Vita Caroli
A Father's Embassy for Amends
Louis of Bavaria sends a solemn embassy to King John and Charles, seeking a parliamentary meeting to make full amends for the wrongs done to John through the taking of his wife and the county of Tyrol.
After this, Louis of Bavaria sent his solemn embassy to King John and Charles, urgently asking that they meet with him at an appointed time for a parliament. For he wanted to make full amends to them for all the wrongs and outrages by which John — his son — had been harmed through Louis, his own son, in the taking of his wife and the county of Tyrol, and to render fitting compensation.12 This appointed day for the agreements was set for a fixed date before the archbishop of Trier — who was King John's uncle — in Trier, where it had indeed been arranged. Many lords and noble men assembled there on the side of King John, who held extensive discussions over this great matter, because the sheer enormity of what had been done and the abominable monstrousness of the crime that had been committed demanded it.3
The Unprecedented Shame of a Noble Prince Wronged
The assembly deliberates on the monstrous treachery by which John was stripped of his wife and domains, concluding that he could not honorably reclaim his wife defiled by adultery nor re-enter his own lands.
For it has never been heard of since the beginning of the world that so great and noble a prince and lord should, from so noble a land and his own wife, by a wicked plot and treacherous scheme, be so shamefully stripped. After much deliberation, the decision was made public: John — who by a malicious and fraudulent scheme had been driven out and expelled from the county of Tyrol and his own other domains by his own men — had no right whatsoever, nor would it be honorable, for him to re-enter the county of Tyrol and his other domains, nor to take back his wife, whom he could never again embrace with tender arms now that she had been defiled by the shame of adultery, nor love her with the wifely affection that the marriage bond requires, without the revulsion of abomination, just as the order of conjugal life demands.45
The Offer of Lusatia and Silver
Louis of Bavaria offers King John and his son the land of Lusatia along with twenty thousand marks of silver secured by pledged cities as compensation for their losses.
At last things came to this point: Louis of Bavaria took it upon himself to offer King John and his son — who had been banished from his domains, as is said — the land of Lusatia, namely the cities of Görlitz and Bautzen, which, along with all their domains and every appurtenance belonging to them, should be incorporated into the kingdom of Bohemia for all times to come, and remain there permanently. Furthermore, twenty thousand marks of pure silver, for which he would want to pledge the cities of Berlin, Brandenburg, and Stendal to the margrave, along with every single revenue, profit, and usufruct pertaining to those cities — to be held, possessed, and enjoyed by King John or his son John for as long as those twenty thousand marks were not entirely paid off in ready money in the city of Prague.
A Father's Acceptance, A Sons' Refusal
King John accepts the arrangement, but his sons refuse to consent, fearing their father will squander the money, causing the entire negotiated settlement to collapse and leaving Louis terrified at this ominous rejection.
King John indeed embraced this arrangement. But after he was brought before Charles, the margrave of Moravia, and John his sons, they refused to consent to the same, saying: "If our father gets hold of that money, he'll scatter it among the Rhenish Henkins, and so we'll remain deceived and cheated."6 When therefore Louis understood that the sons of King John had refused to accept that arrangement or to confirm it by their letters, the whole of what had been negotiated and agreed upon remained void and empty. At this Louis the Bavarian was greatly terrified and beyond measure astonished, and he suspected it was an omen of an evil outcome — that the sons of King John refused to accept and embrace an arrangement drawn up and ordered by great princes, mature and prudent in counsel, and accepted by their own father, and that they contradicted it so boldly and with such a proud spirit.
Read the original Latin
Post hoc Ludovicus Bavarus sollempnem suam ambasiatam ad regem Johannem et Karolum misit instanter petendo, ut secum ad parlamenti conveniret terminum: vellet enim sibi de universis iniuriis et violenciis, quibus Johannes, filius suus, per Ludovicum, filium suum, in ablacione uxoris et comitatus Tyrolis dampnificatus esset, integraliter satisfacere et condignam reddere recompensam. Qui quidem placitorum terminus fuit super die certo coram Trevirensi [archi]episcopo, qui regis Johannis patruus erat, in Treviris constitutus, ad quem quidem terminum multi domini et viri magnifici ad regis Johannis partem convenerunt, qui super re magna magnos habuerunt tractatus, quia sic facti enormitas et perpetrati criminis execrabilis immanitas requirebat. A seculo quippe non est auditum, ut magnus generosusque princeps et dominus tam nobili terra et uxore propria machinacione iniqua et proditorio consilio sic nequiter privaretur. Multis itaque examinatis consiliis, productum fuit in medium, quod Johanni, qui de comitatu Tyrolis et aliis suis dominiis maligno et fraudulento consilio per suos eiectus et expulsus fuerat, nullatenus competeret nec honorificum existeret, ut comitatum Tyrolis et alia sua dominia reingrederetur denuo, nec uxorem reassumeret, quam taliter adulterii turpitudine pollutam nunquam posset amplius dulcibus fovere amplexibus, nec affectu uxorico sine abhominacionis nausea, sicut ordo coniugalis exigit, adamare.
Tandem ad hoc deventum exstitit, quod Ludovicus de Bavaria se ad hoc detulit, quod regi Johanni et filio suo, qui de dominiis suis, ut prefertur, relegatus extiterat, vellet dare terram Lusacie, utputa Gorlicz et Budissyn civitates, que cum totis dominiis et universis suis pertinenciis regno Boemie incorporari debeant totis futuris temporibus permansure. Insuper viginti millia marcarum puri argenti, pro quibus Berlin, Brandeburg et Stendal civitates marchio obligare vellet cum universis et singulis proventibus, utilitatibus et usufructibus ad ipsas civitates pertinentibus, tam diu per regem Johannem aut filium eius Johannem tenendas, possidendas et utifruendas, donec ipsa viginti millia marcarum in parata pecunia in civitate Pragensi totaliter solveretur.
Quam quidem ordinacionem rex Johannes amplexatus est. Sed postquam ad Karolum, marchionem Moravie, et Johannem filios suos perduceretur, noluerunt in eadem consentire, dicentes: Si pater noster arripuerit istas pecunias, disperget eas inter Rinenses Henkinos, et sic decepti manebimus et illusi. Dum itaque Ludovicus intellexisset, quod regis Johannis filii ipsam ordinacionem acceptare noluissent nec eorum litteris firmare, totum quod tractatum et ordinatum fuit, remansit irritum et inane. De quo Ludovicus Bavarus valde fuit territus et ultra modum quam dici poterit, stupefactus, et suspicatus est mali eventus esse omen, quod filii regis Johannis ordinacionem per magnos principes maturis et providis dispositam et ordinatam consiliis et per patrem eorum acceptatam acceptare renuunt et amplecti, sic animose et mente superba contradicunt.
Notes
- 1 ↩ablacione: variant spelling of ablatione (deprivation/removal); the sense here is the seizure or taking away of John's wife and county.
- 2 ↩The passage describes a political-legal negotiation, not a sacramental context; register is accordingly plain rather than solemn.
- 3 ↩archi: manuscript abbreviation expanded to [archi]episcopo (archbishop).
- 4 ↩reassumeret: 'take back / resume'; here specifically of resuming marital relations with a wife who has been defiled by adultery.
- 5 ↩ordo coniugalis: the text invokes the 'order of conjugal life' as a moral norm; the passage treats the marriage bond as carrying objective obligations, not merely personal sentiment.
- 6 ↩Henkinos — uncertain proper noun or ethnic/group designation; rendered as a proper name pending further identification.
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