John the Fearless

Our next diamond match comes in 1358, at one of the darkest moments in French history.

Two years earlier, in 1356, the French King John II had been captured by the English at the Battle of Poitiers and carried off to London.

His eldest son, the Dauphin Charles, still a young man, was left to govern a kingdom in crisis.

The treasury was empty, the countryside was being ravaged by armies and bandits, and Paris was seething with anger at royal incompetence and heavy taxation.

It is time to introduce the two players at the center of the most infamous diamond tier match in medieval Parisian history.

Remember these names.

Part seven, the main event, Louis versus John, the king who thought he was made of glass.

To understand the murder of 1407, we have to start with the king, because everything that happened grew out of the fact that the king of France was, for long periods of his reign, unable to rule.

Le cronache infatti parlano del regno in frantumi del re di vetro, e cioè di una Francia divisa almeno in due partiti che dalla mancanza di una guida hanno banchettato.

Il fratello del re, sempre lui, Luigi, è infatti in una frazione e nell'altra c'è suo zio prima e suo cugino poi, il famoso Giovanni senza paura.

Sarà proprio lui a risolvere questa faida e lo farà manco fosse un gangster.

Manderà infatti i suoi sgherri a Parigi, che troveranno Luigi, lo butteranno giù da cavallo e lo uccideranno per le strade della città, aprendo una vera e propria guerra civile, che coinvolgerà anche la nemica Inghilterra e che porterà alla famosissima battaglia di Agincourt.

They cut a path of destruction through the rich farmlands of central France, collecting a huge amount of plunder and leaving a trail of smoke and ruin.

The French king at this time was John II, a very different kind of monarch from his father, Philip VI.

He was a chivalrous but perhaps less cautious king who was determined to stop the English raiders.

He gathered a large army and set out to intercept the Black Prince.

He even ordered some of his men to dismount, a standard English tactic, and to dig small pits to trip up the French horses.

It was a well-thought-out defensive position that played to all of the English strengths.

John II, on the other hand, made a critical mistake.

Instead of using his numerical advantage to outflank the English or simply starve them out with a siege, he decided to launch a direct assault.

During his episodes, rival factions governed in his name.

The Burgundians, led by John the Fearless and the Armagnacs, aligned with the king's brother and later his son, competed for influence.

Their struggle sometimes erupted into open violence in Paris.

Royal authority existed, but it was fragmented.

Henry established administrative control over captured territories, reinforcing English authority.

Meanwhile, French internal conflict intensified.

In fourteen-nineteen, John the Fearless was assassinated during a meeting with the Dauphin Charles.

The event deepened division.