Wenceslaus, King of the Romans
| Wenceslaus | |
|---|---|
 | |
| (formally King of the Romans) | |
| Reign | 10 June 1376–20 August 1400 |
| Coronation | 6 July 1376 Aachen Cathedral |
| Predecessor | Charles IV |
| Successor | Rupert |
| | |
| Reign | 29 November 1378–16 August 1419 |
| Coronation | 15 June 1363 St. Vitus Cathedral, Prague |
| Predecessor | Charles IV |
| Successor | Sigismund |
| | |
| Reign | 2 October 1373–29 November 1378 |
| Predecessor | Otto VII |
| Successor | Sigismund |
| | |
| Reign | 7 December 1383- 1388 |
| Predecessor | Wenceslaus I |
| Successor | Jobst |
| Spouse | Joanna of Bavaria Sophia of Bavaria |
| House | House of Luxemburg |
| Father | Charles IV |
| Mother | Anna von Schweidnitz |
| Born | 26 February 1361 Nuremberg, Holy Roman Empire |
| Died | 16 August 1419 aoremovetag(aged 58) Nový hrad, Kunratice (Prague) |
Wenceslaus (also Wenceslas) (Czech: Václav; German: Wenzel, nicknamed der Faule ("the Idle")) (26 February 1361 – 16 August 1419) was, by election, German King (formally King of the Romans) from 1376 and, by inheritance, King of Bohemia (as Wenceslaus IV) from 1378. He was the third Bohemian and second German monarch of the Luxembourg dynasty. Wenceslaus was deposed in 1400 as German King, but continued to rule as King of Bohemia.
Biography
Wenceslaus was born at the Imperial city of Nuremberg, the son of Emperor Charles IV by his third wife Anna von Schweidnitz, a scion of the Silesian Piasts, and baptized at St. Sebaldus Church. He was raised by the Prague Archbishops Arnošt of Pardubice and Jan Očko z Vlašimi. His father had the two-year-old crowned King of Bohemia in 1363 and in 1373 also obtained for him the Electoral Margraviate of Brandenburg. When in 1376 Charles IV asserted Wenceslaus' election as King of the Romans by the prince-electors, two of seven votes, those of Brandenburg and Bohemia, were held by the emperor and his son themselves.
In order to secure the election of his son, Charles IV revoked the privileges of many Imperial Cities that he had earlier granted, and mortgaged them to various nobles. The cities, however, were not powerless, and as executors of the public peace, they had developed into a potent military force. Moreover, as Charles IV had organised the cities into leagues, he had made it possible for them to cooperate in large-scale endeavors. Indeed, on 4 July 1376, two days after Wenceslaus' election, fourteen Swabian cities bound together into an independent Swabian League to defend their rights against the newly elected King, attacking the lands of Count Eberhard II of Württemberg. The city league soon attracted other members and until 1389 acted as an autonomous state within the Empire.
Rule
On Charles's death in 1378, Wenceslaus inherited Bohemia and as Emperor-elect assumed the government of the Holy Roman Empire. In the cathedral of Monza there is conserved a series of reliefs depicting the coronations of the kings of Italy with the Iron Crown of Lombardy. The seventh of these depicts Wenceslaus being crowned in the presence of six electors, he himself being the seventh. The depiction is probably not accurate and was likely made solely to reinforce the claims of the cathedral on the custody of the Iron Crown.
In 1387 a quarrel between Duke Frederick of Bavaria and the cities of the Swabian League allied with the Archbishop of Salzburg gave the signal for a general war in Swabia, in which the cities, weakened by their isolation, mutual jealousies and internal conflicts, were defeated by the forces of Count Eberhard II of Württemberg at Döffingen near Gafenau on 24 August 1388, and were severally taken and devastated. Most of them quietly acquiesced when King Wenceslaus proclaimed an ambivalent arrangement at Cheb (Eger) in 1389 which prohibited all leagues between cities, whilst confirming their political autonomy. This Landfrieden provided a modicum of stability for the next several decades, however the cities dropped out as a basis of the central Imperial authority.
King of Bohemia
During his long reign Wenceslaus's grip on power was tenuous at best, as he soon came into repeated conflicts with the Bohemian nobility led by the House of Rosenberg. On two occasions he was even imprisoned for lengthy spells by rebellious nobles.
Wenceslaus' greatest liability proved to be his own family. Charles IV had divided his holdings among his sons and other relatives. Although Wenceslaus upon his father's death retained Bohemia, his younger half-brother Sigismund inherited Brandenburg, while John received the newly established Duchy of Görlitz in Upper Lusatia. The March of Moravia was divided between his cousins Jobst and Procopius, and his uncle Wenceslaus I was made Duke of Luxembourg. Hence the young king was left without the resources his father had enjoyed. In 1386, Sigismund became king of Hungary, and became involved in affairs further east.
Wenceslaus also faced serious opposition from the Bohemian nobles and even from his chancellor, the Prague archbishop Jan of Jenštejn. In the conflict around the investiture of the abbot of Kladruby, the torture and murder of the archbishop's vicar-general John of Nepomuk by royal officials in 1393 sparked a noble rebellion. In 1394 Wenceslaus' cousin Jobst of Moravia was named regent, while Wenceslaus was arrested at Králův Dvůr. King Sigismund of Hungary arranged a truce in 1396, and for his efforts was recognized as Wenceslaus' heir.
In the Papal Schism, Wenceslaus had supported Pope Urban VI. As Bohemian king he sought to protect the religious reformer Jan Hus and his followers against the demands of the Roman Catholic Church for their suppression as heretics. This caused many Germans to leave the University of Prague, and set up their own University at Leipzig. Hus was executed in Konstanz in 1415, and the rest of Wenceslaus's reign in Bohemia featured precursors of the Hussite Wars that would follow his death.
Dethronement
In view of his troubles in Bohemia, Wenceslaus did not seek for his coronation as Holy Roman Emperor and had not even been to Germany in ten years. Consequently, he faced anger at the Reichstag diets of Nuremberg (1397) and Frankfurt (1398). The four Rhenish electors, Count Palatine Rupert III and the Archbishops of Mainz, Cologne and Trier, accused him failing to maintain the public peace or to resolve the Schism. They demanded that Wenceslaus appear before them to answer to the charges in June 1400. Wenceslaus demurred, in large part because of renewed hostilities in Bohemia. When he failed to appear, the electors meeting at Lahneck Castle declared him deposed on 20 August 1400 on account of "futility, idleness, neglicence and ignobility". The next day they chose the Palatine Elector as their king at Rhens, though Wenceslaus refused to acknowledge this successor's decade-long reign.
In 1402 Wenceslaus was again imprisoned and temporarily deposed, this time by his younger brother Sigismund, with the support of the Czech nobility. Lord John of Liechtenstein, with his retinue of knights, successfully freed Wenceslaus from his Vienna prison in autumn of 1403, and accorded him refuge in his Moravian castle. John of Liechtenstein was at the time the Lord of the Mikulov demesne.
Among the charges that Ruprecht III had used as the basis for his predecessor's deposition was the Papal Schism. King Ruprecht called the Council of Pisa in 1409, attended by defectors from both papal parties. They elected Antipope Alexander V, only worsening the situation, because he was not acknowledged by his two rivals and from 1409 to 1417, there were three popes.
After the death of Ruprecht in 1410, his succession at first proved difficult, as both Wenceslaus' cousin Jobst of Moravia and Wenceslaus' brother Sigismund of Hungary were elected King of Germany. Wenceslaus himself had never recognized his deposition and hence still claimed the Kingship. Jobst died in 1411, and Wenceslaus agreed to give up the crown, so long as he could keep Bohemia. This settled the issue, and after 1411, Sigismund reigned as king and later also became Emperor.
The bishops and secular leaders, tired of the Great Schism, supported Sigismund when he called the Council of Constance in 1414. The goal of the council was to reform the church in head and members. What made it work was the translation of supreme authority from the popes to the council. In 1417, the council deposed all three popes and elected a new one, maintaining all the while that the council, and not the pope, was the supreme head of the church. By resolving the schism, Sigismund restored the honour of the imperial title and made himself the most influential monarch in the west.
Personal life
Wenceslaus was married twice, first to Joanna of Bavaria, a scion of the Wittelsbach dynasty, on 29 September 1370. Following her death on 31 December 1386 (allegedly mangled by one of Wenceslaus' beloved deer-hounds), he married her first cousin once removed, Sofia of Bavaria on 2 May 1389. He had no children by either wife.
The king is described as a man of great knowledge and is known for the Wenzel Bible, a richly illuminated manuscript he had drawn up between 1390 and 1400. However, his rule remained uncertain, varying between idleness and cruel measures as in the case of John of Nepomuk. Unlike his father, Wenceslaus relied on favouritism, which made him abhorrent to many nobles and led to increasing isolation. Moreover he probably suffered from alcoholism, which was brought to light in 1398 when he was unable to accept an invitation by King Charles VI of France for a reception at Reims due to his drunkenness.
Wenceslaus died in 1419 of a heart attack during a hunt in the woods surrounding his castle Nový hrad at Kunratice (today a part of Prague), leaving the country in a deep political crisis. His death was followed by almost two decades of conflict called the Hussite Wars which were centred around greater calls for religious reform by Jan Hus and from the popular outrage provoked by his martyrdom.
Ancestors
See also
Notes
References
- Lindner, Thomas. Deutsche Geschichte unter den Habsburgern und Luxemburgern. Vol. II. Stuttgart, 1893.
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