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Bishop of Rome, Duke of Upper Bavaria, Friedrich the Fair of Habsburg, Golden Bull, Holy Roman Emperor Ludwig IV, Holy Roman Empire, Imperial Elector, Johann of Bohemia, Pope John XXII
Ludwig IV (April 1, 1282 – October 11, 1347), called the Bavarian, of the house of Wittelsbach, was King of the Romans from 1314, King of Italy from 1327, and Holy Roman Emperor from 1328.
Ludwig was born in Munich, the son of Ludwig II, Duke of Upper Bavaria and Count Palatine of the Rhine, and his third wife Matilda of Habsburg, a daughter of Rudolph I of Habsburg, King of Germany and Gertrude of Hohenberg.
Ludwig IV was Duke of Upper Bavaria from 1294 to 1301 together with his elder brother Rudolf I, andvwas Margrave of Brandenburg until 1323, and Count Palatine of the Rhine until 1329, and became Duke of Lower Bavaria in 1340. He became Count of Hainaut, Holland, Zeeland, and Friesland in 1345 when his wife Margaret inherited those domains.
Election as German King and conflict with Habsburg
The death of Holy Roman Emperor Heinrich VII in August 1313 necessitated the election of a successor. Heinrich VII’s son Johann, King of Bohemia since 1310, was considered by many prince-electors to be too young, and by others to be already too powerful.
Ludwig IV, Holy Roman Emperor and Duke of Upper Bavaria
One alternative was Friedrich the Fair, the son of Henry’s predecessor, Albrecht I, of the House of Habsburg. In reaction, the pro-Luxembourg party among the prince electors settled on Ludwig of Bavaria as its candidate to prevent Friedrich’s election.
On October 19, 1314, Archbishop Heinrich II of Cologne chaired an assembly of four electors at Sachsenhausen, south of Frankfurt. Participants were Ludwig’s brother, Rudolph I of the Palatinate, who objected to the election of his younger brother, Duke Rudolph I of Saxe-Wittenberg, and Heinrich of Carinthia, whom the Luxembourgs had deposed as King of Bohemia. These four electors chose Friedrich the Fair of Habsburg as the new German King.
The Luxembourg party did not accept this election and the next day a second election was held. Upon the instigation of Peter of Aspelt, Archbishop of Mainz, five different electors convened at Frankfurt and elected Ludwig as King.
These electors were Archbishop Peter himself, Archbishop Baldwin of Trier and King Johann of Bohemia – both of the House of Luxembourg – Margrave Waldemar of Brandenburg and Duke Johann II of Saxe-Lauenburg, who contested Rudolph of Wittenberg’s claim to the electoral vote.
This double election was quickly followed by two coronations: Ludwig was crowned at Aachen – the customary site of coronations – by Archbishop Peter of Mainz, while the Archbishop of Cologne, who by custom had the right to crown the new king, crowned Friedrich at Bonn. In the following conflict between the kings, Ludwig recognized in 1316 the independence of Switzerland from the Habsburg dynasty.
Friedrich the Fair of Habsburg
After several years of bloody war, victory finally seemed within the grasp of Friedrich, who was strongly supported by his brother Leopold. However, Friedrich’s army was decisively defeated in the Battle of Mühldorf on September 28, 1322 on the Ampfing Heath, where Friedrich and 1300 nobles from Austria and Salzburg were captured.
Ludwig IV held Friedrich captive in Trausnitz Castle (Schwandorf) for three years, but the determined resistance by Friedrich’s brother Leopold, the retreat of Johann of Bohemia from his alliance, and a ban by Pope John XXII, who excommunicated Ludwig in 1324, induced Ludwig to release Friedrich in the Treaty of Trausnitz of 13 March 1325.
In this agreement, Friedrich recognized Ludwig as legitimate ruler and undertook to return to captivity should he not succeed in convincing his brothers to submit to Ludwig IV.
Golden Bull of Ludwig IV 1328
As he did not manage to overcome Leopold’s obstinacy, Friedrich returned to Munich as a prisoner, even though the Pope had released him from his oath. Ludwig IV, who was impressed by such nobility, renewed the old friendship with Friedrich, and they agreed to rule the Empire jointly.
Since the Pope and the electors strongly objected to this agreement, another treaty was signed at Ulm on January 7, 1326, according to which Friedrich would administer Germany as King of the Romans, while Ludwig would be crowned as Holy Roman Emperor in Italy. However, after Leopold’s death in 1326, Friedrich withdrew from the regency of the Empire and returned to rule only Austria where he died on January 13, 1330.
European Royal History 