England. At a moment when neither side could be sure
of winning, an attempt at a nego tiated peace produced
Magna Carta (June 1215), by which the crown’s claims
to executive privilege were brought within the bounds of
agreed law. As a peace formula it failed, and John had
it annulled by the pope. He was winning the civil war
when he died (October 1216). Loyalists reissued Magna
Carta to rally support for his infant son, Henry III.
While curtailing the possibility of tyranny Magna
Carta also recognized the advantages of effi cient royal
government, which John had done much to foster. He
understood admin istration and did much in a short reign
to refi ne and rational ize it. He created a precedent (in
the Thirteenth of 1207) for a proper taxation system. He
created the navy that thwarted Philip’s projected inva-
sion. He failed, however, at the crucial arts of govern-
ment in the management of men and what was currently
recognized as “good lordship.”
John has been portrayed as a monster of depravity.
This is a fanciful elaboration of a distorting half-truth.
He was no more domineering than his father and brother,
and hardly more morally reprehensible, but he lacked
their redeeming qualities. He was crafty and vindictive
and instead of charis matic leadership could offer only
dogged determination. Fail ing to inspire loyalty, he
tried to dominate by menace and—constantly fearing
disloyalty—he fed his fears by a corrosive suspicion. He
is a classic case of a ruler undone not merely by adverse
circumstances but by defects of personality.
See also Eleanor of Aquitaine; Henry II;
Innocent III, Pope; Philip II Augustus
Further Reading
Hollister, C. Warren. “King John and the Historians.” Jour nal of
British Studies 1 (1961): 1–29
Holt, J.C. The Northerners: A Study in the Reign of King John.
London: Oxford University Press, 1961
Holt, J.C. Magna Carta and Medieval Government. London:
Hambledon, 1985 [collected papers especially valuable are
“King John,” fi rst published in 1963, and “The End of the
Anglo-Norman Realm,” from 1975]
Turner, Ralph V. King John. New York: Longman, 1994
Warren, W.L. King John. 2d ed. London: Eyre Methuen, 1978
Warren, W.L. “Painters King John Forty Years On.” Haskins
Society Journal I (1989): 1–9.
W.L. Warren
JOHN II THE GOOD (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 the Hundred Years’ War,
John’s fi rst 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
fi nally tried to mollify the dissident northwestern no-
bility 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- After two provisional settlements with his danger-
ous son-in-law, John fi nally 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 govern-
ment, which gave great responsibility to the heads of
administrative bodies, who tended to be men of modest
social origins. Their continuity in offi ce 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 po-
litical resentments against these royal offi cials. 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 support-
ers, 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 nego-
tiate 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 hostil-
ity 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 re-
built 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
JOHN II THE GOOD