Vita Caroli
A Humble Beginning and Noble Lineage
The author humbly introduces his purpose, invokes divine grace, and traces his imperial and Bohemian ancestry through his father John and grandfather Henry VII.
I have carefully written to your succession words presumed from the wisdom and fear of God, as much as my own smallness was capable of divine help.1 Now I want to write to you about my vain and foolish life, and about the beginning of my worldly passage, so that they may serve to yield to you as an example. But the grace poured into me by God and the love of devotion — which the tenacity of my heart possessed — I will not keep silent about, so that you may all the more hope in divine help to aid you in your labors, the more our fathers and predecessors declare it to you.2 For it is also written: 'Our fathers have declared it to us.'✦3 I therefore want you to know — not to be hidden from you — that Henry the Seventh, emperor of the Romans, begot my father, named John, from Margaret, daughter of the duke of Brabant. He took as wife Elizabeth, daughter of Wenceslaus the Second, king of Bohemia, and obtained the kingdom of Bohemia with her, because the male sex had failed in the royal lineage of the Bohemians. And he expelled Henry, duke of Carinthia, who had taken as wife the elder sister of his said wife, who afterwards died without offspring, and who had held the kingdom of Bohemia before him on account of the same sister, as is more clearly contained in the chronicles of the Bohemians. And the same John, king of Bohemia, with Queen Elizabeth, begot his firstborn, named Wenceslaus, in the year of the Lord one thousand three hundred and sixteen, on the day before the ides of May, at the first hour, in Prague.4
The Royal Siblings and French Alliances
The author records his father's other children and the marriage alliances of his father's sisters with the kings of Hungary and France.
Then another son by the name of Ottokar, who died in boyhood. At last he fathered a third, by the name of John. The aforementioned king had two sisters in betrothal: one he gave in marriage to Charles I, king of the Hungarians, who died without children; the other, however, he had given to Charles, king of the Franks. He was reigning in France in the year of the Lord's incarnation, one thousand three hundred and twenty-three,
A Child Sent to France
The author recounts being sent to the French court at age seven, receiving the name Charles, being betrothed, and learning to read the Hours of the Blessed Virgin under royal guidance.
And so my father, the king I've already mentioned, sent me to the king of France, whom I've also mentioned, when I was in the seventh year of my childhood; and the king of the Franks had me confirmed by a bishop and gave me a name equivalent to his own — namely, Charles — and gave me as a wife the daughter of Charles, his uncle, by the name of Margaret, called Blanche. His wife, my father's sister, died that year without children. Eventually the same king married another woman. The king I mentioned loved me greatly, and he ordered my chaplain to instruct me somewhat in learning, even though the king himself was uneducated. Because of this I learned to read the Hours of the Blessed Virgin Mary, and understanding them somewhat, I was more than willing to have them read daily during the hours of my childhood, since the king's guardians had been instructed on his part to urge me toward this. The king I've mentioned, however, was not greedy for money, and he relied on good counsel, and his court was distinguished by an assembly of senior figures — both ecclesiastical and secular alike.
War, Exile, and Dynastic Upheaval
The author describes the Anglo-French conflict, the exile of the English queen to France, the French campaign in Aquitaine, and the eventual usurpation and murder of the English king by his own son.
But a great conflict broke out between the king of England, who held power at that time, and the king of France I mentioned earlier. The king of England had taken as his wife the sister of the king I mentioned, and this same king drove her out of England along with her firstborn son, Edward. She came to her brother and remained in France in exile together with her firstborn son. The king of France, enraged at the expulsion of his sister and his brother-in-law, asked my father-in-law Charles, his own uncle, to avenge the such a great disgrace brought upon their family line. Charles raised an army and entered Aquitaine, and he conquered it almost entirely, except for Bordeaux along with certain fortified strongholds or castles. After Charles returned to France and secured a triumph, he gave the daughter of his daughter — the countess of Hainaut, sister of my wife — in marriage to the son of the king of France I mentioned earlier, Edward, during his time in exile, and having assigned him a retinue, he sent him into England. He grew strong against his father and captured him, stripped him of his kingdom, and placed the crown upon his own head. In that same year, the father of the son I mentioned was killed in prison.
Deaths, Succession, and a Sermon That Stirred the Soul
The author records the deaths of his father-in-law Charles and the king of France, the accession of Philip, and the profound spiritual impact of a sermon by Peter of Fécamp that awakened interior devotion.
In that same year Charles, my father-in-law, also died and left behind a firstborn son named Philip. In that same year, on the Purification of blessed Mary, Charles, king of the Franks, died. He left behind his pregnant wife, who gave birth to a daughter.5 And since daughters do not customarily succeed to the kingdom, Philip, the son of my father-in-law, was advanced to the throne of France, because he was the nearer heir in the male line.6 This same Philip took on counselors from among his predecessor's men, but he barely yielded to their advice and gave himself over to greed. There was one among his counselors, a most prudent man, Peter, abbot of Fécamp, a native of Limoges by birth, an eloquent and learned man, surrounded by every moral respectability. On the day of ashes, in the first year of Philip's reign, as he was celebrating Mass, he preached so effectively that he was commended by everyone.7 I, however, was in the court of the aforementioned King Philip, whose sister I had married after the death of the aforementioned Charles, with whom I had spent five years. The aforementioned abbot's eloquence in that same sermon pleased me so much that, listening to him and watching him, I found myself gripped by such deep devotion that I began to think within myself and ask: What is this, that such great grace is being poured into me through this man?8 I finally got to know him personally, and he cherished me with great warmth and fatherly care, often instructing me in sacred Scripture.
Return to the Father's House
The author notes his remaining time at Philip's court and his eventual return with his wife to his father John in Luxembourg, recalling how Henry had been elected king of the Romans.
And I was at the court of King Philip two years after Charles's death. After those two years, the same king sent me back with my wife — his sister, named Blanche — to my father John, king of Bohemia, to the city of Luxembourg, a county that had come to my father through the succession of his own father, Henry the emperor, of blessed memory. He, when he was count of Luxembourg, was elected king of the Romans, as is more fully recorded in the Roman chronicles — how and for how long a time he reigned.
Read the original Latin
Successioni vestre diligenter scripsi verba preassumpta sapiencie et timoris dei, quantum mea parvitas divini auxilii capax fuit. Nunc de vana et stulta vita mea vobis scribere cupio, ac de exordio transitus mei mundani, ut cedere vobis valeant in exemplum. Graciam autem michi a deo infusam et amorem studii, quod mei pectoris habuit tenacitas non tacebo; ut tanto magis speretis in divino auxilio in laboribus vobis succurrere, quanto patres et predecessores vestri vobis magis annunciant. Nam et scriptum est: "Patres nostri annunciaverunt nobis." Cupio ergo vos non latere, quod Heinricus septimus, Romanorum imperator, genuit patrem meum nomine Johannem ex Margareta, ducis Bravancie filia. Qui duxit uxorem nomine Elyzabeth, filiam Wenceslai secundi, Boemie regis, et obtinuit regnum Boemie cum ea, quia masculinus sexus in progenie regali Boemorum defecerat. Et expulit Heinricum, Karinthie ducem, qui habebat in uxorem sororem seniorem uxoris sue dicte, que mortua est in posterum sine prole, qui regnum Boemie causa eiusdem sororis ante eum obtinebat, prout clarius in cronicis Boemorum continetur. Genuitque idem Johannes, rex Boemie, cum Elyzabeth regina primogenitum suum nomine Wenceslaum anno domini millesimo trecentesimo XVI pridie idus Maii hora prima in Praga.
Deinde alium filium nomine Ottogarum, qui in puerili etate decessit. Demum genuit et tercium nomine Johannem. Habuitque predictus rex duas sorores desponsatas, unam tradidit Ungarorum regi Karoli Primo, que sine liberis mortua est; secundam vero dederat Karolo, Francorum regi. Ipso regnante in Francia anno incarnacionis domini millesimo trecentesimo vicesimo tercio,
misitque me meus pater iam dictus ad dictum regem Francie me existente in septimo anno puericie mee; fecitque me dictus rex Francorum per pontificem confirmari et imposuit michi nomen suum equivocum videlicet Karolus et dedit michi in uxorem filiam Karoli, patrui sui, nomine Margaretam dictam Blanczam. Mortuaque est uxor sua, soror patris mei, anno illo sine prole. Demum idem rex aliam sibi matrimonio copulavit. Dilexitque me prefatus rex valde, et precepit capellano meo, ut me aliquantulum in litteris erudiret, quamvis rex predictus ignarus esset litterarum. Et ex hoc didici legere horas beate Marie virginis gloriose, et eas aliquantulum intelligens cottidie temporibus mee puericie libencius legi, quia preceptum erat custodibus meis regis ex parte, ut me ad hoc instigarent. Rex autem predictus non erat avarus pecunie et utebatur bono consilio et curia ipsius resplendebat senum principum tam spiritualium quam secularium congregacione.
Facta est autem magna dissensio inter regem Anglie, qui erat temporibus illis, et inter predictum regem Francie. Rex autem Anglie habebat in uxorem sororem predicti regis, quam idem rex expulit de Anglia una cum filio suo primogenito nomine Eduardo. Que veniens ad fratrem suum permansit in Francia in exilio una cum suo primogenito. Rex vero Francie indignatus propter expulsionem sororis sue et sororini rogavit socerum meum Karolum, patruum suum, ut vindicaret tantam verecundiam progeniei ipsorum factam. Qui assumpto exercitu intravit Aquitaniam, et quasi eam in toto devicit, excepto Burdegalis cum aliquibus fortaliciis sive castris. Reversusque dictus Karolus in Franciam triumpho obtento, tradidit filiam filie sue, comitisse Hanonie, sororis mee uxoris, filio predicti regis Anglie Eduardo tempore exilii in uxorem, associataque sibi comitiva misit ipsum in Angliam. Qui invaluit in patrem et captivavit eum, et privavit eum regno, et imposuit sibi diadema. Eodem anno interemptus fuit in carceribus pater filii predicti.
In illo eciam anno mortuus est Karolus, socer meus, et dimisit filium primogenitum nomine Philippum. Eodem quoque anno in purificacione beate Marie obiit Karolus, Francorum rex, relicta uxore pregnante, que peperit filiam. Et cum de consuetudine regni filie non succedant, provectus est Philippus, filius soceri mei, in regem Francie, quia propinquior erat heres in linea masculina. Assumpsitque dictus Philippus consiliarios predecessoris sui, sed eorum consiliis minime acquiescens avaricie se contulit. Fuitque unus inter consiliarios suos, vir prudentissimus, Petrus, abbas Fiscanensis, nacione Limovicensis, homo facundus et litteratus, omnique morum honestate circumseptus, qui in die cinerum anno primo regni Philippi missam celebrans sic industriose predicavit, quod ab omnibus fuit commendatus. Ego vero eram in curia predicti regis Philippi, cuius sororem habebam, post mortem predicti Karoli, cum quo fueram quinque annis. Placuit autem michi predicti abbatis facundia seu eloquencia in eodem sermone, ut tantam contemplacionem haberem in devocione ipsum audiens et intuens, quod intra me cepi cogitare dicens: Quid est, quod tanta gracia michi infunditur ex homine isto? Cepique demum sui noticiam, qui me multum caritative ac paterne confovebat, de sacra scriptura me sepius informando.
Fuique duobus annis post mortem Karoli in curia regis Philippi. Post hos duos annos remisit me idem rex cum uxore mea, sorore sua, nomine Blancza, ad patrem meum Johannem, regem Boemie, in civitatem Luczemburgensem, qui comitatus erat patris mei ex successione patris sui divine memorie Heinrici imperatoris. Qui cum esset comes Luczemburgensis, electus fuit in regem Romanorum, prout in cronicis Romanis plenius, quomodo aut quanto tempore regnaverit, continetur.
Scripture echoes
- ↩Ps.43.1;Ps.45.1 — Vindicate me, O God, and plead my cause against an ungodly nation; rescue me from the deceitful and unjust man. Ps.45.1 — To the choirmaster. According to Lilies. A Maskil of the Sons of Korah. A Song of Loves.
Notes
- 1 ↩verba preassumpta sapiencie et timoris dei: 'words presumed from the wisdom and fear of God' — the author signals that what follows draws on received wisdom and reverence rather than personal authority.
- 2 ↩tanto...quanto: correlative construction rendered as 'the more...the more.' The logic: the more the ancestors testify, the more the reader should trust divine help.
- 3 ↩Scriptural quotation: cf. Psalm 43:1 (Vulgate Ps 44:1) 'Patres nostri annuntiaverunt nobis.' Preserved as a direct scriptural citation.
- 4 ↩Date: pridie idus Maii = 15 May 1316. Hora prima = the first hour after sunrise (roughly 6–7 a.m. by medieval reckoning).
- 5 ↩The feast of the Purification of blessed Mary (February 2) anchors the chronology; the Latin 'in purificacione beate Marie' refers to the liturgical day.
- 6 ↩The connective cum here is read as causal ('since') rather than purely temporal, given the explanatory clause that follows with quia.
- 7 ↩'Die cinerum' refers to Ash Wednesday; the liturgical setting is significant for the sermon's impact.
- 8 ↩Gracia rendered as 'grace' per lexeme policy; the passage describes a Spirit-like effect through preaching, so the theological weight of divine grace is preserved.
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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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.
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