He succeeded to the burgraviate when his elder brother John I died in 1300. In 1307, he and King Albert I of Germany led an Imperial Army into the Battle of Lucka against the Wettin margraves Frederick I of Meissen and Dietrich IV of Lustia, and were defeated. Frederick IV fought more successfully alongside the Wittelsbach king Louis the Bavarian at the Battle of Mühldorf on 28 September 1322, capturing the Habsburg rival Frederick the Fair.