John III, Duke of Brabant

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John III
Marie d'Évreux
Issue	Joanna, Duchess of Brabant Margaret of Brabant Marie of Brabant John Henry Godfrey
Father	John II, Duke of Brabant
Mother	Margaret of England

John III (

.

John and the towns of Brabant

The early fourteenth century, a period of economic boom for Brabant, marks the rise of the duchy's towns, which depended on imports of English wool for their essential cloth industry. During John's minority, the major towns of Brabant had the authority to appoint councillors to direct a regency, under terms of the Charter of Kortenberg granted by his father in the year of his death (1312). By 1356 his daughter and son-in-law were forced to accept the famous Joyous Entry, as a condition for their recognition, so powerful had the states of Brabant become.

The marital alignment with France was tested and failed as early as 1316, when Louis X requested Brabant to cease trade with Flanders and to participate in a French attack; the councillors representing the towns found this impossible, and in reprisal Louis prohibited all French trade with Brabant in February 1316, in violation of a treaty of friendship he had signed with Brabant in the previous October.

The French alliance, 1332–1337

After his initial period of maintaining independent neutrality from both France and England failed,

A brief campaign of a coalition of Philip's friends came to a truce, followed by a pact at Compiègne by which John received a fief from Philip worth 2000 livres and declared himself a vassal of France. His oldest son, Jean, was betrothed to Philip's daughter Marie, and it was agreed that the Brabançon heir would complete his education at the French court in Paris and that Robert of Artois would be expelled from Brabant.

The support of France strengthened John's hand with his feudal suzerain, the

The separation of Brabant from the Empire was completed by the Burgundian dukes of Brabant in the fifteenth century.

Meanwhile, the princes of the Low Countries settled their differences and formed a coalition against Brabant with a defensive alliance in June 1333. War was briefly brought to the Duchy of Brabant in the summer of 1334, but resolved by a peace brokered by Philip at Amiens. The French king declared that John had to hand over the town of Tiel and its neighbouring villages Heerewaarden and Zandwijk to the count of Guelders and to betroth his daughter Marie to the count's son, Reinoud.

The English alliance, 1337–1345

When

, heir to the English throne. Two seasons of inconclusive campaigning that ravaged the north of France left Edward penniless at the end of 1341; he returned home, and when he returned to the fray, it was to Brittany: he never returned to the Low Countries.

The French alliance, 1345–1355

Though John was requesting papal dispensation for the marriage of Margaret and the Black Prince in 1343, the alliance with England unravelled as Edward's coffers emptied and his attentions turned elsewhere. In September 1345 representative of France and Brabant met at the

within Brabant: it was agreed that it would now come under full Brabançon control. Despite the diplomacy of Edward, John remained true to his French commitments until his death in December 1355.

Family

In 1311, as his father's gesture of rapprochement with France, John married

. They had six children:

• William IV, Count of Holland and second to Wenceslaus I, Duke of Luxembourg.^[6]
• Margaret of Brabant (9 February 1323 – 1368), married at Saint-Quentin on 6 June 1347 Louis II, Count of Flanders
• Marie of Brabant (1325 – 1 March 1399), Lady of
  Reginald III of Guelders
  .
• John of Brabant (1327–1335/36), married Marie of France (1326–1333), daughter of King Philip VI of France, but died soon after with no issue, buried in Tervueren.
• Henri of Brabant (d. 29 October 1349), Duke of Limburg and Lord of Mechelen in 1347. Died young and buried in Tervuren in 1349.
• Godfrey of Brabant (d. aft. 3 February 1352), Lord of Aarschot in 1346. Also died young and buried in Tervuren.

John also had a son born from Maria van Huldenberg, who founded the House of Brant: John I Brant, 1st Lord of Ayseau.

In 1355, after all of his three legitimate sons had died, John was forced to declare his eldest daughter Joanna his heiress,

, Belgium.

The standard history is Piet Avonds, Brabant tijdens de regering van Hertog Jan III (1312–1356) (Koninglijke Academie, Brussels) 1991.

Notes

Regnal titles
Preceded by John II	Limburg 1312–1355	Succeeded by Joan