WENCESLAS. wen'ses-las. Ger. WENZEL. vlIn'tsel (1361-1419). Holy Roman Emperor from 1378 to 1400 and King of Bohemia (as such Wenceslas IV.) from 1378 to 1419. He was the son and successor of the Emperor Charles IV. At first he tried to restore order in Germany and to check the growth of the power of the nobles, but, proving unsuccessful, gave himself up to the pleasures: of the chase and wine. In 1393 he caused the priest John Nepomuk (see JOHN OF NEPOMUK ) to be tortured to death for refusing to betray the secrets of the confessional. In 1304 the Bohemian nobles organized a conspiracy, arrested him, and confined him at Prague; but he was re leased by the influence of the German princes. in 1393 Wenceslas sold to Gian Galeazzo Visconti the title of Duke of Milan for 100,000 gold florins. Ile joined with France in the attempt to put an end to the great Schism by demanding the resigna tion of the rival popes, Boniface IX. and Benedict
NHL This resulted in arousing the enmity of the powerful Archbishop of Mainz. through whose influence Wenceslas in 1400 was deposed as Em peror by a majority of the Imperial electors, Rupert of the Palatinate being chosen to succeed him. In Bohemia, meanwhile, fresh strife had arisen, and in 1402 his brother Sigismund ar rested Wenceslas and imprisoned him for fifteen months in Vienna. Weneeslas favored Huss and his party, and his decree of January 18, 1409. brought about the secession of the Germans from the of Prague, and thus greatly weakened the German ascendency in Bohemia. Not long after this he resigned the reins of government in Bohemia to Sigismund. Consult: Lindner, rlesehichte des dentschen Reich es linter Kuhnig lici7e1 (Brunswick, 1875-80) ; Palacky. Gcschichtc ron. Bohnien, vol. iii. (Prague, 1844).