Wenceslaus, King of the Romans

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Wenceslaus (German: Wenzel, Czech: Václav IV; sometimes known as "the Drunkard") (February 26, 1361 – August 16, 1419), of the House of Luxembourg, was king of Bohemia from 1378 to his death; until 1400, he also headed the Holy Roman Empire (as "King of the Romans"), and he continued to claim the title after his removal from that role.

[edit] Biography

Wenceslaus succeeded his father in both roles: Charles IV had been elected Holy Roman King and, in the course of things, crowned Holy Roman Emperor under the auspices of Avignon Pope Innocent VI; however, Wenceslaus never received the imperial coronation, but was deposed; the Bohemian title came to Wenceslaus by inheritance as Charles's son.

Accusing Wenceslaus of devoting far more attention to his Bohemian than to his German duties, and of weakness in agreeing with Charles VI of France to end their support of rival Popes, the princes of the German states deposed him as King in August 1400 in favour of Rupert III, Count palatine of the Rhine, though Wenceslaus refused to acknowledge this successor's decade-long reign.

As King Wenceslaus IV of Bohemia, until his death in 1419, he came into repeated conflict with the Bohemian nobility, and 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 leave the University of Prague, and set up their own University at Leipzig. Hus was executed in Konstanz in 1415, and the rest of Wenceslaus's reign in Bohemia featured precursors of the Hussite Wars that would follow his death.

He was the one who had "Saint" John of Nepomuk(Actually named Jan z Pomuka - John of Pomuk) tortured and put to death, allegedly because he was not willing to reveal the confessional secrets learned from king's wife Sofia of Bavaria as the popular Roman Catholic legend goes. In reality John of Pomuk was an notary in the consistory of Archbishop of Prague John of Jenštejn, and was killed as a result of the property dispute and long personality conflict between the king and the fanatical archbishop.

Preceded by: Charles	King of Germany 1376–1400	Succeeded by: Rupert of Palatinate
	King of Bohemia 1378–1419	Succeeded by: Sigismund
Preceded by: Sigismund	Margrave of Brandenburg 1373–1378	Succeeded by: Sigismund

[edit] References

• Thomas Lindner, Deutsche Geschichte unter den Habsburgern und Luxemburgern, volume ii, (Stuttgart, 1893)