'Frederick III' or 'IV' (
1 September,
1341-
27 January,
1377), called 'the Simple',
King of Sicily from
1355 to
1377, was the second son of
Peter II of Sicily and
Elisabeth of Carinthia. He succeeded his brother
Louis. The documents of his era call him the "infante Frederick, ruler of the kingdom of Sicily," without any
regnal number.
"Frederick the Simple" is often confused with an earlier Sicilian monarch,
Frederick II, who chose to call himself "Frederick III", even though he was actually only the second King Frederick to occupy the Sicilian throne, as also this Fredrick has been dubbed by later generations of genealogists and historians as Frederick III.
The beginning of Frederick III's reign was plagued by intermittent wars with the
Kingdom of Naples and also by the
Black Death, to which his elder brother and predecessor had succumbed. In
1372 he was able to come to peace terms with Naples and the
Papacy and was titled as a Tributary King of "Trinacria."
He appointed his uncle,
Roland, to act on his behalf in the
Duchy of Athens and
Neopatria.
On
11 April,
1361, Frederick married his first wife
Constança of Aragon, daughter of
Peter IV of Aragon. They had only one daughter,
Mary. On
17 January,
1372, Frederick married secondly
Antonia of Balzo. There were no children from this marriage.