House of Valois-Anjou

The house was founded in the 1350s, when King John II of France, of the Valois line of Capetians, came to power.

Within a couple of decades, Queen Joanna of Naples, also of the senior Angevin line, realized that she would remain childless.

With the death of his nephew Count Charles IV of Maine in 1481, all Angevin possessions, including Provence, reverted to the crown.

The Angevin pretensions to Naples were continued intermittently by the House of Lorraine, which descended from René's eldest daughter.

Notably, the Valois-Habsburg War of 1551 to 1559 saw Duke Francis of Guise, a member of a cadet branch of the House of Lorraine, lead an unsuccessful French expedition against Naples.