Charles IV’s youth in Italy
Charles IV – the emperor who was able to win a period of prestige and prosperity for Prague and Bohemia, in the XIV century – during his lifetime, had very strong ties with Italy. His experience on the Peninsula, although rather short, left an indelible mark in his character and to his future government action. Ever since his birth – between 4 and 5.30 on 14th May 1316 – he seemed destined to lead an extraordinary life.
First son of John of Luxemburg, (nicknamed the Blind) and Elizabeth (last direct descendant of the Přemyslid), he was baptized Wenceslaus in honour of the Bohemian patron saint.
The young prince’s first contact with Italian culture took place in Paris, at the royal court, where his father had sent him to be educated to the role of king and, not only. Besides respecting the traditions for which the offspring of the house of Luxembourg were educated at the French royal court – and given the ties of kinship between the two houses – John had organized the engagement of his firstborn to Margaret of Valois – commonly named Bianca – cousin of Charles IV king of France.
The wedding was celebrated on the day of Whitsunday on 15th May 1323 and on the same occasion, Wenceslaus received the Sacrament of Confirmation and took the name of his uncle and godfather Charles IV.
As with all professions, theory is of little use without practical experience on the field. And his father, king John of Luxembourg, when he decided to send him to Italy in 1331, showed that he had wanted to put him through a very rigorous test. In that period, the Peninsula was a real quagmire.
To outline the Italian political situation of those years would require a long treatment. It is sufficient here to say that a battle for hegemony was taking place, that saw, besides the pontificate, also the involvement of Florence, Milan and Venice. Not only armed conflicts, but also clashes of refined diplomacy, saw a resolution in 1451 with the peace of Lodi.
It was, in fact, in that Italian quagmire that Charles, then only sixteen, started to accumulate experience, which was to prove useful also in his own homeland, to gain respect from the Bohemian nobility.
The reason for the young prince’s descent into Italy was to consolidate the power of his family , above all in those cities that had accepted the rule of the Luxembourg family, such as Bergamo, Modena and
of course, Lucca.
Charles arrived in Pavia on Good Friday in 1331 and stayed in a convent of the Augustan monks that were loyal to the Luxembourg family. He must have realized immediately that the situation in Italy was very difficult, when on the third day of his stay, on Easter Sunday, he was served poisoned food for breakfast. Charles was lucky because, in order to prepare himself for church service and be able to receive the Eucharist, according to tradition, he had not eaten anything.
The effects of the poison were felt during lunchtime. when many of his fellow guests fainted and some died, as was to happen to the personal steward of the prince, John of Berg. Of course, the amount of fear among the survivors was enormous, but the young heir to the throne of Bohemia did not fail to notice, among the people present, a person who was wandering rather suspiciously around the tables. The man was caught immediately and subject to torture to get him to confess. After three days of interrogation, he got to know the name of the person who had conspired against him. None other than great rival of Luxembourg, Azzone Visconti, Lord of Milan who, just in those years was conducting a victorious war against the reign of Bohemia.
Once this unpleasant episode was over, the young prince was able to continue his journey, which led him to the meeting with his father John, in April of that same year. The latter’s involvement in Italian affairs almost put him into a position of losing power and Imperial support..
Furthermore, the presence of the Luxembourg family on the Peninsula was not well tolerated by the powerful Italian Lords, who formed a league, supported also by the King of Naples, Robert I of Anjou.
Few towns remained loyal to the Luxembourg family, among them Lucca which was well able to defend itself from the repeated assaults by the city of the lily . Lucca was, in fact, one of the first councils to trust John of Bohemia.
It was just in that period – on 25th November 1332 – that the young Charles ventured into his first battle. At the head of a Bohemian-German army, he defeated – near San Felice di Modena – a coalition formed by Este, Scaligeri and Gonzaga, showing remarkable military skills. It was the day of St. Catherine from Alexandria. The death of Charles’s horse and the injury he was subject to during the clashes, did not preclude the victory – which the future emperor attributed to the protection of the saint and the day of her commemoration – as may be seen in a series of artistic works, statues and images dedicated to the martyr.
After celebrating the first victory and Christmas at Parma, at the beginning of 1333, Charles set off for Lucca. He stayed there a few weeks and in order to defend the town, he reinforced a village nearby which in his honour was called Monte-Carlo .
Still today the inhabitants of Lucca and particularly the inhabitants of Monte-Carlo still hold a special regard for this medieval knight and this took shape in 2002 with the twinning between the Council of Monte-Carlo and the Czech Council of Karlstejn.
It was in Lucca, in fact, that Charles issued the first official documents in which he exercised his royal authority.
Soon, however, European events pushed Charles far from his beloved Italy.
Even from his new Prague residence, Charles never forgot Italy. For the reconstruction of the capital of his reign and empire, he also called on numerous Italian artists and this happened again in 1369 when he awarded the inhabitants of Lucca a diploma, which freed them from the domination of Pisa and granted the Elders of the city, the right to establish a university.
It is also worth remembering the profound cultural power of suggestion that Francis Petrarch had on Charles IV, and whom he was able to meet personally only in 1354 in Mantua, while on his way to the imperial coronation and then in 1356 when the poet visited the Prague court in his capacity as Viscount ambassador.
But the epistolary contacts between the two had begun long before, as the humanist cared for the return of the pontificate from Avignon, but not only.
The Italian poet in 1351 exhorted Charles to return to Italy to restore the power of Rome, but the emperor replied by giving reasons for his policies of non-interference into Italian affairs. An attitude that later cost him a stern rebuke from the Petrarch, when in 1355 he decided suddenly to leave Italy: “they may call you emperor of the Romans, but in reality, you are only king of Bohemia”.
By Marco Moles