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 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
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