John V, Count of Armagnac

John V of Armagnac (1420–1473), the next-to-last Count of Armagnac of the older branch, was the controversial son of John IV of Armagnac and Isabella of Navarre, an emblem of 15th century aristocratic violence, treachery and indiscipline, a wildman from one of the most powerful virtually independent feudalities of the southwest. A contemporary chronicler described him:

"Fire ran in his veins. He was as violent in his desires as imperious in his actions. His physical aspect was not seductive: short and stocky of stature, even pot-bellied, but gifted with great bodily strength. His neck was short, sumounted with an acne-pocked ("bourgeonné") visage, with squinty eyes, crowned by a shock of red hair."

The last a decided imperfection in contemporary standards.^[1]

Life

Styled Viscount de Lomagne while his father lived, John succeeded him as Count of Armagnac when he died (5 November 1450); soon later, he started a relationship with his sister Isabelle, Lady of the Four-Valleys (Dame des Quatre-Vallées), ten years his junior, whom the chronicler Mathieu d'Escouchy accounted one of the great beauties of France and whose betrothal to Henry VI of England had been under consideration. When word got out that two boys (John and Anthony) had been born in the castle of Lectoure, the couple promised to reform their scandalous behavior. But within a few months John solemnized the incestuous union by claiming to have obtained a papal dispensation from Pope Callixtus III, shortly after their third child, a daughter called Rose (or Mascarose) was born.

Other serious breaches ensued: John refused to seat a bishop of Auch selected by the King and assented to by the Pope, installing a bastard half-brother of his in the seat. Events came to a first head in May 1455. Authorities were alerted, and a brief was issued for John's arrest, when an investigation revealed that he had forced a forged dispensation out of Antoine d'Alet, Bishop of Cambrai, a magistrate in the court of Rome. Tried in absentia in 1460 before a parlement of Charles VII, he was condemned, and forces were sent to capture him but he escaped punishment by fleeing to his cousins of Aragon. Though he pled his case in Rome, the couple were separated and the sons declared bastards and eliminated from inheritance.

Within a few years a new King of France, Louis XI, unwisely reinstated John in his domains, where John rashly undid his father's acts and broke faith with his promises. Betraying Louis, Armagnac was part of the league that called themselves Bien public and threatened Paris at the head of 6000 mounted men. In 1469, Louis responded, under the pretense that John was treating with ambassadors from England, and sent an army to rout him. John fled to Spain, only to reappear in 1471 in the train of the king's rebellious brother, the duc de Guyenne. Louis had him besieged in his stronghold of Lectoure and put to death by Jean Jouffroy, the fighting bishop of Albi, on 5 March 1473.^[2][3]

In August 1469, John married Joan (b. aft. 1454 - d. Pau, aft. 10 February 1476), daughter of Count Gaston IV of Foix and Queen Eleanor of Navarre, later monarch of Navarre. This marriage produced an only legitimate child, who was stillborn, in April 1473. In consequence, the title of Count of Armagnac passed, first fruitlessly to his younger brother Charles, and in 1497 to his cousin of the cadet branch, Armagnac-Nemours.

His union with his sister Isabelle of Armagnac (b. 1430 - d. Castelnau, 4 August 1476), produced three offspring:

1. John of Armagnac (d. 1516), Seigneur of Camboulas, married in 1507 with Jeanne de La Tour.^[4] No issue.
2. Anthony of Armagnac (d. ca. 1516), called the "Bâtard d'Armagnac". Unmarried and without issue.
3. Rose (or Mascarose) of Armagnac (d. 1526), married in 1498 with Gaspard II de Villemur, Seigneur of Montbrun. ^[5] She had issue.

External links

• "Un vrai feuilleton" documentary history of Jean d'Aramagnac (in French)

References