16.8. 1419 King Wenceslas IV of Bohemia died.

What caused the death of Václav IV is still a mystery. According to some, a stroke, others speak of a heart attack. Before the king died, he screamed in pain.

On the morning of August 16, 1419, Václav IV. complained of severe pain in his left arm, and after noon he was struck by another stroke, this time much worse than the first. This was followed by three hours of agony, culminating in a powerful royal scream, when his whole body first collapsed in pain and then became immobile. King Wenceslas IV of Bohemia was dead.

The cause of death is still unclear and opinions vary. "For example, historian František Palacký expressed the belief that Václav IV died of a recurrent stroke. Prof. Josef Thomayer, however, held a different opinion. According to his medical report, the cause of the king's death was a heart attack, when pain in the left hand is sometimes one of the accompanying signs," writes Vladimír Liška in his book Václav IV. - Mysteries and Mysteries.

According to Thomayer, the first attack could have caused a mild embolism and only after a number of days could have been followed by a definitive blockage of the heart arteries, leading to a massive heart attack, which Václav IV. did not survive. As confirmed by the contemporary chronicler Lawrence of Březová, the king let out a roar like a lion before his death. "Wounded by a stroke, with a great cry and a roar almost like a lion, he died suddenly at Nový Hrad near Prague," wrote the chronicler.

Such a thing, however, is not said to occur as a rule after a heart attack, for the moment of a violent attack is usually followed by rapid unconsciousness and death. This would contradict Thomayer's hypothesis. Dr. Ivan Lesny therefore advanced a different theory. According to this theory, the cause of Wenceslaus IV's death was an epileptic seizure as a result of progressive alcoholic dementia, which happens in notorious alcoholics. "In other words, the king drank himself to death. In any case, the cause of the king's death remains unclear, and there are several possibilities as to what caused him to fall into his grave," Liška notes.

Václav's second wife had the king's remains buried in the monastery in Zbraslav. But the following August, it was looted and even Wenceslas' body was pulled from the grave. "It was not until 25 July 1425, when the Hussite radicals were suppressed, that the king's body was placed in a dignified place. On that day they even sent out a solemn funeral procession from Prague Castle. The remains of Václav IV were placed with all reverence in the royal tomb in St. Vitus Cathedral, alongside his parents, where he was finally laid to rest," says Liška.

Sources:
Vladimír Liška, Václav IV - Mysteries and Mysteries
Jaroslava Černá, Václav IV: An Enemy to Himself
www.wikipedia.org