Charles IV of the Holy roman Empire
Charles IV German (: Karl IV , in Czech: Karel IV , May 14th 1316 - November 29th 1378) of the Maison of Luxembourg is emperor of the Holy roman Empire of 1355 to its death.
He is the son of Jean the Blind man, king de Bohême and of Poland, count of Luxembourg and Elisabeth Přemyslovna, heiress by his father Venceslas II of the crown of Bohemia.
Childhood
Baptized Venceslas ( Václav in Czech), it chooses to take the name of his uncle and godfather, the king of France, Charles IV at the time of his Confirmation. His/her father, Jean of Luxembourg, in open conflict with his mother, Elisabeth of Bohemia, decides to withdraw his young person wire of the maternal influence: first of all distant to the castle-extremely from Křivoklát, it is then sent to perfect its chivalrous education at the court of its godfather Charles IV of France where it arrives on April 4th 1323 and where there will remain seven years. It is, thanks to an exemption of the pope Jean XXII, that still child, it marries Blanche of Valois, on May 15th, 1323, shortly after its arrival in France.Thanks to this cosmopolitan education, he usually speaks five languages: Latin, German, Czech, French and Italian.
In 1330, it leaves France with his wife, first of all for Luxembourg (where remains Blanche of Valois) then Italy.
Accession with the capacity
In 1331, in the sides of his father, old of hardly fifteen years, it takes part in its first battle in Italy. In fact, between 1331 and 1333, date of its return to Prague, he is regent of the seigniories belonging to the Maison of Luxembourg in Italy.As of 1333, at eighteen years, in addition to the margraviat of Moravie which is nominally allotted to him as a heir to the crown of Bohemia, it is, in fact, the regent of the kingdom because of the frequent absences of his/her father, sometimes called it “knight-wandering”.
Charles is elected King of the Romans ( rex romanorum ) on July 11th, 1346 with the support of Clément VI (what is worth to him the nickname of rex clericorum ) against Louis IV and is crowned with Bonn on November 26th, 1346. Louis had been made much enemies among the German nobility although it had the support of the free cities and the orders of knights (in particular of the teutonic Chevaliers). A civil war threatens the Empire that only the sudden death of Louis IV, in 1347, of an infarction at the time of a hunting for wild boar, makes it possible to avoid.
Meanwhile, following the death of Jean the Blind man with the Battle of Crécy, on August 26th, 1346, Charles is crowned King de Bohême September 2nd, 1347. He becomes also count of Luxembourg and this until in 1353 when he leaves the county to his half-brother junior, Venceslas Ier of Luxembourg.
The continuation is a formality resulting from the limbs feudal of the Saint Worsens: he is elected, without opposition, on June 17th, 1349, king of Germanie and is crowned the July 25th of the same year. Then it is crowned King of the Romans on January 6th, 1355, and emperor of the Saint Worsens the April 5th of the same year, Easter Day, with Rome in the Archibasilique Midsummer's Day of Lateran by the Cardinal of Ostie.
June 4th 1365, like its predecessor Frederic Barberousse, Charles raises an obsolete imperial title which says some more on its historico-imperial intentions than on its real capacity in Provence; it is made crown king of Arles to the Cathédrale Saint-Trophime of Arles.
Later, in 1373, it obtains the Margraviat de Brandebourg for his/her son Venceslas.
Policy
The gold Bubble
One year hardly after its imperial crowning, it is with Metz that Charles IV promulgates the Bulle of gold which codifies the imperial elections and which remained into force until the dissolution of the Germanic Roman Holy roman Empire at the beginning of the 19th century.
Reasons
The middle of the 14th century marks the one long period end of dubious conflicts between the German dynasties of the Luxembourg, Wittelsbach and Habsbourg, conflicts poked by the inclined popes to divide for better reigning. The height of this interference had been reached in 1343, when the pope Clément VI invited the prince-voters to meet to replace the emperor still alive Louis IV. That a king of the Romans is elected the alive one of the emperor is an exceptional fact which testifies to an serious attack of being able.
The prince-voters meet the July 11th 1346 and elect Charles of Luxembourg, certainly grandson of the emperor Henri VII, certainly heir to the throne of Bohemia, but while waiting, hardly more than margrave de Moravie, a minor province of the Empire even not German. One includes/understands the nickname of rex clericorum , king of the ecclesiastics, whose Charles IV inherits this first election.
One includes/understands better, thus, this odd second re-election under king of the Romans, in 1349 for definitively sitting his legitimacy. One seizes also the fundamental decision to organize the royal election institutionnellement: the emperor convenes the Diète of Empire which opens with Nuremberg the November 25th 1355 to put order in the institutions and to correct most serious of their defects, this program, a part only is carried out. Work began again with Metz, the Christmas Day 1355. Following that, the imperial Bubble is enacted the January 10th 1356.
A secularized electoral code
This imperial code ( Kaiserliches Rechtsbuch ), commonly called as from the 15th century “Bubble of Gold”, thoroughly regulates the sovereign nomination and the statute of the princes constituting the electorate.
Formerly extended to the whole of the German princes, reduced to ten prince-voters as of 1125, the Right to vote is limited to the seven princes which, in the facts, had monopolized it since the middle of the 13th century.
This electoral college includes/understands three ecclesiastics: archbishops of Cologne, the archbishop of Mainz and the archbishop of Trier, and four laic: the king de Bohême (House of Luxembourg), the Count Palatine of the Rhine (house of Wittelsbach), the Margrave de Brandebourg (house of Wittelsbach) and the duke of Saxony (house of Wittenberg).
In order to avoid confusions and arguments in the future, the electorates are stated indivisible : they are transmitted by Primogéniture in hot line and, in the event of minority, the oldest uncle of the prince would vote in his place until it had eighteen years. If chalk-lining died out, the emperor would be free to indicate another with his own way of them, except in Bohemia, where the right to elect a new monarch belongs to the diet of the States of Bohemia.
To find pretexts legal with the designation of a anti-king is not possible any more and the foreign interference in general and papal in particular is reduced to nothing.
According to the electoral standards set by the gold Bubble, the king is elected in the majority of the voices of the electoral college.
The candidate elected by the prince-voters keeps the Carolingian title of “king of the Romans” and becomes in imperatorem promovendus is “in front of being promoted emperor”.
The bubble remains quiet as for the confirmation by the Pape. Imperial dignity being granted by the seven Prince-voters, it is not any more crowning (by the pope) which makes the emperor, but the election. The imperial power is secularized.
Aachen is the exclusive place of crowning whereas front, to see itself confirming in its imperial title, the emperor was to go to Rome and to be made crown by the pope in person or his representative. The pope is deprived of the possibility of refusing to crown a candidate who would have the hor to displease to him. Charles IV who had been treated not without reasons of “king of the priests” chooses to regulate the problems of the approval and the confirmation asserted by the Pape by not posing them. The Bubble also overlooks the vicariate to which the the Holy See could claim during the vacancy of the imperial capacity.
The role of the prince-voters is also widened: the gold Bubble in fact of the advisers who, once at least per annum, deliberate with the emperor on the businesses on the kingdom.
Charles IV ensures the independence of the Saint definitively Worsens while fixing, by the gold Bubble, the rules which, while reducing the risks of double election, also deprive the Pape of any capacity of arbitration between the elected officials, therefore of choice between the candidates. This situation generated by the secularization of the Saint Empire cannot be appropriate for the Saint Seat and the pope Innocent VI rejects it.
Support of papacy
Bubble of gold put aside, Charles IV shows a great kindness towards the Église, establishes in favor of the the Holy See expensive taxes, frees the clergy from any temporal authority and attracts itself by there great difficulties. It is against this aspect " clérical" of its policy which the free cities of the empire formed the Ligue of Souabe.
In 1347, Charles IV, German prince by his father and Czech by his mother, tries an oecumenical work in the middle of Europe, at the border between the worlds Slavic Orthodoxe and German Catholique, by melting the Cloître of Emmaüs. Although catholic and depend on the Order of saint Benoit, the monastery of the emmaüsiens was distinguished a long time to celebrate the liturgy in Slavic Vieux and to have been an important center of diffusion and education of the Slavic old man and glagolitic Alphabet.
Patron of arts and the letters
The reign of Charles IV is, on the artistic level, the first golden age of the Bohemia. Charles IV, king patron, make come to Prague from the artists from all Europe, who carry out illuminations of manuscripts (Jean de Troppau) or paintings on wood (Nicolas Wurmser). It makes of its Czech field the heart artistic and administrative of the Saint Worsens. Following the rise in Prague, in 1344, with the row of Archbishop's palace by the pope Clement VI, the Gothic rebuilding of the Cathédrale Saint-Guy of Prague is undertaken, first of all under the direction of Mathieu of Arras then of the architect and sculptor souabe Peter Parler.
In 1348, it founds the Université Charles of Prague. First of all known like the " university of Prague" , universita pragensis , it is the first university of the Germanic world, it will take thereafter the name of its founder and names from now on Karlova universita . April 8th 1348 mark the foundation of the New Town of Prague which doubles the surface of the city and loosens the vice of the fortifications, allowing the organization around broad places:
- the market with the cattle (current the " place Charles") who, with 80 550 m ², a long time remained the vastest urban place of Europe
- the market with the horses (current the Place Venceslas)
- the market with the hay (the current Senovažně place)
In 1357, it undertakes the construction of the Pont Charles, to connect Malá Strana and the Château of Prague with the Old city of Prague and this in order to replace an older bridge, out of wood, destroyed by a flood in 1342.
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