The sovereignty of Joan of Naples over Provence is disputed by her cousins Angevins and in particular by Louis of Hungary (His grandfather Robert I the Sage in the absence of surviving male descendant married Jeanne to André d'Anjou for put an end to the claims of the Angevins, but it quickly died and Jeanne is suspected of having murdered). It is the support of the pontiffs who allowed Jeanne to maintain the condition that the kingdom of Naples be directed with the advice of a counselor sent by the Holy See (it is the bishop Philippe de Cabassolle former tutor of Jeanne who fulfills this office) 37 . But in 1367, Pope Urban V decided to resettle the Apostolic See in Rome. John of Ghent , Duke of Lancaster, second son of the King of England, claims the possession of Provence as a descendant of Eleonore of Provence . An army has gone up to England to support this claim 38 . In the context of the Franco-British cold war that has prevailed since the Treaty of Brétigny , this entails an immediate reaction of the Valois: we must at all costs prevent Provence from becoming English. Louis, who is governor of Languedoc, is also linked to the estate of Provence (as far away as Jean de Lancastre) by the marriage of Marguerite de Provence with Saint-Louis . It is also possible that there was a dispute between the Valois and Urban V who had refused to Jean the Good the payment of part of his ransom under the guise of financing a Crusade that would also have had the effect of ridding France and the papacy of the companies. Finally, after the battle of Nájera , the companies employed by Du Guesclin and the Black Prince are no longer paid: they go back to Languedoc to live looting. Louis of Anjou sees in the departure of the pope the opportunity to divert the companies of his territories.With the support of Charles V , he obtained from his uncle the Emperor Charles IV the application of the Treaty of Fontainebleau. Indeed, John the Blind , the father of the emperor had negotiated the support of Philip VI to his Lombard aims against the cession of imperial rights over the kingdom of Arles, which allows him to justify his usurpation 39 . In fact the power of Robert the Wise gave total independence of the County of Provence vis-à-vis the Empire and the French could not claim it. With the departure of the papacy in Rome and the weakness of Joan of Naples the opportunity is beautiful to extend to the south-east.
What if John of Gaunt claims Provence?