Editing Wenceslaus IV of Bohemia (section)

==Biography==
Wenceslaus was born in the [[Free imperial city|Imperial city]] of [[Nuremberg]], the son of Emperor [[Charles IV, Holy Roman Emperor|Charles&nbsp;IV]] by his third wife [[Anna Svídnická]], a scion of the [[Silesian Piasts]], and baptized at [[St. Sebaldus Church, Nuremberg|St.&nbsp;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{{sfn|Chisholm|1911|p=517}} and in 1373 also obtained for him the Electoral [[Margraviate of Brandenburg]]. When on 10 June 1376 Charles&nbsp;IV asserted Wenceslaus' election as [[King of the Romans]]{{sfn|Chisholm|1911|p=517}} by the [[prince-elector]]s, two of seven votes, those of [[Brandenburg]] and [[Kingdom of Bohemia|Bohemia]], were held by the emperor and his son themselves. Wenceslaus was crowned at [[Aix-la-Chapelle]] on 6 July.{{sfn|Chisholm|1911|p=517}}

In order to secure the election of his son, Charles&nbsp;IV revoked the privileges of many [[Free imperial city|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&nbsp;IV had organized the cities into leagues, he had made it possible for them to cooperate in large-scale endeavors. Indeed, on 4 July 1376, fourteen [[Swabia]]n cities bound together into the independent [[Swabian League of Cities]] to defend their rights against the newly elected King, attacking the lands of [[Eberhard&nbsp;II, Count of Württemberg]]. The city league soon attracted other members and until 1389 acted as an autonomous state within the Empire.

===Rule===

Wenceslaus took some part in government during his father's lifetime,{{sfn|Chisholm|1911|p=517}} and on Charles' death in 1378, he inherited the [[Lands of the Bohemian Crown|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 [[Archbishopric of Salzburg|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&nbsp;II, Count of Württemberg, at Döffingen, near [[Grafenau, Württemberg|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.

===King of Bohemia===
[[File:Bible Vaclav4 1.jpg|thumb|King Wenceslaus depicted in his Bible (the so-called [[Wenceslas Bible]], late 14th century)]]

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 during the [[Moravian Margrave Wars]].

But the greatest liability for Wenceslaus proved to be his own family. Charles&nbsp;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, Holy Roman Emperor|Sigismund]] inherited Brandenburg, while [[John of Görlitz|John]] received the newly established Duchy of [[Görlitz]] in [[Upper Lusatia]]. The [[March of Moravia]] was divided between his cousins [[Jobst of Moravia|Jobst]] and [[Prokop of Moravia|Procopius]], and his uncle [[Wenceslaus I, Duke of Luxembourg|Wenceslaus&nbsp;I]] had already been made Duke of [[Grand Duchy of Luxembourg|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.{{sfn|Chisholm|1911|p=517}} In 1386, Sigismund became king of [[Kingdom of Hungary|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 (Tachov District)|Kladruby]], the torture and murder of the archbishop's vicar-general [[John of Nepomuk]] by royal officials in 1393 sparked a [[League of Lords|noble rebellion]]. In 1394 Wenceslaus' cousin [[Jobst of Moravia]] was named regent, while Wenceslaus was arrested at [[Králův Dvůr]]. King [[Sigismund, Holy Roman Emperor|Sigismund of Hungary]] arranged a truce in 1396, and for his efforts, he was recognized as heir to Wenceslaus.

In the [[Western Schism|Papal Schism]], Wenceslaus supported the Roman [[Pope Urban&nbsp;VI]]. As Bohemian king he sought to protect the religious reformer [[Jan Hus]] and his followers against the demands of the [[Catholic Church]] for their suppression as [[Heresy|heretics]]. Hus and his followers drove German academics from the [[Charles University in Prague|University of Prague]], who then set up their own [[University of Leipzig|university at Leipzig]].

He then met [[Charles VI of France]] at [[Reims]], where the two monarchs decided to persuade the rival popes, now [[Antipope Benedict XIII|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 [[List of rulers of Milan|duke of Milan]] to [[Gian Galeazzo Visconti]].{{sfn|Chisholm|1911|p=517}}

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.

===Dethronement===
[[File:HRR 1400.png|thumb|250px|Map of the Holy Roman Empire in 1400]]
In view of his troubles in Bohemia, Wenceslaus did not seek a coronation ceremony as [[Holy Roman Emperor]]. Consequently, he faced anger at the ''[[Reichstag (Holy Roman Empire)|Reichstag]]'' diets of Nuremberg (1397) and Frankfurt (1398). The four [[Rhineland|Rhenish]] electors, [[List of Counts Palatine of the Rhine|Count Palatine]] [[Rupert, King of the Romans|Rupert III]] and the archbishops of [[Archbishopric of Mainz|Mainz]], [[Electorate of Cologne|Cologne]] and [[Electorate of Trier|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.{{sfn|Chisholm|1911|p=517}}

On 29 June 1402, Wenceslaus was captured by [[Sigismund, Holy Roman Emperor|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 Sigismund had Wenceslaus imprisoned, at first in [[County of Schaunberg|Schaumberg]] and from 16 August in Vienna, in the charge of [[William, Duke of Austria]].<ref>Joseph Aschbach, ''Geschichte Kaiser Sigmund's'' vol. 1 (1838), [https://books.google.com/books?id=qgFQAAAAcAAJ&pg=PA175 p. 175]–177.</ref>
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.<ref>Joseph Aschbach, ''Geschichte Kaiser Sigmund's'' vol. 1 (1838), [https://books.google.com/books?id=qgFQAAAAcAAJ&pg=PA183 p. 183].</ref>
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, 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.<ref>Joseph Aschbach, ''Geschichte Kaiser Sigmund's'' vol. 1 (1838), [https://books.google.com/books?id=qgFQAAAAcAAJ&pg=PA186 p. 186]–188.</ref>
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]]<!--this is presumably John II., d. 1417--> via [[Mikulov]] back to Bohemia, meeting his supporters in [[Kutná Hora]] before moving on Prague, which he entered on Christmas.<ref>Joseph Aschbach, ''Geschichte Kaiser Sigmund's'' vol. 1 (1838), [https://books.google.com/books?id=qgFQAAAAcAAJ&pg=PA191 p. 191]–193.</ref>

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.

After the death of Rupert in 1410, his succession at first proved difficult since both Wenceslaus's cousin [[Jobst of Moravia]] and Wenceslaus's brother Sigismund of Hungary were elected King of the Romans. Wenceslaus himself had never recognized his deposition and hence still claimed the kingship. Jobst died in&nbsp;1411, and Wenceslaus agreed to give up the crown, so long as he could keep Bohemia. This settled the issue, and after&nbsp;1411, Sigismund reigned as king and later also became Holy Roman Emperor.

The bishops and secular leaders, tired of the Great Schism, supported Sigismund when he called the [[Council of Constance]] in&nbsp;1414. The goal of the council was to reform the church in head and members. In&nbsp;1417, the council deposed all three popes and elected a new one. By resolving the schism, Sigismund restored the honour of the imperial title and made himself the most influential monarch in the West.