John II: King of France 1350-1364

King John II of France, called The Good. John ruled during a tumultuous time, the Plague was in full force killing large parts of France’s population, the Hundred Years’ War was raging and France was in financial trouble. With all that going on how did John get dubbed, The Good? We’ll take a look at his rise to the throne, his exploits in battle and on the home front to see if he was truly a good king.

John II: Prisoner of War

King John II and his son Philip The Bold were captured by the English during the Battle of Poitiers. King John spent the next four years in England trying to negotiate a release and raise the ransom money. His eldest son, Charles worked on the home front trying to raise money and support for his father’s return. In 1360 England and France signed the Treaty of Brétigny ensuring the release of King John

Further Reading

If you are interested in learning more about Medieval Mercenaries below is a list of books I used while researching this episode.

• Tuchman, Barbara Wertheim. A Distant Mirror: The Calamitous 14th Century. Ballantine, 1979.
• Jones, Michael K. The Black Prince: England’s Greatest Medieval Warrior. Pegasus Books, 2019.
• Jones, Michael, ed. The New Cambridge Medieval History, Volume 6: C.1300 – c.1415. Vol. 6. The New Cambridge Medieval History 6. Cambridge University Press, 2015.
• Sumption, Jonathan. Trial by Battle: The Hundred Years War. Vol. 1. 3 vols. The Hundred Years War 1. Faber & Faber, 1990.

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Lesson Notes

In today's lesson we discuss:

• Salic Law
• The Black Death
• The Hundred Years War
• England & King Edward III
• The Battle of Poitiers
• The Order of the Star

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The intro music was provided by Tim Rayburn.  It is available at Magnatune.com

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