Philip I of Taranto (10 November 1278 – 26 December 1331), of the Angevin house, was titular Latin Emperor of Constantinople (as Philip II) by right of his wife Catherine of Valois–Courtenay, Despot of Romania, King of Albania, Prince of Achaea and Taranto. Born in Naples, Philip was a younger son of Charles II of Anjou, King of Naples, and Maria of Hungary, daughter of King Stephen V of Hungary. First marriage On 4 February 1294, his father named him Prince of Taranto at Aix-en-Provence, and on 12 July 1294, Vicar-General of the Kingdom of Sicily. These dignities were a prelude to Charles' plan to bestow upon Philip an empire east of the Adriatic. The day he was invested as Vicar-General, he married by proxy Thamar Angelina Komnene, daughter of Nikephoros I Komnenos Doukas, Despot of Epirus. Threatened by the Byzantine Empire, Nikephoros had decided to seek Angevin patronage, and agreed to the marriage of Thamar and Philip. The two were married in person on 13 August 1294 at L'Aquila. Upon their marriage, Charles ceded to Philip the suzerainty of Achaea and the Kingdom of Albania, and all his rights to the Latin Empire and the Lordship of Vlachia. Nikephoros gave, as his daughter's dowry, the fortresses of Vonitsa, Vrachova, Gjirokastër and Naupactus, in the territory of Aetolia, to Philip, and agreed to settle the succession, on his death, upon his daughter rather than his son Thomas. Upon the death of Nikephoros (c. 1297), Philip took the title of "Despot of Romania", claiming Epirus, Aetolia, Acarnania, and Great Vlachia. However, Nikephoros' Byzantine widow, Anna Kantakouzene, had Thomas proclaimed Despot of Epirus and assumed the regency. War of the Vespers As Vicar-General of Sicily, he was part of the invasion of that island during the latter stage of the War of the Sicilian Vespers. His army was defeated in 1299 at the Battle of Falconara by Frederick III of Sicily, and he was held prisoner until the signing of the Treaty of Caltabellotta in 1302. Balkan adventure In 1306, Philip of Savoy and Isabella of Villehardouin, the Prince and Princess of Achaea, visited Charles' court in Naples. Philip of Savoy was accused of disloyalty and failure to support Charles in a campaign against Epirus. As Isabelle had not sought her suzerain's consent before marrying him, Charles deprived the two of Achaea and bestowed it directly upon Philip of Taranto on 5