My favourite Holy Roman Emperor: Charles IV of Bohemia

Charles

I didn't know Charles existed until last year.  There, I've admitted it.  And I found him quite by accident.

Having driven past signs to Crécy on holiday I became intrigued.  I was a devoted Normans and Angevins fan and never really showed any great interest beyond Edward I and his domestic wars.  I had touched on Edward III but only as far as society was concerned, not politics. And so I embarked on a personal project to learn about Edward and Crécy.

No fewer than five kings took to that field in northern France, and one was slain - not the king of France, or even of England, but Bohemia.  I had to find out what a Bohemian king - a blind one at that - was doing fighting in a battle between France and England.  And during that search I discovered that this king had a son.  Charles.

The outline of his life is, in a nutshell - born 14th May 1316, a boy removed from his homeland to be brought up in what was his extended family at the court of the French king.  He was sent to fight in Italy and then re-established the role of the monarchy in Bohemia.  After arguing with his father they then reconciled and were together frequently around Europe, culminating in Charles election as king of the Romans, (i.e. Germany) and in the Battle of Crécy a couple of months later, where John was killed.  Charles became king of Bohemia, won around his opponents to gain complete control over the Holy Roman Empire, made Prague its capital and personally ruled half of Europe.  He married four times and died from pneumonia on 29th November 1378.

But that really doesn't tell you much about the man. 

Charles was reckoned handsome, above average height for the age, golden haired in his youth darkening to brown by middle age, with large brown eyes and a delicate nose.  He must have looked rather exotic and along with his wealth and status explains his popularity with the ladies of Lucca in Italy.  He talks in his autobiography of enjoying the charms on offer in Lucca, but by the time he was writing he expressed regret over his behaviour.

Charles and Anna, his third wife

Charles had four wives. Yes, FOUR wives.  It sounds excessive but Blanche, his first wife, to whom he was reputedly devoted, died suddenly in 1348.  His second wife Anne died after three years of marriage, in child birth.  His third wife Anna lived longer and was the first queen of Bohemia to be crowned empress. She had been betrothed to his son Václav but Václav died aged just eleven months old and when his second wife Anne died he married Anna himself.   She was just fourteen and he was thirty-seven.  She gave Charles the son he craved but she died aged twenty-three, again in childbirth.  Only his fourth wife Elizabeth outlived him.  

Against the accepted norm of the age, Charles appears to have been faithful to his wives, once he left Italy and began to live with Blanche as her husband, that is.  There is just one attributed illegitimate child, a son called Vilem who is mentioned in a single source in 1377.  No more is known about him, not even his age in 1377 so there is no way to tie him down to a time in Charles' life.  So there is no evidence to suggest he was conceived while Charles was married.  My personal opinion tends towards thinking that Vilem was the result of a union between Charles and some lady who offered him comfort after Blanche died.  Fanciful maybe, but as he became more and more detached as he grew older, it seems unlikely that he sought out a romantic entanglement.

His increasing detachment from people encroached on his personal life.  There is a poignant tale told about his second wife Anne.  Generally held to be bright and intelligent, she felt neglected by Charles, and prepared a love potion to lure him to her.  It nearly killed him.

His fourth wife also had cause to feel aggrieved.  Elizabeth of Pomerania was a rather comical woman.  Her party piece performed at banquets was to bend pieces of iron such as bars and horse shoes with her bare hands.  They had children, including two sons but, although she and Charles rubbed along together well enough he favoured his children by earlier marriages.  She outlived him and despite her complaints appears to have been fond of him and requested that she be buried beside him.

Young Charles

His health suffered later in life. By his later years Charles was still quick witted and affable but he was not warm.  He avoided making eye contact with people and preferred to whittle at a piece of wood with a knife than to engage.  He did what he had to but appears to have taken little joy in it.  He had been injured numerous times, including at Crécy.  One of these injuries was to his neck which probably broke a vertebra causing him to stoop.  He suffered from gout and found riding uncomfortable and travelled in a litter.  Finally he fell and broke his leg causing him to be bedridden.  And thus he died from pneumonia.

I have saved my favourite story for last.  In 1348, the year when Europe was first beset by the Black Death, Pope Clement VI had cause to berate Charles.  He told the emperor to dress more modestly.  Apparently Charles was something of a dedicated follower of fashion and favoured the new taste for extremely short tunics.  He shocked not just the pope but the people of Prague because he showed an immodest amount of leg.  So shocking was this deemed to be, over a hundred years later Pope Pius II wrote that Charles had not dressed properly.

And that is the image I leave you with - a handsome, exotic, young man with long brown hair, large eyes and a delicate nose; the most powerful man in Europe who dressed in a scandalously short tunic with too much finely shaped leg on show.