Louis IV: King of Germany, Holy Roman Emperor

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Louis IV was King of Germany and Holy Roman Emperor for a time during the first half of the 14th Century. He was from the House of Wittelsbach.

Louis IV of Germany

He was born on April 1, 1282, in Munich. His father was Louis II, Duke of Bavaria, and his mother was Matilda of Habsburg. His maternal grandfather was the former king, Rudolf I, and the ruling monarch when young Louis was born was his uncle, Albert I.

Louis grew up during a turbulent time, of changing alliances and epic struggles for supremacy in an increasingly fragmented Germany and Holy Roman Empire. He went to war with his own brother, Rudolf I, in a disagreement over ownership of land in Bavaria, and similar concerns saw him struggle militarily against a cousin, Frederick the Fair, Duke of Austria and Styria and son of Albert I. Louis defeated Frederick at the Battle of Gammelsdorf, on Nov. 9, 1313.

Just a few months earlier, the Holy Roman Emperor, Henry VII, had died, trying to secure authority over recalcitrant lands in Italy. The practice at the time was for a group of powerful nobles to elect their king, and these nobles had, at the time, been suspicious of endorsing the succession of kingship from father to son on the face of it, preferring to discuss and vote on such candidacies. Thus, Emperor Henry VII's son, John, was not an automatic successor. Henry VII was King of Germany as well; and while the nobles took their time coming to a decision about who their next ruler would be, the thrones of both Germany and the Holy Roman Empire were vacant.

Frederick was from the powerful House of Habsburg and had influential friends. At a gathering in Sachsenhausen on Oct. 19, 1314, a group of electors voted for Frederick as the next King of the Romans (or King of Germany); presiding over that gathering was Archbishop Henry II of Cologne. Louis was from the House of Wittelsbach, which also had powerful friends. A separate group of electors met in Frankfurt the day after Frederick was declared king, under the authority of Archbishop Peter of Mainz, and chose Louis as their next king. Further clouding the issue was the customary responsibility of the Archbishop of Cologne to crown the German king. Henry II did so, declaring Frederick's coronation in Bonn. However, Aachen was the ancestral home of German coronations since the time of Charlemagne, and so Archbishop Peter of Mainz duly crowned Louis in Aachen.

Battle of Muhldorf

The political conflict descended into a military one, and Germany's most powerful nobles chose sides. The struggle went on for several years, with Frederick appearing ascendant more often than Louis did. However, Louis scored the knockout blow at Mühldorf, on Sept. 28, 1322, capturing Frederick and 1,300 nobles in the process. Louis held Frederick prisoner for three years but, bowing to political pressure from other leaders and from Pope John XXII, released his archrival. The two then agreed to the Treaty of Trausnitz, the terms of which saw Frederick recognizing Louis as the legitimate ruler. A further reconciliation saw the two rivals put aside their differences and agree to rule jointly, with Frederick taking the German crown and Louis taking the throne of the Holy Roman Empire. When Frederick's powerful brother Leopold died, in 1326, Frederick gave up the German crown and ruled only Austria.

Meanwhile, Louis had marched at the head of an army into Italy, gaining the Italian crown in 1327 and striving to blunt the threat of an alliance between France and the Kingdom of Naples. Louis gained the imperial crown in January 1328 and set about battling against King Robert of Naples. He also targeted King Philip VI of France, entering into an alliance with England's King Edward III to shore up support. England and France at the time were fighting the Hundred Years War.

Louis had married Beatrix of Świdnica in 1308. They had six children, three of whom lived into adulthood: Mathilde (1313), Louis (1316), and Stephen (1319). Beatrix died in 1320. Louis married again, in 1324, to Margaret II, Coutness of Hainaut and Holland. They had 10 children, seven of whom lived into adulthood: Margaret (1325), Anna (1326), Louis (1328), Elisabeth (1329), William (1330), Albert (1336), and Otto (1340).

Back in Germany, Louis engaged in a policy of territorial acquisition, often at the expense of powerful rivals. A group of them elected a rival king, Charles IV of Luxembourg, in 1346, and the two sides went to war. Louis died the following year, on Oct. 11, 1347. He suffered a stroke during a bear hunt and never recovered.

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