Jean IV de Chalon-Arlay

Jean IV. De Chalon-Arlay (also Jean de Chalon , * 1443 , † April 8, 1502 ) was Prince of Orange ; He was also Viscount de Besançon , Seigneur d ' Arlay , Nozeroy , Arbois and Bletterans in the Free County of Burgundy , Viscount d' Auxonne , Cuiseaux , Varennes-Saint-Sauveur and Beaurepaire-en-Bresse in the Duchy of Burgundy , and Seigneur de Lamballe , Moncontour , Rhuys and Lespine-Gaudin in the Duchy of Brittany .

biography

Jean de Chalon was born in the Free County of Burgundy in 1443; he was the son of Guillaume VIII , Prince of Orange, and Catherine de Bretagne, daughter of Richard d'Étampes and sister of Duke Francis II of Bretagne .

On October 21, 1467, he married Jeanne de Bourbon (1443–1483), daughter of Duke Charles I de Bourbon and Agnes of Burgundy , a daughter of Duke Johann Ohnefurcht . This marriage left no offspring. As his father in 1475, he became Prince of Orange.

In his second marriage he married Philiberte de Luxembourg, daughter of Antoine I de Luxembourg , Comte de Brienne , de Ligny et de Roucy . Your children are:

• Claude, * 1498, † May 31, 1521; ∞ May 1515 Heinrich III., Count of Nassau , Lord of Breda etc., Knight of the Order of the Golden Fleece ( House of Nassau )
• Claude de Châlon, * 1499, † 1500, Seigneur d ' Arguel
• Philibert , * March 1502, X August 5, 1530 in front of Florence , 1502 Prince d'Orange et de Melfi , Duca di Gravina, Seigneur de Rougemont , de Nozeroy , d' Orgelet , de Montfaucon , d' Arlay , Viscount de Besançon , Comte de Tonnerre , de Charny et de PenthIèvre , 1528 Viceroy of Naples , Imperial Lieutenant General , Knight of the Order of the Golden Fleece

In 1477, after the death of his ally, Duke Charles the Bold of Burgundy, King Louis XI. of France not only the Duchy of Burgundy itself, but also confiscated the entire property of the House of Chalon-Arlay, which forced the Prince of Orange to enter the service of this king. However, he returned to the side of Mary of Burgundy to support her marriage plans with Maximilian of Austria , the future emperor. In the same year 1477, Ludwig XI. banish him from France and hang his portrait in effigy .

As the nephew of the Breton Duke Franz II, he was sent to Brittany by Maximilian in 1481. He was involved in the conspiracy against the General Treasurer Pierre Landais , which failed on April 4, 1484, as a result of which he, like the other conspirators, concluded the Treaty of Montargis with the regent Anne de Beaujeu in order to lift the exile . This renewed betrayal brought him the seizure of his Breton possessions, which were returned to him after the second conspiracy against Landais and his execution by the weakened duke. He then took over the actual administration of the duchy together with the Breton Marshal Jean IV. De Rieux and Odet d'Aydie , the Count of Comminges .

The hand of Princess Anne was the most important political issue in Brittany at the time, where everyone had their own candidate, with Jean de Chalon standing for Maximilian of Austria. In his military and political distress, Francis II offered him the Châtellenies Lamballe , Moncontour , Rhuys and Lespine-Gaudin in order to secure his loyalty . In the battle of Saint-Aubin-du-Cormier on July 28, 1488 at the end of the Guerre Folle , he faked his death after a fierce battle, but was captured by the French victors like the Duke of Orléans . He remained under house arrest in Riom until February 1489 , then returned to Rennes to prevent Anne's marriage to Alain d'Albret on behalf of King Charles VIII , and to negotiate with her the situation of the French troops in Brittany.

With Anne de Bretagne's accession to the throne in 1488, he became the presumptive heir of the duchy as the son of Catherine de Bretagne in competition with Jean II. De Rohan , but only until the birth of the (French and Breton) heir to the throne Charles Orland (1492–1495), Charles (1496–1496), François (1497–1498) and finally Claude de France (1499–1524). As such, he took part in the ducal council and intervened in the political and marital decisions of the duchess. She made him captain of Rennes and lieutenant-général . From 1490 to 1491 he was the most important minister alongside the Chancellor Philippe de Montauban and the Comte de Dunois . He advised her to marry Maximilian of Austria, which was closed in 1490 and dissolved in 1491: In the event of the siege of Rennes by French troops, he negotiated Anne's marriage with the French King Charles VIII from September 1491 on, on December 6th 1491 then her best man. By the marriage contract he renounced his rights in Brittany worth 100,000 livre and the post of Lieutenant-général de Bretagne, which was returned to him as a widow by Anne in 1499 and which he then kept until his death in 1502. He also negotiated the terms of Anne's third marriage contract with a few others, this time with King Louis XII.

Jean de Chalon-Arlay died on April 8, 1502 in Lons-le-Saunier at the age of 59. His son Philibert de Chalon was his successor.

On January 23, 1531, his widow Philiberte de Luxembourg commissioned the sculptors Conrat Meit and Giovanni Battista Mariotto to build an alabaster tomb and a gisant for her husband Jean IV. De Chalon-Arlay, whose first wife Jeanne de Bourbon, their first daughter Claude d'Arguel, the second son Philibert de Chalon and himself, based in the Couvent des Cordeliers in Lons-le-Saunier. The mausoleum, which was never completed, was demolished in the 17th century.

literature

• Gustave Duhem: Jean IV de Chalon , Mémoires de la Société d'Émulation du Jura, Tableau 1959–1964, pp. 182–192

Web links

• GB. Duhem: Franc-Comtois au service de la Bretagne: Jean IV de Chalon-Arlay - Prince d'Orange ( online )