Jean II de Bourbon

Jean II. De Bourbon, detail from an illumination from the Statuts de l'ordre de Saint-Michel by Jean Fouquet

Jean II. De Bourbon (* 1426 , † 1488 in Moulins ) was first Count of Clermont-en-Beauvaisis then Duke of Bourbon and Auvergne . He was the son of Duke Charles I de Bourbon and his wife Agnes of Burgundy .

Life

Jean's military career began with the siege of the fortress of Metz in 1444, which was followed by a campaign in Normandy . In 1450 he conquered all of Normandy together with Jean de Dunois in the Battle of Formigny . He dedicated the following years - still together with Dunois - to the reconquest of the Guyenne , which ended in 1453 with the conquest of Bordeaux . He became governor of the Guyenne and had to deal with the fight against Count Jean V d'Armagnac , when he rose against the king.

As the favorite of King Charles VII , Jean had the dislike of the royal successor Louis XI. to suffer. Louis XI. withdrew the Guyenne from him, and Jean II joined the Ligue du Bien public . After the peace agreement, he was pardoned and appointed governor of Languedoc . In addition, Ludwig XI. made him Knight of the Ordre de Saint-Michel when it was founded on August 1, 1469. After all, like his father, he was the Grand Chamberlain of France .

After the death of Louis XI. in 1483 he was appointed Constable of France by King Charles VIII .

Marriages and offspring

He married in 1447 in Moulins Johanna of France (* 1435, † 1482), daughter of Charles VII and Maries d'Anjou . After her death in 1484 in Saint-Cloud , he married Catherine d'Armagnac († 1487), daughter of Jacques' d'Armagnac , Duke of Nemours , and his wife Louise d'Anjou . They had a son, Jean, who, like his mother, died shortly after birth. In their third marriage, Jean II married Jeanne de Bourbon in 1487, daughter of Jean VIII de Bourbon , Count of Vendôme and Isabelle de Beauvau . The son from this marriage, Louis, also died after a few months, in the same year as his father.

In addition to his legitimate children, Jean II had some illegitimate children:

• with Marguerite de Brunant:
  1. Mathieu († 1505), called le Grand Bâtard de Bourbon , Baron von La Roche-en-Renier, Admiral and Governor of Guyenne
• with Jeanne Louise d'Albret ( Haus Albret ):
  1. Charles († 1502), Viscount de Lavedan , progenitor of the Bourbon-Lavedan family
• with unknown women:
  1. Hector († 1502), Archbishop of Toulouse
  2. Pierre († young)
  3. Marie († 1482), ⚭ 1470 Jacques de Sainte-Colombe
  4. Marguerite (* 1445; † 1483), 1464 legitimized, ⚭ 1462 Jean de Ferrieres († 1497)

literature

• Olivier Mattéoni: Un prince face à Louis XI. Jean II de Bourbon, une politique en procès . Paris 2012, ISBN 978-2-13-058443-8 .
• Philippe de Commynes: The memoirs of Philippe de Commynes . Ed .: Samuel Kinser. Columbia (1969-1973).
• Henry de Surirey de Saint Remy: Jean II de Bourbon. Duc de Bourbonnais et d'Auvergne . Les belles lettres, Paris 1944.
• Denis Bingham: The marriages of the Bourbons . Chapman & Hall, London 1890.

predecessor	Office	successor
Charles I.	Duke of Bourbon Duke of Auvergne 1456–1488	Charles II
Charles I.	Earl of Forez 1456–1488	Pierre II.