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Wenceslaus, Holy Roman Emperor




Wenceslaus (, 1361August 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.

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 the Pope, but Wenceslaus never received the imperial title; 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 nobility, and sought to protect the religious reformer Jan Hus and his followers against the demands of the established Church for their suppression as Heretics . Hus was executed in Constance 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 he was not willing to reveal the confessional secrets learned from king's wife Sofia Of Bavaria Wittelsbach .

  Title1 King Of Germany <br>Also King Of The Romans
  Before Charles
  After1 Rupert
  Years1 1400&ndash1419
  Title2 King Of Bohemia
  After2 Sigismund


  Before Sigismund, Holy Roman Emperor
  Title Margrave Of Brandenburg
  Years 1373 &ndash 1378



PUBLICATIONS

  • Thomas Lindner, ''Deutsche Geschichte unter den Habsburgern und Luxemburgern'', volume ii, (Stuttgart, 1893)