Minority and the war with Frisia Shortly after her first husband's death, Jean's mother, Jeanne d'Enghien, married Jacques de Harcourt, lord of
Montgomery, who in 1385 was granted the
mundeburdis (legal guardianship) for Jean, his two sisters and their patrimony. Jean made his first public appearance in arms in 1396, when he joined William's invasion of
Frisia. He distinguished himself alongside the lords of
Ligne and
Jeumont. Afterwards, William knighted him. In 1398 he was fighting in Frisia again alongside the lord of Ligne, leading a company of thirteen knights and sixty
lances. Between July and November 1404, he was at
Brest with an army preparing to cross over to Wales to aid the
Welsh rebels against England. He eventually did fight at
Falmouth. In 1405 Jean left on his second trip to the Holy Land accompanied by five men, including his chaplain, Nicolle, and his squire,
Guillebert de Lannoy, who kept a journal. He stopped at the courts of
Provence,
Savoy,
Genoa,
Sicily,
Rhodes,
Constantinople and
Cyprus, and did not return to Paris until June 1406. His group left behind some inscriptions in the old refectory of
Saint Catherine's Monastery in the Sinai. He then made a trip to
Prussia, for by 1407 he had brought back a young
Lithuanian and was paying for his education in
Tournai. This boy may have been an illegitimate child conceived during his travels. On 20 May 1407 Jean fought in a four-a-side
mêlée in
Valencia. This event originated out of his challenge to Colomat de Santa Coloma to fight under the judgement of either King
Martin of Aragon or his son, King
Martin of Sicily. Colomat was not even knighted until the day of the
mêlée. With him were Pere de Montcada, Peyronat de Santa Coloma and Bernabò de l'Uovo. With Jean de Werchin were Jacques de Montenay of
Normandy,
Tanneguy du Châtel of
Brittany and Jean Carmen. When the French appeared to have the upper hand, the king of Sicily called an end to the tournament, but so impressed was he with Jean that he asked for his armour, or at least his bassinet, as a gift.
War with Liège and the English ''pas d'armes'' Jean was preparing to return to Prussia in May 1408, when he bade farewell to his friends at the Golden Head (''Tête d'Or'') inn in Tournai, but he was forced to turn back shortly after to assist William of Ostrevant—now count of Hainaut—against the
prince-bishop of Liège. He was present when the Liègeois were defeated at the
battle of Othée on 23 September 1408, leading the largest company from Hainaut: the lords of Jeumont and
La Hamaide, plus nine knights, sixty-nine men-at-arms with three horses each, eleven more with two horses, and seventy-eight archers, as well as some men lent him by Duke
John of Burgundy. On 7 August 1407, Jean challenged the English knight
John Cornewall to a ''
pas d'armes'', four knights a side, to be judged by the kings of England and France. On 25 June 1408, having left the war in Liège at least briefly, he was at
Ardres, probably to meet Cornewall. In November, Jean wrote a letter to King
Henry IV of England, asking permission to joust with a
Knight of the Garter or else any "knight of renown" from England before either the king or Prince
Henry of Wales acting as judge. The king, believing Jean intended to fight all the Knights of the Garter at once, urged him to challenge them one at a time. In June 1409, Jean and Cornewall twice came almost to blows: once before the duke of Burgundy at
Lille and then again before the king of France at Paris, but both times the king prevented an actual joust from taking place. In July the two knights fought in a tournament at
Smithfield in England. Eight knights from Hainaut fought eight from England in a series of one-on-one jousts over eight days. Jean, leading the men of Hainau, was unseated in his contest by the English leader,
John Beaufort, earl of Somerset.
French service Between 1411 and 1415 Jean was generally in the service of the king of France. According to the accounts of the king's war treasurer, Jean de Pressy, he was a
banneret leading a "chamber" of ten squires within a company of the duke of Burgundy's men at
Bourges in 1412. Between 1412 and 1414 he went on a pilgrimage to
Santiago de Compostela, passing through
Barcelona—from where he wrote a letter—on the way. Then, on 30 March 1414, his receiver for Cysoing remitted 200
écus à la couronne to pay for a knight, three noblemen, two priests, ten valets, a herald of arms, two men to accompany his chest, two pages and a pavilion for Jean's upcoming voyage, the destination of which has not come down. He was back by 9 November, when he looked over the accounts of Cysoing at his castle in
Biez. In 1398 Jean married Marguerite, daughter of Count
Guy I of Ligny of the
House of Luxembourg and widow since 1384 of Count
Peter of Lecce. The marriage contracts were drawn up on 22 February and 8 March 1398. Marguerite died in March 1406. In 1412 Jean signed an agreement with her first husband's relative, Engelbert d'Enghien, concerning the inheritance of Lecce (called
Liches in the French document). Although three acts of certification (
vidimus) of Jean's will are known, the will itself does not survive. He died at the
Battle of Agincourt, fighting on the French side. His heir was his sister Jeanne. ==Poet==