Wenceslaus, King of the Romans

Wenceslaus
King Wenceslaus sitting on the throne, detail from the Wenceslas Bible, 1390s
King of Bohemia
Reign	29 November 1378 – 16 August 1419
Coronation	15 June 1363 St. Vitus Cathedral, Prague
Predecessor	Charles IV
Successor	Sigismund
King of Germany (formally King of the Romans)
Reign	10 June 1376 – 20 August 1400
Coronation	6 July 1376 Aachen Cathedral
Predecessor	Charles IV
Successor	Rupert
Elector of Brandenburg
Reign	2 October 1373 – 29 November 1378
Predecessor	Otto VII
Successor	Sigismund
Duke of Luxembourg
Reign	7 December 1383 – 1388
Predecessor	Wenceslaus I
Successor	Jobst of Moravia
Born	26 February 1361 Nuremberg, Holy Roman Empire
Died	16 August 1419 (aged 58) Nový hrad, Kunratice
Spouse	Joanna of Bavaria Sophia of Bavaria
House	House of Luxembourg
Father	Charles IV
Mother	Anna von Schweidnitz

Wenceslaus (also Wenceslas; Czech: Václav; German: Wenzel, nicknamed der Faule ("the Idle"); 26 February 1361 – 16 August 1419) was, by inheritance, King of Bohemia (as Wenceslaus IV) from 1363 and by election, German King (formally King of the Romans) from 1376. He was the third Bohemian and fourth German monarch of the Luxembourg dynasty. Wenceslaus was deposed in 1400 as King of the Romans, but continued to rule as Bohemian king until his death.

Wenceslaus was born in the Imperial city of Nuremberg, the son of Emperor Charles IV by his third wife Anna von Schweidnitz, a scion of the Silesian Piasts, and baptized at St. Sebaldus Church. He was raised by the Prague Archbishops Arnošt of Pardubice and Jan Očko z Vlašimi. His father had the two-year-old crowned King of Bohemia in 1363 and in 1373 also obtained for him the Electoral Margraviate of Brandenburg. When in 1376 Charles IV asserted Wenceslaus' election as King of the Romans by the prince-electors, two of seven votes, those of Brandenburg and Bohemia, were held by the emperor and his son themselves.

In order to secure the election of his son, Charles IV revoked the privileges of many Imperial Cities that he had earlier granted, and mortgaged them to various nobles. The cities, however, were not powerless, and as executors of the public peace, they had developed into a potent military force. Moreover, as Charles IV had organised the cities into leagues, he had made it possible for them to cooperate in large-scale endeavors. Indeed, on 4 July 1376, two days after Wenceslaus' election, fourteen Swabian cities bound together into the independent Swabian League of Cities to defend their rights against the newly elected King, attacking the lands of Eberhard II, Count of Württemberg. The city league soon attracted other members and until 1389 acted as an autonomous state within the Empire.