Vita Caroli
Gathering of Princes at Wrocław
King John returns to Bohemia, joins Charles, and together with other princes they gather at Wrocław to prepare for a campaign against the Lithuanians.
And so, when the two-year periods had run their course, as was said above, King John returned to Bohemia and arranged with Charles that they would cross over together toward Prussia to fight against the Lithuanians. After procuring the necessities for the journey, they quickly made their way to Wrocław, where the king of Hungary, the count of Holland, and several other princes, margraves, dukes, and many distinguished men had also gathered for the same purpose from various parts of the world.1
The Dice Game and the Count's Renunciation
During their stay at Wrocław, a dice game erupts among the princes; the count of Holland wins a large sum from the king of Hungary, publicly rebukes him for his anxious spirit over money, and throws the winnings into the crowd—provoking the king's concealed anger.
So while they were staying in Wrocław, among the other comforts that princes tend to indulge in, that hateful and furious game of dice broke out among them. In which game the king of Hungary and the count of Holland played each other so eagerly that the count himself gained six hundred florins from the king. When he saw that the said king had an angry and turbulent spirit, he was moved by the violence of his arrogance and burst out with these words: "O lord king, it's astonishing that, although you are so magnificent a prince, whose land is said to abound with gold, over such a small sum of money you must show a spirit so sick and place your mind in such restlessness.2 Look, so that you and everyone else may see plainly: money acquired in such a way I do not welcome, nor do I let it pass into my own use, but it should pass freely away from me." With these words, he threw all the money he had won in the game into the midst of the surrounding crowd. Because of this the king himself conceived an even greater cause for anger, which, however, like a wise man, he dissembled and suppressed in silence.
Frustrated Hopes on the Prussian Campaign
The princes advance toward Prussia but are stalled by an unusually mild winter that prevents the rivers from freezing, leaving their expedition in vain and their efforts and expenses wasted.
Not many days later, all those princes and great men set out from Wrocław toward Prussia. And when they had lain there for a long time waiting for ice, the winter was so mild and gentle that they had scarcely any passage across the ice, as in other years.3 And so many great men, their hopes frustrated, lost their labors and likewise their expenses.
Read the original Latin
Expiratis itaque duorum annorum, sicut supra dictum est, curriculis rex Johannes reversus in Boemiam, disposuit cum Karolo, ut una versus Prussiam transirent contra Litvanos pugnaturi. Celeriter ergo ad viam procuratis necessariis Vratislaviam transierunt, quo eciam rex Ungarie, comes Hollandie et plures alii principes, marchiones, duces et multi viri spectabiles in eodem proposito de diversis mundi partibus convenerunt.
Eis itaque in Vratislavia existentibus inter alia solacia, quibus principes solent insistere, ille odiosus et furibundus taxillorum ludus inter eos extitit. In quo rex Ungarie et comes Hollandie sic ferventer luserunt invicem, ut ipse comes in rege sexcentos florenos lucraretur. De quo dum dictum regem iracundum et turbulentum videret habere animum, motus vehemencia et arroganti animo prorupit in hec verba: "O domine rex, mirandum est, quod cum princeps tam magnificus sitis, cuius terra auro abundare dicitur, de tam modica pecunie summa sic egrum debetis monstrare animum et in inquietudine ponere mentem vestram. Ecce ut vos et omnes alii videatis aperte, quod pecunias taliter acquisitas non amplector, nec in usus meos transire, sed liberaliter a me transire debeant." Quo dicto omnes pecunias in ludo acquisitas proiecit in medium populi circumstantis. De quo ipse rex maiorem concepit iracundie materiam, quam tamen ut sapiens dissimulans silencio pressit.
Post non multos vero dies omnes isti principes et magni viri de Vrastislavia versus Prussiam processerunt. Et ibidem cum per longum tempus glaciem expectantes iacuissent, hiems adeo fuit mollis et lenis, quod per glaciem transitum sicut aliis annis minime habuerunt. Et sic multi magni viri suis votis frustrati perdiderunt labores similiter et expensas.
Notes
- 1 ↩procuratis: lemma uncertain (possibly procurro or paro); rendered as 'procured' based on context of preparing necessities for travel.
- 2 ↩The phrase 'egrum...animum' literally 'sick spirit' conveys both moral weakness and disordered passion; rendered as 'spirit so sick' to preserve the interior-spiritual sense.
- 3 ↩The Latin quod introduces a result/causal clause explaining why the mild winter mattered: it prevented ice passage. Rendered as 'so…that' to capture the force of adeo…quod.
Vita Caroli (Autobiography of Emperor Charles IV) companion
Charles opened his memoir with a devotional, not a battle. Start your days the same way.
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