Jean de Bourgogne Sans Peur, the Fearless

John I of Burgundy, known as “John without Fear”, born May 28, 1371 in Dijon and murdered on September 10, 1419 in Montereau, is a prince of the Capetian house of Valois. From 1404 to his death, he was Duke of Burgundy, Count of Flanders, Artois and Palatine Burgundy, and Lord of Salins, Mechelen and other places. He continued the policy of his father, Philip the Bold, by consolidating the foundations of a Burgundian state while using his influence at the French court. However, he did not benefit from the leading role played by his father in the Royal Council, being only the cousin of King Charles VI, who had experienced intermittent bouts of madness since 1392, making his court the place of all the intrigues between the princes of the blood. The sidelining of John the Fearless pushed him, in 1407, to assassinate his rival, the king's brother, Louis of Orléans. By thus sponsoring the murder of his cousin, the Duke of Burgundy plunged the kingdom of France into the civil war between Armagnacs and Burgundians, during which these two factions competed for the capital and the regency. These troubles helped to relaunch the Hundred Years' War, leading the new king of England, Henry V, to seize the opportunity to claim his rights to the crown of France. In 1419, while attempting reconciliation with the Armagnacs in order to ward off the English offensive, John the Fearless was in turn assassinated, on the Montereau bridge, in the presence of the dauphin, the future Charles VII. This murder led the Burgundians to ally themselves with the English, and remained throughout the 15th century a major factor in discord between the House of France and the House of Burgundy. Born on May 28, 1371 at the palace of the Dukes of Burgundy in Dijon, Jean de Bourgogne (old spelling Jehan) is the eldest son of Duke Philippe II of Burgundy, known as Philippe the Bold, and Marguerite III of Flanders. He is the grandson of King John II of France, known as John the Good (1319 – 1364). As the eldest son of the Duke of Burgundy, he was destined to inherit, by order of primogeniture, the Duchy of Burgundy, granted in full possession, in 1363, to his father by King John the Good. He is the older brother of Antoine de Bourgogne (1384 – 1415) and Philippe de Bourgogne (1389 – 1415), both of whom died in the battle of French chivalry against the English at the Battle of Agincourt, on October 25, 1415. He was first Count of Nevers in 1384, a county which he ceded to his brother Philippe in 1404, when he inherited the Duchy of Burgundy from his father. At the call of King Sigismund of Hungary, threatened by the advance of the Ottomans, the princes of the West assembled an army. Jean replaced his father there and commanded the French contingent. The campaign ended in September 1396 with the disaster of Nicopolis, where the crusaders were defeated by Sultan Bajazet I. It was during this battle that Jean earned his nickname "Fearless". He was nevertheless taken prisoner, and his father had to borrow 100,000 florins from his advisor Dino Rapondi to pay his ransom. He did not return to France until February 1398. Succession de Philippe le Hardi Philippe the Bold died on April 27, 1404. John the Fearless paid homage to the King of France Charles VI on May 23 of the same year for his duchy of Burgundy and entered Dijon on June 17, 14042. He then guaranteed the inhabitants of the city the maintenance of the privileges which they benefited from under the tutelage of his father2. Shortly after, Jean sans Peur celebrated the marriage of his daughter Marguerite with the Dauphin of France Louis de Guyenne, then that of Philippe, his eldest son, with Michelle de Valois, daughter of King Charles VI. This allowed him to attract the favor of Queen Isabeau of Bavaria who promised to defend his interests. Since 1392, King Charles VI suffered from bouts of madness of varying length. An ordinance of 1403 provides that in the event of the sovereign's incapacity, the government of the kingdom would be carried out intermittently, within the framework of the Royal Council chaired by Queen Isabeau of Bavaria. The queen is jointly assisted by Duke Jean de Berry and Duke Louis II of Bourbon. Then she entrusted her assistance to the two cousins, Louis I of Orléans, brother of the king, and Jean sans Peur who would oppose each other within the Council. In fact, the dominant figure on the Royal Council is Duke Louis I of Orléans. As tensions between France and England resume, the joint government of the Queen with the Duke of Orléans is the subject of increasingly strong criticism among the population, who accuse them in particular of taking advantage of the war to raise new exceptional taxes4. The plan to raise a new tax to finance the war in February 1405 was strongly criticized by John the Fearless, who refused to submit his subjects to it. Despite these criticisms, shared by the Duke of Brittany, the new tax was approved on March 5. On March 21, 1405, the mother of John the Fearless died in turn. He then came into full possession of the county of Flanders, the county of Artois and the county of Burgundy, thereby becoming as powerful as his father4. John then goes to the rich cities of Flanders of which he is the new lord, and reassures the population about the new tax that the Duke of Orléans seeks to raise by reaffirming that his subjects will not pay it. He also promised that no war would suspend Flanders' commercial relations with the English5, a relaunch of the conflict once again risking ruining Flanders, whose cloth industry depended on imports of English wool. The defense of Flemish interests against the English threat thus became one of his priorities, and he managed to recapture Gravelines. His desire to raise an army to retake Calais from the English, however, did not find an echo with the Duke of Orléans. From 1405, he had a dike built to protect Flanders from the onslaught of the sea, bringing together several small pre-existing dikes into a single structure. Many fragments of this dike still exist, under the names Digue Comte Jean, Graaf Jansdijk, 's-Gravenjansdijk, Graafjanstraat, etc., and by connecting them on a map we see that this dike was close to the current coast of Dunkirk in Zwin; then it flirted with the current Belgian-Dutch border as far as Sas-de-Ghent, and ended at Terneuzen. Capture of Paris Engrossed at first with the settlement of the successions of Burgundy and Flanders, John without Fear abandoned Paris. As a result, the largesse of the Royal Treasury towards the new Duke of Burgundy collapsed in favor of Orléans. While they had represented up to 59% of ducal finances, they only constituted 24% from 14066. However, the operating expenses of the Burgundian states continued to increase. This situation forced the duke to increase his own taxation, which presented two disadvantages: the loss of popularity gained by his father, and new tensions with turbulent Flanders. This absence and the fact that he was only a cousin of the king (while his father was the king's uncle) weakened his position. At the same time, Louis I of Orléans undertook the acquisition of numerous fiefdoms in the East (the Duchy of Luxembourg, the counties of Soissons, Porcien, etc.) to counter the Burgundian power[ref. necessary]. Tensions, which already existed between Philip the Bold and his nephew, only increased between the two cousins. However, he was summoned alongside all the princes of his blood after having been informed of the discontent of the people, and of the increasingly degraded situation of his kingdom, at the mercy of a possible attack from a foreign power7 . He then decides to gather an army in order to take control of the capital. He left Arras on August 16, accompanied by 800 knights and reached Louvres8. In reaction, Louis of Orléans and the queen fled towards the castle of Pouilly-le-Fort, near Melun, with orders to take the Dauphin and his brothers there the next day9. Jean sans Peur, however, manages to intercept the convoy, and offers to the Dauphin Louis to bring it back to Paris. He is supported by the Dukes of Berry and Bourbon during his return to the capital, and convenes a large assembly where the Dauphin sits on August 26. ​ 875 / 5,000 Translation results Translation result During a speech addressed to the Dauphin, he then reaffirmed his allegiance (as well as that of his brothers) to the Kingdom of France and its sovereign, and exposed his fears regarding the exercise of power in general, and the threats represented by corruption, the mismanagement of the “royal domain” which fell into disuse, and the fiscal pressure which crushed the Church in particular9. He further concludes that the French people are in danger of ruin if such a policy is maintained, and that the growing threat represented by the English must be fought with an army worthy of the name, otherwise a possible defeat could be directly attributed to the king. In addition, he reassures the assembly by explaining that he is acting with the consent of the Dauphin, and that his army's sole purpose is to defend Paris against the enemies that the king had in his kingdom.