Wenceslaus IV (also ''Wenceslas''; ; , nicknamed "the Idle"; 26 February 136116 August 1419), also known as Wenceslaus of Luxembourg, was
King of Bohemia from 1378 until his death and
King of Germany
This is a list of monarchs who ruled over East Francia, and the Kingdom of Germany (), from Treaty of Verdun, the division of the Francia, Frankish Empire in 843 and Dissolution of the Holy Roman Empire, the collapse of the Holy Roman Empire in ...
from 1376 until he was deposed in 1400. As he belonged to the
House of Luxembourg, he was also
Duke of Luxembourg from 1383 to 1388.
Biography
Wenceslaus was born in the
Imperial city of
Nuremberg
Nuremberg (, ; ; in the local East Franconian dialect: ''Nämberch'' ) is the Franconia#Towns and cities, largest city in Franconia, the List of cities in Bavaria by population, second-largest city in the States of Germany, German state of Bav ...
, the son of Emperor
Charles IV by his third wife
Anna Svídnická, a scion of the
Silesian Piasts
The Silesian Piasts were the elder of four lines of the Polish Piast dynasty beginning with Władysław II the Exile (1105–1159), eldest son of Duke Bolesław III Wrymouth, Bolesław III of Poland. By Bolesław's Testament of Bolesław III Krzy ...
, and baptized at
St. Sebaldus Church. He was raised by the Prague Archbishops
Arnošt of Pardubice and
Jan Očko of Vlašim. His father had the two-year-old crowned King of Bohemia in June 1363 and in 1373 also obtained for him the Electoral
Margraviate of Brandenburg
The Margraviate of Brandenburg () was a major principality of the Holy Roman Empire from 1157 to 1806 that, having electoral status although being quite poor, grew rapidly in importance after inheriting the Duchy of Prussia in 1618 and then came ...
. When on 10 June 1376 Charles IV asserted Wenceslaus' election as
King of the Romans
King of the Romans (; ) was the title used by the king of East Francia following his election by the princes from the reign of Henry II (1002–1024) onward.
The title originally referred to any German king between his election and coronatio ...
by the
prince-elector
The prince-electors ( pl. , , ) were the members of the Electoral College of the Holy Roman Empire, which elected the Holy Roman Emperor. Usually, half of the electors were archbishops.
From the 13th century onwards, a small group of prince- ...
s, two of seven votes, those of
Brandenburg
Brandenburg, officially the State of Brandenburg, is a States of Germany, state in northeastern Germany. Brandenburg borders Poland and the states of Berlin, Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, Lower Saxony, Saxony-Anhalt, and Saxony. It is the List of Ger ...
and
Bohemia
Bohemia ( ; ; ) is the westernmost and largest historical region of the Czech Republic. In a narrow, geographic sense, it roughly encompasses the territories of present-day Czechia that fall within the Elbe River's drainage basin, but historic ...
, were held by the emperor and his son themselves. Wenceslaus was crowned at
Aix-la-Chapelle on 6 July.
In order to secure the election of his son, Charles IV revoked the privileges of many
Imperial Cities that he had earlier granted and mortgaged them to various nobles. The cities, however, were not powerless, and as executors of the public peace, they had developed into a potent military force. Moreover, as Charles IV had organized the cities into leagues, he had made it possible for them to cooperate in large-scale endeavors. Indeed, on 4 July 1376, fourteen
Swabian cities bound together into the independent
Swabian League of Cities to defend their rights against the newly elected King, attacking the lands of
Eberhard II, Count of Württemberg. The city league soon attracted other members and until 1389 acted as an autonomous state within the Empire.
Rule
Wenceslaus took some part in government during his father's lifetime, and on Charles' death in 1378, he inherited the
Crown of Bohemia and as king assumed the government of the
Holy Roman Empire
The Holy Roman Empire, also known as the Holy Roman Empire of the German Nation after 1512, was a polity in Central and Western Europe, usually headed by the Holy Roman Emperor. It developed in the Early Middle Ages, and lasted for a millennium ...
. 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
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 II, Count of Württemberg, at Döffingen, near
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
Cheb (; ) is a town in the Karlovy Vary Region of the Czech Republic. It has about 33,000 inhabitants. It lies on the Ohře River.
Before the Expulsion of Germans from Czechoslovakia, expulsion of Germans in 1945, the town was the centre of the G ...
(''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.
King of Bohemia

During his long reign, Wenceslaus held a tenuous grip on power at best, as he came into repeated conflicts with the
Bohemian nobility led by the
House of Rosenberg. On two occasions he was even imprisoned for lengthy spells by rebellious nobles during the
Moravian Margrave Wars.
But the greatest liability for Wenceslaus proved to be his own family. Charles IV had divided his holdings among his sons and other relatives. Although Wenceslaus upon his father's death retained Bohemia, his younger half brother
Sigismund inherited Brandenburg, while
John received the newly established Duchy of
Görlitz
Görlitz (; ; ; ; ; Lusatian dialects, East Lusatian: , , ) is a town in the Germany, German state of Saxony. It is on the river Lusatian Neisse and is the largest town in Upper Lusatia, the second-largest town in the region of Lusatia after ...
in
Upper Lusatia
Upper Lusatia (, ; , ; ; or ''Milsko''; ) is a historical region in Germany and Poland. Along with Lower Lusatia to the north, it makes up the region of Lusatia, named after the Polabian Slavs, Slavic ''Lusici'' tribe. Both parts of Lusatia a ...
. The
March of Moravia was divided between his cousins
Jobst and
Procopius
Procopius of Caesarea (; ''Prokópios ho Kaisareús''; ; – 565) was a prominent Late antiquity, late antique Byzantine Greeks, Greek scholar and historian from Caesarea Maritima. Accompanying the Roman general Belisarius in Justinian I, Empe ...
, and his uncle
Wenceslaus I had already been made Duke of
Luxembourg
Luxembourg, officially the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg, is a landlocked country in Western Europe. It is bordered by Belgium to the west and north, Germany to the east, and France on the south. Its capital and most populous city, Luxembour ...
. Hence the young king was left without the resources his father had enjoyed, although he inherited the duchy of Luxembourg from his uncle in 1383. In 1386, Sigismund became king of
Hungary
Hungary is a landlocked country in Central Europe. Spanning much of the Pannonian Basin, Carpathian Basin, it is bordered by Slovakia to the north, Ukraine to the northeast, Romania to the east and southeast, Serbia to the south, Croatia and ...
and became involved in affairs further east.
Wenceslaus also faced serious opposition from the Bohemian nobles and even from his
chancellor
Chancellor () is a title of various official positions in the governments of many countries. The original chancellors were the of Roman courts of justice—ushers, who sat at the (lattice work screens) of a basilica (court hall), which separa ...
, the Prague archbishop
Jan of Jenštejn. In a conflict surrounding the investiture of the abbot of
Kladruby, the torture and murder of the archbishop's vicar-general
John of Nepomuk by royal officials in 1393 sparked a
noble rebellion. In 1394 Wenceslaus' cousin
Jobst of Moravia was named regent, while Wenceslaus was arrested at
Králův Dvůr. King
Sigismund of Hungary arranged a truce in 1396, and for his efforts, he was recognized as heir to Wenceslaus.
In the
Papal Schism, Wenceslaus supported the Roman
Pope Urban VI. As Bohemian king he sought to protect the religious reformer
Jan Hus
Jan Hus (; ; 1369 – 6 July 1415), sometimes anglicized as John Hus or John Huss, and referred to in historical texts as ''Iohannes Hus'' or ''Johannes Huss'', was a Czechs, Czech theologian and philosopher who became a Church reformer and t ...
and his followers against the demands of the
Catholic Church
The Catholic Church (), also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the List of Christian denominations by number of members, largest Christian church, with 1.27 to 1.41 billion baptized Catholics Catholic Church by country, worldwid ...
for their suppression as
heretics. Hus and his followers drove German academics from the
University of Prague, who then set up their own
university at Leipzig.
He then met
Charles VI of France
Charles VI (3 December 136821 October 1422), nicknamed the Beloved () and in the 19th century, the Mad ( or ''le Fou''), was King of France from 1380 until his death in 1422. He is known for his mental illness and psychosis, psychotic episodes t ...
at
Reims
Reims ( ; ; also spelled Rheims in English) is the most populous city in the French Departments of France, department of Marne (department), Marne, and the List of communes in France with over 20,000 inhabitants, 12th most populous city in Fran ...
, where the two monarchs decided to persuade the rival popes, now
Benedict XIII and
Boniface IX, to resign, and to end the papal schisms by the election of a new pontiff. Many of the princes were angry at this abandonment of Boniface by Wenceslaus, who had also aroused much indignation by his long absence from Germany and by selling the title of
duke of Milan to
Gian Galeazzo Visconti
Gian Galeazzo Visconti (16 October 1351 – 3 September 1402), was the first duke of Duchy of Milan, Milan (1395) and ruled that late-medieval city just before the dawn of the Renaissance. He also ruled Lombardy jointly with his uncle Bernabò V ...
.
Hus was eventually executed in
Konstanz in 1415, and the rest of Wenceslaus' reign in Bohemia featured precursors of the
Hussite Wars
The Hussite Wars, also called the Bohemian Wars or the Hussite Revolution, were a series of civil wars fought between the Hussites and the combined Catholic forces of Sigismund, Holy Roman Emperor, Holy Roman Emperor Sigismund, the Papacy, a ...
that would follow his death.
Dethronement

In view of his troubles in Bohemia, Wenceslaus did not seek a coronation ceremony as
Holy Roman Emperor
The Holy Roman Emperor, originally and officially the Emperor of the Romans (disambiguation), Emperor of the Romans (; ) during the Middle Ages, and also known as the Roman-German Emperor since the early modern period (; ), was the ruler and h ...
. Consequently, he faced anger at the ''
Reichstag'' diets of Nuremberg (1397) and Frankfurt (1398). The four
Rhenish electors,
Count Palatine
A count palatine (Latin ''comes palatinus''), also count of the palace or palsgrave (from German ''Pfalzgraf''), was originally an official attached to a royal or imperial palace or household and later a nobleman of a rank above that of an or ...
Rupert III and the archbishops of
Mainz
Mainz (; #Names and etymology, see below) is the capital and largest city of the German state of Rhineland-Palatinate, and with around 223,000 inhabitants, it is List of cities in Germany by population, Germany's 35th-largest city. It lies in ...
,
Cologne
Cologne ( ; ; ) is the largest city of the States of Germany, German state of North Rhine-Westphalia and the List of cities in Germany by population, fourth-most populous city of Germany with nearly 1.1 million inhabitants in the city pr ...
and
Trier
Trier ( , ; ), formerly and traditionally known in English as Trèves ( , ) and Triers (see also Names of Trier in different languages, names in other languages), is a city on the banks of the Moselle (river), Moselle in Germany. It lies in a v ...
, accused him of failing to maintain the public peace or to resolve the Schism. They demanded that Wenceslaus appear before them to answer to the charges in June 1400. Wenceslaus demurred, in large part because of renewed hostilities in Bohemia. When he failed to appear, the electors meeting at
Lahneck Castle declared him deposed on 20 August 1400 on account of "futility, idleness, negligence and ignobility". The next day they chose Rupert as their king at
Rhens. Although Wenceslaus refused to acknowledge this successor's decade-long reign, he made no move against Rupert.
On 29 June 1402, Wenceslaus was captured by
Sigismund, who at first intended to escort him to Rome to have him crowned emperor, but Rupert heard of this plan and tried to prevent the passage to Italy, so Sigismund had Wenceslaus imprisoned, at first in
Schaumberg and from 16 August in Vienna, in the charge of
William, Duke of Austria.
On 20 November, Wenceslaus was forced to sign his renunciation of all his powers to Sigismund and the Dukes of Austria. In exchange, the conditions of his imprisonment were relaxed.
In early 1403, Rupert made diplomatic overtures to Sigismund, attempting to get him to forgo his attempt to secure the imperial crown, but Sigismund invaded Bohemia with Hungarian forces, looting, imposing heavy taxes, and persecuting the supporters of Wenceslaus. He also plundered the royal treasury to pay for his military campaigns against the supporters of Rupert and of
Jobst of Moravia. An armistice between Sigismund and Jobst was agreed to be in effect from 14 April until 20 May. This gave Sigismund's opponents time to prepare, and after the end of the armistice, Sigismund could make no further gains and retreated from Bohemia, reaching
Bratislava
Bratislava (German: ''Pressburg'', Hungarian: ''Pozsony'') is the Capital city, capital and largest city of the Slovakia, Slovak Republic and the fourth largest of all List of cities and towns on the river Danube, cities on the river Danube. ...
on 24 July.
On 1 October 1403,
Pope Boniface IX finally acknowledged the deposition of Wenceslaus and the election of Rupert as King of the Romans. As a coronation of Wenceslaus was now no longer a possibility, and while he was nominally still prisoner in Vienna, he was no longer under strict guard, and he managed to escape on 11 November.
He crossed the Danube and was escorted by
John II of Liechtenstein via
Mikulov
Mikulov (; ) is a town in Břeclav District in the South Moravian Region of the Czech Republic. It has about 7,600 inhabitants. From the 16th to the 19th century, it was the cultural centre of the Jewish community of Moravia. The historic centr ...
back to Bohemia, meeting his supporters in
Kutná Hora before moving on Prague, which he entered on Christmas.
Among the charges raised by Rupert as the basis for his predecessor's deposition was the Papal Schism. King Rupert called the
Council of Pisa in 1409, attended by defectors from both papal parties. They elected
Antipope Alexander V, worsening the situation because he was not acknowledged by his two rivals, and from 1409 to 1417 there were three popes.
After the death of Rupert in 1410, his succession at first proved difficult since both Wenceslaus's cousin
Jobst of Moravia and Wenceslaus's brother Sigismund of Hungary were elected King of the Romans. Wenceslaus himself had never recognized his deposition and hence still claimed the kingship. Jobst died in 1411, and Wenceslaus agreed to give up the crown, so long as he could keep Bohemia. This settled the issue, and after 1411, Sigismund reigned as king and later also became Holy Roman Emperor.
The bishops and secular leaders, tired of the Great Schism, supported Sigismund when he called the
Council of Constance
The Council of Constance (; ) was an ecumenical council of the Catholic Church that was held from 1414 to 1418 in the Bishopric of Constance (Konstanz) in present-day Germany. This was the first time that an ecumenical council was convened in ...
in 1414. The goal of the council was to reform the church in head and members. In 1417, the council deposed all three popes and elected a new one. By resolving the schism, Sigismund restored the honour of the imperial title and made himself the most influential monarch in the West.
Personal life
Wenceslaus was married twice, first to
Joanna of Bavaria, a scion of the
Wittelsbach dynasty, on 29 September 1370. Following her death on 31 December 1386 (according to an unproven legend "mangled by one of Wenceslaus' beloved deer-hounds"), he married her first cousin once removed,
Sofia of Bavaria, on 2 May 1389. He had no children by either wife.
Wenceslaus was described as a man of great knowledge and is known for the
Wenceslas Bible, a richly
illuminated manuscript
An illuminated manuscript is a formally prepared manuscript, document where the text is decorated with flourishes such as marginalia, borders and Miniature (illuminated manuscript), miniature illustrations. Often used in the Roman Catholic Churc ...
he had drawn up between 1390 and 1400. However, his rule remained uncertain, varying between idleness and cruel measures as in the case of
John of Nepomuk. Unlike his father, Wenceslaus relied on favouritism, which made him abhorrent to many nobles and led to increasing isolation. Moreover, he probably suffered from
alcoholism
Alcoholism is the continued drinking of alcohol despite it causing problems. Some definitions require evidence of dependence and withdrawal. Problematic use of alcohol has been mentioned in the earliest historical records. The World He ...
, which was brought to light in 1398 when he was unable to accept an invitation by King
Charles VI of France for a reception at
Reims
Reims ( ; ; also spelled Rheims in English) is the most populous city in the French Departments of France, department of Marne (department), Marne, and the List of communes in France with over 20,000 inhabitants, 12th most populous city in Fran ...
due to his drunkenness.
Wenceslaus died in 1419 of a heart attack during a hunt in the woods surrounding his castle Nový Hrad at
Kunratice (today a part of
Prague
Prague ( ; ) is the capital and List of cities and towns in the Czech Republic, largest city of the Czech Republic and the historical capital of Bohemia. Prague, located on the Vltava River, has a population of about 1.4 million, while its P ...
), leaving the country in a deep political crisis. His death was followed by almost two decades of conflict called the
Hussite Wars
The Hussite Wars, also called the Bohemian Wars or the Hussite Revolution, were a series of civil wars fought between the Hussites and the combined Catholic forces of Sigismund, Holy Roman Emperor, Holy Roman Emperor Sigismund, the Papacy, a ...
, which were centred on greater calls for religious reform by
Jan Hus
Jan Hus (; ; 1369 – 6 July 1415), sometimes anglicized as John Hus or John Huss, and referred to in historical texts as ''Iohannes Hus'' or ''Johannes Huss'', was a Czechs, Czech theologian and philosopher who became a Church reformer and t ...
and spurred by popular outrage provoked by his execution.
In popular culture
The 2018 video game ''
Kingdom Come: Deliverance'', along with its 2025 sequel, ''
Kingdom Come: Deliverance II'', are set in Bohemia during the reign of King Wenceslaus IV in the year 1403. The main character becomes involved in a plot to restore Wenceslaus to the Bohemian throne.
See also
*
List of rulers of Bohemia
The Duchy of Bohemia was established in 870 and raised to the Kingdom of Bohemia in Golden Bull of Sicily, 1198. Several Bohemian monarchs ruled as non-hereditary kings and first gained the title in 1085. From 1004 to 1806, Bohemia was part of th ...
*
Kings of Germany family tree
*
Decree of Kutná Hora
Notes
References
*
*
Theodor Lindner. ''Deutsche Geschichte unter den Habsburgern und Luxemburgern''. Vol. II. Stuttgart, 1893.
*
*
Further reading
*
External links
Wenceslas (king of Bohemia and Germany) at Encyclopædia Britannica
, -
, -
, -
{{DEFAULTSORT:Wenceslaus Iv of Bohemia
Kings of medieval Bohemia
1361 births
1419 deaths
14th-century people from Bohemia
15th-century nobility from Bohemia
14th-century Kings of the Romans
14th-century monarchs of Bohemia
15th-century monarchs of Bohemia
14th-century monarchs of Luxembourg
Prince-electors of Brandenburg
Dukes of Luxembourg
House of Luxembourg
People from Nuremberg
People of the Hussite Wars
Burials at St. Vitus Cathedral
Czech people of Luxembourgian descent
15th-century nobility from the Holy Roman Empire
14th-century Luxembourgian people
15th-century Luxembourgian people
Dethroned monarchs
Sons of emperors
Children of Charles IV, Holy Roman Emperor