Jean d'Eppe

Jean d'Eppe (c. 1240 – 12 November 1293), known in Italian as Giovanni d'Appia^[a] or Gianni d'Epa,^[1] was a French nobleman who served the Angevin dynasty of the Kingdom of Sicily and the Papal State as a military commander and administrator. He was heavily involved in the conflict between Guelphs, supporters of the Angevin claim to Sicily and of Papal claims in northern Italy, and the Ghibellines, supporters of the Staufer dynasty's claim to Sicily and of Imperial rights in northern Italy.

Jean did not arrive in Sicily until the early 1270s, but he quickly acquired land and castles. Between 1274 and 1281, he served the Sicilian crown as a diplomatic and judicial agent before he was loaned out to the Papacy. Through a series of military campaigns in 1281–83, Jean helped secure Papal control over the Romagna and Maritime Campania. In 1284, he returned to Sicily to assist the Angevins in the War of the Sicilian Vespers against the Aragonese, who were taking up the Staufer claim. He appears to have retired from public activities in 1285, but he returned to an active role in 1289. In 1292, he resigned abruptly and returned to France. Nothing is known of his last year, save that he died in his native village.

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