Louis IV, Holy Roman Emperor

From Free net encyclopedia

Louis IV of Bavaria of the House of Wittelsbach (born 1282) was duke of Bavaria from 1294/1301 together with his brother Rudolf I, also count of the Palatinate until 1329 and, German king since 1314 and crowned as Holy Roman Emperor in 1328. Louis died on October 11, 1347 when he suffered a stroke during a bear-hunt in Puch near Fürstenfeldbruck. He is buried in the Frauenkirche in Munich.

Louis was the son of Louis II, Duke of Upper Bavaria, and Mechthild, a daughter of King Rudolph I.

Contents 1 Early reign 2 Conflict with the Pope 3 Dynastic policy 4 Family and children 5 Note

Early reign

Though Louis was partly educated in Vienna and became co-regent of his brother Rudolf I in Bavaria in 1301 with the support of his Habsburg mother Mechthild and her brother King Albert I, he quarrelled with the Habsburgs from 1307 over possessions in Lower Bavaria. The war against his brother Rudolf due to new disputes on the partition of their lands was ended in 1313, when peace was made at Munich. In the same year Louis defeated his Habsburg cousin Frederick the Handsome in the battle of Gammelsdorf.

After the death of Holy Roman Emperor Henry VII the Luxemburg party among the prince electors set aside Henry's son, John of Luxembourg, because of his youth and chose Louis as rival king to Frederick the Handsome in 1314. In the following conflict Louis reckognized in 1316 the independence of Switzerland from Habsburg. In the battle of Mühldorf 1322 Frederick was beaten again and arrested but soon released and accepted as co-regent until he died in 1330.

Conflict with the Pope

Image:1326 golden-bull-louis-IV 2-280x280.jpg Despite this victory, Pope John XXII still refused to ratify Louis’s election and in 1324 he excommunicated Louis. In opposite to previous disputes between the emperor and the papacy the ban did not longer react. After the reconciliation with Habsburg in 1326 Louis marched to Italy and was crowned Italian king in Milan in 1327. In January 1328 he entered Rome and had himself crowned emperor by the aged senator Sciarra Colonna, called captain of the Roman people. Three months later Louis published a decree declaring "Jacque de Cahors" (Pope John XXII) deposed on grounds of heresy. He then installed a Spiritual Franciscan, Pietro Rainalducci as Antipope Nicholas V, who was deposed after Louis left Rome in early 1329.

Philosophers like Michael of Cesena, Marsilius of Padua and William of Ockham were protected at the emperor's court in Munich. The failure of later negotiations with the papacy led 1338 to the declaration at Rhense 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. Louis also allied in 1337 with Edward III of England against Philip VI of France, the protector of Pope Benedict XII in Avignon. But in 1341 Louis deserted Edward and came temporary to terms with Philip.

Louis 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.Template:Ref Later he forbade the Order to stand trial before foreign courts in their territorial conflicts with foreign rulers. Louis 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.

Dynastic policy

In 1323 Louis acquired Brandenburg for his eldest son Louis V and in 1329 the emperor returned the Palatinate to his nephews. The duchy of Carinthia was also released to his Habsburg relatives in 1335. Then Louis inherited Lower Bavaria in 1340 and re-united the duchy of Bavaria. In 1342 he also acquired Tyrol by voiding the first marriage of Margarete Maultasch and marrying her to his own son Louis V, thus alienating the house of Luxemburg. In 1345 Louis further antagonized the lay princes by conferring Hainaut, Holland, Zeeland and Friesland upon his wife Margaret of Holland.

The acquisition of these territories and his restless foreign policy had provided Louis with many enemies among the German princes. In 1346 the Luxemburg Charles IV was elected rival king with support of Pope Clement VI. Louis himself obtained much support from the Imperial Free Cities and the knighthood and was successfully resisting Charles, who was widely regarded as a papal puppet ("rex clericorum"). In the Battle of Crécy Charles' father John of Luxemburg was killed, Charles himself also took part in the battle but escaped.

Louis' sudden death the following year avoided a longer civil war. The sons of Louis supported Günther von Schwarzburg as new rival king but joined the Luxemburg party after Günther's early death in 1349 and divided the Wittelsbach possesions among each other again.

Family and children

He was first married to Beatrix von Silesia-Glogau. Their children were:

1. Mathilde (aft. June 21, 1313 – July 2, 1346, Meißen), married at Nürnberg July 1, 1329 Friedrich II, Markgraf of Meißen (d. 1349)
2. a child (b. September 1314)
3. Anna (c. 1316 – January 29, 1319, Kastl)
4. Louis V the Brandenburger (1316–1361), duke of Upper Bavaria, margrave of Brandenburg, count of Tyrol
5. Agnes (b. c. 1318)
6. Stephen II (1319–1375), duke of Lower Bavaria

In 1324 he married Margaret of Holland, countess of Hainaut and Holland. Their children were:

1. Margarete (1325–1374), married:
   1. in 1351 in Ofen Stephen, Duke of Slavonia (d. 1354);
   2. 1357/58 Gerlach von Hohenlohe.
2. Anna (c. 1326 – June 3, 1361, Fontenelles) married John I of Lower Bavaria (d. 1340)
3. William V of Holland (1327–1388), as William I duke of Lower Bavaria, as Wiliam V count of Hainaut and Holland
4. Elisabeth (1329 – August 2, 1402, Stuttgart), married with:
   1. Cangrande II della Scala, Lord of Verona (d. 1359) in Verona on November 22, 1350;
   2. Count Ulrich of Württemberg (d. 1388) in 1362.
5. Louis VI the Roman (1328–1365), duke of Upper Bavaria, elector of Brandenburg.
6. Albert I of Holland (1336–1404), duke of Lower Bavaria, count of Hainaut and Holland
7. Otto V the Bavarian (1340–1379), duke of Upper Bavaria, elector of Brandenburg
8. Beatrix (1344 – December 25, 1359), married bef. October 25, 1356 Eric XII of Sweden
9. Agnes (Munich, 1345 – November 11, 1352, Munich)
10. Louis (October 1347 – 1348)

Note

1. Template:Note Urban, William. The Teutonic Knights: A Military History. Greenhill Books. London, 2003, p. 136. ISBN 1853675350

Template:Start box Template:Succession box Template:Succession box Template:Succession box}} Template:Succession box Template:Succession box Template:Succession box Template:Succession box Template:End boxde:Ludwig IV. (HRR) es:Luis IV de Baviera fr:Louis IV du Saint-Empire et:Ludwig IV (Saksa-Rooma keiser) it:Luigi IV del Sacro Romano Impero nl:Lodewijk IV van het Heilige Roomse Rijk ja:ルートヴィヒ4世 (神聖ローマ皇帝) pl:Ludwik IV Bawarski pt:Luís IV da Bavária sv:Ludvig IV (tysk-romersk kejsare) zh:路易四世 (神圣罗马帝国)