JOHN (1296-1346), king of Bohemia, was a son of the em peror Henry VII. by his wife Margaret, daughter of John I., duke of Brabant, and was a member of the family of Luxemburg. Born on Aug. 10, 1296, he became count of Luxemburg in 1309, and about the same time was offered the crown of Bohemia, which, after the death of Wenceslas ITT., the last Premyslide king, in 1306, had passed to Henry, duke of Carinthia. The emperor ac cepted this offer on behalf of his son, who married Elizabeth (d. 1330), a sister of Wenceslas, and after Henry's departure for Italy, John was crowned king of Bohemia at Prague (Feb. I3I I). Henry of Carinthia was driven from the land, order restored, and Moravia again united with Bohemia.
As imperial vicar John represented his father at the diet of Nuremberg (Jan. 1313), and was leading an army to his assistance in Italy when he heard of the emperor's death (Aug. 1313). John's claim to the imperial throne was disregarded on account of his youth, and he became a partisan of Louis, duke of Upper Bavaria, afterwards the Emperor Louis the Bavarian whom he helped in his struggle against the rival claimant, Philip the Fair of Austria. While Bohemia, where John and his German followers were unpopular, relapsed into revolt and anarchy, he himself fought campaigns over all Europe. He fought against the citizens of Metz and against his kinsman, John III., duke of Brabant; he led the knights of the Teutonic Order against the heathen in Lithuania and Pomerania and promised Pope John XXII. to head a crusade; and claiming to be king of Poland he attacked the Poles and brought Silesia under his rule. He obtained Tirol by marrying his son, John Henry, to Margaret Maultasch, the heiress of the county, assisted the emperor to defeat and capture Fred erick the Fair at the Battle of Miihldorf (1322) and was alter nately at peace and at war with the dukes of Austria and with his former foe, Henry of Carinthia. He several times assisted his brother-in-law, Charles IV. of France and his successor Philip VI., whose son John, afterwards King John II., married a daugh ter of the Bohemian king. Soon after the battle of Miihldorf, the relations between John and the emperor became strained, partly owing to the king's growing friendship with the Papacy and with France, and partly owing to territorial disputes. An agreement,
however, was concluded, and John invaded Italy with a small fol lowing, and made himself ruler of much of the peninsula (1331).
But John's soldiers were few and his enemies were many, and a second invasion of Italy in 1333 was followed by the dissipation of his dreams of making himself king of Lombardy and Tuscany, and even of supplanting Louis on the imperial throne. The fresh trouble between king and emperor, caused by this enterprise, was intensified by a quarrel over the lands left by Henry of Carinthia, and still later by the interference of Louis in Tirol ; and with be wildering rapidity John was allying himself with the kings of Hungary and Poland, fighting against the emperor and his Aus trian allies, defending Bohemia, governing Luxemburg, visiting France and negotiating with the pope. About 1340 the king was overtaken by blindness, but he continued to lead an active life, successfully resisting the attacks of Louis and his allies, and cam paigning in Lithuania. In 1346, acting in union with Pope Clem ent VI., he secured the formal deposition of Louis and the elec tion of his own son Charles, margrave of Moravia, as German king (July 1346). Then journeying to help Philip of France against the English, he fought at the battle of Crecy, where his heroic death (Aug. 26, 1346) was a fitting conclusion to his adventurous life.
John was a chivalrous and romantic personage; but as a ruler he was careless and extravagant, interested only in his kingdom when seeking relief from his constant pecuniary embarrassments. According to Camden the crest of three ostrich feathers, with the motto Ich diem, borne by the prince of Wales, was originally that of John of Bohemia and was first assumed by Edward the Black Prince after the battle of Crecy. There is no proof, however, that this badge was ever worn by John--it certainly was not his crest— and its origin must be sought elsewhere.
See J. Schotter, Johann, Graf von Luxemburg and Konig von Bohmen (Luxemburg, 1865) ; F. von Weech, Kaiser Ludwig der Bayer and Konig Johann von B5hmen (Munich, 186o), and U. Chevalier, Repertoire des sources historiques, tome v. (Paris, 1905).