Wenceslas of Luxembourg












            ******************************************************************************************

            *
            ******************************************************************************************
            By Jan Boukal


            „I couldn’t find more joy in the service; it means everything to me. And as I give it all 
            deserve the same. I want to walk the path safe from treason and to reach the happy gates; 

            my faith to these words. My Lady, as I’m waving you farewell, I leave my body with my devo
            for you; take it for good.”



            These words were written by the Luxembourgian and Brabant duke Wenceslas of Luxembourg, al

            Wenceslas of Bohemia. In the Czech environment, however, he is relatively unknown. He was 
            23, 1337, in Prague as the son of John of Luxembourg and his second wife Beatrix of Bourbo
            was the half-brother of Charles IV. By choosing a Czech name for her son, the French mothe

            his position in the Czech environment. Even before Wenceslas was born, the wedding contrac
            ensured he would become the monarch of Luxembourg one day. Old king John thought he could 
            off to the daughter of the Roman king Louis of Bavaria, yet this plan failed as the relati

            changed after some time. After John’s death at the battle of Crecy, Wenceslas’s mother Bea
            planning his wedding. She chose a new bride for him – Joanna of Brabant, 15 years his seni
            Duke John III. She was a widow of William Count of Holland, and the heiress of the Brabant

            and Wenceslas got engaged in 1347, but they didn’t marry until 1352. Their marriage was qu
            but childless; Wenceslas was known to father several bastards.
            Since mid-1350s, Wenceslas lived mostly in Brussels. His court was famous for its tourname

            and balls, with big emphasis on music and poetry. Frequent guests included poets Eustache 
            Guillaume de Machaut, or the chronicler Jean Froissart. The latter wrote that Wenceslas wa
            gallant and chivalrous, loved tournaments, dancing and good laughter; his generous nature 

            knights and other noble people.” Froissart even began, on Wenceslas’s order, to write a rh
            Méliador, inspired by popular novels on King Arthur. Wenceslas himself was an active autho
            French-written poems have preserved to this day. These poems were translated to Czech by G

            Charles IV gave his brother’s Luxembourg County the status of a duchy, with many other ben
            obtained the right to ride on the emperor’s left side on campaigns against rebels, was all
            imperial sword, and was appointed the arch-waiter, arch-equerry, and later even the genera

            western part of the Holy Roman Empire. During his life, he was forced to campaign several 
            neighbors and marauding knights, but he wasn’t always successful in this matter.
            In his last years, Wenceslas focused mainly on diplomatic activities in the Empire and in 

            solving the Papal Schism that was most disturbing for the Luxembourgian duke. At that time
            smitten by a serious skin disease. Shortly before his death, he’s said to call his court m
            them his maimed body, and said: “Look at us well, at the body of a noble origin, from the 

            and emperors, the body that used to be so beautiful and so firm, and now is covered in lep
            it pale, stinking and disgusting to look. So God made it, to prove my pride and humiliate 
            lesson and my example to learn to give up your arrogance, and remove pride from your souls

            died on December 8, 1383, at the age of 46, and he was buried in Orval monastery in Luxemb
            can still be visited in the ruins of the monastery). His heir in Luxembourg was his nephew
            Brabant, his widow Joanna ruled until 1406, and then she appointed her grandnephew Anthony

            days, duke Wenceslas was one of the most important lords and art sponsors in Western Europ
            his homeland country of Bohemia he’s only remembered by the bust in the triforium of St. V
            Bibliography:

            BEJBLÍK, Alois. Václav, vévoda lucemburský a brabantský. In: LUCEMBURSKÝ, Václav. Netoužím
            Argo, 2005, s. 113–124.
            ČECHURA, Jaroslav – ŽŮREK, Václav. Lucemburkové: životopisná encyklopedie. České Budějovic

            2012.  
            FANTYSOVÁ-MATĚJKOVÁ, Jana. Václav Lucemburský. In: ŠMAHEL, František – BOBKOVÁ, Lenka. Luc
            koruna uprostřed Evropy. Praha: NLN, 2012, s. 159–165.

            FANTYSOVÁ-MATĚJKOVÁ, Jana. Wenceslas de Boh?me: un prince au carrefour de l'Europe. Paris: