Charles IV (Holy Roman Emperor)

The son of the Czech King John the Blind from the Luxembourg dynasty and the Czech princess Elishka Przemyslovna , was born in 1316 in Prague , was named Wenceslas / Wenzel ( Czech Václav , German Wenzel ) at birth, but was brought up in Paris and took the name of his uncle during confirmation and patron saint of King Charles ^[1] .

In 1331, the 15-year-old Carl was appointed viceroy of his father in Northern Italy, but was soon forced to leave his new possessions, since he did not have the strength to keep them even with the help of his father.

John of Luxembourg was almost not interested in the affairs of the Czech Republic, considering it only as a source of money, as a result of which the kingdom itself fell into decay. In 1333, he entrusted the administration of the Czech Republic and Moravia to Karl, who, despite his age, already had sufficient intelligence and knowledge to engage in public affairs. In addition, unlike his father, he knew the language and customs of his homeland. Nice appearance and noble treatment immediately attracted people to his side. Being limited in means (Karl was forced to send part of his income to his father), the prince began to buy crown estates from the pledge and bought 16 estates in two years due to economical savings. Regularly traveling around the country, Karl noticed shortcomings in management and found means for their elimination. He renovated the royal palace in Prague, where he settled with his young wife. Paying attention to the development of agriculture, Karl developed winemaking in the Czech Republic (the vine was brought from Burgundy) and fisheries (with it there were many ponds in which the famous Czech carp were bred).

However, the nobles, enriched during the period of anarchy, did not like Charles. They began to slander the king that the heir allegedly intended to deprive him of the throne. In 1335, John the Blind removed his son from the Czech Republic, leaving him only the title of Margrave of Moravia and Krivoklatsky estate for feeding. Karl went to Tyrol to help his younger brother Johann Heinrich defend his vast inheritance, but King John suddenly made peace with his opponents, giving them Carinthia and Styria. Having fallen into disgrace, Karl remained with his brother in Tirol, deprived of all income from the Czech Republic, and his wife was exiled to Brno .

John of Luxembourg returned the old system of government in the Czech Republic when the land hetman paid the king the agreed amount and then collected revenues from the royal estates. This time, Hertman was appointed Berthold, the son of the notorious Indřich of Lipa . However, the people, who managed to feel Karl’s firm hand, began to murmur, and in 1338 John returned his son to the Czech Republic. He still sent his father the agreed amount of money, and spent the rest on the improvement of the state. The Sejm of 1341 approved Karl as heir to the Czech throne.

In the same 1341, a feud began between John of Luxembourg and Emperor Ludwig IV of Bavaria because of the legacy of Heinrich Horutansky . Karl participated in negotiations with the German princes - opponents of the emperor and went to Avignon to meet with the pope, where an agreement was concluded with Ludwig. In 1345, Ludwig of Bavaria violated the Avignon Accords. Returning through Poland after the crusade to Lithuania, near the town of Kalisha, Karl was captured by Casimir III and only with the help of cunning he managed to escape. The fight with the emperor flared up with renewed vigor.

It is with the name of Karl Luxemburg that the Czech Golden Age is associated. He knew the Czech language well , took care of the development of cities. Karl himself remained in history as the author of the first secular autobiography in medieval Europe and the initiator of the compilation of a new historical chronicle.

King's election

Even during the life of the Emperor Ludwig of Bavaria , Karl, with the help of Pope Clement VI , won the election of five Electors as the King of Germany . At the same time, he went to the signing of restrictive conditions, the execution of which was forced to take an oath to the pope in Avignon . However, after the death of the emperor (1347), Karl was not able to immediately ascend the imperial throne. On the initiative of Wittelsbach , Edward III of England was elected king, when he refused - Margrave of Meissen Frederick II the Cruel , then Count Gunter von Schwarzburg , who soon became seriously ill, agreed to abdicate for money, and died.

On July 25, 1349, Charles IV was re-crowned in Aachen . Charles IV reconciled with the Wittelsbachs by marrying Anna, daughter of the Elector of Palatinate , and the promise of their placement in Brandenburg , where he himself, meanwhile, patronized False Valdemar.

Charles IV made great concessions to the princes. In the Golden Bull of 1356, the electors received almost sovereign rights in their principalities. Streamlining the election to the throne eliminated the intervention of the pope in the elections, which caused discord with the Avignon court . The conflict with the pope was settled by the granting of tithing and the publication of the so-called Caroline bull to protect the benefits of the clergy.

A significant merit of Charles IV was the establishment of unions of the zemstvo world.

Campaigns in Italy

Twice Charles IV made campaigns in Italy: in 1354, to be crowned king in Rome and the emperor in Rome (1355), the second time - in the interests of the pope, for the war with Milan's Visconti . But Karl cared more about the development of his hereditary possession, the Czech Republic, than about the empire.

Sent by Charles as a prisoner to Avignon, Cola di Rienzo reconciled with Innocent VI , and returned to Italy in the autumn of 1353 as a representative of the pontiff to collaborate with the Spanish cardinal, but could only find a shameful death on the steps of the Capitol. Gibbon wrote about this:

“The Capitol was now on the blood of Rienza when Charles IV descended from the Alps to be crowned the crown of Italy and the Empire”

Francesco Petrarch believed in Charles IV, but then was deeply disappointed in him. Karl was crowned in Rome by Cardinal Ostia on Easter day 1355, and then returned to Prague, as the poet wrote: “with the crown, which he received without a single blow of the sword, with a purse full of coins, which he brought empty; but with little glory for good deeds, and with great shame for the humiliation of imperial greatness. ABOUT! if your great-grandfather and grandfather met you on an alpine pass, so they said, you thought? The emperor of the Romans by name, in truth you are only the king of Bohemia ” ^[2] .

Board in Germany

He gave many benefits to the nobility in the cities; in 1350 issued a new code, which, however, was later forced to cancel. He encouraged mining and agriculture, made the Vltava River to the Elbe navigable, built the “new city” ( Nove Mesto ), Hradcany , and the famous Charles Bridge in Prague, founded the archbishopric and in 1348 the first university in the empire (on the model of Paris ), attracted Prague has a large number of artists and artisans.

Through his second wife, with the consent of the Wittelsbachs, he secured for himself a large part of the Upper Palatinate ; through the third wife, Anna Yavorskaya, acquired the principalities of Yavor and Swidnica (1368); a year earlier, he bought Luzhitsky land. Skillfully taking advantage of the strife in the Wittelsbach house, Karl managed to get the Brandenburg brand bequeathed to himself by the Margraves Louis and Otton (1368), and shortly after, in 1373, Otton, who was left alive, had to abandon the brand for a fee.

For large sums of money and after much effort, Charles IV succeeded in electing his son Wenzel as his successor (1376). The heavy expenses of Charles IV forced him to tax heavily and lay imperial cities , which led to the founding of the Swabian city union (1376).

Dying in Prague, Karl left the Czech Republic, Silesia and the Roman crown to Wenzel, Brandenburg to Sigismund, Luzhitsky lands to Johann, the third of his sons.

After the death of Charles IV, his body was put up for farewell in the Church of the Virgin Mary under a chain in Lesser Town in Prague, after which he was buried in the crypt of St. Vitus Cathedral .

• 1st wife: (from January 8, 1323, Prague ) Blanca Valois (1316 - August 1, 1348), daughter of Charles I , Count of Valois . Children ^[3] :
  • Son (c. 1334 - in infancy)
  • Margarita (May 25, 1335 - September 7, 1349); husband: (from August 3, 1342) Lajosh I the Great (March 5, 1326 - September 10, 1382), king of Hungary since 1342, king of Poland since 1370
  • Catherine (August 1342 - April 26, 1395); 1st husband: (from July 3, 1357) Rudolph IV the Magnanimous (November 1, 1339 - July 27, 1365), Duke of Austria , Styria and Carinthia since 1358, Count of Tyrol since 1363; 2nd husband: from March 19, 1366 Otton V von Wittelsbach (1346 - November 15, 1379), Elector of Brandenburg (1365-1373), Duke of Bavaria from 1347
• 2nd wife: (from March 4, 1349, Baharakh) Anna Pfaltskaya (September 26, 1329 - February 2, 1353), daughter of Rudolph II the Blind (August 8, 1306 - October 4, 1353), palatine of the Rhine
  • Wenzel (January 17, 1350 - December 28, 1351)
• 3rd wife: (from May 27, 1353, Buda ) Anna Svidnitskaya (1339 - July 11, 1362), daughter of Henry II , Prince Svidnitsky
  • Elizabeth (March 19, 1358 - September 4, 1373); husband: from March 19, 1366 Albrecht III (September 9, 1349 - August 29, 1395), Duke of Austria since 1365
  • Wenceslas (Wenzel) (February 26, 1361 - August 16, 1419), Duke of Luxembourg (Wenzel II, 1383–1388), King of the Czech Republic (Wenceslas IV, 1378–1419), Elector of Brandenburg (1373–1378), King of Germany (June 10, 1376 - August 20, 1400)
  • Son ( July 11, 1362 )
• 4th wife: (from May 21, 1363, Krakow ) Elizabeth Pomeranian (1347 - February 14, 1393), daughter of Bogislav V the Great (1326 - April 23, 1374), Duke of Pomeranian-Stargard
  • Anna (May 11, 1366 - June 3, 1394); husband: from 1382, Richard II Plantagenet (January 6, 1367 - February 14, 1400), king of England (1377–1399)
  • Sigismund (February 15, 1368 - December 9, 1437), King of the Czech Republic (Sigmund, 1419-1421, 1436-1437), King of Hungary (Zhigmond, 1387-1437), Elector of Brandenburg (1373-1387), King of Germany (September 20, 1410 - December 9, 1437), emperor of the Holy Roman Empire (May 31, 1433 - December 9, 1437)
  • Johann (June 22, 1370 - March 1, 1396), Duke of Goerlitz, Elector of Brandenburg from 1373
  • Karl (March 13, 1372 - July 24, 1373)
  • Margarita (September 29, 1373 - June 4, 1410); husband: since 1387, John III von Hohenzollern (1369 - June 11, 1420), burggraph of Nuremberg since 1397
  • Henry (1377-1378)

• Pulkava is the official chronicler of the era of Charles IV.

• Deutsche Reichstagsakten unter König Wenzel . / J. Weizsacker. - Munich, 1867.
• Prague: The Crown of Bohemia, 1347-1437. - Yale University Press, 2005.
• Dvornik, Francis. The Slavs in European History and Civilization. - Rutgers University Press, 1962.
• Jaschke, Karl-Ulrich. From Famous Empresses to Unspectacular Queens // Queens and Queenship in Medieval Europe. - The Boydell Press, 1997.
• Boehm, Barbara Drake. Prague: the Crown of Bohemia, 1347-1437 . - New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 2005 .-- ISBN 1588391612 .

• Entry in the Residenzen-Kommission (German)
• Regesta Imperii (German)
• Publications on Charles IV in the OPAC of the Regesta Imperii (German)
• Constitutiones et acta publica imperatorum et regum 1357–1378 - digital pre-publication of documents by Charles IV by the MGH (German)
• Lewis E 64 Golden Bull of Charles IV at OPenn