Wenceslas IV (part 2) ****************************************************************************************** * ****************************************************************************************** By Matouš Vanča Unlike his father, Wenceslas IV didn’t surround himself by people with outstanding knowled to help him out with monarchial duties. There were hardly any people with the imperial bac court, who would know the German or European ways; even among the Czech advisors, he prefe experienced, often minor aristocrats, which upset and alienated powerful noble houses. The Wenceslas experienced, the more he distrusted his immediate surroundings. In addition, he poison attack in 1393, after which his mistrustfulness and unpredictable whimsicality even so did his inclination to alcohol. And let’s not forget another important reason of Wenceslas’s failure as a ruler – at the t Luxembourgian house didn’t have an air of a harmonious dynasty; they rather resembled a ne There were constant quarrels between Wenceslas, his younger brothers Sigismund and John (b marriage of Charles IV and Elisabeth of Pomerania) and three older Moravian cousins Jobst, and Prokop. Especially the enormously ambitious Jobst, who received, apart from Moravia, a from Wenceslas and Brandenburg from Sigismund as pledges, did his best to weaken Wenceslas junior, and to get the ultimate power as the senior of the whole dynasty. It was Jobst who Bohemian aristocracy, and together they arrested Wenceslas for the first time in 1394. The arrest took place in Králův Dvůr near Beroun; the king was then imprisoned in southern in Austria. He was saved by the disputes between the conspirators and also the counteracti brother, John of Gorlitz. The king was released after promising concessions, yet his posit significantly. A monarch who can be captured by his subjects, who then can enforce any dem think of – that’s not how respect and authority are earned. Wenceslas’s first imprisonment significantly weakened his position in the Empire, already weak enough – imperial princes negotiate the release of their king, but soon they started thinking how to get rid of him when Wenceslas accused his brother John of an attempt at using the confusion for his own b appropriation of Kutná Hora, the occupation of Prague, replacement of officials and embezz the potential support of the family as well. At this time, Wenceslas’s authority started crumbling. He got involved in a bitter conflic Archbishop John of Jenstein (the victim of which was John Nepomucene); in Moravia, he had with Jobst and Prokop on top of his conflict with John of Gorlitz; in Bohemia, the king’s depended on Sigismund and Jobst who both cared primarily for their own interests. In 1397, Council members and Wenceslas’s devoted allies were murdered at the Karlštejn Castle. The from any punishment for this crime, and settled for the foolish explanation that the victi In the Empire, the princes started calling for assemblies without the king’s consent, and nothing but watch. He even failed to respond to the steps that openly aimed at his dethron that at one point the events drove him to set off to Rome, but once back, he become numb a where the image of the king who only indulges in wine, adultery and hunt comes from – the lands decline and fall. In 1400, the majority of imperial electors removed Wenceslas from the throne of the Holy R king was furious, but that was all he could do about it. Then he got fixated to Sigismund to support Wenceslas, but eventually had him imprisoned and took over Bohemia himself. In returned to the Bohemian throne but never to his former power. He became bitter and distru scared of his relatives, Bohemian lords and imperial princes alike. He was afraid of them, craved vengeance, but he never plucked up courage for any. That’s how Wenceslas was in the second half of his reign – in the times when John Huss was Bethlehem Chapel, in the times of Decree of Kutná Hora, indulgence riots, or the Council o that time, we may hardly see him as the heir of Charles IV. Yet it’s also hard to condemn It’s necessary to differentiate when it comes to the periods of his reign. The unsuccessfu attempts at continuing his father’s policy were replaced by the lack of activity, and then the desperate struggle to keep the throne and the royal title, though meaningless. We prob him an outstanding monarch, but his reign (which lasted the unprecedented 41 years) left a the Czech history all the same. Despite all Wenceslas’s shortcomings, his era doesn’t belong to the worst times of the Cze all in all, a clash of views at the Prague University, represented by John Huss and many o certainly indicates an extraordinary cultural environment. This period came to an unhappy during the Hussite wars – and Wenceslas had been already dead when they broke out. He died 1419, at the New Castle near Kunratice, shortly after the first Prague defenestration. His buried in the Zbraslav monastery. When the Hussites conquered it, Wenceslas’s body was dug and subjected to disparagement, which included pouring beer into the dead body’s mouth. So the end of the son of the “Father of the Nation”, who failed to stand up to the high hopes him. This is, all in all, the fate of many famous fathers’ sons. Bibliography: Bobková, Lenka – Bartlová, Milena. Velké dějiny zemí Koruny české IV.b. 1310–1402. Praha/L 2003. Hlaváček, Ivan. Nevděčné nástupnictví Václava IV. In: Bobková, Lenka – Šmahel, František ( Lucemburkové. Česká koruna uprostřed Evropy. Praha: NLN, 2012, s. 643–655. Spěváček, Jiří. Václav IV. 1361–1419. K předpokladům husitské revoluce. Praha: Svoboda, 19