Settlement With Charles IV of Luxembourg (1353)
After the signing of the treaty of 1350, Bolko II began the process of rapprochement with the House of Luxembourg. This was done without sacrificing his good relations with the Kings Casimir III of Poland and Louis I of Hungary.
By 1346, after the death of his last surviving uncle, Duke Henry I of Jawor, Bolko II inherited his domains, the Duchies of Jawor and Lwówek. Soon before, Bolko II's younger brother and co-ruler Henry II died, leaving only one daughter, Anna. Bolko II, as the closest male relative, became Anna's legal guardian and began to considered his niece as heiress to all his lands.
On 13 December 1350, 11 year old Anna and the then 11 months old Wenceslaus, eldest son and heir of Emperor Charles IV, were betrothed. Under the terms of the engagement contract, the couple would inherit Bolko II's lands in the (likely) case of his heirless death (however, it was stipulated that they could only take formal possession of the Duchies after the death of Bolko II's wife Agnes of Austria, who, under her husband's will received his domains as her Oprawa wdowia). However, fifteen days later, on 28 December, the young Wenceslaus died and the settlement was broken. Nevertheless, the Emperor decided not to abandon his intentions to take control in a peaceful way over Bolko II's heritage. The death of his second wife Anna of Bavaria, mother of the late Wenceslaus, on 2 February 1353 gave him a new opportunity to obtain the Duchies; almost immediately, he asked Bolko II for the hand of his niece in marriage and the former agreement was renewed. The wedding took place in Buda, Hungary (were Anna had lived with her mother since the death of her father) on 27 May 1353. Besides Bolko II, the wedding was attended by: Duke Albert II of Austria, King Louis I of Hungary, Margrave Louis VI of Brandenburg, Duke Rudolf I of Saxe-Wittenberg (Bolko II's stepfather) and envoys of King Casimir III of Poland and the Republic of Venice.
On 28 July Anna was crowned Queen of Bohemia in Prague by Archbishop Arnošt of Pardubice. On 9 February 1354, in Aachen, she was crowned German Queen. As part of Charles IV's coronation as Holy Roman Emperor in the Roman Basilica of Saint Peter on 5 April 1355, Anne was crowned Empress of the Holy Roman Empire. She was thereby became the first Queen of Bohemia to become Empress.
Read more about this topic: Bolko II The Small, Life
Famous quotes containing the words settlement and/or charles:
“The difficult and risky task of meeting and mastering the new—whether it be the settlement of new lands or the initiation of new ways of life—is not undertaken by the vanguard of society but by its rear. It is the misfits, failures, fugitives, outcasts and their like who are among the first to grapple with the new.”
—Eric Hoffer (1902–1983)
“Taft, laughing, “What troubles [brother] Charles is, he is afraid Roosevelt will get the credit of making me President and not himself.” To Charles: “I will agree not to minimize the part you played in making me President if you will agree not to minimize the part Roosevelt played.””
—William Howard Taft (1857–1930)