CHARLES IV. (1316-1378), Roman emperor and king of Bohemia, the eldest son of John of Luxemburg, king of Bohemia, and Elizabeth, sister of Wenceslas III., was born at Prague on May 14, 1316, and in 1323 went to the court of his uncle, Charles IV., king of France, where he remained for seven years. He married Blanche, sister of King Philip VI., the successor of Charles IV. In 1333 he was made margrave of Moravia. Three years later he undertook the government of Tirol on behalf of his brother John Henry, and was soon actively concerned in a struggle for the pos session of this country. In consequence of an alliance between his father and Pope Clement VI., the relentless enemy of the emperor Louis IV., Charles was chosen German king in opposition to Louis by some of the princes at Rense on July 11, 1346. Confirm ing the papacy in the possession of wide territories, he promised to annul the acts of Louis against Clement, to take no part in Italian affairs, and to defend and protect the church. In 1346 he fought at Crecy, where his father was killed. As king of Bohemia he re turned to Germany, and after being crowned German king at Bonn on Nov. 26, 1346, prepared to attack Louis. After the death of the emperor in October 1347 Charles was soon the undisputed ruler of Germany.
In 135o the king was visited at Prague by Cola di Rienzi, who urged him to go to Italy, where the poet Petrarch and the citizens of Florence also implored his presence. Charles kept Rienzi in prison for a year, and then handed him over to Clement at Avi gnon. Four years later, however, he crossed the Alps without an army, received the Lombard crown at Milan on Jan. 6, 1355, and was crowned emperor at Rome by a cardinal on April 5. On his return Charles was occupied with the administration of Germany, then just recovering from the Black Death, and in 1356 he promul gated the Golden Bull (q.v.) to regulate the election of the king. He was unremitting in his efforts to secure other territories and to strengthen the Bohemian monarchy. To this end he purchased part of the upper Palatinate of the Rhine in 1353, and in 1367 annexed Lower Lusatia to Bohemia and bought numerous estates in various parts of Germany. On the death in 1363 of Meinhard, duke of Upper Bavaria and count of Tirol, Upper Bavaria was claimed by the sons of the emperor Louis IV., and Tirol by Rudolph IV., duke of Austria. Both claims were admitted by Charles on the understanding that if these families died out both territories should pass to the house of Luxemburg. About the same time he was promised the succession to the margravate of Bran denburg, which he actually obtained for his son Wenceslas in 1373. He also gained a considerable portion of Silesian territory, partly by inheritance through his third wife, Anna, daughter of Henry II., duke of Schweidnitz. In 1365 Charles visited Pope Urban V. at Avignon and undertook to escort him to Rome ; and on the same occasion was crowned king of Burgundy, or Arles, at Arles on June 4, 1365. During his later years the emperor took little part in German affairs beyond securing the election of his son Wences las as king of the Romans in 1376, and negotiating a peace between the Swabian league and some nobles in 1378. After dividing his lands between his three sons, he died on Nov. 29, 1378, at Prague, where he was buried.
Charles, who according to the emperor Maximilian I. was the step-father of the empire, but the father of Bohemia, brought the latter country to a high state of prosperity. In 1348 he founded the university of Prague, and afterwards made this city the seat of an archbishop. He was an accomplished diplomatist, possessed a penetrating intellect, and was capable of much trickery in order to gain his ends. He was superstitious and peace-loving, had few personal wants, and is described as a round-shouldered man of medium height, with black hair and beard, and sallow cheeks.
His autobiography, the "Vita Caroli IV.," which deals with events down to the year 1346, and various other documents relating to his life and times, are published in the Fontes rerum Germanicarum, Band I., edited by J. F. Balmer (Leipzig, 1885) . For other docu ments relating to the time see Die Regesten des Kaiserreichs unter Kaiser Karl IV., edited by J. F. Bohmer and A. Huber (Innsbruck, 1889) ; Acta Karoli IV. imperatoris inedita (Innsbruck, 1891) ; E. Werunsky, Excerpta ex registris Clementis VI. et Innocentii VI. (Inns bruck, 1885) . See also E. Werunsky, Geschichte Kaiser Karls IV. and seiner Zeit (Innsbruck, 1880-92) ; H. Friedjung, Kaiser Karl IV. and sein Antheil am geistigen Leben seiner Zeit (Vienna, 1876) ; A. Gottlob, Karls IV. private and politische Beziehungen zu Frankreich (Innsbruck, 1883) ; 0. Winckelmann, Die Beziehungen Kaiser Karls ruin Konigreich Arelat (Strasbourg, 1882) ; K. Palm, "Zu Karls IV. Politik gegen Baiern," in the Forschungen zur deutschen Ge schichte, Band xv. (Gottingen, 1862-66) ; Th. Lindner, "Karl IV. and die Wittelsbacher," and S. Stienherz, "Die Beziehungen Ludwigs I. von Ungarn zu Karl IV.," and "Karl IV. and die osterreichischen Freiheitsbriefe," in the Mittheilungen des Instituts fur osterreichische Geschichtsforschung (Innsbruck, 188o) ; G. G. Walsh, The Emperor Charles IV. (1924).