26 November 1346 Charles IV crowned King of the Holy Roman Empire

The crown of the imperial king Charles IV was put on by Archbishop Balduin on 26 November 1346 in Bonn. This inconspicuous city made history for the first time.

The great game for the imperial crown had already begun at the beginning of 1346. John of Luxembourg also negotiated ostensibly with Ludwig of Bavaria, but in full accordance with the Pope's wishes. Meanwhile, Charles was seeking support from the Pope. In doing so, he succeeded in obtaining approval for the establishment of a monastery in which the mass would be conducted in Slavic rather than Latin.

On 11 July 1346, the election itself took place in Rhens on the Rhine. The main role was played by Archbishop Balduin of Trier, Charles' great-uncle and one of the five Electors present. From then on Charles became the fourth, for such was his order on the Roman throne. As King of Bohemia, of course, Charles I was not made ruler until he was thirty.

"Charles was temporarily diverted from his governmental duties by Krescak, after whose tragic end he also became King of Bohemia. But first he had to complete his imperial duties, especially his coronation. This usually took place in Tachy, which was ruled by Ludwig Bavaria, and even the substitute Cologne did not open its gates to Charles. The crown of the king of the Reich was finally put on him by Archbishop Balduin on 26 November 1346 in Bonn. This inconspicuous city made history for the first time," writes Jiří Martínek in his book Charles IV - Memorable Places Then and Now.

Shortly after his coronation, Charles appointed his great-uncle Balduin as his deputy and set off in disguise for Bohemia, which had been administered by his brother Jan Henry. He went briefly to Tyrol, where he tried unsuccessfully to bring Margaret of Pyscata to her senses.

In August 1347 he was crowned King of Bohemia. He began to prepare for the war to confirm the imperial crown, when in October 1347 he received the unexpected news that Louis the Bavarian had died. He had suffered a stroke while hunting bears near Munich. The enemy had unexpectedly gotten out of his way so easily.

"With Charles IV came the era of the Luxembourg Empire. Between the two main pillars of Latin Christendom, peace, but not complete harmony, reigned again. Silence on the substance of the earlier disputes became the basis of compromise. Although Charles, unlike his predecessor, never directly challenged the Church's earlier teaching on the papal approbation of the imperial royal election and the Church'sof the imperial title, but he was always able to skillfully avoid its practical consequences," Drahomír Suchánek and Václav Drška write in Church History: Antiquity and the Middle Ages.

On the other hand, Clement VI and his successors, ever more eager to break free from French control, had to respect a certain degree of Luxemburgish independence if they wanted to return to Rome. But the truth is that the pragmatic Charles was of little help to them in this matter.

Sources. Church History: Antiquity and the Middle Ages, www.prague.eu