LOUIS IV OF BAVARIA, Emperor. - On the death of Henry VII (24 Aug. 1313) the electors of the Empire divided between Louis of Bavaria, grandson on his mother's side of Rudolf I of Habsburg, and Frederick II the Fair, Duke of Austria, son of Albert I, likewise of Habsburg. Louis defeated his rival at Gammelsdorf and on 25 Nov. 1313 was crowned at Aachen, but Frederick had himself crowned at Bonn. Then the war flared up again vigorously and was ended only by the battle of Mühldorf (28 Sept. 1322), in which Frederick was defeated and taken prisoner by Louis.
Pope John XXII (1316-34) profited from the long conflict to assert pontifical supremacy over the Empire: already in 1317, in accordance with a decretal of Clement V, he declared the imperial throne vacant and entrusted its vicariate to King Robert of Anjou of Naples. When after Mühldorf Louis of Bavaria sent an imperial vicar to Italy to bring aid to the leaders of the Ghibelline party, Matteo Visconti and Cangrande della Scala, the Pope reaffirmed the right of the Holy See to decide on the validity of the imperial election and summoned Louis to hear the papal judgment under penalty of excommunication. Louis of Bavaria, who had become the protector of the Spiritual Franciscans who had rebelled against the Pope over the bulls concerning the poverty of Christ, in the protest of Frankfurt of 5 Jan. 1324 accused John XXII of heresy. The Pope, after a two-month postponement, launched the excommunication against Louis (23 March 1324), and confirmed it on 11 July 1324.
The papal excommunications stirred up Louis's enemies, but he came to an agreement with his prisoner Frederick of Austria (who, however, died as early as 1326), and decided to descend into Italy to assume the imperial crown. He was under the influence of Marsilius of Padua, who in his famous work Defensor pacis had reaffirmed the independence of the Empire from the Holy See.
After taking the crown of King of Italy at Milan (31 May 1327), Louis went to Rome accompanied by a retinue of anti-papal innovators (7 Jan. 1328). To combat the papacy it was asserted that the Empire was of popular origin, and on 11 Jan. 1328 an assembly of the Roman people gathered on the Capitoline conferred the imperial crown on Louis. He was crowned in St. Peter's on 17 Jan. by bishops rebellious to the Pope. To new bulls of John XXII declaring him deposed from his domains (3 Apr. 1327) and a heretic (23 Oct.), Louis responded by convoking an assembly of laymen and ecclesiastics (14-18 Apr. 1328) which deposed John XXII and replaced him with Pietro Rainalducci of Corvara, a Friar Minor, who took the name Nicholas V. The latter was consecrated and crowned on 22 May 1328. Louis of Bavaria sought to help his antipope create a loyal hierarchy, but with scant success. Already in Aug. 1328 Louis abandoned Rome, followed by Nicholas V: the latter, however, remained at Pisa while the Emperor went back up to Germany. The antipope hastened to abjure his errors and to humble himself at the feet of John XXII (1330).
Returned to Germany, Louis continued the struggle with the Pope: the latter had the support of the King of France and of Naples, while Louis had the help of the King of England. The papal-imperial question in fact came to be linked with the grave Anglo-French conflict.
Pope Benedict XII (1334-42), desirous of a reconciliation, resumed negotiations with Louis, but the French court intervened to make them fail. In 1338 the electors at Rense proclaimed that their consent was sufficient title for the imperial election; Louis then met at Koblenz with Edward III of England and named him imperial vicar.
In 1341 Louis finally came to an agreement with the King of France and reconciliation with Avignon seemed near, but the new pope Clement VI resumed the anti-imperial policy and summoned Louis to abdicate within three months (1343). Louis, frightened, offered to resign and spoke of abdicating, but the conditions set by the Pope were rejected by the electors. Clement VI nevertheless succeeded in creating in Germany a movement against Louis and in favor of Charles, King of Bohemia; in 1346 Louis was declared deposed by the Pope and four electors elected Charles of Bohemia, who was crowned at Bonn.
A civil war was looming when Louis died suddenly during a hunt, on 11 Oct. 1347.
Bibliography2 works
Francesco Cognasso