John I, Duke of Lorraine

Who was John I, Duke of Lorraine?

John I was the duke of Lorraine from 1346 to his death. As an infant of six months, he succeeded his father, Rudolph, who was killed in the Battle of Crécy. His mother was Mary, daughter of Guy I of Blois.

During his long minority, the regency was in the hands of his mother and Eberhard III of Württemberg. In December 1353, John did homage for the duchy to Charles IV, Holy Roman Emperor, who made him lieutenant-general of the Empire in the Moselle country.

John participated in the Drang nach Osten and its related crusades at the sides of the Teutonic Knights against Lithuania in 1356 and again in 1365.

He was facing west when, on 19 September 1356, he aided John II of France in the Battle of Poitiers, as his father had at Crécy, and where the French chivalry was mowed down by English longbowmen as before. He survived, however, unlike his father, to fight again, on the side of the Dauphin Charles in putting down the Parisian rebellion of Étienne Marcel. He attended Charles' coronation on 19 May 1364 in Rheims, strengthening the ties to France which had steadily been building in Lorraine for the past century.