SG Heritage Dictionary

John i Encyclopedia Britannica

JOHN I. (pope from 523 to 526) was a Tuscan by birth, and was consecrated pope on the death of Hormisdas. In 525 he was sent by Theodoric at the head of an embassy to Constantinople to obtain from the emperor Justin toleration for the Arians; but, whether designedly or not, he succeeded so imperfectly in his mission that Theodoric on his return, suspecting that he had acted only halfheartedly, threw him into prison, where he shortly afterwards died, Felix IV. (or III.) succeeding him. He was enrolled among the martyrs, his day being May 27.

JOHN I. (925-976), emperor of Constantinople, surnamed on account of his short stature Zimisces, was descended from a distinguished family of Cappadocia, and was the nephew of Nicephorus Phocas, whom he aided to obtain the throne, and with whom he afterwards shared the military command of the empire. Being, however, deprived of this dignity through the intrigues of the emperor’s brother Leo, he entered into a conspiracy to assassinate Nicephorus, which was put into execution on the 10th December 969. The reign of Zimisces is chiefly remarkable for his victories over the Russians, and the conquest of Bulgaria. Afterwards he achieved many brilliant exploits against the Saracens, but on his way home from his Syrian campaign he was seized near Constantinople with a sudden illness, caused it is supposed by poisoning, and died there in January 976.

JOHN I., king of France, son of Louis X. and dementia of Hungary, was born, after his father’s death, 15th November 1316, and only lived seven days.

9th ed. Encyclopædia Britannica, vol. 13, p. 709
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John ii Encyclopedia Britannica

JOHN II. (pope from 532 to 535), surnamed on account of his eloquence Mercurius, was elevated to the papal chair on the death of Boniface II. During his pontificate a decree against simony was engraven on marble and placed before the altar of St Peter’s. At the instance of the emperor Justinian he adopted the proposition unus de Trinitate passus est in came as a test of the orthodoxy of certain Scythian monks accused of Nestorian tendencies. He was succeeded by Agapetus I.

JOHN II. (1088-1143), Comnenus, surnamed Kalo-joαnnes (John the Good), was the eldest son of the emperor Alexius, whom he succeeded on the throne in 1118. On account of his mild and just reign he has been called the Byzantine Marcus Aurelius, but he displayed little vigour in the internal administration of his kingdom or in extirpating the governmental corruptions and abuses he had inherited. Nor did his various successes against the Hungarians, Servians, and Turks, though they won him the high admiration of his soldiers, add much to the stability of his kingdom. He was accidentally killed during a wildboar hunt on Mount Taurus, 8th April 1143.

JOHN II. (1319-1364), surnamed the Good, son of Philip VΓ. and Jane of Burgundy, was born in 1319, and succeeded his father in 1350. On the 19th September 1356 he was defeated and taken prisoner by the Black Prince at the battle of Poitiers. He gained his liberty at the peace of Bretigny in 1360; but, his son the duke of Anjou, whom he left as hostage in England, having fled, John thought himself bound to return to captivity. He died in London in 1364. See France, vol. ix. p. 546....

JOHN II. (1609-1672), Casimir, king of Poland, second son of Sigismund III. and the duchess Constantia of Austria, was born March 21, 1609. After journeying in several countries of Europe, he in 1640 joined the Jesuit order at Rome, and shortly afterwards was chosen cardinal. Subsequently he returned to Poland, where he resided as a a layman until the death of his brother, 20th November 1648, when he succeeded him on the throne. In September 1668 he abdicated, after which he went to France, and became abbot of St Germains de Prés and of St Martin, at Nevers. He died September 16, 1672. For the events of his unfortunate reign see Poland.

JOHN II. (1455-1495), “the Perfect,” king of Portugal, succeeded his father, Alphonso V., in August 1481. His first business after ascending the throne was to curtail with a vigorous hand the overgrown power of his aristocracy; noteworthy incidents in the contest were the execution (in 1483) of the duke of Braganza for correspondence with Castile, and the murder, by the king’s own hand, of the youthful duke of Viseu for conspiracy. This reign was signalized by Bartolommeo Dias’s discovery of the Cape of Good Hope in 1486, and also by the equipment (1493) of a squadron for exploration of the new world recently discovered by Columbus. The latter proceeding led to disputes with Castile, until the claims of the disputants were adjusted by the famous treaty of Tordesillas (7th June 1494). John II. died, without leaving male issue, in October 1495, and was succeeded by his brother-in-law Emmanuel (Manoel) I.

JOHN II. (1397-1479), king of Aragon from 1458, was the younger son of Ferdinand I. (the Just), and was born June 29, 1397. He was twice married,—first to Blanche, daughter of Charles III. of Navarre, by whom he had three children (Carlos, heir to the crowns of Navarre and Aragon; Blanche, for some time the wife of Henry

IV. of Castile; and Eleanor, wife of Gaston, count of Foix); and afterwards (in 1447) to Joanna Henriquez, of the blood-royal of Castile, by whom he became the father of Ferdinand V. (the Catholic). For a long time he acted as lieutenant-general in Aragon for his brother Alphonso

V. , whom business detained in his Neapolitan dominions; in this capacity he intervened frequently in the affairs of Castile, where his weak and inexperienced kinsman John II. occupied the throne, and on one occasion (1444) he invaded that kingdom, but was defeated at Olmedo. On his second marriage he irritated his son Carlos and the community by sending his queen Joanna to share the administration of Navarre with his son; in the revolt which ensued victory declared for John, Carlos himself being reduced to captivity (1452), in which he was detained for many months. In May 1458 John succeeded his brother in Aragon, Sicily, and Sardinia; but the influence of Joanna Henriquez prevented him from recognizing the legitimate claims of his own eldest son to the reversion; an attempt by Carlos to obtain support in other quarters led to his arrest and imprisonment, from which he was released only after Catalonia had risen in arms and the king of Castile had begun an irruption into Navarre. Shortly after this temporary triumph Carlos was carried off by a fever in September 1461, bequeathing the crown of Navarre to his sister Blanche and her posterity. Ferdinand, the half-brother of Carlos, was now put forward as heir apparent of the Aragonese throne, but the indignant Catalonians raised a revolt which did not come to an end until December 1472. Immediately afterwards John entered upon a war with Louis XI. of France in consequence of disputes about Roussillon and Cerdagne; first successful, but afterwards worsted, this bold and energetic but ambitious and unjust prince died January 20, 1479, before the conclusion of the peace. He was succeeded by Ferdinand V.

JOHN II. (1404-1454) of Castile and Leon, grandson of the preceding, succeeded to the throne when only twenty-two months old. Until 1412 the regency was shared with his mother Catherine by his uncle Ferdinand (afterwards Ferdinand IV. of Aragon); this period was marked by much internal prosperity and by important conquests from the Moors, especially by the capture of Antequera. Unfortunately for Castile, Ferdinand was called away (in 1412) to occupy the throne of Aragon; but it was not until after the death of Catherine in 1418 that John’s weakness and incapacity came to be fully seen. Abandoning himself recklessly to a life of frivolous pleasure, he left the affairs of his kingdom in the hands of a few favourites, such as the archbishop of Toledo and Juan de Velasco. From 1423 onwards he was the tool principally of Alvaro de Luna, a brilliant, ambitious, and crafty courtier. Henceforward the history of his reign is largely a record of the internal commotions, rising sometimes to the height of civil war, occasioned by the nobles’ jealousy of Alvaro, and by the oppressions to which the common people were exposed under the absolutist policy of that minister. The period of John II. is chiefly and most favourably remembered in connexion with the history of Castilian literature: a man of some literary turn himself, he was a liberal patron of letters; and his countenance gave an impulse to refinement and culture of literary style, the effects of which were distinctly traceable through several subsequent generations. By his first wife John II. became the father of Henry IV., his successor; the daughter of a second marriage was Isabella, afterwards known as “the Catholic.” He died in June 1454.

9th ed. Encyclopædia Britannica, vol. 13, p. 710
[84 words — estimated reading time: 1 minute]

John iii Encyclopedia Britannica

JOHN III. (pope from 560 to 573),successor to Pelagius, was descended from a noble Roman family. He is said to have been successful in preventing an invasion of Italy by the recall of the deposed exarch Narses, but the Lombards still continued their incursions, and, especially during the pontificate of his successor Benedict I., inflicted great miseries on the province.

JOHN III. (1193-1254), Vatatzes, surnamed Ducas, emperor of Nicaea, was born in 1193, and earned for himself such distinction as a soldier that in 1222 he was chosen to succeed Theodore I. His successes in war, which earned for him great renown, were rendered of little advantage to him through the intrigues of other sovereigns, but he administered the internal affairs of his dominions with much enlightenment and skill, and devoted great attention to agriculture. He died 30th October 1254,—not in 1255 as writers previous to Finlay have generally alleged.

JOHN III. (1624-1696), Sobieski, king of Poland, son of Jakob Sobieski, castellan of Cracow, was born 2d June 1624, at Olesko in Galicia. He so distinguished himself in the defensive wars of Poland that in 1667 he received the supreme command of the army, and on the death of Michael Corybut was chosen king, 20th May 1674. He died June 17, 1696....

9th ed. Encyclopædia Britannica, vol. 13, p. 710
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John iv Encyclopedia Britannica

JOHN IV. (pope from 640 to 642) was a Dalmatian by birth, and succeeded Severinus after the papal chair had been vacant four months. While he adhered to the repudiation of the Monothelitic doctrine by Severinus, he endeavoured to explain away the connexion of Honorius I. with the heresy. His successor was Theodorus I.

JOHN IV., Lascaris, emperor of Nicaea, son of Theodore II., was born about 1250. His father dying in 1258, Michael Palaeologus conspired shortly after to make himself regent, and in 1261 dethroned the boy monarch and put out his eyes. John died in prison.

JOHN IV. (1603-1656), “the Fortunate,” of Portugal, was born at Villaviciosa in March 1603, succeeded to the dukedom of Braganza in 1630, and married Luisa de Guzman, eldest daughter of the duke of Medina Sidonia, in 1633. By the unanimous voice of the people he was raised to the throne of Portugal (of which he was held to be the legitimate heir) at the revolution effected in December 1640 by a conspiracy of the nobles against the grievances inflicted by Spain and the insolence of Philip IV.’s minister, the duke of Olivarez. His accession ultimately led to a protracted war with Spain, of which the final issue—the recognized independence of Portugal—did not declare itself until a subsequent reign (1668). He died after a prosperous reign of sixteen years, on November 6, 1656, and was succeeded by his son Alphonso VI.

9th ed. Encyclopædia Britannica, vol. 13, p. 710
[54 words — estimated reading time: 1 minute]

John ix Encyclopedia Britannica

JOHN IX. (pope from 898 to 900) was of German birth, and belonged to the Benedictine order. He not only confirmed the judgment of his predecessor Theodore II. in granting Christian burial to Formosus, but at a council held at Ravenna decreed that the records of the synod which had condemned him should be burned. Finding, however, that it was advisable to cement the ties between the empire and the papacy, John gave unhesitating support to Lambert in preference to Arnulf, and also induced the council to determine that henceforth the consecration of the popes should take place only in the presence of the imperial legates. The sudden death of Lambert shattered the hopes which this alliance seemed to promise. John was succeeded by Benedict IV.

9th ed. Encyclopædia Britannica, vol. 13, p. 710
[126 words — estimated reading time: 1 minute]