Louis IV, Holy Roman Emperor

Louis IV of Bavaria (also known as Ludwig the Bavarian) of the House of Wittelsbach (born 1282; died October 11 1347) was duke of Bavaria from 1294/1301 together with his brother Rudolf I, also count of the Palatinate until 1329 and, German king since 1314 and crowned as Holy Roman Emperor in 1328. Louis died on October 11, 1347 when he suffered a stroke during a bear-hunt in Puch near Fürstenfeldbruck. He is buried in the Frauenkirche in Munich.

Louis was a son of Louis II, Duke of Upper Bavaria, and Mechthild, a daughter of King Rudolph I.

Early reign as Duke of Upper Bavaria

Though Louis was partly educated in Vienna and became co-regent of his brother Rudolf I in Upper Bavaria in 1301 with the support of his Habsburg mother Mechthild and her brother King Albert I, he quarrelled with the Habsburgs from 1307 over possessions in Lower Bavaria. The war against his brother Rudolf due to new disputes on the partition of their lands was ended in 1313, when peace was made at Munich.

In the same year Louis defeated his Habsburg cousin Frederick the Handsome. Originally, he was a friend of Frederick, with whom he had been raised. However, armed conflict arose, when the tutelage over the young Dukes of Lower Bavaria was entrusted to Frederick. On November 9, 1313, Frederick was beaten by Louis in the Battle of Gamelsdorf and had to renounce the tutelage.

Election as German King and conflict with Habsburg

After the death of Holy Roman Emperor Henry VII the Luxemburg party among the prince electors set aside Henry's son, John of Luxembourg, because of his youth and chose Louis as rival king to Frederick the Handsome. Louis was elected in October 1314 upon the instigation of the Archbishop of Mainz with four of the seven votes. Louis then was quickly crowned in Bonn by the Archbishop of Cologne, instead of in Aachen. In the following conflict between both kings Louis recognized in 1316 the independence of Switzerland from Habsburg.

After several years of bloody war, victory finally seemed to be within Frederick's grasp, who was strongly supported by his brother Leopold. However, Frederick's army was in the end completely beaten in the Battle of Mühldorf on the Ampfing Heath on September 28, 1322, where Frederick and 1300 nobles from Austria and Salzburg were captured.

Louis held Frederick captive on Trausnitz Castle for three years, but the persistent resistance by Frederick's brother Leopold, the retreat of the King of Bohemia from his alliance and the Pope's ban induced Louis to release him in the Treaty of Trausnitz of March 13, 1325. In this agreement, Frederick finally recognized Louis as legitimate ruler and undertook to return to captivity if he would not succeed in convincing his brothers to succumb to Louis.

As he did not manage to overcome Leopold's obstinacy, Frederick returned to Munich as a prisoner, even though the Pope had released him from his oath. Louis, who was impressed by such nobleness, renewed the old friendship with Frederick and they both agreed to rule the Empire jointly.

Since the Pope and the electors strongly objected to this agreement, another Treaty was signed at Ulm on January 7, 1326, according to which Frederick should administer Germany as King of the Romans, while Louis should be crowned as Holy Roman Emperor in Italy.

However, after Leopold's death in 1326, Frederick withdrew from the regency of the Empire and returned to rule only Austria. He died on January 13 1330.

Coronation as Holy Roman Emperor and conflict with the Pope

Despite his victory, Pope John XXII still refused to ratify Louis’s election and in 1324 he excommunicated Louis. In opposite to previous disputes between the emperor and the papacy the ban did not longer react.

After the reconciliation with Habsburg in 1326 Louis marched to Italy and was crowned Italian king in Milan in 1327. Already in 1323 Louis had sent an army to Italy to protect Milan against Naples.

In January 1328 he entered Rome and had himself crowned emperor by the aged senator Sciarra Colonna, called captain of the Roman people. Three months later Louis published a decree declaring "Jacque de Cahors" (Pope John XXII) deposed on grounds of heresy. He then installed a Spiritual Franciscan, Pietro Rainalducci as Antipope Nicholas V, who was deposed after Louis left Rome in early 1329. In fulfilment of an oath on his return from Italy, Louis founded Ettal Abbey on April 28, 1330. Philosophers like Michael of Cesena, Marsilius of Padua and William of Ockham were now protected at the emperor's court in Munich.

The failure of later negotiations with the papacy led 1338 to the declaration at Rhense by six electors to the effect that election by all or the majority of the electors automatically conferred the royal title and rule over the empire, without papal confirmation.

Louis also allied in 1337 with Edward III of England against Philip VI of France, the protector of the new Pope Benedict XII in Avignon. In 1338 Eduard III was the emperor's guest at the Imperial Diet in the Kastorkirche at Coblence. But in 1341 Louis deserted Edward and came temporary to terms with Philip.

Imperial privileges

Louis IV was a protector of the Teutonic Knights. In 1337 he allegedly bestowed upon the Teutonic Order a privilege to conquer Lithuania and Russia, although the Order had only petitioned for three small territories.Urban, William. The Teutonic Knights: A Military History. Greenhill Books. London, 2003, p. 136. ISBN 1853675350 Later he forbade the Order to stand trial before foreign courts in their territorial conflicts with foreign rulers.

Louis concentrated his energies also on the economic development of the cities of the empire, so his name can be found in many city chronicles for the privileges he granted.

Dynastic policy

In 1323 Louis acquired Brandenburg for his eldest son Louis V. With the Treaty of Pavia the emperor returned the Palatinate to his nephews in 1329. The duchy of Carinthia was released as an imperial fief on May 2, 1335 in Linz to his Habsburg relative Albert II, Duke of Austria. In 1340 Louis inherited Lower Bavaria and then reunited the duchy of Bavaria.

In 1342 Louis also acquired Tyrol by voiding the first marriage of Margarete Maultasch with John Henry of Bohemia and marrying her to his own son Louis V, thus alienating the house of Luxemburg. In 1345 the emperor further antagonized the lay princes by conferring Hainaut, Holland, Zeeland and Friesland upon his wife Margaret of Holland.

Conflict with Luxemburg

The acquisition of these territories and his restless foreign policy had provided Louis with many enemies among the German princes. In the summer of 1346 the Luxemburg Charles IV was elected rival king with support of Pope Clement VI. Louis himself obtained much support from the Imperial Free Cities and the knighthood and was successfully resisting Charles, who was widely regarded as a papal puppet ("rex clericorum"). Also the Habsburg dukes stayed loyal to Louis. In the Battle of Crécy Charles' father John of Luxemburg was killed, Charles himself also took part in the battle but escaped.

Louis' sudden death the following year avoided a longer civil war. The sons of Louis supported Günther von Schwarzburg as new rival king to Charles but finally joined the Luxemburg party after Günther's early death in 1349 and divided the Wittelsbach possesions among each other again.

Family and children

He was first married to Beatrix von Silesia-Glogau. Their children were:

Mathilde (aft. June 21, 1313 – July 2, 1346, Meißen), married at Nürnberg July 1, 1329 Friedrich II, Markgraf of Meißen (d. 1349)
a child (b. September 1314)
Anna (c. 1316 – January 29, 1319, Kastl)
Louis V the Brandenburger (1316–1361), duke of Upper Bavaria, margrave of Brandenburg, count of Tyrol
Agnes (b. c. 1318)
Stephen II (1319–1375), duke of Lower Bavaria

In 1324 he married Margaret of Holland, countess of Hainaut and Holland. Their children were:

Margarete (1325–1374), married:
1. in 1351 in Ofen Stephen, Duke of Slavonia (d. 1354);
2. 1357/58 Gerlach von Hohenlohe.
Anna (c. 1326 – June 3, 1361, Fontenelles) married John I of Lower Bavaria (d. 1340)
Louis VI the Roman (1328–1365), duke of Upper Bavaria, elector of Brandenburg.
Elisabeth (1329 – August 2, 1402, Stuttgart), married with:
1. Cangrande II della Scala, Lord of Verona (d. 1359) in Verona on November 22, 1350;
2. Count Ulrich of Württemberg (d. 1388) in 1362.
William V of Holland (1330–1388), as William I duke of Lower Bavaria, as Wiliam V count of Hainaut and Holland
Albert I of Holland (1336–1404), duke of Lower Bavaria, count of Hainaut and Holland
Otto V the Bavarian (1340–1379), duke of Upper Bavaria, elector of Brandenburg
Beatrix (1344 – December 25, 1359), married bef. October 25, 1356 Eric XII of Sweden
Agnes (Munich, 1345 – November 11, 1352, Munich)
Louis (October 1347 – 1348)

Notes

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