October 11, 1347: Death of Ludwig IV, Holy Roman Emperor. Part I

Tags

Duke of Bavaria, Frederick the Fair, Holy Roman Emperor Heinrich VII, Holy Roman Emperor Ludwig IV, Holy Roman Empire, House of Wittelsbach, King of the Germans, King of the Romans, 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 Matilda Matilda was the eldest daughter of King Rudolph I of Germany and Gertrude of Hohenberg.

Though Ludwig was partly educated in Vienna and became co-regent of his brother Rudolph I in Upper Bavaria in 1301 with the support of his Habsburg mother and her brother, King Albrecht I, he quarreled with the Habsburgs from 1307 over possessions in Lower Bavaria.

A civil war against his brother Rudolph due to new disputes on the partition of their lands was ended in 1313, when peace was made at Munich.

Tomb effigy at Munich Frauenkirche

In the same year, on November 9, Ludwig defeated his Habsburg cousin Friedrich the Fair who was further aided by duke Leopold I. Originally, he was a friend of Friedrich, with whom he had been raised. However, armed conflict arose when the guardianship over the young Dukes of Lower Bavaria (Heinrich XIV, Otto IV, and Heinrich XV) was entrusted to Friedrich, even though the late Duke Otto III, the former King of Hungary, had chosen Ludwig.

On November 9, 1313, Friedrich was defeated by Ludwig in the Battle of Gammelsdorf and had to renounce the tutelage. This victory caused a stir within the Holy Roman Empire and increased the reputation of the Bavarian Duke.

The death of Holy Roman Emperor Heinrich VII in August 1313 necessitated the election of a successor. Heinrich’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. One alternative was Friedrich the Fair, the son of Heinrich VII’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, Count 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 as 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 IV 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 IV recognized in 1316 the independence of Switzerland from the Habsburg dynasty.

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 IV in 1324, induced Louis to release Friedrich in the Treaty of Trausnitz of 13 March 1325.

In this agreement, Friedrich recognized Ludwig IV as the legitimate Emperor and undertook to return to captivity should he not succeed in convincing his brothers to submit to Ludwig.

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 German lands 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. Friedrich died on January 13, 1330.

August 4, 1290: Leopold I, Duke of Austria and Styria

Tags

Frederick the Fair, Holy Roman Emperor Heinrich VII, Holy Roman Emperor Ludwig IV, House of Habsburg, Leopold I of Austria and Styria

Leopold I (August 4, 1290 – February 28,1326), called The Glorious, of the House of Habsburg, was Duke of Austria and Styria – as co-ruler with his elder brother Friedrich the Fair – from 1308 until his death. Born at Vienna, he was the third son of Albrecht I of the Romans and Elisabeth of Gorizia-Tyrol, a scion of the Meinhardiner dynasty.

Stained glass portrait of Leopold I of Austria, Königsfelden Monastery, Windisch, Switzerland.

Leopold’s father, Albrecht I, King of Romans, (1255 –1308) was a Duke of Austria and Styria from 1282 and King of the Romans from 1298 until his assassination. Albrecht I himself was the eldest son of King Rudolph I of the Romans and his first wife Gertrude of Hohenberg.

Leopold’s grandfather, Rudolf I (1218 – 1291) was the first King of the Romans from the House of Habsburg. The first of the count-kings of Germany, who never were technically held the title of Emperor, reigned from 1273 until his death.

After the death of his eldest brother Duke Rudolph III in 1307 and the assassination of King Albrecht I in 1308, Leopold became head of the Habsburg dynasty and administrator of the Swabian home territories, where he started a retaliation campaign against his father’s murderers.

The energetic man converged with the royal House of Luxembourg and accompanied Emperor Heinrich VII on his Italian campaign. In 1311 he helped to suppress a Guelph revolt at Milan under Guido della Torre and to lay siege to the city of Brescia.

Upon Emperor Heinrich VII’s death, Leopold strongly supported his brother Friedrich in the 1314 election as King of the Romans. Despite all efforts (and bribes), the Habsburgs only gained the votes of four prince-electors, while Ludwig IV of Bavaria, with support of the Luxembourgs, was elected Emperor by five votes.

In the following armed conflict between the rivals, the forces of Leopold were supportive of his brother’s claims. In his ancestral homeland however, he incurred a decisive defeat by the Swiss Confederacy at the 1315 Battle of Morgarten.

When Friedrich and their younger brother Heinrich had been captured at the Battle of Mühldorf in 1322, Leopold struggled for their release. He entered into negotiations with Emperor Ludwig IV and even surrendered the Imperial Regalia he had kept at Kyburg castle.

The parleys failed and Leopold continued to attack the Bavarian forces of Ludwig, who unsuccessfully laid siege to the Swabian town of Burgau in 1324. After the king had failed to reach the approval of his election by Pope John XXII and was even banned, he released Frederick in 1325.

The captive however had to promise to swear his brother to acknowledge Ludwig as his suzerain, which Leopold refused. Friedrich as a man of honour voluntarily returned to the Bavarian court, where he and Ludwig finally agreed upon a joint rule.

Death

Leopold died in Straßburg shortly afterwards, aged 35. His remains were buried at Königsfelden Monastery in the Swiss town of Windisch, Aargau.

Marriage and issue

In 1315, Leopold married Catherine of Savoy (1284–1336), daughter of Amadeus V, Count of Savoy by his second wife, Marie of Brabant. They had two daughters:

1. Catherine of Austria (1320–1349), who married Enguerrand VI, Lord of Coucy.
2. Agnes of Austria (1322–1392), who married Bolko II, Duke of Świdnica.

April 1, 1282: Birth of Ludwig IV, Holy Roman Emperor. Conclusion

Tags

Anti-Pope, Edward III of England, Holy Roman Emperor Ludwig IV, House of Wittlesbach, Philippe VI of France, Pope Clement VII, Pope John XXII

Coronation as Holy Roman Emperor and conflict with the Pope

After the reconciliation with the Habsburgs in 1326, Ludwig marched to Italy and was crowned King of Italy in Milan in 1327. Already in 1323, Ludwig had sent an army to Italy to protect Milan against the Kingdom of Naples, which was together with France the strongest ally of the papacy. But now the Lord of Milan Galeazzo I Visconti was deposed since he was suspected of conspiring with the pope.

In January 1328, Louis entered Rome and had himself crowned emperor by the aged senator Sciarra Colonna, called captain of the Roman people. Three months later, Ludwig published a decree declaring Pope John XXII (Jacques Duèze), who resided in Avignon, deposed on grounds of heresy. He then installed a Spiritual Franciscan, Pietro Rainalducci as antipope Nicholas V, who soon left Rome and a few years later submitted to Pope John XXII.

In the meantime, Robert, King of Naples had sent both a fleet and an army against Ludwig and his ally Frederick II of Sicily. Louis spent the winter 1328/29 in Pisa and stayed then in Northern Italy. When his co-ruler Friedrich of Habsburg died in 1330, Ludwig returned from Italy. In fulfillment of an oath, Ludwig founded Ettal Abbey on April 28, 1330.

Franciscan theologians Michael of Cesena and William of Ockham, and the philosopher Marsilius of Padua, who were all on bad terms with the Pope as well, joined Emperor Ludwig in Italy and accompanied him to his court at Alter Hof in Munich which became the first imperial residence of the Holy Roman Empire.

In 1333, Emperor Ludwig sought to counter French influence in the southwest of the empire so he offered Humbert II of Viennois the Kingdom of Arles which was an opportunity to gain full authority over Savoy, Provence, and its surrounding territories. Humbert was reluctant to take the crown due to the conflict that would follow with all around him, so he declined, telling the emperor that he should make peace with the church first.

Emperor Ludwig IV also allied with King Edward III of England in 1337 against King Philippe VI of France, the protector of the new Pope Benedict XII in Avignon. King Philippe VI had prevented any agreement between the Emperor and the Pope.

Thus, the failure of negotiations with the papacy led to the declaration at Rhense in 1338 by six electors to the effect that election by all or the majority of the electors automatically conferred the royal title and rule over the empire, without papal confirmation.

King Edward III was the Emperor’s guest at the Imperial Diet in the Kastorkirche at Coblence in 1338 and was named Vicar-General of the Holy Roman Empire. However in 1341, the Emperor deserted Edward III but came to terms with Philippe VI only temporarily. For the expected English payments were missing and Ludwig intended to reach an agreement with the Pope one more time.

Imperial privileges

Ludwig IV was a protector of the Teutonic Knights. In 1337 he allegedly bestowed upon the Teutonic Order a privilege to conquer Lithuania and Russia, although the Order had only petitioned for three small territories. Later he forbade the Order to stand trial before foreign courts in their territorial conflicts with foreign rulers.

Ludwig IV concentrated his energies also on the economic development of the cities of the empire, so his name can be found in many city chronicles for the privileges he granted. In 1330 the emperor for example permitted the Frankfurt Trade Fair, and in 1340 Lübeck, as the most powerful member of the future Hanseatic League, received the coinage prerogative for golden gulden.

Dynastic policy

Gold Gulden of Lübeck, 1341

In 1323 Ludwig IV gave Brandenburg as a fiefdom to his eldest son Ludwig V after the Brandenburg branch of the House of Ascania had died out. With the Treaty of Pavia in 1329 the emperor reconciled the sons of his late brother Rudolph and returned the Palatinate to his nephews Rudolf and Rupert.

After the death of Henry of Bohemia, the duchy of Carinthia was released as an imperial fief on May 2, 1335 in Linz to his Habsburg cousins Albrecht II, Duke of Austria, and Otto, Duke of Austria, while Tyrol was first placed into Luxemburg hands.

With the death of duke Johann I in 1340 Ludwig inherited Lower Bavaria and then reunited the duchy of Bavaria. Johann’s mother, a member of the Luxemburg dynasty, had to return to Bohemia. In 1342 Ludwig also acquired Tyrol for the Wittelsbach by voiding the first marriage of Margarete Maultasch with Johann Heinrich of Bohemia and marrying her to his own son Ludwig V, thus alienating the House of Luxemburg even more.

In 1345 the emperor further antagonized the lay princes by conferring Hainaut, Holland, Zeeland, and Friesland upon his wife, Margaret II of Hainaut. The hereditary titles of Margaret’s sisters, one of whom was the queen of England, were ignored. Because of the dangerous hostility of the Luxemburgs, Louis had increased his power base ruthlessly.

Conflict with Luxemburg

The acquisition of these territories and his restless foreign policy had earned Ludwig many enemies among the German princes. In the summer of 1346 the Luxemburg Charles IV was elected rival king, with the support of Pope Clement VI. Ludwig IV himself obtained much support from the Imperial Free Cities and the knights and successfully resisted Charles, who was widely regarded as a papal puppet (“rex clericorum” as William of Ockham called him). Also the Habsburg dukes stayed loyal to Ludwig. In the Battle of Crécy Charles’ father Johann of Luxemburg was killed; Charles himself also took part in the battle but escaped.

But then Ludwig IV s’ sudden death avoided a longer civil war. Ludwig died in October 1347 from a stroke suffered during a bear-hunt in Puch near Fürstenfeldbruck. He is buried in the Frauenkirche in Munich.

The sons of Ludwig IV supported Günther von Schwarzburg as new rival king to Charles but finally joined the Luxemburg party after Günther’s early death in 1349 and divided the Wittelsbach possessions amongst themselves again.

In continuance of the conflict of the House of Wittelsbach with the House of Luxemburg, the Wittelsbach family returned to power in the Holy Roman Empire in 1400 with King Rupert of Germany, a great-grandnephew of Ludwig

Family and children
In 1308 Louis IV married his first wife, Beatrix of Świdnica (1290-1320).

In 1324 he married his second wife, Margaret II, Countess of Hainaut and Holland (1308-1356).

April 1, 1282: Birth of Holy Roman Emperor Ludwig IV. Part I.

Tags

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.

September 28: These Dates In History.

Tags

Elizabeth of Bohemia, Emperor Constantius of Rome, Friedrich Christian II, Friedrich Christian II of Schleswig-Holstein-Sonderburg-Augustenburg, Hippolytus of Rome, Holy Roman Emperor Ludwig IV, King Henry I of England, Pope Pontian, William I of England, William the Conqueror

• From the Emperor’s Desk: I will expand on a couple these events later today.
  
• 235 – Pope Pontian resigns. He is exiled to the mines of Sardinia, along with Hippolytus of Rome.
• 351 – Constantius II defeats the usurper Magnentius.
• 365 – Roman usurper Procopius bribes two legions passing by Constantinople, and proclaims himself emperor.
• 935 – Duke Wenceslaus I of Bohemia is murdered by a group of nobles led by his brother Boleslaus I, who succeeds him.
• 995 – Boleslaus II, Duke of Bohemia, kills most members of the rival Slavník dynasty.
• 1066 – William the Conqueror lands in England, beginning the Norman conquest.
• 1106 – King Henry I of England defeats his brother Robert Curthose at the Battle of Tinchebray.
• 1238 – King James I of Aragon conquers Valencia from the Moors. Shortly thereafter, he proclaims himself king of Valencia.
• 1322 – Ludwig IV, Holy Roman Emperor, defeats Friedrich I of Austria in the Battle of Mühldorf.
• 1844 – Oscar I of Sweden–Norway is crowned king of Sweden

Births

1765 – Friedrich Christian II, Duke of Schleswig-Holstein-Sonderburg-Augustenburg (d. 1814)

Deaths

• 1197 – Heinrich VI, Holy Roman Emperor (b. 1165)
• 1213 – Gertrude of Merania, queen consort of Hungaria (b. 1185). She was Queen of Hungary as the first wife of Andrew II from 1205 until her assassination. She was regent during her husband’s absence.
• 1330 – Elizabeth of Bohemia, queen consort of Bohemia (b. 1292). She became queen consort of Bohemia as the first wife of King John the Blind. She was the mother of Holy Roman Emperor Charles IV, King of Bohemia.
• 1429 – Cymburgis of Masovia, duchess consort of Austria (b. 1394)