Kaiser Karl IV

Karl IV, Kaiser (Prague, 1316-78, Prague), Roman emperor and German King of the house of Luxemburg, was brought up in France. His father, King John of Bohemia, employed him as his representative in Italy and in 1334 allocated to him the margravate of Moravia. In 1346 he was elected German King, in opposition to King Ludwig the Bavarian (see Ludwig IV). Karl's rival died in 1347 and, since other claimants failed to secure support, he was crowned at Aachen in 1349. Karl maintained a peaceful policy of alliances, and adroitly made use of his many children to secure by marriage extensive future inheritances. Abandoning effective claim to rule in Italy, he contented himself with achieving coronation as emperor in Rome in 1355. In Germany he acquired by purchase or marriage the Upper Palatinate (Oberpfalz), Lusatia (Lausitz), and Schweidnitz, and he purchased Brandenburg from its weak Wittelsbach rulers. In his later years, in spite of many obstacles, he secured the election of his son Wenzel as German King, and hence as his own successor, and he attempted to gain for his son Sigismund, the Elector of Brandenburg, the right of succession to the thrones of Poland and Hungary. One of the most important acts of his reign was the promulgation of the Golden Bull (see Goldene Bulle) in 1356, by which the procedures of election of the German King were systematized. For a time he supported the claim to the margravate of Brandenburg made by the impostor, ‘der falsche Woldemar’ (see Woldemar).

A patron of learning, Karl founded the German university of Prague in 1348, and employed the humanist Johann von Neumarkt at his court.