Career
He was a younger brother of (among others) Charles Martel of Anjou, Saint Louis of Toulouse, Robert of Naples and Philip I of Taranto. On 3 September 1313 he was named Captain-General of Calabria. The death of Louis of Burgundy in 1316 widowed Matilda of Hainaut, Princess of Achaea.
Her suzerain, John"s brother Philip I of Taranto, had her brought by force to Naples in 1318 to marry John, a design intended to bring the Principality of Achaea into the Angevin inheritance.
This violated the marriage contract of her mother Isabelle, which had pledged that Isabelle and all her female heirs should not marry without permission of their suzerain. On these grounds, Philip stripped her of Achaea and bestowed it upon John: the marriage was annulled for non-consummation, and Matilda was imprisoned in the Castel dell"Ovo.
On 14 November 1321, John took a second wife, Agnes de Périgord, daughter of Helie VII, Count of Périgord and Brunissende de Foix. They had three sons:
Charles, Duke of Durazzo (1323–1348).
Married Maria of Calabria.
Louis of Durazzo (1324–1362), Count of Gravina
Robert of Durazzo (1326–1356)
He made a military expedition, financed by the Acciaiuoli, in 1325 to claim Achaea, by now much diminished from its original extent. While he re-established his authority in Kefalonia and Zante, he was unable to recapture Skorta from the control of the Byzantine Empire.