House of Luxembourg

When we hear the name of the royal dynasty of the Luxembourgs, we think of the Father of the Nation Charles IV, the heroic death of Blind John at Crécy, or the supposedly treacherous warrior against the Hussites, Sigismund. However, this book by the well-known populariser of our history, Jan Bauer, reminds us of the Luxembourgs primarily as a very quarrelsome family. After all, the very first Czech king of this dynasty, John of Luxembourg, drove his wife, Elizabeth of Bohemia, to Bavaria and imprisoned his little son Wenceslas, later Charles IV, at Loket and Křivoklát castles. The family relationships were not helped by John's marriage to Beatrice of Bourbon, after which he banished Charles's wife, Blanche of Valois, to Brno.
Charles IV, undoubtedly the greatest of our monarchs, was a relatively tolerant and moderate man, no stranger to emotion, but on the chessboard of dynastic plans, he moved his children as immediate advantage dictated. And he himself was mindful above all of preserving and expanding the lineage, so his marriages did not arise – at least initially – from an emotional spark.
But in comparison with him, his firstborn son Wenceslas IV was not only an unsuccessful king but also a husband, and the death of his first wife, Joanna of Bavaria, in particular, still raises questions (or rather, exclamation marks). Accusations of various perversions have not been proven, but Wenceslas did not produce a legitimate heir. And he was in constant conflict with both his brothers – Sigismund and John of Görlitz, whom he 'royally repaid' for freeing him from captivity (incidentally, Sigismund also experienced a stay in prison as King of Hungary).
Cousins Jobst and Procopius, the Margraves of Moravia, even waged war against each other over Moravia. And when Jobst unexpectedly became King of the Romans, he did not even live to see his coronation… Sigismund, on the other hand, died an old man, considering the era, but even his death has not been clarified – and the behaviour of Empress Barbara of Cilli was not what one would expect from a loving wife. And so we could go on…
Be that as it may, the Luxembourgs on the Czech throne signified a supremely dynamic period for our lands – and one that remains fascinating even centuries later. Jan Bauer brings it closer to us from a perspective that most historians push into the background.