Wenceslaus IV of Bohemia Wenceslaus ( also " Wenceslas " ; ; , nicknamed " der Faule " ( " the Idle " ) ; 26 February 1361 – 16 August 1419 ) was , by inheritance , King of Bohemia ( as " Wenceslaus IV " ) from 1363 and by election , German King ( formally King of the Romans ) from 1376 . He was the third Bohemian and second German monarch of the Luxembourg dynasty . Wenceslaus was deposed in 1400 as German King , but continued to rule as King of Bohemia . Biography . Wenceslaus was born in the Imperial city of Nuremberg , the son of Holy Roman Emperor Charles IV by his third wife Anna von Schweidnitz , a scion of the Silesian Piasts , and baptized at St . Sebaldus Church . He was raised by the Prague Archbishops Arnošt of Pardubice and Jan Očko z Vlašimi . His father had the two - year - old crowned King of Bohemia in 1363 and in 1373 also obtained for him the Electoral Margraviate of Brandenburg . When in 1376 Charles IV asserted Wenceslaus ' election as King of the Romans by the prince - electors , two of seven votes , those of Brandenburg and Bohemia , were held by the emperor and his son themselves . In order to secure the election of his son , Charles IV revoked the privileges of many Imperial Cities that he had earlier granted , and mortgaged them to various nobles . The cities , however , were not powerless , and as executors of the public peace , they had developed into a potent military force . Moreover , as Charles IV had organised the cities into leagues , he had made it possible for them to cooperate in large - scale endeavors . Indeed , on 4 July 1376 , two days after Wenceslaus ' election , fourteen Swabian cities bound together into an independent Swabian League to defend their rights against the newly elected King , attacking the lands of Eberhard II , Count of Württemberg . The city league soon attracted other members and until 1389 acted as an autonomous state within the Empire . Rule . On Charles ' s death in 1378 , Wenceslaus inherited Bohemia and as Emperor - elect assumed the government of the Holy Roman Empire . In the cathedral of Monza there is preserved a series of reliefs depicting the coronations of the kings of Italy with the Iron Crown of Lombardy . The seventh of these depicts Wenceslaus being crowned in the presence of six electors , he himself being the seventh . The depiction is probably not accurate and was likely made solely to reinforce the claims of the cathedral on the custody of the Iron Crown . In 1387 a quarrel between Frederick , Duke of Bavaria , and the cities of the Swabian League allied with the Archbishop of Salzburg gave the signal for a general war in Swabia , in which the cities , weakened by their isolation , mutual jealousies and internal conflicts , were defeated by the forces of Eberhard II , Count of Württemberg , at Döffingen , near Gafenau , on 24 August 1388 . The cities were taken severally and devastated . Most of them quietly acquiesced when King Wenceslaus proclaimed an ambivalent arrangement at Cheb ( " Eger " ) in 1389 which prohibited all leagues between cities , while confirming their political autonomy . This settlement provided a modicum of stability for the next several decades , however the cities dropped out as a basis of the central Imperial authority . King of Bohemia . During his long reign , Wenceslaus ' grip on power was tenuous at best , as he came into repeated conflicts with the Bohemian nobility led by the House of Rosenberg . On two occasions he was even imprisoned for lengthy spells by rebellious nobles . But Wenceslaus ' greatest liability proved to be his own family . Charles IV had divided his holdings among his sons and other relatives . Although Wenceslaus upon his father ' s death retained Bohemia , his younger half - brother Sigismund inherited Brandenburg , while John received the newly established Duchy of Görlitz in Upper Lusatia . The March of Moravia was divided between his cousins Jobst and Procopius , and his uncle Wenceslaus I was made Duke of Luxembourg . Hence the young king was left without the resources his father had enjoyed . In 1386 , Sigismund became king of Hungary and became involved in affairs further east . Wenceslaus also faced serious opposition from the Bohemian nobles and even from his chancellor , the Prague archbishop Jan of Jenštejn . In a conflict surrounding the investiture of the abbot of Kladruby , the torture and murder of the archbishop ' s vicar - general John of Nepomuk by royal officials in 1393 sparked a noble rebellion . In 1394 Wenceslaus ' cousin Jobst of Moravia was named regent , while Wenceslaus was arrested at Králův Dvůr . King Sigismund of Hungary arranged a truce in 1396 , and for his efforts was recognized as Wenceslaus ' heir . In the Papal Schism , Wenceslaus had supported Pope Urban VI . As Bohemian king he sought to protect the religious reformer Jan Hus and his followers against the demands of the Roman Catholic Church for their suppression as heretics . This caused many Germans to withdraw from the University of Prague , and set up their own university at Leipzig . Hus was executed in Konstanz in 1415 , and the rest of Wenceslaus ' s reign in Bohemia featured precursors of the Hussite Wars that would follow his death during the Defenestrations of Prague . Dethronement . In view of his troubles in Bohemia , Wenceslaus did not seek a coronation ceremony as Holy Roman Emperor and was long absent from the German lands . Consequently , he faced anger at the " Reichstag " diets of Nuremberg ( 1397 ) and Frankfurt ( 1398 ) . The four Rhenish electors , Count Palatine Rupert III and the Archbishops of Mainz , Cologne and Trier , accused him of failing to maintain the public peace or to resolve the Schism . They demanded that Wenceslaus appear before them to answer to the charges in June 1400 . Wenceslaus demurred , in large part because of renewed hostilities in Bohemia . When he failed to appear , the electors meeting at Lahneck Castle declared him deposed on 20 August 1400 on account of " futility , idleness , negligence and ignobility " . The next day they chose the Palatine Elector as their king at Rhens , though Wenceslaus refused to acknowledge this successor ' s decade - long reign . In 1402 Wenceslaus was again imprisoned and temporarily deposed , this time by his younger brother Sigismund , with the support of the Czech nobility . Lord John of Liechtenstein , with his retinue of knights , successfully freed Wenceslaus from his Vienna prison in autumn of 1403 and accorded him refuge in his Moravian castle . John of Liechtenstein was at the time the Lord of the Mikulov demesne . Among the charges that Ruprecht III had used as the basis for his predecessor ' s deposition was the Papal Schism . King Ruprecht called the Council of Pisa in 1409 , attended by defectors from both papal parties . They elected Antipope Alexander V , only worsening the situation , because he was not acknowledged by his two rivals , and from 1409 to 1417 , there were three popes . After the death of Ruprecht in 1410 , his succession at first proved difficult , as both Wenceslaus ' cousin Jobst of Moravia and Wenceslaus ' brother Sigismund of Hungary were elected King of the Romans . Wenceslaus himself had never recognized his deposition and hence still claimed the kingship . Jobst died in 1411 , and Wenceslaus agreed to give up the crown , so long as he could keep Bohemia . This settled the issue , and after 1411 , Sigismund reigned as king and later also became Holy Roman Emperor . The bishops and secular leaders , tired of the Great Schism , supported Sigismund when he called the Council of Constance in 1414 . The goal of the council was to reform the church in head and members . What made it work was the translation of supreme authority from the popes to the council . In 1417 , the council deposed all three popes and elected a new one , maintaining all the while that the council , and not the pope , was the supreme head of the church . By resolving the schism , Sigismund restored the honour of the imperial title and made himself the most influential monarch in the west . Personal life . Wenceslaus was married twice , first to Joanna of Bavaria , a scion of the Wittelsbach dynasty , on 29 September 1370 . Following her death on 31 December 1386 ( allegedly mangled by one of Wenceslaus ' beloved deer - hounds ) , he married her first cousin once removed , Sofia of Bavaria , on 2 May 1389 . He had no children by either wife . Wencelaus was described as a man of great knowledge and is known for the Wenzel Bible , a richly illuminated manuscript he had drawn up between 1390 and 1400 . However , his rule remained uncertain , varying between idleness and cruel measures as in the case of John of Nepomuk . Unlike his father , Wenceslaus relied on favouritism , which made him abhorrent to many nobles and led to increasing isolation . Moreover he probably suffered from alcoholism , which was brought to light in 1398 when he was unable to accept an invitation by King Charles VI of France for a reception at Reims due to his drunkenness . Wenceslaus died in 1419 of a heart attack during a hunt in the woods surrounding his castle Nový Hrad at Kunratice ( today a part of Prague ) , leaving the country in a deep political crisis . His death was followed by almost two decades of conflict called the Hussite Wars , which were centred around greater calls for religious reform by Jan Hus and spurred by popular outrage provoked from his martyrdom . [ aged 58 ]