Maria d'Aquino

Maria d'Aquino was a Neapolitan noblewoman who was involved in a love triangle that led to murder. She was the illegitimate daughter of Robert the Wise, King of Naples and Count of Provence, and was raised in a convent. When she was older, she met and fell in love with Giovanni Boccaccio, a writer who was also a friend of her father. Boccaccio wrote about Maria and their relationship in several of his literary works, and she is traditionally identified as Fiammetta. In 1345, Maria was an accomplice in the murder of King Andrew, the husband of her niece and Robert's successor, Queen Joanna I. For this, she was sentenced to death and beheaded in 1382 on the orders of Queen Joanna I's successor, King Charles III. Maria's story is a tale of love, betrayal, and murder. It is a story that has captured the imagination of people for centuries, and it continues to be told today.