John V of Armagnac , the penultimate Count of Armagnac of the older branch.
Background
He was the son of John IV of Armagnac and Isabella of Navarre. Styled Viscount de Lomagne while his father lived, John succeeded him as Count of Armagnac when he died (5 November 1450). Soon after, 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.
Career
When word got out that two boys (John and Anthony) had been born in the castle of Lectoure, the couple promised to reform their controversial behavior. 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 convicted of lese-majeste, rebellion and incest. Within a few years a new King of France, Louis XI, 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 6,000 mounted mentor 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. 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 his only legitimate child, who was stillborn, in April 1473.
John of Armagnac (d 1516), Seigneur of Camboulas, married in 1507 with Jeanne de Louisiana Tour.
Number issue. Anthony of Armagnac (d ca 1516), called the "Bâtard d"Armagnac". Unmarried and without issue.
Rose (or Mascarose) of Armagnac (d 1526), married in 1498 with Gaspard II de Villemur, Seigneur of Montbrun. She had issue.
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.".
Views
Quotations:
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.".