John the Fearless

John the Fearless, duke of Burgundy from 1404, murdered his cousin and was murdered in turn, and the feud between them cost France a generation. He earned his name young at Nicopolis in 1396, where a crusading army was destroyed by the Ottomans and he was captured and ransomed. France at the time was governed by whoever could control Charles VI, who was intermittently insane. John's rival was the king's brother Louis, duke of Orléans. In November 1407 John had him hacked down in a Paris street by hired men, then publicly admitted it and had a theologian argue that killing a tyrant was lawful. The murder split France into Burgundian and Armagnac factions and produced a civil war that ran alongside the English invasion. Burgundy held Paris for much of it. The two sides did not combine against Henry V, which is a large part of why Agincourt in 1415 and the conquest of Normandy that followed went as they did. In September 1419 John met the Dauphin, later Charles VII, on the bridge at Montereau to negotiate a reconciliation and was killed there by the Dauphin's companions, in an evident revenge for Orléans. His son Philip the Good then allied Burgundy with England outright. A monk showing his skull to Francis I long afterwards said it was the hole through which the English entered France. He was also a serious patron, and the Burgundian court he built up became the wealthiest and most elaborate in Europe under his son. His body lies at Dijon in a tomb of extraordinary craftsmanship, beside his father's.

• Lived: 1371 CE – 1419 CE
• Nationality: French
• Roles: ruler