Charles IV (Czech: Karel IV.; German: Karl IV.; Latin: Carolus IV; 14 May 1316 – 29 November 1378[1]), also known
as Charles of Luxembourg, born Wenceslaus (Czech: Václav, German: Wenzel),[2] had a long and successful reign, he was the first King of Bohemia to become Holy Roman Emperor. He was a member
of the House of Luxembourg from his father's side and the Bohemian House of Přemyslid from
his mother's side; he emphasized the latter due to his lifelong affinity for
the Bohemian side of his inheritance, and also because his direct ancestors in
the Přemyslid line included two saints.[3][4]
He was the eldest son
and heir of John of Bohemia,
King of Bohemia and Count of Luxembourg, who died at the Battle of
Crécy on 26 August 1346. His
mother, Elizabeth, Queen of Bohemia, was the sister of Wenceslaus
III, King of Bohemia and Poland, the last of the
male Přemyslid rulers of Bohemia. Charles inherited the County
of Luxembourg from his father and was elected
king of the Kingdom of Bohemia. On 2 September 1347, Charles was crowned King of Bohemia.
On 11 July 1346, the prince-electors chose him
as King of the Romans (rex Romanorum) in opposition to Louis IV,
Holy Roman Emperor. Charles was crowned on
26 November 1346 in Bonn. After his opponent died, he was re-elected in 1349 and crowned
King of the Romans. In 1355, he was crowned King
of Italy and Holy Roman Emperor. With his
coronation as King of Burgundy in 1365, he became the personal ruler of all the kingdoms
of the Holy Roman Empire.
Having played a
tremendous part in the political and cultural history of the Kingdom of Bohemia, he remains a
very popular figure in the Czech Republic. The Golden Bull of 1356 marked a structural change in the politics of the Holy
Roman Empire. Several aspects of his legacy remain a contentious matter though. The image of Charles
as a wise, pious, peace-loving king (partly constructed by Charles himself) has
proved influential until this day, supported by several artistic or scholarly
projects produced during Charles's reign or afterwards.
Charles was born
to John of Bohemia of
the Luxembourg dynasty and Queen Elizabeth of
Bohemia of the Bohemian Přemyslid dynasty in Prague.[5] His
maternal grandfather was the Bohemian King Wenceslaus
II. He chose the name Charles at his confirmation in honor of his
uncle, King Charles IV of France, at whose court he was resident for seven years.[6]
Charles received
French education and was literate and fluent in five languages: Latin, Czech, German, French, and Italian.[citation needed]
In 1331, he gained
some experience of warfare in Italy with his father. At the beginning of 1333,
Charles went to Lucca (Tuscany) to consolidate his rule
there. In an effort to defend the city, Charles founded the nearby fortress and
the town of Montecarlo (Charles' Mountain).[7]
From 1333, he
administered the lands of the Bohemian Crown due to his father's frequent absence and deteriorating
eyesight. In 1334, Charles was named Margrave
of Moravia, the traditional title for heirs to the
throne. Two years later, he assumed the government of Tyrol on behalf of his
brother, John Henry,
and was soon actively involved in a struggle for the possession of this county.[8]
On 11 July 1346, in
consequence of an alliance between his father and Pope
Clement VI, relentless enemy of the emperor Louis IV, Charles was elected as Roman king in opposition to Louis by
some of the prince-electors at Rhens. As he had previously promised to be subservient to Clement, he
made extensive concessions to the pope in 1347. Confirming the papacy in the
possession of vast territories, he promised to annul the acts of Louis against
Clement, to take no part in Italian affairs, and to defend and protect the
church.[8]
Charles IV was in a
very weak position in Germany. Owing to the terms of his election, he was
derisively referred to as a "Priests' King" (Pfaffenkönig). Many bishops and nearly all of the Imperial cities remained loyal
to Louis the Bavarian. Worse still, Charles backed the wrong side in the Hundred Years' War, losing his
father and many of his best knights at the Battle
of Crécy in August 1346, with Charles himself
escaping from the field wounded.
Civil war in Germany
was prevented, however, when Louis IV died on 11 October 1347, after suffering
a stroke during a bear hunt. In January 1349, House
of Wittelsbach partisans attempted to secure
the election of Günther von Schwarzburg as king, but he attracted few supporters and was defeated
by Charles at the siege of Eltville in May. Thereafter, Charles faced no direct threat to his
claim to the Imperial throne.
Charles initially
worked to secure his power base. Bohemia had remained untouched by the plague. Prague became his capital, and
he rebuilt the city on the model of Paris, establishing the New Town (Nové Město). In 1348, he
founded the Charles University in Prague, which was later named after him and was the first university
in Central Europe.
This served as a training ground for bureaucrats and lawyers. Soon Prague
emerged as the intellectual and cultural center of Central Europe.
Bust of Charles IV in St.
Vitus Cathedral, 1370s
Having made good use
of the difficulties of his opponents, Charles was again elected in Frankfurt on 17 June 1349 and
re-crowned at Aachen on
25 July 1349. He was soon the undisputed ruler of the Empire. Gifts or promises
had won the support of the Rhenish and Swabian towns; a marriage alliance secured the friendship of the
Habsburgs; and an alliance with Rudolf II of
Bavaria, Count
Palatine of the Rhine, was obtained when Charles,
who had become a widower in 1348, married Rudolph's daughter Anna.[8]
In 1350, the king was
visited at Prague by the Roman tribune Cola di Rienzo, who urged him to go to Italy, where the poet Petrarch and the citizens
of Florence also
implored his presence.[9] Turning a deaf ear to these
entreaties, Charles kept Cola in prison for a year, and then handed him as a
prisoner to Clement at Avignon.[8]
Outside Prague,
Charles attempted to expand the Bohemian crown lands, using his imperial
authority to acquire fiefs in Silesia, the Upper Palatinate, and Franconia. The latter regions comprised "New Bohemia", a string
of possessions intended to link Bohemia with the Luxemburg territories in the
Rhineland. The Bohemian estates, however, were not willing to support Charles
in these ventures. When Charles sought to codify Bohemian law in the Maiestas Carolina of 1355, he
met with sharp resistance. After that point, Charles found it expedient to
scale back his efforts at centralization.
In 1354, Charles
crossed the Alps without
an army, received the Lombard crown in St. Ambrose Basilica, Milan, on 6 January 1355, and was crowned emperor at Rome by a cardinal on April 5th of the
same year.[10][8] His sole object appears to have been to obtain the
Imperial crown in peace, in accordance with a promise previously made to Pope
Clement. He only remained in the city for a few hours, in spite of the
expressed wishes of the Roman people. Having virtually abandoned all the
Imperial rights in Italy, the emperor re-crossed the Alps, pursued by the
scornful words of Petrarch, but laden with considerable wealth.[11][8] On his return, Charles was occupied with the
administration of the Empire, then just recovering from the Black Death, and in 1356, he
promulgated the famous Golden Bull to regulate the election of the king.[8]
Charles's possessions at the signing of the Golden Bull of 1356.
Having given Moravia to one brother, John Henry, and erected the county of Luxembourg into a
duchy for another, Wenceslaus, he was unremitting in his efforts to secure other territories
as compensation and to strengthen the Bohemian monarchy. To this end he
purchased part of the upper Palatinate of the
Rhine in 1353, and in 1367 annexed Lower Lusatia to Bohemia and
bought numerous estates in various parts of Germany. On the death of Meinhard, Duke of Upper Bavaria and Count of Tyrol, in 1363, Upper Bavaria was claimed by
the sons of the emperor Louis IV, and Tyrol by Rudolf IV, Duke
of Austria. Both claims were admitted by Charles on
the understanding that if these families died out both territories should pass
to the House of Luxembourg. At about the same time, he was promised the succession to
the Margravate of Brandenburg, which he actually obtained for his son Wenceslaus
in 1373.[8]
Meeting with Charles V of France in Paris in 1378, from a fifteenth-century manuscript in the Bibliothèque de l'Arsenal
Casimir III of Poland and Louis I of Hungary entered a conspiracy against Charles and managed to
persuade Otto V of Bavaria to join. After the repeal of the estate contract by
margrave Otto, in early July 1371, Charles IV declared hostilities and
invaded Margraviate of Brandenburg; after two years of conflict, in 1373 Brandenburg became part
of the Czech lands.
This was when he gave the order to measure his new territory, its villages,
people, and income. This was recorded in the Landbuch
of Charles IV, which was finished in 1375. Many
villages were mentioned for the first time in this book, so it can provide
information on how old they are. He also gained a considerable portion of Silesian territory, partly by
inheritance through his third wife, Anna von
Schweidnitz, daughter of Henry II, Duke of Świdnica and Catherine of Hungary. In 1365,
Charles visited Pope Urban V at Avignon and undertook to escort him to Rome; on the same occasion
he was crowned King of Burgundy at Arles.[8]
His second journey to
Italy took place in 1368 when he had a meeting with Pope Urban V at Viterbo, was besieged in his palace
at Siena, and left
the country before the end of 1369. During his later years, the emperor took
little part in German affairs beyond securing the election of his son
Wenceslaus as king of the Romans in 1376, and negotiating a peace between
the Swabian League of Cities and some nobles in 1378. After dividing his lands
between his three sons and his nephews,[1] he died
in November 1378 at Prague, where he was buried, and where a statue was erected to his
memory in 1848.[8]
The reign of Charles
IV was characterized by a transformation in the nature of the Empire and is
remembered as the Golden Age of Bohemia. He promulgated the Golden Bull of 1356 whereby the
succession to the imperial title was laid down, which held for the next four
centuries.
He also organized the
states of the empire into peace-keeping confederations. In these, the Imperial cities figured prominently. The Swabian
Landfriede confederation of 1370 was made up almost entirely of Imperial Cities. At the same time,
the leagues were organized and led by the crown and its agents. As with the
electors, the cities that served in these leagues were given privileges to aid
in their efforts to keep the peace.
He assured his
dominance over the eastern borders of the Empire through succession treaties
with the Habsburgs and
the purchase of Brandenburg. He also claimed imperial lordship over the
crusader states of Prussia and Livonia.
In 2005 Charles IV
ranked the first in the TV show Největší
Čech, the Czech spin-off of the BBC Greatest
Britons show.
Statue of Charles IV near Charles Bridge (1848), Prague, by Ernst
Julius Hähnel
Prague became the capital of the Holy Roman Empire during the
reign of Charles IV. The name of the royal founder and patron remains on many
monuments and institutions, for example Charles
University, Charles
Bridge, Charles
Square. High
Gothic Prague
Castle and part of the cathedral of Saint Vitus by Peter Parler were also built
under his patronage. Finally, the first flowering of manuscript painting in
Prague dates from Charles's reign. In the present Czech Republic, he is still regarded
as Pater Patriae (father of the country or otec vlasti), a title first coined
by Adalbertus Ranconis de Ericinio at his funeral.
Charles also had
strong ties to Nuremberg,
staying within its city walls 52 times and thereby strengthening its reputation
amongst German cities. Charles was the patron of the Nuremberg Frauenkirche, built
between 1352 and 1362 (the architect was likely Peter
Parler), where the imperial court worshipped during
its stays in Nuremberg.
Charles's imperial
policy was focused on the dynastic sphere and abandoned the lofty ideal of the
Empire as a universal monarchy of Christendom. In 1353, he granted the Duchy of Luxembourg to his
half-brother, Wenceslaus. He concentrated his energies chiefly on the economic and
intellectual development of Bohemia, where he founded the university in 1348
and encouraged the early humanists. He corresponded with Petrarch and invited him to visit the royal residence in Prague,
whilst the Italian hoped – to no avail – to see Charles move his residence to
Rome and reawaken tradition of the Roman
Empire.
Charles's sister Bona married the eldest son
of Philip VI of France, the future John II of
France, in 1335. Thus, Charles was the maternal
uncle of Charles V of France, who solicited his relative's advice at Metz in 1356 during the Parisian Revolt. This family
connection was celebrated publicly when Charles made a solemn visit to his
nephew in 1378, just months before his death. A detailed account of the
occasion, enriched by many splendid miniatures, can be found in Charles V's
copy of the Grandes Chroniques de France.
Karlštejn,
1348–1355 in Central Bohemian Region for safekeeping the Imperial
Regalia, especially the Imperial Crown of the Holy Roman Empire (later the Czech Crown
Jewels were also kept there)
Kašperk (Karlsberg),
1356 in Kašperské Hory in Plzeň Region
Lauf (Wenzelsburg)
– built on the way connecting Prague and Nuremberg in Bohemian Palatinate, inside survived 112 coats of arms of the Bohemian Kingdom
Charles was married
four times. His first wife was Blanche of Valois (1316–1348), daughter of Charles, Count of Valois, and a half-sister of King Philip VI
of France.[5] They
had three children:
son (b. 1334), died young
Margaret of Bohemia, Queen of
Hungary (1335–1349); married King Louis I of Hungary.[13]
Catherine of Bohemia (1342–1395); married Rudolf
IV, Duke of Austria[14] and Otto V, Duke of
Bavaria and Elector of Brandenburg.
He secondly
married Anna of Bavaria,
(1329–1353), daughter of Rudolf II, Count
Palatine of the Rhine; they had one son:
Wenceslaus (1350–1351).
His third wife
was Anna von Schweidnitz,
(1339–1362),[5] daughter of Henry II,
Duke of Świdnica and Katharina of Anjou (daughter
of Charles I Robert, King of Hungary), by whom he had three children:
Elisabeth of Bohemia (19 April 1358 – 4 September 1373); married Albert III, Duke of Austria at
the very young age of 8 and died at the age of 15, they had no children.[5]
Wenceslaus IV of Bohemia (1361–1419);[5] later
elected King of Germany (formally King of the Romans) and on his father's
death, became King of Bohemia (as Wenceslaus IV) and Emperor-elect of the
Holy Roman Empire; married firstly to Joanna
of Bavaria in 1370 and secondly to Sophia of Bavaria in 1389.
son (born and died 11 July
1362).
His fourth wife
was Elizabeth of Pomerania,
(1345 or 1347 – 1393),[15] daughter of Bogislaw V, Duke of Pomerania and Elisabeth of Poland who was the
daughter of King Casimir III of Poland. They had six children:
Anne of Bohemia, Queen of
England (1366–1394); married King Richard II of England[15]
Sigismund of Bohemia (1368–1437);[15] later
became Holy Roman Emperor, was King of Bohemia, Margrave
of Brandenburg, and also King of Hungary through his
first marriage to Mary, Queen of Hungary in 1385. His second marriage was to Barbara of Cilli, the daughter and
youngest child of Herman II, Count of Celje, in 1405/1408.
John of Bohemia (1370–1396); later Margrave
of Moravia and Duke of Görlitz; married Richardis Catherine of Sweden, the
daughter of Albert, King of Sweden.[15] His only daughter and heiress Elisabeth of Görlitz was Duchess of Luxembourg.
Charles (13 March 1372 – 24 July
1373).
Margaret of Bohemia, Burgravine
of Nuremberg (1373–1410); married John III, Burgrave of Nuremberg.[15]
Henry (1377–1378)
Charles had one
illegitimate son, William, born in 1362 to an unknown woman. He was raised in
Brabant and seems to have joined his father at the time of the latter's trip to
France in 1377. He was acknowledged by his father, who sought a papal dispensation for him to
marry within the fourth degree. It is unknown if he ever married. He served his
Bohemian relatives as a diplomat, but his ultimate fate is unknown.[16]
1. ^ Jump up to:ab Karl IV. In: Hans Herzfeld [de] (1960): Geschichte in Gestalten (History in figures), vol. 2: F–K. Das
Fischer Lexikon [de] 38, Frankfurt 1963, p. 294
2.
^ Kavka, František
(1998). "Chapter 3: Politics and culture under Charles IV". In Teich, Mikuláš (ed.). Bohemia
in History. Cambridge University Press. p. 60. ISBN 0-521-43155-7.
3.
^ Mahoney, William
(2011). The history of the Czech Republic and Slovakia. Greenwood.
p. 50. ISBN 978-0313363054.
4.
^ Agnew, Hugh
(2004). The Czechs and the lands of the
Bohemian crown. Hoover Institution Press. pp. 32. ISBN 978-0817944926.
5.
^ Jump up to:abcde Boehm & Fajt 2005, p. xvi.
6.
^ "Charles IV – the
greatest Czech". Prague City Tourism Prague
City Tourism. Retrieved 19 April 2020.
7.
^ Montecarlo
8.
^ Jump up to:abcdefghij
One
or more of the preceding sentences incorporates text from a publication
now in the public domain: Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). "Charles
IV. (Roman Emperor)". Encyclopædia Britannica. Vol. 5
(11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. pp. 898–899.
9.
^ Francesco Petrarca Epistolae familiares X.1, XII.1, XVIII.1; See also: E.H. Wilkins Life of Petrarch (Chicago,
1961) 97, 112, 134 resp.
10.
^ František Palacký. Dějiny národu
českého v Čechách i v Moravě, books
VIII and IX
11.
^ Francesco Petrarca, Epistolae familiares XIX.12; see also E. H. Wilkins, Life of Petrarch (Chicago,
1961), p. 147
12.
^ Karel IV. – český
král
13.
^ Dvornik 1962, p. 52.
14.
^ Jaschke 1997, p. 102.
15.
^ Jump up to:abcde Boehm & Fajt 2005, p. xvii.
Charles IV (autobiography),
edited by Balázs Nagy, Frank Schaer: Autobiography of
Emperor Charles IV; And, His Legend of St. Wenceslas: Karoli IV Imperatoris
Romanorum Vita Ab Eo Ipso Conscripta; Et, Hystoria Nova de Sancto Wenceslao
Martyre, Published by Central European University
Press, 2001, ISBN 978-9639116320, 259 pages, books.google.com
Boehm, Barbara Drake
(2005). Prague : the Crown of Bohemia, 1347–1437. New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art. ISBN 1588391612.
Wenceslaus IV (also Wenceslas; Czech: Václav; German: Wenzel, nicknamed "the Idle";[1] 26
February 1361 – 16 August 1419), also known as Wenceslaus of Luxembourg, was King of Bohemia from 1378 until
his death and King of Germany from 1376 until he was deposed in 1400. As he belonged to
the House of Luxembourg, he was also Duke of
Luxembourg from 1383 to 1388.
Wenceslaus was born
in 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 of Vlašim. His father had the
two-year-old crowned King of Bohemia in June 1363[2] and in
1373 also obtained for him the Electoral Margraviate
of Brandenburg. When on 10 June 1376
Charles IV asserted Wenceslaus' election as King of the Romans[2] by
the prince-electors,
two of seven votes, those of Brandenburg and Bohemia, were held by the emperor and his son themselves. Wenceslaus
was crowned at Aix-la-Chapelle on 6 July.[2]
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, fourteen Swabian cities bound together
into the independent Swabian League of Cities to defend their rights against the newly elected King,
attacking the lands of Eberhard II, Count
of Württemberg. The city league soon attracted
other members and until 1389 acted as an autonomous state within the Empire.
Wenceslaus took some
part in government during his father's lifetime,[2] and on
Charles' death in 1378, he inherited the Crown
of Bohemia and as king assumed the government
of the Holy Roman Empire. In the cathedral of Monza there is preserved 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 Frederick, Duke 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 Eberhard II, Count of Württemberg, at Döffingen, near Grafenau, on 24 August 1388. The
cities were taken severally and devastated. Most of them quietly acquiesced
when King Wenceslaus proclaimed an ambivalent arrangement at Cheb (Eger) in 1389 that prohibited all
leagues between cities, while confirming their political autonomy. This
settlement provided a modicum of stability for the next several decades,
however the cities dropped out as a basis of the central Imperial authority.
During his long
reign, Wenceslaus held a tenuous grip on power at best, as he 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.
But the greatest
liability for Wenceslaus 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 had already been made Duke of Luxembourg. Hence the young king was
left without the resources his father had enjoyed, although he inherited the
duchy of Luxembourg from his uncle in 1383.[2] 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 a conflict surrounding 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 he was recognized as heir to Wenceslaus.
In the Papal Schism, Wenceslaus had
supported the Roman 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 withdraw from
the University of Prague, and set up their own university
at Leipzig.
He then met Charles VI of France at Reims, where the two monarchs
decided to persuade the rival popes, now Benedict
XIII and Boniface
IX, to resign, and to end the papal schisms by the
election of a new pontiff. Many of the princes were angry at this abandonment
of Boniface by Wenceslaus, who had also aroused much indignation by his long
absence from Germany and by selling the title of duke of Milan to Gian Galeazzo Visconti.[2]
Hus was eventually
executed in Konstanz in
1415, and the rest of Wenceslaus' reign in Bohemia featured precursors of
the Hussite Wars that
would follow his death during the Defenestrations
of Prague.
In view of his
troubles in Bohemia, Wenceslaus did not seek a coronation ceremony as Holy Roman Emperor, which did little
to endear him to the pope. He also was long absent from the German lands.
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 of 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, negligence and ignobility". The
next day they chose Rupert as their king at Rhens. Although Wenceslaus refused to acknowledge this successor's
decade-long reign, he made no move against Rupert.[2]
On 29 June 1402
Wenceslaus was captured by Sigismund, who at first intended to escort him to Rome to have him
crowned emperor, but Rupert heard of this plan and tried to prevent the passage
to Italy, so that Sigismund had Wenceslaus imprisoned, at first in Schaumberg, and from 16 August in
Vienna, in the charge of William, Duke of
Austria.[3] On 20
November, Wenceslaus was forced to sign his renunciation of all his powers to
Sigismund and the Dukes of Austria. In exchange, the conditions of his
imprisonment were relaxed.[4] In early 1403, Rupert made
diplomatic overtures to Sigismund, attempting to get him to forgo his attempt
to secure the imperial crown. But Sigismund invaded Bohemia with Hungarian
forces, looting and imposing heavy taxes, and persecuting the supporters of
Wenceslaus. He also plundered the royal treasury to pay for his military
campaigns against the supporters of Rupert and of Jobst of Moravia. An armistice
between Sigismund and Jobst was agreed to be in effect from 14 April until 20
May. This gave Sigismund's opponents time to prepare, and after the end of the
armistice, Sigismund could make no further gains and retreated from Bohemia,
reaching Bratislava on
24 July.[5] On 1 October 1403, Pope
Boniface IX finally acknowledged the
deposition of Wenceslaus and the election of Rupert as King of the Romans. As a
coronation of Wenceslaus was now no longer a possibility, and while he was
nominally still prisoner in Vienna, he was no longer under strict guard, and he
managed to escape on 11 November. He crossed the Danube and was escorted
by John II of Liechtenstein via Mikulov back to Bohemia, meeting his supporters in Kutná Hora before moving on
Prague, which he entered on Christmas.[6]
Among the charges
raised by Rupert as the basis for his predecessor's deposition was the Papal
Schism. King Rupert called the Council of Pisa in 1409, attended by defectors from both papal parties.
They elected Antipope Alexander V, worsening the situation because he was not acknowledged by his
two rivals, and from 1409 to 1417 there were three popes.
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 (according to an unproven legend "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.
Wenceslaus was
described as a man of great knowledge and is known for the Wenceslas 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.[7]
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 on greater calls for
religious reform by Jan Hus and spurred by popular outrage provoked by his execution.
The 2018 video
game Kingdom Come: Deliverance is set in Bohemia under the rule of King Wenceslaus IV in
1403. The plot revolves around a blacksmith's son unwittingly getting involved
in the War of Succession after the death of Charles IV.[8]
This
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Henri II, dit « le Boiteux » ou « le Saint », né en mai 973 (selon le nécrologe de Mersebourg, le 6 mai) et mort le 13 juillet 1024, est le sixième et dernier roi
de Germanie ou empereur romain germanique de la dynastie saxonne et
ottonienne. Duc de Bavière de 995 à 1004 et de 1009 à 1017, roi de Francie-Orientale (Germanie) en 1002, roi d'Italie en 1004, élu empereur romain germanique en
1002, il est couronné à Rome par le pape Benoît VIII en 1014. Il épouse Cunégonde, qu'il associe à son gouvernement. Menant une vie pieuse, il
encourage le développement du monachisme, créé, en 1007, sur des terres qui lui appartenaient en propre depuis 995, l'évêché de Bamberg, et doit combattre Boleslas Ier, duc puis roi de Pologne. Mort en 1024 à Göttingen en Saxe, enseveli à Bamberg, il est canonisé en 1146. L'impératrice connaît cette reconnaissance en 1200. L'Église
catholique le célèbre le 13 juillet (anciennement
le 15 juillet).
Origine et jeunesse[modifier | modifier le code]
Fils
d'Henri le Querelleur, duc de
Bavière et de Gisèle de Bourgogne, fille du roi Conrad III de
Bourgogne, Henri, destiné à être clerc comme son
frère Bruno, est éduqué par l'Église, d’abord par l'évêque Abraham de Freising,
puis au sein de l'école cathédrale de Hildesheim. Il choisit toutefois l'état laïc et épouse Cunégonde de Luxembourg, dans le
cadre d'un mariage marqué par la chasteté car il passe pour ne pouvoir être père1. Il succède à son père
comme duc de Bavière en 995 sous le nom d’Henri IV de Bavière2.
Roi de Francie-Orientale[modifier | modifier le code]
En
route vers Rome pour
y secourir son cousin (issu de germain) l'empereur Otton III, mort en
janvier 1002, il
s’empare des insignes de roi de Germanie rapidement, pour faire face à ceux qui
s’opposent à lui. Il est toutefois élu roi de Germanie à Mayence le 7 juin 1002, contre son cousin Othon de Carinthie. Contesté
par Ekkehard de Misnie et Hermann II de
Souabe, il est couronné le 8 septembre 1002 à Mayence grâce à l’appui de l’archevêque de Mayence, Willigis3,4.
Henri II et Cunégonde de
Luxembourg.
Il
part ensuite en Italie pour affronter Arduin d’Ivrée, auto-proclamé roi d'Italie et instigateur de la révolte contre les Allemands
(incendie du palais impérial de Pavie). Il s’y fait couronner roi le 15
mai 1004 à Pavie dans la basilique
San Michele Maggiore5 et parvient à restaurer l'essentiel de l'autorité
germanique dans le nord de la péninsule mais une partie de la noblesse
italienne refuse longtemps de le reconnaître.
Il
doit abandonner cette campagne difficile et pleine d’atrocités pour retourner
en Pologne combattre Boleslas Ier de Pologne. Cette guerre comprend trois campagnes : celle de 1004-1005 permet
de dégager la Bohême en rétablissant en août 1004 le duc Jaromir, frère de Boleslav III de Bohême,
qui avait été capturé et détrôné par le duc polonais. La Moravie restait toutefois entre
les mains de Boleslas II ainsi que la Lusace qu'il avait occupée au
début des hostilités. Henri n'hésite pas à s'allier aux païens Lituaniens contre les Polonais chrétiens. Ces
campagnes se prolongent en 1007-1013 et 1015-1018 jusqu’à la paix de Bautzen en 1018, par laquelle Boleslas conserve
la Lusace et
la Marche de Misnie,
mais en tant que fief d'Empire6. En 1006, il fait
fermer le dernier marché d’esclaves de l’Empire qui était tenu à Mecklembourg7,8.
Henri II mène
une nouvelle campagne en Italie en 1013 et cette fois il parvient jusqu'à Rome, où le pape Benoît VIII le couronne
empereur le 14 février 10149. Il intervient comme ses prédécesseurs, dans les affaires de l'Église10. C’est d’ailleurs dans le domaine des relations entre l’Empire
et l’Église, et dans le fonctionnement interne de l’Église que se situent ses
interventions les plus significatives. Il soutient les évêques contre le clergé
régulier, qui parviennent à concilier leur pouvoir séculier sur leurs
territoires avec leur pouvoir spirituel. Il renforce l’obligation de célibat du
clergé, de façon que les dons de terre n’aillent pas aux héritiers, ce qui lui
garantit des évêques fidèles et donc un appui contre les nobles rebelles et les
familles ambitieuses. Il fonde l’évêché de Bamberg en 1007, qui devient rapidement un centre de culture. En 1020, le pape consacre cette
nouvelle cathédrale et
le convainc de revenir pour une troisième et dernière campagne en Italie.
En 1022, afin de soutenir le pape Benoît VIII l'empereur
conduit une puissante armée de soixante mille hommes en Italie. À la tête du
contingent le plus important il suit la côte adriatique. L’archevêque Pilgrim de
Cologne avec vingt mille hommes descend le
long de la côte tyrrhénienne pour soumettre Capoue, ce qu’il fait en capturant le prince, Pandolf IV. Une troisième
armée, plus petite de onze mille hommes, commandée par Poppon d'Aquilée, suit les Apennins. Les trois armées se
rejoignent pour le siège de Troia, la nouvelle forteresse byzantine, défendue par le catapan Basil Boiannes.
L'empereur Henri II gracie Pandolf IV qui avait été
condamné à mort dans un premier temps et l'envoie captif en Allemagne? et il
impose entre 1022 et 1026, comme prince Pandolf VI de Teano et
son fils et associé Jean. S'il échoue dans le siège de Troia, le sud de
l’Italie passe temporairement sous son autorité jusqu'au retour après sa mort
de Panfolf libéré et soutenu par les Byzantins11. Sur le chemin du retour, il participe à un synode à Pavie, où il défend la réforme de
l’Église.
En 1023, à l’entrevue d'Yvois, près de l'abbaye de Mouzon (du 6 au 13 août),
il renonce à demander au roi de France Robert II le
Pieux un hommage, probablement par humilité12.
En 1024 il installe encore sur le
trône pontifical Jean XIX et travaille ensuite avec lui à la préparation d'un
nouveau concile pour établir un mode de fonctionnement entre l’Église et
l’Empire car l'église impériale d'Allemagne va en se corrompant du fait de
l'investiture dans le seigneuries ecclésiastiques par la noblesse de prélats
laïcs ayant parfois des enfants légitimes ou issu de concubines.
Henri II meurt soudainement le 13
juillet 1024. Avec son épouse Cunégonde il repose dans la cathédrale
de Bamberg qu'il affectionnait
particulièrement.
Aucun
enfant n'étant né de son mariage avec Cunégonde de
Luxembourg, l'union du couple fut généralement
considérée comme virginale, ce qui entraîna la canonisation des souverains et
la nécessité d'une nouvelle élection lors de la succession. C'est Conrad le Salique qui, non sans
tumulte, est choisi.
Réputé
pour sa piété et son rôle dans la réforme de l'Église, il est canonisé en 1146 ; il est le seul empereur
germanique à l'avoir été (Charlemagne fut canonisé en 1165 par l'anti-pape Pascal III. La Curie romaine n'a jamais validé ni infirmé cette mesure. Le culte est
toléré, et le statut de bienheureux reconnu par Benoît XIV13).
La Saint-Henri dans les almanachs[modifier | modifier le code]
·
Dicton : Quand
reviendra la Saint-Henri (13 juillet), tu planteras ton céleri.
·
Fête : le 13
juillet (le 15
juillet précédemment).
Notes et références[modifier | modifier le code]
1. ↑ Joseph Calmette Le Reich allemand au Moyen Âge,
Payot Paris 1951 p. 104 et note no 1.
2. ↑ (en) Heinrich IV duke of Bavaria sur
le site Medieval Lands [archive].
3. ↑ Joseph Calmette op.
cit. p. 103-104.
4. ↑ Ausgrabungen in der Mainzer Johanniskirche "Es ist immer
mit einer Überraschung zu rechnen" [archive].
5. ↑ Gillian Elliott, « "Representing Royal
Authority at San Michele Maggiore in Pavia" Zeitschrift fur
Kunstgeschichte 77 (2014) », Zeitschrift
fur Kunstgeschichte, 2014 (lire en ligne [archive], consulté le 28 août 2022).
6. ↑ D’après Charles Higounet, Les Allemands en Europe centrale et orientale au Moyen Âge, Paris, Aubier, 1989, 454 p. (ISBN 2-7007-2223-X), p. 64.
7. ↑ D’après (de) Helmut
Söring, « Die Karriere eines Bayern », Hamburger Abendblatt, 30
juillet 2002 (lire
en ligne [archive]).
10. ↑ Choqué de ce que
le Credo ne
soit pas dit durant la messe, il obtient du pape Benoît VIII qu'il soit
introduit dans la liturgie, au moins les dimanches et jours de fête.
