26.9. 1329 Anna Falcká was born

Anna Falcká was the second wife of Charles IV. With this marriage, the Czech monarch not only gained a young and charming wife, but also opened the way to the throne of the Roman king.

Anna of the Palatinate was born on 26 September 1329 to Rudolf II, the Palatine Palatine Count of Rhineland, and Anna of Carinthia. She only became well-known thanks to her marriage to Charles IV, which was preceded by long negotiations. Anna was beautiful and, of course, single, which played in her favour, and she won the king over.

She married when she was only twenty years old. Charles IV won the vote of Rudolf, Anna's father, by asking her to marry him. He was one of the electors who decided on the future king of Rome. Rudolf initially supported Charles's rival.

"Charles IV did not mourn long after his first wife Blanca. He was already thirty-two years old and still had no male heir, his successor. We cannot therefore condemn him for his lack of piety towards his prematurely deceased wife," writes Jan Bauer in his book The Strange End of the Czech Sovereigns.

It seemed that Charles IV. Charles IV's second marriage to Anna Falck had brought him everything he desired. Anna, although the marriage to her was closed for diplomatic and political reasons, gave him his son Wenceslas, the long-awaited heir to the throne, and the security of a balanced life. But not for long. Wenceslas of Kralevitz (1350-1351) died when he was less than two years old, and Anna of the Palatinate died shortly after him.

Charles's career as a statesman achieves a dazzling and successful rise, but nothing similar can be said of his personal life. After a brief marriage to Anna Falck, he was again left alone, without a wife and without a male heir.

Five years around 1350, when Charles IV. Himself nearly died during a tournament, were probably the worst of his life. For on 1 August 1348 his wife Blanka died, and on 11 September of the same year Charles' sister Jitka, and this was the last sister, for the other two died in 1338 and 1341. Charles's first-born daughter Margaret died on 1 September 1349, when she was fourteen years old. In October 1350, Charles IV nearly killed himself and was paralysed for almost a month. Other sad events were still to come. Wenceslas, only two years old, died on 28 December 1351, and Anna of the Palatinate died on 2 February 1353 when she was 24.

"His third marriage to Anna of Swidnica, which he contracted shortly after Anna Falck's death (already in May 1353), appeared to be a mere diplomatic ploy. Anna of Swidnica owned Swidnica and was to inherit other areas," writes Hana Whitton in her book Beautiful Anna.

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