2.4 1355 Charles IV's journey to Rome

He promised not to stay in Rome for more than a day. Nevertheless, the coronation of Charles IV as Roman Emperor was spectacular. He appeared at the gates of the city on April 2, 1355.

Charles IV was accompanied to Rome by a large procession of Anna of Swidnica with Archbishop Arnost of Pardubice. They met at Pisa, where Cardinal Pierre de Colombiers, Bishop of Ostia and Velletri, who was to perform the imperial coronation, also arrived.

"Pope Innocent VI did not intend to go to Rome, and two other cardinals, who were to be actively present at the ceremony, also refused to come. Nevertheless, Charles decided to continue his journey because he wanted to celebrate the most important Christian feast in the Eternal City, namely the Resurrection of the Lord. He did indeed stand at the gates of Rome on Maundy Thursday, April 2, 1355," the authors of Charles IV and His Times describe.

However, Charles IV could not stay in Rome for more than one day, when the coronation was to take place. He promised Clement VI. But the Czech monarch coped. He first came to the city as a pilgrim and visited four Roman basilicas. He did not officially pass through the city gates as ruler until Easter Sunday, which fell on 5 April. "He received the imperial anointing in St. Peter's Basilica. After a solemn journey through a jubilant Rome, he again took refuge outside its perimeter for the night. It was only from this point on that Charles titled himself Carolus Quartus," says another book, Charles IV and His Times.

The procession in which Charles IV and the Empress rode after the coronation was truly spectacular. They had a canopy over them and were dressed in imperial robes. They rode through Rome as far as the Lateran Palace, where a magnificent banquet was prepared. "On the same day the Emperor Charles knighted half a thousand of his guides and issued more state charters. He spent the night in the monastery of St. Lawrence," says Jan Křtitel Votka in his book Emperor Charles IV - Father of the Fatherland.

The next day, the new Roman Emperor visited nearby Tivoli, known for its magnificent natural beauty. "And then Charles IV started his return campaign to Tuscany. He sent one part of his army, however, immediately at the request of the legate against the Pope's enemies in the ecclesiastical state. They did all they could to persuade the monarch to betray the pope. But the Emperor Charles IV was not seduced to treason," writes John the Baptist Votka.

After returning from Rome, Charles concentrated on enforcing the Bohemian and imperial legal code. He later called it Maiestas Carolina. The nobility, however, opposed it and the emperor backed away from issuing it. Instead, he pushed for the compilation and promulgation of the first imperial code under the title of the Golden Bull of Charles IV.

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