them to persuade their brothers, Philip of Taranto and Louis of Durazzo, to join them. After their arrival, King Louis's "smile was replaced by the harshest expression as he unveiled with terrible words the true feelings he had for the princes and that he had kept hidden until then", according to the contemporaneous Domenico da Gravina. He repeated his former accusations, blamed his kinsmen for his brother's murder, and had them captured on 22 January. The next day Charles of Durazzo the husband of Joanna I's sister, Marywas beheaded upon Louis's orders. The other princes were kept captive and sent to Hungary, together with Louis's infant nephew, Charles Martel. Louis marched to Naples in February. The citizens offered him a ceremonious entry, but he refused, threatening to let his soldiers sack the town if they did not raise the taxes. He adopted the traditional titles of the kings of Naples"King of Sicily and Jerusalem, Duke of Apulia and Prince of Capua"and administered the kingdom from the Castel Nuovo, garrisoning his mercenaries in the most important forts. He used unusually brutal methods of investigation to capture all accomplices in the death of his brother, according to Domenico da Gravina. Most local noble families (including the Balzos and the Sanseverinos) refused to cooperate with him. The pope refused to confirm Louis's rule in Naples, which would have united two powerful kingdoms under Louis's rule. The pope and the cardinals declared Queen Joanna innocent of her husband's murder at a formal meeting of the College of Cardinals. The arrival of the Black Death forced Louis to leave Italy in May. He made Ulrich Wolfhardt governor of Naples, but his mercenaries did not hinder Joanna I and her husband from returning in September. Louis, who had signed a truce for eight years with Venice on 5 August, sent new troops to Naples under the command of Stephen Lackfi, Voivode of Transylvania, in late 1349. Lackfi reoccupied Capua, Aversa and other forts that had been lost to Joanna I, but a mutiny among his German mercenaries forced him to return to Hungary. The Black Death had meanwhile reached Hungary. The first wave of the epidemic ended in June, but it returned in September, killing Louis's first wife, Margaret. Louis also fell ill, but survived the plague. Although the Black Death was less devastating in the sparsely populated Hungary than in other parts of Europe, there