J O 
a preponderance to his party, and he was received as a 
conqueror into Conitantinople in January 1747. He 
canted himfelf to be proclaimed colleague in the empire 
with his ward, to whom he married his daughter. This 
union, however, was toon interrupted by inteftine divi- 
fions. The young emperor, John Palasologus, and the 
friends of his houfe, llill'regarded John Cantacuzenus as 
an ufurperj and the former, who had been removed to a 
diltance from the capital, aflifted by the defpot of Servia, 
took up arms in 1353. Cantacuzenus, with the aid of 
the Turks, gave the army of Paloeologus an entire defeat, 
and obliged him to take (lielter at Tenedos. In order to 
cut off his future hopes, Cantacuzenus afl'ociated with him- 
felf his fon Matthew, and thus attempted to eftablilh the 
fucceffion in his crwn family. The fugitive emperor, 
however, had ftill many friends in the capital, and a no¬ 
ble Genoefe, who efpoufed his caufe, entering the harbour 
with two galleys and a few troops, effefted a general rif- 
ing in his favour. Cantacuzenus, after an unfuccefsful 
ftruggle, put an end to further conteft by a voluntary ab¬ 
dication in 1355, and took the religious habit in a mo- 
naftery of mount Athos. Here he ufefully employed 
himfelf in compofing ahiftory.of the tranfaftions to which 
he had been witnefs; and this work, in four books, com- 
prifing a. period of forty years, from the revolt of the 
younger Andronicus to his own abdication, is one of the 
moft elegant productions of the modern Greeks. It is 
thus charaflerifed by Gibbon : “ Retired in a cloifter from 
the vices and paflions of the world, he prefents not a con- 
feflion, but an apology, of the life of an ambitious ftatef- 
man. Inltead of unfolding the true counlels and charac¬ 
ters of men, he difplays the fmooth and fpecious furface 
of events, highly varnifhed with his own praifes and thole 
of his friends.”. He likewife engaged in religious con- 
troverfy, and wrote four books againft the Jews and Ma¬ 
hometans. His death is placed, by an authority called 
refpeftable by Gibbon, in 1411, which would imply a 
life of above a century. His controverfial work was pub- 
lilhed at Bafil, with a Latin verfion, in 1543 ; of his hif- 
lory there is a Louvre edition, 3 vols. folio, 1655. 
JOHN, King of France. See the article France, 
vol. vii. 
JOHN, King of England. See England, vol. vi. 
p. S 7 S- 58 I. 
JOHN, the name of feveral kings of Portugal, Swe¬ 
den, and Denmark. .See thole articles. 
JOHN de BRIEN'NE, king'of Jerufalem, and regent- 
emperor of Conitantinople, was the fon of Errard count of 
Brienne in Champagne. He was one of the crufaders who 
took Conitantinople in 1204, and was judged, by Philip 
Au^uftus, the molt worthy champion of the Holy Land. 
The titular kingdom of Jerufalem had devolved to Mary 
of Montferrat, grand-daughter- of king Amauri. She 
was married to John of Brienne, who was in confequence 
proclaimed king of Jerufalem in 1209; but his kingdom 
confifted of little more than the city of Acre. In the fifth 
crufade he led a large army of Latins to Egypt, and took 
Damietta in isr8. He was obliged in 1226 to reiign all 
his rights to the kingdom of Jerufalem to the emperor 
Frederic II. who had married his daughter. Refentment 
of the emperor’s ingratitude -caufed him to accept the 
command of the army of the church in Italy, with which 
he fuccefsfully oppofed Raymond duke of Spoleto, the 
imperial general. In 1229 the French barons of the eaft 
elefted John regent of the Conftantinopolitan empire 
during the minority of Baldwin II. and the title and pre-' 
rogatives of emperor were conferred upon him daring life. 
Though he had palled the age of fourfcore, his high re¬ 
putation for military fkill, and the martial air which Hill 
decorated a perfon of extraordinary fize and dignity, ex¬ 
cited general admiration. Two years of his regency, 
however, palled in inaftion, till he was rouzed by the hof- 
tile approach of John Ducas, or Vataces, and the king of 
Bulgaria, who inverted his capital with a mighty force by 
fea and land. John had with him only one hundred and 
VOL. XI. No. 747. 
H N. J<81 
fixty knights, with a few followers.—" I tremble to relate,” 
fays Gibbon, “ that the hero mad-e a lally at the head of 
his cavalry; and that, of forty-eight fquadrons of the 
enemy, no more than three efcaped from the edge of his 
invincible fword.” Whatever be the exaggeration in this 
account, it is certain that John foiled the attempts of the 
befiegers; and that in the following year, 1236, they met 
with a fecond repulfe. See John III. p. 220. His death, 
in 1237, clofed a long life of glory, tarnifned only in his 
latter years by the (bun of avarice. According to the 
piety of the age, he put on the habit of a Francilcan friar 
for the concluding feene. 
JOHN of; AU'STRIA, natural fon of the emperot 
Charles V. fuppofed by Barbara Blomberg, was born at 
Ratilbon in 1547. He was brought up in ignorance of 
his defeent, till, after tiie death of Charles, Philip II. fer.t 
for him to Valladolid, acknowledging him for a brother, 
and caufed him to be educated at court. In the revolt 
of the Moors of Granada, 1569, John was appointed cap¬ 
tain-general of the Spanilh galleys, and was fent to Car- 
thagena to take the command. During the next year he 
aflirted in the operations of the war, which was brought 
to a happy termination. The hoiy league againft the 
Turks for the protedlion of the Venetians being formed 
between the king of Spain, the pope, and the Italian 
ftates, John was nominated, in 1571, general in chief, and 
a'flembled the united fleet at Corfu. On Oitober the 7th,, 
he engaged with the Turkilh fleet in the gulf of Lepanto, 
and obtained that celebrated vidtory which ftands con- 
fpicuous in the feries of adtions between the Chriftian and 
Mahometan powers. Don John in perfon fought and took 
the Turkilh admiral galley ; and the battle terminated in 
the lofs'on the part of the Turks of 130 galleys taken, 
fifty-five deftroyed, 25,000 men killed, and 10,000 made 
prifoners, befides 15,000 Chriftian flaves liberated. As 
ufually happens in the alliance of different powers, divi- 
fions arofe with refpedt to the ftibfequent operations; and 
the ardour of don John, who propofed immediately to 
fail to Conftantinople, was over-ruled. On the whole, the 
advantages obtained by the vidtory by no means equalled 
the public expedtation ; and the next campaign, though 
honourable to the fpirit of John, proved fruitlefs. In 
1573 he failed to Tunis, which he found abandoned by 
the Turks. Contrary to the king’s orders, he fortified the 
town, and built a new fort, having in view the obtaining 
lor himlelf the kingdom of Tunis ; but this projedt was 
not agreeable to his brother ; and in the next year the 
Turks recovered the place, and took the new fort, which 
John was not able to fuccour in time. 
In 1576 he was appointed to fucceed Requefens as go¬ 
vernor of the Low Countries. By virtue of the pacifica¬ 
tion ol Ghent, the catholic provinces had united with 
Holland and Zealand againft the Spaniards; and John was 
directed openly to concur in this agreement, and caufe 
the Spanilh troops to leave the country. They were, 
however, retained not far from the frontiers; and it was 
not long before John, throwing off the mafic, took poffef- 
lion of Namur, Charlemont, and Marienburg. The ftates 
thereupon, in 1577, refumed their arms, and declared the 
archduke Matthias their governor. John, being rein¬ 
forced by a body of troops under the duke of Parma, gave 
the Netherlanders a great defeat at Genblours in January 
1578, and afterwards took Louvain, Limburg, Philipi- 
burg, and other places. He was proceeding in his mili¬ 
tary career, when, in Offober, 1578, he was taken off af¬ 
ter a (hort illnefs in his camp near Namur, being in the 
thirty-fecond year of bis age. Although a hidden death 
in an unhealthy climate and feafon of the year could not 
be regarded as extraordinary, yet the charaffer of Philip, 
and the young prince’s afpiring difpofition, gave occafion 
to a rumour of unfair pradtices. His confidential fecre- 
tary, Efcovedo, had fome time before been affafiinated in 
the ftreets of Madrid by the exprefs orders of the fecTe- 
tary of ftate; and it was known that John had entertained 
hopes of marrying queen Elizabeth, and had fecretly in- 
S L tfigued 
