Editing Wenceslaus IV of Bohemia (section)

===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.