John IV, Duke of Brittany
John IV | |
---|---|
Duke of Brittany | |
Reign | 12 April 1365 – 1 November 1399 |
Predecessor | Joan, Duchess of Brittany, contested by John (IV) |
Successor | John V |
Count of Montfort | |
Reign | 16 September 1345 – 1 November 1399 |
Predecessor | John II |
Successor | John IV |
Earl of Richmond | |
Reign | 20 June 1372 – 1 November 1399 |
Predecessor | John of Gaunt |
Born | September–December 1339[2] |
Died | 1 November 1399 (aged 59–60) Nantes, Brittany |
Burial | |
Spouses | Joan Holland (m. 1366; died 1384) |
Issue full list... |
|
Montfort | |
Father | John of Montfort |
Mother | Joanna of Flanders |
John IV the Conqueror
Ordinal number
He was the son of
Conquest
The first part of his rule was tainted by the
John returned to Brittany to enforce his claim, with English help. In 1364, John won a decisive victory against the House of Blois in the Battle of Auray, with the support of the English army led by John Chandos. His rival Charles was killed in the battle and Charles's widow Joanna was forced to sign the Treaty Guérande on 12 April 1365. In the terms of the treaty, Joanna gave up her rights to Brittany and recognized John as sole master of the duchy.
Power struggles
Having achieved victory with English support (and having married into the English royal family), Duke John IV was constrained to confirm several English barons in positions of power within Brittany, especially as controllers of strategically important strongholds in the environs of the port of Brest, which gave the English military access to the peninsula, and which took revenue from Brittany to the English crown.[4] This English power-base in Brittany was resented by the Breton aristocrats and the French monarchy, as was John's use of English advisers. However, John IV declared himself a vassal to king Charles V of France, not to Edward III of England. Nevertheless, this gesture did not placate his critics, who saw the presence of rogue English troops and lords as destabilizing. Faced with the defiance of the Breton nobility, John IV was unable to muster military support against King Charles V, who took the opportunity to exert pressure over Brittany. Without local support, in 1373, he was once more forced into exile to England.
However, King Charles V made the mistake of attempting to completely adjoin the duchy of Brittany to France.
Clisson affair
In 1392 an attempt was made to kill Olivier V de Clisson, the Constable of France, in Paris who was an old enemy of the duke's. The attacker, Pierre de Craon, fled to Brittany. John was assumed to be behind the plot, and Charles VI took the opportunity to attack Brittany once more. Accompanied by the Constable, he marched on Brittany, but before he reached the duchy the king was seized with madness. Relatives of Charles VI blamed Clisson, and instituted legal proceedings against him to undermine his political position. Stripped of his status as Constable, Clisson now took refuge in Brittany himself, and was reconciled with John (1397), becoming a close adviser to the duke.[4]
English knighthood
John IV was knighted by King
Family
Marriages
Duke John IV married three times:
- 1) Mary of England (1344–1362), daughter of King Edward III and Philippa of Hainault.[5]
- 2) Lady Joan Holland (1350–1384), daughter of Thomas Holland, 1st Earl of Kent and Joan of Kent, in London, in May 1366.[5]
- 3) Joan of Navarre (1370–1437), daughter of King Charles II of Navarre and Joan of Valois, at Saillé-près-Guérande, near Nantes, on 2 October 1386.[5]
Joan of Navarre was the mother of all of John's children. After his death, she served as Regent to their son, John V, Duke of Brittany, and eventually married King Henry IV of England.
Children
- Jeanne of Brittany (Nantes, 12 August 1387 – 7 December 1388).
- Isabelle of Brittany (October 1388 – December 1388).
- John V, Duke of Brittany (Château de l'Hermine, near Vannes, Morbihan, 24 December 1389 – manoir de La Touche, near Nantes on 29 August 1442).[5]
- John I of Alençon.[5]
- Marguerite of Brittany (1392 – 13 April 1428), Lady of Alain IX, Viscount of Rohanand Count of Porhoët (d. 1462)
- Arthur III, Duke of Brittany (Château de Succinio, 24 August 1393 – Nantes, 26 December 1458).[5]
- Gilles of Brittany (1394 – Cosne-sur-Loire, 19 July 1412, Bourges[6]), Lord of Chantocé and Ingrande.
- Louis of Valois, Duke of Orléans.[5]
- Blanche of Brittany (1397 – bef. 1419), married at Nantes on 26 June 1407 John IV, Count of Armagnac.
See also
- Dukes of Brittany family tree
References
- ^ Bodleian Library Oxford, catalogue entry, based on J. Bertram, Gough's Sepulchral Monuments (unpublished, 2004)[1]
- ^ Cokayne, G. (1945). H. Doubleday; Lord Howard de Walden (eds.). The Complete Peerage. Vol. 10 (2nd ed.). London: St. Catherine Press. p. 822
- ^ Cokayne 1945, p. 824.
- ^ a b c Michael Jones, Ducal Brittany, 1364–1399: relations with England and France during the reign of Duke John IV, Oxford University Press, 1970, pp. 106, 123–4, 128, 130, 200.
- ^ a b c d e f g Hereford Brooke George, Genealogical Tables Illustrative of Modern History, (Oxford Clarendon Press, 1875), table XXVI
- ^ Jonathan Sumption, Cursed Kings: Hundred Years War IV, (Faber & Faber, 2015), 317.