John II of France
John II ruled France from 1350 to 1364 and spent much of his reign as a prisoner in England. Born at Le Mans in 1319, the son of Philip VI, he inherited a kingdom two years after the Black Death and in the middle of a war going badly. He was called John the Good, which in contemporary usage meant valiant rather than virtuous. He was brave, conventional and a poor judge of both men and situations, and his reign was marked by suspicion of his nobility — he had the Count of Eu executed without trial in 1350 on unspecified charges, and quarrelled continuously with Charles of Navarre, whom he arrested at a banquet and whose companions he had beheaded. He founded the Order of the Star in 1351, a chivalric order whose members swore never to retreat more than four acres from a battlefield, which contributed to heavy losses. In September 1356 he met the Black Prince's raiding force at Poitiers with a considerably larger army. He ordered most of his men-at-arms to dismount and attack across broken ground into a hedge line defended by archers; the divisions went in successively and were destroyed. John fought on foot with his youngest son beside him, calling out warnings to him, and was captured. He was held in England on comfortable terms for four years. The Treaty of Brétigny in 1360 released him for a ransom of three million crowns and enormous territorial concessions, with hostages held in his place. When his son, one of the hostages, escaped, John returned voluntarily to captivity in 1364 and died in London.
- Lived: 1319 CE – 1364 CE
- Nationality: French
- Roles: king, head_of_state
