BERRY, JOHN, DUKE OF (1340-1416)

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BERRY, JOHN, DUKE OF (1340-1416) , third son of John II., king of France and Bonne of Luxemburg, was born on the 3oth of November 1340 at Vincennes. He was created count of Poitiers in 1356, and was made the king's lieutenant in southern France, though the real power rested chiefly with John of Armagnac, whose daughter Jeanne he married in 136o. The loss of his southern possessions by the treaty of Bretigny was compensated by the fiefs of Auvergne and

Berry

, with the rank of peer of France. The duke went to England in 136o as a

hostage

HOSTAGE (through Fr. ostage, modern otage, from
Late
- LATE
Lat. obsidaticum, the state of being an obses or hostage; Med. Lat. ostaticum, ostagium)

for the fulfilment of the treaty of Bretigny, returning to France in 1367 on the pretext of collecting his

ransom

RANSOM (from Lat. redemptio, through Fr. rancon)

. He took no leading part in the war against the English, his energies being largely occupied with the

satisfaction

SATISFACTION (Lat. salisfacerc, to satisfy)

of his artistic and luxurious tastes. For this reason perhaps his brother Charles V. assigned him no share in the government during the minority of Charles VI. He received, however, the province of

Languedoc

LANGUEDOC

. The peasant revolt of the Tuchins and Coquins, as the insurgents were called, was suppressed with great harshness, and the duke exacted from the states of

Languedoc

LANGUEDOC

assembled at Lyons a fine of 15,000. He fought at Rosebeke in 1382 against the Flemings and helped to suppress the Parisian revolts. By a

series

SERIES (a Latin word from serere, to join)

of delays he caused the failure of the naval expedition prepared at Sluys against England in 1386, and a second accusation of military negligence led to disgrace of the royal princes and the temporary

triumph

TRIUMPH (triumphus)

of the tnarmousets, as the advisers of the

late

LATE

king were nicknamed. Charles VI. visited Languedoc in 1389-1390, and enquired into his uncle's government. The duke was deprived of the government of Languedoc, and his agent, Betizac, was burnt. When in 1401 he was restored, he delegated his authority in the province, where he was still hated, to

Bernard

d'Armagnac. In 1396 he negotiated a truce with Richard II. of England, and his

marriage

MARRIAGE

with the princess Isabella of France. He tried to mediate between his brother Philip the Bold of Burgundy and his nephew Louis, duke of Orleans, and later between John " sans Peur " of Burgundy and Orleans. He broke with John after the murder of Orleans, though he tried to prevent civil war, and only finally joined the Armagnac party in 1410. In 1413 he resumed his role of mediator, and was for a short time tutor to the dauphin. He died in Paris on the 15th of June 1416, leaving vast treasures of jewelry, objects of art, and especially of illuminated MSS., many of which have been preserved. He decorated the Sainte Chapelle at Bourges; he built the Hotel de Neale in Paris, and palaces at Poitiers, Bourges, Mehun-sur-Yevre and elsewhere.
See also L. Raynal, Histoire du

Berry

(Bourges, 1845) ; " Jean, due de Berry," in S. Luce, La France pendant la guerre de Cent Ans (1890), vol. i. ; Toulgoet-Treanna, in Mem. de la Soc. des anti'uaires du centre, vol. xvii. (189o). His beautiful illuminated Livre d heures was reproduced (Paris, fol. 1904) by P. Durrieu.

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