JOHN I

born 1217 died 1286 also called John The Redhead, French Jean Le Roux duke of Brittany (from 1237), son of Peter I. Like his father, he sought to limit the temporal power of the clergy; consequently he was excommunicated, upon which he journeyed to Rome to win absolution. Subsequently, he and his wife, Blanche of Champagne, traveled with St. Louis on the crusade to Tunisia (1270). born Dec. 27, 1350 died May 16, 1395 king of Aragon (13871395), son of Peter IV. Influenced by his wife, Violante, he pursued a pro-French policy but refused to become involved in the Hundred Years' War. He died by a fall from his horse, like his namesake, cousin, and contemporary of Castile, John I. He was a man of insignificant character, with a taste for artificial verse. born Nov. 15, 1316 died Nov. 19/20, 1316, Paris also called John The Posthumous, French Jean Le Posthume king of France, the posthumous son of Louis X of France by his second consort, Clmence of Hungary. He died just a few days after his birth but is nevertheless reckoned among the kings of France. His uncle, who succeeded him as Philip V, has been accused of having caused his death, or of having substituted a dead child in his place; but nothing has ever been proved. In 1358 a man called Giannino, in Florence, persuaded Clmence's nephew, Louis I of Hungary, that he was John I; but otherwise he met with little success and died in jail in Naples (1363). born April 11, 1357, Lisbon died Aug. 14, 1433, Lisbon byname The Prince of Fond Memory, or John of Aviz, John the Great, or John the Bastard, Portuguese O Principe de Boa Memria, or Joo de Aviz, Joo o Grande, or Joo o Bastardo king of Portugal from 1385 to 1433, who preserved his country's independence from Castile and initiated Portugal's overseas expansion. He was the founder of the Aviz, or Joanina (Johannine), dynasty. born Aug. 20, 1358, pila, Castile died Oct. 9, 1390, Alcal de Henares king of Castile from 1379 to 1390, son of Henry II, founder of the dynasty of Trastmara. In the beginning of his reign John had to contend with the hostility of John of Gaunt, who claimed the crown by right of his wife Constance, daughter of Peter I the Cruel. The king of Castile finally bought off the claim of his English competitor by arranging a marriage between his son Henry and Catherine, daughter of John of Gaunt, in 1387. Before this date he had been engaged in hostilities with Portugal, which was in alliance with John of Gaunt. His first quarrel with Portugal was settled by his marriage, in 1382, with Beatriz, daughter of the Portuguese king Ferdinand. On the death of his father-in-law in 1383, John endeavoured to enforce the claims of his wife, Ferdinand's only child, to the crown of Portugal. He was resisted by the national sentiment of the people and was utterly defeated at the Battle of Aljubarrota (Aug. 14, 1385). King John was killed at Alcal five years later by the fall of his horse, while he was riding in a fantasia with some of the light horsemen known as the farfanes, who were mounted and equipped in the Arab style. Additional reading John's reign, like those of his predecessors, D. Pedro and Fernando, was chronicled by Ferno Lopes. There are several modern editions in Portuguese, but only a short excerpt has been translated by E. Prestage in The Chronicles of Ferno Lopes and Gomes Eannes de Zurara (1928). A modern biography in Portuguese is Damio Peres, D. Joo I (1917). The events of the beginning of the reign are dealt with fully by S. Dias Arnaut, A crise nacional dos fins do sculo XIV (1960). An excellent account of the international politics and military enterprises of the period is in P.E. Russell, English Intervention in Spain and Portugal in the Time of Edward III and Richard II (1955).