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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.
Biography
Wenceslaus succeeded his father in both roles: Charles IV had been elected Holy Roman King and, in the expected course of things, crowned Holy Roman Emperor by Pope Urban 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 let Saint John of Nepomuk be tortured to death, because, according to the legend, he was not willing to reveal the confessional secrets learned from king's wife Sofia of Bavaria Wittelsbach. However, according to historians, Nepomuk's death has its origin in the conflict between the king and the archbishop of Prague, Jan z Jenštejna.
References
- Thomas Lindner, Deutsche Geschichte unter den Habsburgern und Luxemburgern, volume ii, (Stuttgart, 1893)
1361 births | 1419 deaths | Bohemian monarchs | Electors of Brandenburg | German kings | Luxemburg dynasty | People of the Hussite Wars
Václav IV. | Wenzel (HRR) | Wenzel (Saksa kuningas) | Wenceslao de Luxemburgo | Venceslao la 4-a | Venceslas Ier du Saint-Empire | Venceslao del Sacro Romano Impero | Wenzel II. vu Lëtzebuerg | Wenceslaus van het Heilige Roomse Rijk | ヴェンツェル (神聖ローマ皇帝) | Wacław IV Luksemburski | 瓦茨拉夫四世
"Wenceslaus, King of the Romans"