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Bohemia, Charles IV, Ducat (gold
coin replica) 1346 - 1378
OBV: KAROLVS . DEI . GRACIA, Crowned emperor's bust
three quarter faced, holding scepter and royal orb.
REV: ROMANORVM . ET . BOEMIE . REX +, Czech lion to left.
Charles IV (May 14, 1316 – 29
November 1378),
of the House of Luxembourg, King of the
Romans (as Charles (Karl) IV, 1368 – 1378), Holy Roman
Emperor (Charles IV, 1355 – 1378), King of Bohemia
(Charles (Karel) I 1346 – 1378), Count of
Luxemburg (1346 – 1353), Margrave of
Brandenburg (1373
– 1378). He was elected as a rival King of the Romans to Emperor Louis
IV, succeeded his father John of
Luxemburg as King of Bohemia and Count of Luxembourg in 1346 as his
mother was Elizabeth (Eliška), heiress of Bohemia, of the Premyslid
dynasty and was crowned as emperor of the Holy Roman Empire
in 1355.
After 1349,
Charles IV was uncontested ruler of the Holy Roman Empire till his death
in 1378.
During his reign imperial
policy refocused on the dynastic sphere and abandoned the ideal of the
Holy Roman Empire as a universal monarchy. In 1353 Luxembourg was
granted to his brother Jobst. Charles IV concentrated his energies
chiefly on the economic and intellectual development of Bohemia,
founding the University of
Prague in 1348
and encouraging the early humanists — he is known to have corresponded
with Petrarch.
Owing to his activity as a builder and patron, art and architecture
flourished in his capital; construction of the Charles Bridge
and of the Hradčany, completion
of Saint Vitus
Cathedral by Peter
Parler are among the best examples. From the reign of Charles IV
dates the first flowering of manuscript painting in Prague. In 1356 he issued
the Golden Bull,
which codified the procedures for imperial elections, but had the
disastrous effect of causing minor princes who were left out of the
electoral process to lose allegiance to the empire. In 1373 he inherited
the Margravate of Brandenburg.
His French education left
a lasting mark on Charles. His father, known as John the Blind, king of
Bohemia, was an ardent francophile and patron of the composer and poet Guillaume de
Machaut — he died at Crécy in 1346 while
fighting on the French side. Charles's sister Bona,
married the eldest son of Philip VI of
France, the future John II of France,
in 1335.
Thus, Emperor Charles IV of Luxembourg was the maternal uncle of King Charles V of
France, who solicited his relative's advice at Metz in 1356 during the Parisian
Revolt. This family connection was celebrated publicly when Charles
IV made a solemn visit to his nephew in 1378, just months before
his death. A detailed account of the occasion, enriched by many splendid
miniatures, can be found in Charles V's copy of the Grandes
Chroniques de France.
Charles married four
times. His first wife was Blanche, 1316–1348), daughter of Charles,
Count of Valois, a half-sister of Philip IV of France. They had two
daughters, Margaret (1335-1349), who married Louis I of
Hungary; and Katharina (1342-1395), who married Rudolf IV of
Austria and Otto V of Bavaria, Elector of Brandenburg.
He secondly married Anne
(Anna), 1329–1353),
daughter of the Elector Palatine Rudolph II, but they had no children.
His third wife was Anne
of Swidnica, 1339–1362), by whom
he had a son Wenceslaus
(1361–1419),
Charles's successor as Emperor and king of Bohemia.
His fourth wife was Elizabeth of
Pomerania, 1345
or 1347–1393). They
had four children:
(Source: WIKIPEDIA) |
