Vita Caroli
Charles Receives the Kingdom
King John entrusts the Bohemian kingdom to Charles under agreed terms, departs for France, and Charles begins to restore order.
After a short time, King John and Charles returned to Bohemia. And King John handed over the administration of the entire kingdom into Charles's hands, this condition having been interposed, however: that Charles should arrange five thousand from the ready money for King John, and that King John should not come to Bohemia to stay within two years, nor demand any money from the kingdom within said term.1 This money, indeed, having been quickly acquired for him through Charles, he received and withdrew into France.2 After his departure, Charles steered the kingdom happily and with sufficient diligence, recalling and arranging everything that had been scattered and torn apart, restoring it to its proper order.3
Read the original Latin
Post aliquantulum temporis Johannes rex et Karolus in Boemiam fuerunt reversi. Et rex Johannes tocius regni administracionem tradidit in manus Karoli, hac tamen condicione interposita, quod ipse Karolus deberet regi Johanni quinque milia de parata pecunia ordinare, et quod ipse rex Johannes non deberet infra duos annos ad manendum in Boemiam venire nec infra dictum terminum aliquam pecuniam a regno postulare. Hanc quidem pecuniam sibi per Karolum celeriter conquisitam accepit et in Franciam secessit. Post cuius recessum Karolus feliciter et satis industriose regni gessit gubernacula, et queque dissipata et distracta revocando in statum debitum disposuit ac reduxit.
Notes
- 1 ↩tamen rendered as 'however' with concessive force, following the conditional clause structure.
- 2 ↩quidem rendered as 'indeed' to capture its confirmatory/emphatic force.
- 3 ↩gubernacula rendered as 'helm' (metaphorical for governance/steering); queque (medieval spelling of quaeque) rendered as 'each thing' to capture the distributive sense.
Vita Caroli (Autobiography of Emperor Charles IV) companion
Charles opened his memoir with a devotional, not a battle. Start your days the same way.
Chosen Portion gives you the practice Charles commended to his sons: a short reading on the things that outlast thrones, every morning.
Charles IV began his autobiography by commending Scripture meditation to his heirs before recounting a single battle; Chosen Portion makes that same meditation the first act of your day.
- A daily 5-10 minute reading from texts that formed Christian rulers
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