John of Bohemia (1296-1346)
Machaut’s first and primary employer was John of Luxembourg, king of Bohemia. John, son and father of emperors, grandfather of a French king, was a major political player at a complicated time, but he is largely unknown today except as Jean Froissart’s exemplar of chivalry.
John’s native county of Luxembourg was larger than the current duchy, but a relatively poor territory, heavily forested and agricultural without major urban centers. Part of the empire, it bordered on both French and German territories, as well as the welter of small but important states in what are now the Low Countries. John was born less than a decade after his grandfather’s disastrous defeat to the duke of Brabant at the battle of Worringen in 1288. John’s father Henry, who at that time became count, was below the age of majority, and political considerations saw him married in 1293 to Marguerite de Brabant, the daughter of his family’s former enemy. Their only son, John, was born a few years later.
While this story so far may seem one limited to the relatively small stage of the Low Countries, both of John’s parents had close ties to the French court. Marguerite was the niece of the queen of France, Marie de Brabant, while Henry paid homage to Philippe IV (le Bel) in 1294 and sent his younger brother Baudouin, later Archbishop of Trèves, to study at the University of Paris. (Some authors say that Henry was raised at Marie’s court, but there is no documentation for this statement.) According to Raymond Cazelles, Marie’s court was marked by an interest in the arts and letters that reacted directly against the austerity of Louis IX, the crusader king and saint who was father of her husband, Philippe III le Hardi (“en réaction contre l’atmosphère d’austérité du règne de Saint Louis,” 4). This French connection was one John would later maintain and enhance. It also opened up a broader stage for John’s father, who in 1308 was elected king of the Romans, the stepping stone to the emperor’s throne, as a compromise candidate between French, Bavarian, and Hapsburg interests.
Many, including Cazelles, believe John himself lived at the French court from about the age of nine, but there is no solid proof of this, and Michel Margues argues it is just as possible that he was educated at the court of Brabant (“Jean de Luxembourg et les rois de France,” 56). In any case, he returned to his father’s territories after Henry’s elevation to the imperial throne. John was named count of Luxembourg in September 1309 and formally invested with the county in 1310, weeks before officially achieving his majority on his fourteenth birthday, and at the end of August he was married to the eighteen-year-old Elisabeth Přemyslid, daughter of the late Wenceslas II, king of Bohemia. Though John was officially invested with the kingdom on his wedding day, Bohemia had been in a state of civil war since the assassination of Elizabeth’s brother Wenceslas III in 1306, so the young couple was not able to be crowned in Prague for some months. Even after John’s coronation in February 1311, however, a rival continued to assert his claim to the throne.
After Henry VII’s death in 1313, the contentious imperial election process ended in two claimants, Louis of Bavaria and Frederick of Hapsburg. John continued whenever possible to assert his own claim to the imperial throne, but for the most part he supported Louis of Bavaria in a conflict that went on for decades and spread across the empire. As a foreign king, John had frequent difficulties with the Bohemian nobles and citizens, and his attention was divided between his territories in Luxembourg and Bohemia, his claim to the Polish throne, and imperial politics. His marriage also seems to have been troubled, with Elizabeth often left in Prague with the children while John left for long periods to deal with other territories or seek adventure. From an early date, his sojourns in Bohemia were often brief and focused on raising money for his endeavors elsewhere—which did not endear him to his subjects in Prague. By the mid-1330s, John had largely ceded the Bohemian stage to his son Charles.
In late 1330, John began a campaign to gain territory, even a crown, in Italy. This was at first wildly successful, as John was welcomed as savior of a number of cities without any bloodshed. Given the opposition of the emperor, the mistrust of the pope, and the ambitions of the king of France in the area, however, as well as the politically fractured nature of the peninsula, this early success could not last. By June 1331, John had left Lombardy, leaving his son in his stead. The French king and pope eventually did cede their assent for John to consolidate most of his Italian holdings, but it was too late, and his troops were driven out of the region in 1333. John continued to hold Lucca until 1334, when he ceded it to the French king as part of his daughter’s dowry.
The relationship between the counts of Luxembourg and the French court, close before Henry’s elevation to the imperial throne, had weakened in the early years of John’s tenure in Bohemia, but by the end of the 1310s his attention began to shift back west. He attended the coronation of the new king, Charles IV, in Reims in early 1322, and their alliance was sealed by Charles’ marriage to John’s sister Marie later that year. John, who was in the east when the wedding took place, returned to France for his sister’s coronation in May 1323, and he was with the royal couple when Marie died during a trip to Toulouse in early 1324. The ties between the two families were further extended in April of that year by the betrothal of John’s seven-year-old son Charles to Blanche, cousin of the current king and sister of the future Philippe VI. Charles stayed at the French court for the next seven years.
John’s connection to France was further materially aided in February 1328, when he was given the Hôtel de Nesle in Paris. Finally, in 1332 his sixteen-year-old daughter Bonne was married to Jean, the thirteen-year-old son and heir to Philippe VI, and John himself married Beatrice, daughter of the duke of Bourbon, at the end of 1334, receiving at the same time the château of Mehun-sur-Yèvre from the French king. Bonne, who like her father would be an important patron to Machaut, died in 1349, a year before her husband became king as Jean II, but their children included Charles V of France, Louis d’Anjou, Jean de Berry, and Philippe de Bourgogne, all major patrons of the arts.
In 1337, while on another northern campaign, John suffered from an inflammation in his eyes. Treatment only made it worse, and he lost sight completely in his right eye; following an operation in Montpellier in early 1340, he lost the left as well. His blindness was known to the chroniclers of the time, some of whom saw it as divine punishment, but he nevertheless sought to hide it. This disability slowed but did not really stop his travels, though after 1340, his son Charles increasingly travelled with him.
John’s native county of Luxembourg was larger than the current duchy, but a relatively poor territory, heavily forested and agricultural without major urban centers. Part of the empire, it bordered on both French and German territories, as well as the welter of small but important states in what are now the Low Countries. John was born less than a decade after his grandfather’s disastrous defeat to the duke of Brabant at the battle of Worringen in 1288. John’s father Henry, who at that time became count, was below the age of majority, and political considerations saw him married in 1293 to Marguerite de Brabant, the daughter of his family’s former enemy. Their only son, John, was born a few years later.
While this story so far may seem one limited to the relatively small stage of the Low Countries, both of John’s parents had close ties to the French court. Marguerite was the niece of the queen of France, Marie de Brabant, while Henry paid homage to Philippe IV (le Bel) in 1294 and sent his younger brother Baudouin, later Archbishop of Trèves, to study at the University of Paris. (Some authors say that Henry was raised at Marie’s court, but there is no documentation for this statement.) According to Raymond Cazelles, Marie’s court was marked by an interest in the arts and letters that reacted directly against the austerity of Louis IX, the crusader king and saint who was father of her husband, Philippe III le Hardi (“en réaction contre l’atmosphère d’austérité du règne de Saint Louis,” 4). This French connection was one John would later maintain and enhance. It also opened up a broader stage for John’s father, who in 1308 was elected king of the Romans, the stepping stone to the emperor’s throne, as a compromise candidate between French, Bavarian, and Hapsburg interests.
Many, including Cazelles, believe John himself lived at the French court from about the age of nine, but there is no solid proof of this, and Michel Margues argues it is just as possible that he was educated at the court of Brabant (“Jean de Luxembourg et les rois de France,” 56). In any case, he returned to his father’s territories after Henry’s elevation to the imperial throne. John was named count of Luxembourg in September 1309 and formally invested with the county in 1310, weeks before officially achieving his majority on his fourteenth birthday, and at the end of August he was married to the eighteen-year-old Elisabeth Přemyslid, daughter of the late Wenceslas II, king of Bohemia. Though John was officially invested with the kingdom on his wedding day, Bohemia had been in a state of civil war since the assassination of Elizabeth’s brother Wenceslas III in 1306, so the young couple was not able to be crowned in Prague for some months. Even after John’s coronation in February 1311, however, a rival continued to assert his claim to the throne.
After Henry VII’s death in 1313, the contentious imperial election process ended in two claimants, Louis of Bavaria and Frederick of Hapsburg. John continued whenever possible to assert his own claim to the imperial throne, but for the most part he supported Louis of Bavaria in a conflict that went on for decades and spread across the empire. As a foreign king, John had frequent difficulties with the Bohemian nobles and citizens, and his attention was divided between his territories in Luxembourg and Bohemia, his claim to the Polish throne, and imperial politics. His marriage also seems to have been troubled, with Elizabeth often left in Prague with the children while John left for long periods to deal with other territories or seek adventure. From an early date, his sojourns in Bohemia were often brief and focused on raising money for his endeavors elsewhere—which did not endear him to his subjects in Prague. By the mid-1330s, John had largely ceded the Bohemian stage to his son Charles.
In late 1330, John began a campaign to gain territory, even a crown, in Italy. This was at first wildly successful, as John was welcomed as savior of a number of cities without any bloodshed. Given the opposition of the emperor, the mistrust of the pope, and the ambitions of the king of France in the area, however, as well as the politically fractured nature of the peninsula, this early success could not last. By June 1331, John had left Lombardy, leaving his son in his stead. The French king and pope eventually did cede their assent for John to consolidate most of his Italian holdings, but it was too late, and his troops were driven out of the region in 1333. John continued to hold Lucca until 1334, when he ceded it to the French king as part of his daughter’s dowry.
The relationship between the counts of Luxembourg and the French court, close before Henry’s elevation to the imperial throne, had weakened in the early years of John’s tenure in Bohemia, but by the end of the 1310s his attention began to shift back west. He attended the coronation of the new king, Charles IV, in Reims in early 1322, and their alliance was sealed by Charles’ marriage to John’s sister Marie later that year. John, who was in the east when the wedding took place, returned to France for his sister’s coronation in May 1323, and he was with the royal couple when Marie died during a trip to Toulouse in early 1324. The ties between the two families were further extended in April of that year by the betrothal of John’s seven-year-old son Charles to Blanche, cousin of the current king and sister of the future Philippe VI. Charles stayed at the French court for the next seven years.
John’s connection to France was further materially aided in February 1328, when he was given the Hôtel de Nesle in Paris. Finally, in 1332 his sixteen-year-old daughter Bonne was married to Jean, the thirteen-year-old son and heir to Philippe VI, and John himself married Beatrice, daughter of the duke of Bourbon, at the end of 1334, receiving at the same time the château of Mehun-sur-Yèvre from the French king. Bonne, who like her father would be an important patron to Machaut, died in 1349, a year before her husband became king as Jean II, but their children included Charles V of France, Louis d’Anjou, Jean de Berry, and Philippe de Bourgogne, all major patrons of the arts.
In 1337, while on another northern campaign, John suffered from an inflammation in his eyes. Treatment only made it worse, and he lost sight completely in his right eye; following an operation in Montpellier in early 1340, he lost the left as well. His blindness was known to the chroniclers of the time, some of whom saw it as divine punishment, but he nevertheless sought to hide it. This disability slowed but did not really stop his travels, though after 1340, his son Charles increasingly travelled with him.
As an ally and vassal of the French king, John became involved in the Hundred Years War between France and England. In 1346, John and Charles travelled with 500 knights to Paris, then north to meet the English army near Crécy-en-Ponthieu. The French army arrived during the day on 26 August; rather than wait for morning, Philippe VI decided to attack immediately, with disastrous results. John, with his son at the head of his Luxembourg troops, asked two of his knights to tie his horse to theirs, so that he could participate in the fighting—all three died. This act, which may well seem pointless to modern readers, made John into a heroic figure, extolled for his chivalry by the chronicler Jean Froissart, among many others. From the nineteenth century he has become one the most important national heroes for Luxembourg, and more recently some have even seen him as a symbol of broader European unity, shifting the focus from chivalry to diplomacy.
John’s mortal remains were as restless in death as his body was in life. His entrails were buried at the Cistercian abbey of Valloires, his heart at the Dominican convent of Montargis, and his body at the abbey of Notre-Dame in Luxembourg (Altmünster), where the earliest counts of Luxembourg lay. This kind of divided burial was common for medieval nobles, but in this case Charles opposed the wish expressed in John’s testament of 1340 that he be buried entirely at the Cistercian abbey of Clairfontaine, with the current lineage of counts (comtes de la deuxième race). The change would seem to be a conscious move on Charles’ part to link his line to the distant past, not a surprising move in political terms. John remained in this tomb until the abbey was destroyed a couple of centuries later, at which time his remains were transferred to the Franciscan church in the city. When the abbey was reconstructed in 1592 (Neumünster), the Benedictines sought to reclaim John’s body, which was interred there in the early seventeenth century. In 1684, the abbey was burned, and again John’s body was moved to a new tomb. When the French closed the monastery in 1795, the remains were hidden for a few years at a baker’s shop, then taken by a family who owned a porcelain factory. This family later moved the remains to Mettlach (ruled by Prussia at that point), and the crown prince of Prussia had them ceremonially moved to a chapel built for the purpose in his territories on 26 August 1838, the anniversary of John’s death. Despite several efforts on the part of Luxembourgers to retrieve the body of their national hero (as John had become), it was only in 1946, 600 years after his death and two years following the liberation of Luxembourg from Nazi occupation, that John found rest in the cathedral crypt of Luxembourg. Even then, he made one last trip to Prague, where in 1980-81 the skeleton was confirmed as John’s.
John’s political career was marked by much ambition, and some success, but also much failure, perhaps because his ambitions extended beyond the resources he could command as count of Luxembourg and foreign king of a contentious Bohemia. This mixed record can be seen in his claims to the imperial crown, which may be at the heart of a multi-faceted career some have seen as incoherent: while John vainly sought to succeed his father as emperor, he finally managed to get his son Charles elected in July 1346, shortly before John’s own death at the battle of Crécy. Indeed, one reason for his own frequently negative reputation is that it appears inconsequential compared to that of his son, but Charles’ election as emperor may well be John’s ultimate accomplishment.
Similarly, John failed to take the Polish crown but did acquire territories in Silesia, and he went on crusade in Lithuania with the Teutonic Knights. His Italian campaign was initially a tremendous success, though it did not last, and it allied him with the Avignon popes against the emperor. He made alliances through marriage that elevated and secured his own position and that of his family. Despite this mixed record, perhaps the best that was possible as ruler of far-flung territories at a difficult time in imperial history, he was a strong and trusted ally to the French kings, and it was in the service of that alliance that he died. John may well have sought glory, but he also worked to earn it, through both military and diplomatic means. Raymond Cazelles sees him as an opportunist, and Michel Pauly describes a flexible politician.
Despite the reality, it is as an exemplar of chivalry that John was best remembered. Sixty years after his death, he still took first place on a list of the most important knights compiled by a Bavarian author.[1] During his own lifetime, literary works extolled his chivalry, from the anonymous Voeux du Heron (Vows of the Heron, probably written in the 1340s by an anonymous author at the court of the count of Hainaut, an English ally) to the widely-transmitted chronicle of Jean Froissart (c. 1337-c. 1404) to the chronicle of the Bohemian Cistercian Peter of Zittau (c. 1275-1339) to Machaut himself. Machaut praises John not only in the Jugement dou roy de Behaingne, but also in the Confort d’ami, written for Charles of Navarre, and even in the Prise d’Alixandre. John’s fame transcended national boundaries and alliances, and even when Bohemian chroniclers criticized his government, they often extolled his knightly prowess.
One scholar has argued that a list of John’s travels in the Confort d’ami serves not only to reflect lived reality, but also (and perhaps more importantly) to make him appear as a classic knight errant, an Arthurian ideal of chivalry who takes on many adventures in the course of a quest for the Holy Grail:[2]
Follow the example of the good king of Bohemia
Who in France and Germany,
In Savoy and in Lombardy,
In Denmark and in Hungary,
In Poland, Russia and Krakow,
In Masovia, in Prussia and in Lithuania
Did venture to win glory and honour.
(Confort ll. 2989-97, 3007-15, 3022-28, 3031-32, and 3054-60)
The Arthurian imagery occurs elsewhere as well: in the Jugement Behaingne, John is compared to Arthur himself, and Peter of Zittau says that John wanted to recreate the Round Table in Prague.[3] Peter, however, takes a largely critical view of the king, celebrating his accession but condemning his conflicts with the Bohemian nobles, and especially with his wife Elizabeth, the source of his claim to the throne. In this context, the Arthurian imagery serves to mock John’s elevated aspirations, to show how out of touch with reality the flawed king actually is.[4]
In the end, John’s myth overshadows his reality, and Machaut is part of the reason why. John fostered Machaut’s career and rewarded him for service, and Machaut extolled the virtues of his master.
[1] Pit Péporté, Constructing the Middle Ages: Historiography, Collective Memory and Nation-Building in Luxembourg, National Cultivation of Culture 3 (Leiden and Boston: Brill, 2011), 163, citing Werner Paravicini, “Armouriaux et histoire culturelle. Le Rôle d’armes des ‘Meilleurs Trois’,” in Les armoriaux médiévaux, ed. Louis Holtz et al. (Paris: Léopold d’or, 1997), 361. Péporté discusses a number of other medieval (and later) treatments of John, including many more than are mentioned here, and his work underpins much of this section.
[2] Michel Margue, “Jean de Luxembourg, prince idéal et chevalier parfait: Aux origins d’un mythe,” Mediaevalia Historica Bohemica 5 (1998), 15; cited in Péporté, Constructing the Middle Ages, 168.
[3] Peter of Zittau, Chronicon Aulae Regiae, Fontes Rerum Bohemicarum 4, ed. Josef Emler (Prague: Nadáni Františka Palackého, 1882), 252; cited in Péporté, Constructing the Middle Ages, 163.
[4] Péporté, Constructing the Middle Ages, 178-81. Péporté notes that not only is Peter writing from a clerical point of view, he dies before the battle of Crécy, the moment that sealed John’s reputation as “a verray, parfit, gentil knyght” (as Chaucer would say).
(image of the battle of Crécy from a 16th-century manuscript of Froissart's Chronicles, from Wikimedia Commons)
John’s mortal remains were as restless in death as his body was in life. His entrails were buried at the Cistercian abbey of Valloires, his heart at the Dominican convent of Montargis, and his body at the abbey of Notre-Dame in Luxembourg (Altmünster), where the earliest counts of Luxembourg lay. This kind of divided burial was common for medieval nobles, but in this case Charles opposed the wish expressed in John’s testament of 1340 that he be buried entirely at the Cistercian abbey of Clairfontaine, with the current lineage of counts (comtes de la deuxième race). The change would seem to be a conscious move on Charles’ part to link his line to the distant past, not a surprising move in political terms. John remained in this tomb until the abbey was destroyed a couple of centuries later, at which time his remains were transferred to the Franciscan church in the city. When the abbey was reconstructed in 1592 (Neumünster), the Benedictines sought to reclaim John’s body, which was interred there in the early seventeenth century. In 1684, the abbey was burned, and again John’s body was moved to a new tomb. When the French closed the monastery in 1795, the remains were hidden for a few years at a baker’s shop, then taken by a family who owned a porcelain factory. This family later moved the remains to Mettlach (ruled by Prussia at that point), and the crown prince of Prussia had them ceremonially moved to a chapel built for the purpose in his territories on 26 August 1838, the anniversary of John’s death. Despite several efforts on the part of Luxembourgers to retrieve the body of their national hero (as John had become), it was only in 1946, 600 years after his death and two years following the liberation of Luxembourg from Nazi occupation, that John found rest in the cathedral crypt of Luxembourg. Even then, he made one last trip to Prague, where in 1980-81 the skeleton was confirmed as John’s.
John’s political career was marked by much ambition, and some success, but also much failure, perhaps because his ambitions extended beyond the resources he could command as count of Luxembourg and foreign king of a contentious Bohemia. This mixed record can be seen in his claims to the imperial crown, which may be at the heart of a multi-faceted career some have seen as incoherent: while John vainly sought to succeed his father as emperor, he finally managed to get his son Charles elected in July 1346, shortly before John’s own death at the battle of Crécy. Indeed, one reason for his own frequently negative reputation is that it appears inconsequential compared to that of his son, but Charles’ election as emperor may well be John’s ultimate accomplishment.
Similarly, John failed to take the Polish crown but did acquire territories in Silesia, and he went on crusade in Lithuania with the Teutonic Knights. His Italian campaign was initially a tremendous success, though it did not last, and it allied him with the Avignon popes against the emperor. He made alliances through marriage that elevated and secured his own position and that of his family. Despite this mixed record, perhaps the best that was possible as ruler of far-flung territories at a difficult time in imperial history, he was a strong and trusted ally to the French kings, and it was in the service of that alliance that he died. John may well have sought glory, but he also worked to earn it, through both military and diplomatic means. Raymond Cazelles sees him as an opportunist, and Michel Pauly describes a flexible politician.
Despite the reality, it is as an exemplar of chivalry that John was best remembered. Sixty years after his death, he still took first place on a list of the most important knights compiled by a Bavarian author.[1] During his own lifetime, literary works extolled his chivalry, from the anonymous Voeux du Heron (Vows of the Heron, probably written in the 1340s by an anonymous author at the court of the count of Hainaut, an English ally) to the widely-transmitted chronicle of Jean Froissart (c. 1337-c. 1404) to the chronicle of the Bohemian Cistercian Peter of Zittau (c. 1275-1339) to Machaut himself. Machaut praises John not only in the Jugement dou roy de Behaingne, but also in the Confort d’ami, written for Charles of Navarre, and even in the Prise d’Alixandre. John’s fame transcended national boundaries and alliances, and even when Bohemian chroniclers criticized his government, they often extolled his knightly prowess.
One scholar has argued that a list of John’s travels in the Confort d’ami serves not only to reflect lived reality, but also (and perhaps more importantly) to make him appear as a classic knight errant, an Arthurian ideal of chivalry who takes on many adventures in the course of a quest for the Holy Grail:[2]
Follow the example of the good king of Bohemia
Who in France and Germany,
In Savoy and in Lombardy,
In Denmark and in Hungary,
In Poland, Russia and Krakow,
In Masovia, in Prussia and in Lithuania
Did venture to win glory and honour.
(Confort ll. 2989-97, 3007-15, 3022-28, 3031-32, and 3054-60)
The Arthurian imagery occurs elsewhere as well: in the Jugement Behaingne, John is compared to Arthur himself, and Peter of Zittau says that John wanted to recreate the Round Table in Prague.[3] Peter, however, takes a largely critical view of the king, celebrating his accession but condemning his conflicts with the Bohemian nobles, and especially with his wife Elizabeth, the source of his claim to the throne. In this context, the Arthurian imagery serves to mock John’s elevated aspirations, to show how out of touch with reality the flawed king actually is.[4]
In the end, John’s myth overshadows his reality, and Machaut is part of the reason why. John fostered Machaut’s career and rewarded him for service, and Machaut extolled the virtues of his master.
[1] Pit Péporté, Constructing the Middle Ages: Historiography, Collective Memory and Nation-Building in Luxembourg, National Cultivation of Culture 3 (Leiden and Boston: Brill, 2011), 163, citing Werner Paravicini, “Armouriaux et histoire culturelle. Le Rôle d’armes des ‘Meilleurs Trois’,” in Les armoriaux médiévaux, ed. Louis Holtz et al. (Paris: Léopold d’or, 1997), 361. Péporté discusses a number of other medieval (and later) treatments of John, including many more than are mentioned here, and his work underpins much of this section.
[2] Michel Margue, “Jean de Luxembourg, prince idéal et chevalier parfait: Aux origins d’un mythe,” Mediaevalia Historica Bohemica 5 (1998), 15; cited in Péporté, Constructing the Middle Ages, 168.
[3] Peter of Zittau, Chronicon Aulae Regiae, Fontes Rerum Bohemicarum 4, ed. Josef Emler (Prague: Nadáni Františka Palackého, 1882), 252; cited in Péporté, Constructing the Middle Ages, 163.
[4] Péporté, Constructing the Middle Ages, 178-81. Péporté notes that not only is Peter writing from a clerical point of view, he dies before the battle of Crécy, the moment that sealed John’s reputation as “a verray, parfit, gentil knyght” (as Chaucer would say).
(image of the battle of Crécy from a 16th-century manuscript of Froissart's Chronicles, from Wikimedia Commons)