Wenceslaus IV

Lore & Background

Wenceslaus was crowned King of Bohemia at age two in June 1363, and in 1373 his father obtained for him the Electoral Margraviate of Brandenburg. On 10 June 1376, Charles IV asserted Wenceslaus' election as King of the Romans by the prince-electors, with two of seven votes—Brandenburg and Bohemia—held by the emperor and his son themselves. Wenceslaus was crowned at Aachen on 6 July. To secure this election, Charles IV revoked privileges of many Imperial Cities and mortgaged them to nobles. On 4 July 1376, fourteen Swabian cities formed the independent Swabian League of Cities to defend their rights, attacking the lands of Eberhard II, Count of Württemberg. The city league acted as an autonomous state within the Holy Roman Empire until 1389. In 1387, a quarrel between Frederick, Duke of Bavaria, and the cities of the Swabian League allied with the Archbishop of Salzburg led to a general war in Swabia. The cities were defeated by Eberhard II's forces at Döffingen near Grafenau on 24 August 1388. Wenceslaus proclaimed an arrangement at Cheb (Eger) in 1389 that prohibited all leagues between cities while confirming their political autonomy, providing stability for several decades but removing cities as a basis of central Imperial authority.

In Their Own Story

During his long reign, Wenceslaus held a tenuous grip on power, coming into repeated conflicts with the Bohemian nobility led by the House of Rosenberg. On two occasions he was imprisoned for lengthy spells by rebellious nobles during the Moravian Margrave Wars. His greatest liability proved to be his own family: Charles IV divided his holdings among his sons and other relatives. Wenceslaus retained Bohemia, but his younger half-brother Sigismund inherited Brandenburg, John received the Duchy of Görlitz, the March of Moravia was divided between cousins Jobst and Procopius, and his uncle Wenceslaus I was already Duke of Luxembourg. In 1386, Sigismund became King of Hungary through marriage with Queen Maria of Anjou. In a conflict surrounding the investiture of the abbot of Kladruby, the torture and murder of Archbishop Jan of Jenštejn's vicar-general Saint 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 was recognized as heir to Wenceslaus. In the Papal Schism, Wenceslaus supported Roman Pope Urban VI and sought to protect religious reformer Jan Hus and his followers. Hus and his followers drove German academics from the University of Prague through the Decree of Kutná Hora in 1409. Wenceslaus met King Charles VI of France at Reims, where they decided to persuade the rival popes—Avignonian Antipope Benedict XIII and Roman Pope Boniface IX—to resign. Many princes were angered by this abandonment of Boniface and by Wenceslaus selling the title of Duke of Milan to Gian Galeazzo Visconti. Hus was executed in Konstanz in 1415 by the Council of Constance, and the rest of Wenceslaus' reign featured precursors of the Hussite Wars that would follow his death.

Reader's Guide

In view of his troubles in Bohemia, Wenceslaus did not seek a coronation ceremony as Holy Roman Emperor. At the Reichstag diets of Nuremberg (1397) and Frankfurt (1398), the four Rhenish electors—Count Palatine Rupert and the archbishops of Mainz, Cologne and Trier—accused him of failing to maintain public peace or resolve the Schism. They demanded he appear before them in Oberlahnstein in June 1400. Wenceslaus demurred due to renewed hostilities in Bohemia. When he failed to appear, the electors meeting at Lahneck Castle declared him deposed from the title King of the Romans on 20 August 1400 on account of 'futility, idleness, negligence and ignobility.' They claimed the Golden Bull of 1356 justified their defection. The next day they chose Count Palatine Rupert as King of the Romans at Rhens. On 29 June 1402, Wenceslaus was captured by Sigismund, King of Hungary, who intended to escort him to Rome for coronation as Holy Roman Emperor. Rupert III heard of this plan and tried to prevent passage to Italy, so Sigismund had Wenceslaus imprisoned, first at Schaumberg and from 16 August in Vienna under charge of William, Duke of Austria. On 20 November, Wenceslaus was forced to sign renunciation of all his powers to Sigismund and the Dukes of Austria. He escaped on 11 November, crossed the Danube, was escorted by John II of Liechtenstein via Mikulov back to Bohemia, met supporters in Kutná Hora, and entered Prague on Christmas. After Rupert's death in 1410, both Jobst of Moravia and Sigismund of Hungary were elected King of the Romans. Wenceslaus himself never recognized his deposition. Jobst died in 1411, and Wenceslaus agreed to give up the crown so long as he could keep Bohemia. After 1411, Sigismund reigned as king, with Wenceslaus himself and all six other prince-electors electing him.

Did You Know?

• Wenceslaus was crowned King of Bohemia at the age of two in June 1363.
• He was nicknamed 'the Idle' and was deposed as King of the Romans on 20 August 1400 for 'futility, idleness, negligence and ignobility.'
• The torture and murder of Archbishop Jan of Jenštejn's vicar-general Saint John of Nepomuk by royal officials in 1393 sparked a noble rebellion.
• Wenceslaus escaped from imprisonment in Vienna on 11 November and entered Prague on Christmas Day.
• After the death of Rupert in 1410, Wenceslaus agreed to give up the crown of King of the Romans so long as he could keep Bohemia.