(1319–1364). King of France, 1350–64. The elder son of Philip VI and Jeanne of Burgundy, John became heir to the throne when his father succeeded to it in 1328. In 1332, John married Bonne de Luxembourg, daughter of the king of Bohemia. Before she died of plague in 1349, Bonne bore him nine children, among whom were the future Charles V and Jeanne, who married Charles the Bad of Navarre.
In the early campaigns of of the Hundred Years’ War, John’s first important command was at the abortive siege of Aiguillon in 1345. He was much attached to his mother and to the strong Burgundian faction in French politics, with which she was aligned. When Philip VI finally tried to mollify the dissident northwestern nobility in the 1340s and reduce the role of Burgundians, John remained linked to the latter in opposition to his father.
John’s accession to the throne in 1350, soon followed by the summary execution of the constable Raoul de Brienne, revived the old tension between the Valois monarchy and the northwestern nobles. Leadership of the opposition passed to the Évreux branch of the royal family, headed by Charles of Navarre, who engineered the murder of the new constable, Charles of Spain, in 1354. After two provisional settlements with his dangerous son-in-law, John finally lost patience and arrested Charles in April 1356, executing several of his Norman allies and plunging northwestern France into civil war.
John also attracted criticism for his style of government, which gave great responsibility to the heads of administrative bodies, who tended to be men of modest social origins. Their continuity in office contrasted with that of the royal council, which frequently changed in composition as John had to appoint representatives of political factions rather than trusted men of his own choosing. Reformers on this council resented their lack of control over the administrative bodies. Bourgeois reformers, led by Parisians, harbored personal and political resentments against these royal officials. Noble reformers had an agenda based on class and geography as well as governmental philosophy, while clergy were found in both camps.
These opposition groups both played a role in the Estates General of 1355, but their failure to generate needed revenues provoked the king into policies that alienated both groups during 1356. In September, with an army consisting of his own noble supporters, John II met defeat and capture at the hands of an Anglo-Gascon army at Poitiers. For the next four years, he was a prisoner in England, trying to negotiate a treaty that would secure his release, while his son Charles struggled to preserve some authority for the monarchy in Paris.
As the bourgeois reformers showed increasing hostility to the nobles, and as the nobles became disillusioned with their erratic leader Charles the Bad, the crown managed to recruit important dissident nobles and rebuilt its power around a new coalition. This realignment occurred during the last six years of John’s reign, but historians differ as to whether he or his son deserves credit for the royal recovery. Released for a large ransom under the terms of the Treaty of Brétigny in 1360, John had to contend with the violence of thousands of unemployed soldiers. After considering a crusade to lure them away, he secured from the Estates in December 1363 an important new tax, the fouage, to finance an army to restore order. Continuing unresolved problems with England were complicated when the king’s son Louis, a hostage for his father’s ransom, broke parole and fled. John returned to captivity in England and died there in the spring of 1364.
Bordonove, Georges. Jean le Bon et son temps. Paris: Ramsay, 1980.
Cazelles, Raymond. “Jean II le Bon: quel homme? quel roi?” Revue historique 509(1974):5–26.
——. Société politique, noblesse et couronne sous Jean le Bon et Charles V. Geneva: Droz, 1982.
Deviosse, Jean. Jean le Bon. Paris: Fayard, 1985.
Henneman, John Bell. Royal Taxation in Fourteenth Century France: The Captivity and Ransom of John II, 1356–70. Philadelphia: American Philosophical Society, 1976.
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