10.8. 1296 John of Luxembourg is born

John of Luxembourg became King of Bohemia quite easily. Shortly after his accession, however, he had to make concessions. However, he prospered beyond the borders.

John of Luxembourg was born the first and only son of his parents, Henry VII and Margaret of Brabant, who were closely related as cousins, so that Pope Nicholas IV had to issue a dispensation before their marriage. In addition to John, they had two daughters.

John became king of Bohemia quite easily. He received the Bohemian kingdom and the Moravian margraviate as a fief from his father after he accepted the offer of some of the nobility to sit on the throne of Prague in August 310.

"He allegedly did this primarily because the Bohemian kings inherited the office of one of the seven electors, which allowed them to interfere in the affairs of the Holy Roman Empire. In addition, he took advantage of the fact that the Bohemian Premyslids and the Hungarian Arpadovs had died out and the Habsburgs were in decline, so that in order to establish the Luxembourg family in Bohemiaideal conditions arose, which it was a pity not to take advantage of," writes Stanislava Jarolímková in her book What is not in the textbooks.

Shortly after his accession to the throne, John of Luxembourg was forced to make concessions to the nobility at the expense of royal power. He issued so-called inaugural diplomas, in 1310 for Bohemia and a year later for Moravia. In them he pledged that only domestic nobles could occupy higher offices, and that the land tax would be collected only in specially designated cases, namely coronation or the dowry of a daughter. Furthermore, the nobility would not be obliged to participate in military campaigns outside the country, and the children of a deceased nobleman would not only be children, but also brothers and their descendants.

The reign of John of Luxembourg was marked by mutual disputes with the nobility. The king was unable to effectively counter the growing political pressure from the nobility, especially the grouping around Henry of Lipá, and at the Diet of Domažlice in 1318 he was forced to capitulate to the demands of the nobility.

The administration of the country was entrusted to the nobility and the monarch undertook to respect their political rights. Thereafter, John of Luxembourg practically resigned from domestic politics and from the 1420s onwards he preferred to live abroad. The decisive leader of domestic politics became the aforementioned Henry of Lipá.

However, John of Luxembourg prospered abroad. For example, with the support of Ludvík Bavor, he permanently acquired Cheb for the Czech state in 1322. He then annexed the territory of Upper Lusatia and later some Silesian principalities such as Vratislav to the Czech Kingdom between 1319 and 1329. John of Luxembourg died on 26 August 1346 in the Battle of Kreščak.

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