[3] The early fourteenth century, a period of economic boom for Brabant, marks the rise of the duchy's towns, which depended on imports of English wool for their essential cloth industry.

During John's minority, the major towns of Brabant had the authority to appoint councillors to direct a regency, under terms of the Charter of Kortenberg granted by his father in the year of his death (1312).

In 1332, a crisis with the king of France arose over John's hospitality to Robert, count of Artois, during his journey to eventual asylum at the English court.

His oldest son, Jean, was betrothed to Philip's niece, Princess Marie, and it was agreed that the Brabantian heir would complete his education at the French court in Paris and that Robert of Artois would be expelled from Brabant.

Though John was requesting papal dispensation for the marriage of Margaret and the Black Prince in 1343, the alliance with England unravelled as Edward's coffers emptied and his attentions turned elsewhere.

A point of dispute with the count of Flanders had been the Lordship of Mechelen, a strategic enclave within Brabant: it was agreed that it would now come under full Brabantian control.

In 1355, after all of his three legitimate sons had died, John was forced to declare his eldest daughter Joanna his heiress,[8] which provoked a succession crisis after his death.