Over the course of the 14th Century the lords of a small county on the border between France and the Holy Roman Empire became the Kings of Bohemia, Hungary, and Germany and the lords of dozens of smaller principalities. The House of Luxembourg began its rise when the Count of Luxembourg was put forward as a compromise candidate for Holy Roman Emperor, and from there they became one of the most important houses in Central Europe. In this miniseries we’ll explore three of these powerful and influential houses: The House of Luxembourg, the Wittelsbach House of Bavaria, and the Habsburg House of Austria.
Time Period Covered: 1308 – 1396
Notable People: Henry VII of Luxembourg, Baldwin of Luxembourg Archbishop of Trier, John the Blind, Charles IV of Luxembourg, Wenceslas IV of Luxembourg, Sigismund of Luxembourg, Henry of Carinthia, Ludwig IV the Bavarian
Notable Events/Developments: The Great Interregnum of the Holy Roman Empire, The Golden Bull of 1356, Founding of Newtown Prague, Founding of Charles University
Sources
The Empire: From Adolf of Nassau to Lewis of Bavaria by Peter Herde in The New Cambridge Medieval History Volume VI
The Empire: The Luxemburgs and Rupert of the Palatinate by Ivan Hlavacek in The New Cambridge Medieval History Volume VI
A History of The Czech Lands by Jaroslav Panek and Oldrich Tuma
The Slavs in European History and Civilization by Francis Dvornik
Prague the Crown of Bohemia ed. by Barbara Drake Boehm and Jiri Fajt
The Czechs and the Lands of the Bohemian Crown by Hugh Agnew
Grand Dukes of the West 