John IV (Brittany)

Coat of arms of Johann von Montfort

Johann von Montfort (* 1295 ; † September 16, 1345 in Hennebont ) was Count of Montfort-l'Amaury , as John IV a Duke of Brittany and Earl of Richmond .

He was the son of Duke Arthur II from his second marriage to Yolande de Dreux , Countess of Montfort.

In France in particular, Johann is simply called “Johann von Montfort” without an additional ordinal number, as he was denied recognition as Duke of Brittany by the French king. The number “IV.”, On the other hand, is used here for his son of the same name ( John the Conqueror ), which leads to a shift in the numbering back by his number and thus not infrequently leads to confusion in the historical literature.

Life

After the death of his mother Jolanthe in 1322, Johann inherited the county of Montfort. His older half-brother, Duke Johann III. , tried to exclude him from inheritance. As Johann III. In 1341, John IV died without male descendants, immediately laid claim to the succession in Brittany, occupied important cities and in May 1341 was proclaimed duke in Nantes . His niece Johanna von Penthièvre and her husband Karl von Blois turned against him , who in turn claimed control of Brittany. Therefore the Breton War of Succession broke out.

Karl von Blois was a nephew of the French king Philip VI. , by whom he was therefore preferred. Johann, however, secured the support of the English King Edward III. , paid homage to this in July 1341 in Windsor for Brittany and received the English county of Richmond in September of that year . A proxy war between France and England in the Hundred Years War developed on Breton soil . Johann was captured by the French as early as November 1341 while defending Nantes against Duke John of Normandy .

Johann was able to flee to England in 1345, but died a little later in Hennebont without having achieved his goal of becoming the undisputed ruler of Brittany. He was buried in the Sainte-Croix church in Quimperlé . His wife Joanna of Flanders , however, continued the fight on behalf of their son John V continued. The decision was not made until 1364 with the death of Charles of Blois on the battlefield.

Marriage and offspring

In March 1329 he married Johanna von Flanders . He had two children with her:

• John V "the Conqueror" (* 1339/40; † 1399), 1360 Count of Montfort, 1364 Duke of Brittany, 1372 Earl of Richmond
• Johanna (* 1341; † 1402), ∞ before 1385 Ralph Basset, 3rd Baron Basset of Drayton († 1390).

Web links

• Jean de Bretagne at fmg.ac (English)

Commons : Jean de Montfort (1294-1345)  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

predecessor	Office	successor
Arthur II (de iure uxoris)	Count of Montfort 1322-1345	John V of Brittany
Johann III.	Duke of Brittany 1341-1345	Charles of Blois (de iure uxoris)
Johann III.	Earl of Richmond 1341-1342	John of Ghent