, despite the fact that she had pawned the remainder of her jewellery to help him pay for the military effort. Distrustful of Thamar, Philip decided to divorce her and in 1309 accused her of having committed adultery. She was forced into confessing that she had had sexual relationships with at least forty of the lords of his court, and that she had formed a particular relationship with Bartolomeo Siginulfo, the Grand Chamberlain of Taranto. Thamar became an outcast, probably never seeing her children again, she either became a nun or was imprisoned by Philip. In either case she died not long afterwards in 1311. Shortly following her mother's death, Joan acquired a stepmother in Catherine of Valois, who Philip married in July 1313. From this marriage Joan acquired five half-siblings, including Philip II, Prince of Taranto.