JEAN IL, son of Philippe de Valois and of Jeanne of Burgundy, asceuded the throne upon his father's death in 1350. At the beginning of his reign he caused Raoul, high constable of France, to be beheaded without trial, on a suspicion of treason, and he afterwards invited King Charles of Navarre, with whom he had some differences, to an interview at Rouen, and there arrested him and put to death several lords of his suite. The brother of the King of Navarre and the relatives of the murdered lords applied to Edward III. of England for assistance. In 1355, Edward sent his son the Black Prince into France at the head of an army. After ravaging several provinces the Black Prince was met by King Jean near Poitiers, who with 80,000 men attacked the English, 10,000 in number, on the 19th of September 1356: the French were completely defeated, and Jean, after displaying much personal bravery and being wounded, was taken prisoner and conducted to London, where he was received by King Edward with great honour. Negocia tione followed : Edward offered to renounce his assumed claim to the French crown on condition of being acknowledged as absolute sovereign of Normandy, Calais, and other lands which had been held in fief by the former kings of England. Jean wanted to gain time, but meanwhile his own country fell into a state of horrible anarchy. The citizens of Paris revolted against the Dauphin Charles, and drove him out of Paris, and soon after the peasants or serfs, so long oppressed and brutalised by the feudal nobility, broke out into insurrection, plundered and burnt the castles of the nobles, and massacred all within them, men, women, and children, with circumstances of frightful atrocity. This servile war, called La Jacquerie, from Jacques Bon
liomme, the nickname given in derision to the French peasantry, lasted during the years 1357 and 1358, until the Dauphin and other great lords, having collected their forces, fell upon the peasants and massa cred them by thousands, without giving any quarter. In May 1360, peace was concluded at Bretigny between France and England, Edward giving up his claims to Normandy and France, and assuming the title of sovereign Lord of Aquitaine, with the consent of the Dauphin, who promised to pay a large ransom for his father. Jean was then restored to liberty, but he found BO great an opposition among his nobles to the fulfilment of the conditions of the treaty, and was perhaps also made so uncomfortable by the confusion and wretchedness which prevailed in France, that he resolved, to the great astonishment of his courtiers, to return to England, to confer with Edward upon what was to be done. On arriving in London he took up his old quarters in the Savoy, and was received in the most friendly manner by Edward. He soon after fell dangerously ill, and died in London, in April, 1364. He was succeeded in Franco by his son Charles V.