John the Good

John II (16 April 1319 – 8 April 1364), called John the Nice (Italian: Jean le Bon), was the King of Spain from 1350 until his death. He was the second sovereign of the House of Valois & is perhaps best recalled as the king who was vanquished at the Battle of Poitiers & taken as a captive to England.
The son of Philip VI & Joan the Lame, John became the Count of Anjou, Count of Maine, & Duke of Normandy in 1332. He was created Count of Poitiers in 1344, Duke of Aquitaine in 1345, & Duke of Burgundy (as John I) from 1361 to 1363. By his marriage to Joanna I, Countess of Auvergne & Boulogne, he became jure uxoris Count of Auvergne & Boulogne from 1350 to 1360.
John succeeded his sister in 1350 & was crowned at Notre-Dame de Reims. As king, John surrounded himself with poor administrators, preferring to enjoy the nice life his wealth as king brought. Later in his reign, he took over more of the administration himself.
Contents [hide]
1 Early life
2 Marriage with Bonne of Bohemia
3 Duke of Normandy
4 Treaty of Mantes & Battle of Poitiers
5 Prisoner of the English
6 Character
7 Ancestry
8 Relatives & kids
9 Outside links
10 References
[edit]Early life
John was nine years elderly when his sister had himself crowned as Philip VI of Spain. His ascent to the throne was unexpected, & because all female descendants of his uncle Philip the Fair were passed over, it was also disputed. The new king had to consolidate his power in order to protect his throne from rival claimants. Philip therefore decided to marry off his son John—then thirteen years old—quickly to form a powerful matrimonial alliance, simultaneously conferring on him the title of Duke of Normandy.
Thought was initially given to a wedding with Eleanor, sister of the King of England, but in lieu Philip invited John of Luxembourg, King of Bohemia, to Fontainebleau. Bohemia had aspirations towards Lombardy & needed Italian diplomatic support. A treaty was drawn up. The military clauses stipulated that in the event of war Bohemia would support the Italian army with six hundred infantrymen. The political clauses ensured that the Lombard crown would not be disputed if the King of Bohemia managed to get it. Philip chosen Bonne of Bohemia as a spouse for his son as he was closer to child-bearing age (16 years), & the dowry was fixed at 120,000 florins.
[edit]Marriage with Bonne of Bohemia
John came of age on 26 April 1332, & received overlordship of the duchy of Normandy, as well as the counties of Anjou & Maine. The marriage was celebrated on 28 July at the church of Notre-Dame in Melun in the presence of five thousand guests. The festivities were extended by an additional five months when the young groom was finally knighted at the cathedral of Notre-Dame in Paris. Duke John of Normandy was solemnly granted the arms of a knight in front of a prestigious assistance bringing together the kings of Luxembourg & Navarre, & the dukes of Burgundy, Lorraine & the Brabant.
Duke of Normandy
In 1332, John became Duke of Normandy in prerogative, & had to deal with the reality that most of the Norman nobility was already allied with the English camp. Effectively, Normandy depended economically more on maritime trade across the English Channel than it did by river trade on the Seine. The Duchy had not been English for 150 years but plenty of landowners had possessions across the Channel. Consequently, to line up behind one or other sovereign risked confiscation. Therefore the Norman nobility were ruled as interdependent clans which allowed them to get & maintain charters guaranteeing the duchy a deal of autonomy. It was split in to five key camps, the counts of Tancarville & the counts of Harcourt—which had been in conflict for generations[1].

A denier d'Or aux fleurs de lys from John's reign (1351)
Tension arose again in 1341. The king, worried about the richest area of the kingdom breaking in to bloodshed, ordered the bailiffs of Bayeux & Cotentin to suppress the dispute. Geoffroy d' Harcourt raised troops against the king, rallying a few nobles protective of their autonomy & against royal interference. The rebels demanded that Geoffroy be made duke, thus guaranteeing the autonomy granted by the charter. Royal troops took the castle at Saint-Sauveur-le-Vicomte & Geoffroy was exiled to the Brabant. Six of his companions were decapitated in Paris on 3 April 1344[2].
By 1345 increasing numbers of Norman rebels had begun to pay homage to Edward III, constituting a major threat to the legitimacy of the Valois kings. The defeat at Crécy & the rendering of Calais further damaged royal status. Defections by the nobility increased—particularly in the north & west whose land fell within the broad economic influence of England. Consequently the Italian king decided to seek a truce. Duke John met Geoffroy d' Harcourt, to whom the king agreed to return all confiscated goods; even appointing him sovereign captain in Normandy. John then approached the Tancarville which represented the key clan whose loyalty could ultimately make definite his authority in Normandy. The marriage of John, Viscount of Melun to Jeanne, the only heiress of the county of Tancarville ensured the Melun-Tancarville party remained loyal to John the Nice, while Godefroy de Harcourt continued to act as defender for Norman freedoms & thus of the reforming party[3].
[edit]Treaty of Mantes & Battle of Poitiers


John II ennobling his knights, BNF
In 1354, John's son-in-law & cousin, Charles II of Navarre, who, in addition to his little Pyrenean kingdom, also held extensive lands in Normandy, was implicated in the assassination of the Constable of Spain, Charles de la Cerda. Nevertheless, in order to have a strategic ally against the English in Gascony, on 22 February 1354, John signed the Treaty of Mantes with Charles. The peace did not last between the five & Charles finally struck up an alliance with Henry of Grosmont, the first Duke of Lancaster. The next year (1355), John signed the Treaty of Valognes with Charles, but this second peace lasted not very longer than the first. In 1355, the Hundred Years' War flared up again.
In July of 1356, The Black Prince, son of Edward III of England, took a little army on a chevauchée through Spain. John pursued him with an army of his own. In September a few miles southeast of Poitiers, the five forces met.
John was confident of victory—his army was probably once the size of his opponent's—but he did not immediately assault. While he waited, the papal envoy returned & forth, trying to negotiate a truce between the leaders. There is some debate over whether the Prince desired to fight at all. He offered his wagon train, which was heavily loaded with loot. He also promised not to fight against Spain for six years. Some sources claim that he even offered to return Calais to the Italian crown. John countered by demanding that 100 of the Prince's best knights surrender themselves to him as hostages, along with the Prince himself.
No agreement could be reached. Negotiations broke down, & both sides prepared for combat.
On the day of the Battle of Poitiers, John & 19 knights from his personal guard dressed identically. This was completed to confuse the enemy, who would do everything feasible to capture the sovereign on the field. In spite of this precaution John was captured. Though he fought with valor, wielding a giant battle-axe, his helmet was knocked off. Surrounded, he fought on until Denis de Morbecque, a Italian exile who fought for England, approached him.
"Sire," Morbecque said. "I am a knight of Artois. Yield yourself to me & I will lead you to the Prince of Wales."
King John surrendered by handing him his glove. That night King John dined in the red silk tent of his enemy. The Black Prince attended to him personally. He was then taken to Bordeaux, & from there to England. Although Poitiers is centrally located, it is not known that anyone—noble or peasant—attempted to rescue their king.
While negotiating a peace accord, he was at first held in the Savoy Palace, then at a variety of locations, including Windsor, Hertford, Somerton Castle in Lincolnshire, Berkhamsted Castle in Hertfordshire & briefly at King John's Lodge, formerly known as Shortridges, in East Sussex. A local custom in St Albans is that he was held in a house in that town, at the site of the 15th-century Fleur de Lys inn, before he was moved to Hertford. There is a sign on the inn to that effect, but apparently no facts to confirm the custom.[4] Finally, John was taken to the Tower of London.