
Coat of arms of the counts and dukes of Alençon of the House of Valois.

Coat of arms of the counts of Perche.
'John II of Alençon' (
March 2,
1409, Château d'
Argentan –
1476,
Paris) was the son of
John I of Alençon and Marie of Brittany. He succeeded his father as
Duke of Alençon and
Count of Perche as a minor in
1415, after the latter's death at the
Battle of Agincourt.
He saw action as a young man at the
Battle of Verneuil on
August 17,
1424, and was captured by the English. He was held prisoner until
1429, when he was released after payment of a large ransom, which left him impoverished, and the English in control of his duchy. Before his capture at Verneuil, he had married in
1424, at
Blois, Jeanne of Orleans, daughter of
Charles, duc d'Orléans and
Isabella of Valois, but she died in
1432.
Shortly after his release, he met
Joan of Arc and joined her in the fighting through the
Loire Valley, becoming her most prominent supporter among the princes of the blood. He left to fight elsewhere after the end of the campaign in September
1429, preferring to attack the English around his own domains in
Normandy. On
April 30,
1437, at the Chateau
L'Isle-Jourdain, he married Marie of Armagnac (c.
1420 –
July 25,
1473, Cloister
Mortagne-au-Perche), daughter of
John IV of Armagnac.
John was discontented with the
Treaty of Arras, having hoped to make good his poverty through the spoliation of the Burgundians. He fell out with
Charles VII, and took part in a revolt in 1439–40, (the
Praguerie) but was forgiven. He took part in the invasion of Normandy in
1449, but he had unwisely entered into correspondence with the English since
1440. (He had also accepted the
Order of the Golden Fleece at this time.) Shortly after testifying at the "rehabilitation trial" of Joan of Arc in
1456, he was arrested by
Jean de Dunois and imprisoned at
Aigues-Mortes. In
1458, he was convicted of
lèse-majesté and sentenced to death, but the sentence was commuted and he was imprisoned at
Loches. He was released by
Louis XI upon terms at his accession in
1461, but he refused to keep them and was imprisoned again. He was tried a second time before the
Parlement of Paris and sentenced to death again on
July 18,
1474, and his Duchy was confiscated. However, the sentence was not carried out, and he died in prison in the
Louvre in
1476.
He had two children by his second wife, Marie:
★ Catherine (
1452–
1505), married
1461 in
Tours François Guy XIV de Montmorency, Count of Laval (d.
1500)
★
René of Alençon (
1454–
1492)
He also had several illegitimate children:
★ John (living
1483)
★ Robert (living
1489)
★ Jeanne (d. aft.
December 4,
1481), Countess of
Beaumont-le-Roger, married in
1470 Guy de Maulmont
★ Madeleine, married Henri de Breuil