The Neapolitans, who had quickly grown unhappy with the severe Hungarian rule, called back Joan, who paid for her return expedition (including the services of Urslingen's mercenaries) by selling her rights on Avignon to the popes. She landed near Naples and easily captured it, but the Hungarian commander Ulrich von Wolfurt commanded a strong resistance in Apulia.

When Urslingen deserted back to the Hungarians, she asked the Pope for help. The latter sent a legate who, after offering a great sum to Urslingen and the Wolfurt brothers, brokered a truce. Joanna and Louis would leave the Kingdom to await a new trial on Andrew's assassination, to be held in Avignon. The pope and the cardinals declared Queen Joanna innocent of her husband's murder at a formal meeting of the College of Cardinals in January 1352, and a peace treaty was signed with Hungary on March 23, 1352.