Wenceslaus IV
The troubled sovereign whose reign defines an era of unrest.
Wenceslaus IV (also spelled Wenceslas; Czech: Václav; German: Wenzel; nicknamed the Idle; also known as Wenceslaus of Luxembourg; 26 February 1361 – 16 August 1419) was King of Bohemia from 1378 until his death in 1419 and King of the Romans 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 as Wenceslaus II from 1383 to 1388. Born in Nuremberg, the son of Holy Roman Emperor Charles IV by his third wife Anna of Svídnická, he was baptized at St. Sebaldus Church and raised by the Prague Archbishops Arnošt of Pardubice and Jan Očko of Vlašim.
Quick Facts
- Predecessor
- Charles IV
- Successor
- Sigismund
- Coronation
- 15 June 1363; St. Vitus Cathedral, Prague
- Spouses
- Joanna of Bavaria; Sophia of Bavaria
- House
- Luxembourg
- Father
- Charles IV, Holy Roman Emperor
- Mother
- Anna von Schweidnitz
- Born
- 26 February 1361
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.
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.
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