John II, Count of Ziegenhain (died 14 February 1450) was the second son of Count Gottfried VIII of Ziegenhain and his wife Agnes of Brunswick. He was the last reigning Count of Ziegenhain and Nidda. He probably owed His nickname the Strong to his obesity, although he is said to have possessed an extraordinary muscle strength as a young man. His younger brother Otto was Archbishop of Trier from 1419 until his death in 1430.
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Life
John initially pursued an ecclesiastical career. Between 1393 and 1406, he was canon in Trier and from 1403, he was a canon of Mainz. In 1394, he studied in Vienna and in 1396 in Heidelberg. After the early death of his elder brother Engelbert III in 1401, he succeeded as Count of Ziegenhain and Nidda.
On 5 January 1417, he married Countess Elisabeth of Waldeck. This marriage remained childless.
Reign
In the war between Hesse and the Electorate of Mainz (1401–1405), John II supported Mainz. In 1401, he was taken prisoner by Landgrave Herman II of Hesse. He was released in January 1402, after he had promised to not act against Hesse in this conflict, and his brother Gottfried IX had promised the same.
In 1414 John II and Gottfried IX were outlawed for their involvement in a violent feud against Siegfried of Frekenhausen. In 1415, they took Lißberg Castle by force, claiming that it was a fief of Ziegenhain and that it had reverted to them when Frederick of Lißberg had died in 1396 and that Frederick's cousin John of Rodenstein had unlawfully taken possession of the castle. In 1418, they sold a 50% share of the castle to Landgrave Louis I of Hesse.