John II, Count of Soissons  John II (died 1270/72), also known as Je(h)an de Nesle and by the sobriquet le Bon et le Bègue ("the Good and the Stammerer"), was the tenth Count of Soissons, succeeding his father Ralph the Good, in 1235. He was the son of his father's second wife, Yolande. By marriage he also became Count of Chartres and Lord of Amboise. He was well-connected with the trouvères: his younger brother Raoul was one and he received the dedication of a song by Pierrekin de la Coupele. He was also a cousin by marriage of the historian Jean de Joinville. He is not to be confused with John II of Nesle, the burggrave of Bruges. John's first marriage was to Mary (died "c". 1241), the heiress of Roger du Thour et de Chimay and his wife Agnes. John and Mary confirmed donations to the Teutonic Knights in May 1234, where he signed as "John of Soissons, knight, firstborn of the count of Soissons, lord of Thour and Chimay". She left him a son, John III, who would succeed him. John's second wife was Matilda (died 12 May 1256), the daughter and eldest surviving child of Sulpice III of Amboise and Isabella, who had inherited the county of Chartres from her father, Theobald VI, Count of Blois. Matilda was the widow of Richard II, the viscount of Beaumont-sur-Sarthe. On Isabella's death in 1246, Chartres thus passed to Matilda, John, and the house of Nesle. John and his first wife, Mary, had six children:   By his geographical proximity to Paris, John was a close member of the royal circle. In 1230 he supported Blanche of Castile as regent for the young Louis IX, in opposition to Peter I, Duke of Brittany. In 1231 he began a controversy over property with the clerical leadership of Soissons. After imprisoning several ecclesiastics, Louis IX and the Archbishop of Reims, Henry of Dreux, intervened to obtain an agreement between the feuding parties. In 1242 John supported Louis against the rebellious Hugh X of Lusignan and the invading Henry III of England in a conflict that became known as the "Saintonge War".