LUDOVICO IV of Bavaria, EMPEROR. — At the death of Henry VII (24 Aug. 1313), the electors of the Empire divided between L. of Bavaria, nephew on his mother’s side of Rudolf I of Habsburg, and Frederick II the Fair, duke of Austria, son of Albert I, also of the House of Habsburg. L. defeated his adversary at Gammelsdorf and was crowned at Aachen on 25 Nov. 1313, but Frederick had himself crowned at Bonn. The war then broke out again with renewed vigor and was ended only by the battle of Mühldorf (28 Sept. 1322), in which Frederick was defeated and taken prisoner by L.
Pope John XXII (1316–34) took advantage of the long conflict to assert papal supremacy over the Empire: as early as 1317, in accordance with a decretal of Clement V, he declared the imperial throne vacant and entrusted its vicariate to the king of Naples, Robert of Anjou. When, after Mühldorf, L. of Bavaria sent an imperial vicar to Italy to aid the leaders of the Ghibelline party, Matteo Visconti and Cangrande della Scala, the Pope reaffirmed the right of the Holy See to decide the validity of the imperial election and ordered L. to submit to papal judgment under penalty of excommunication. L. 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, accused John XXII of heresy in the protest of Frankfurt of 5 Jan. 1324. After a postponement of two months, the Pope excommunicated L. (23 Mar. 1324), and confirmed the sentence on 11 July 1324.
The papal excommunications stirred L.’s enemies into action, but he reached 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 influenced by Marsilio da Padova, 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), L. went to Rome accompanied by a retinue of antipapal 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 convened on the Capitoline conferred the imperial crown on L. He was crowned in St Peter’s on 17 Jan. by bishops in rebellion against the Pope. In response to new bulls of John XXII declaring him deprived of his dominions (3 Apr. 1327) and a heretic (23 Oct.), L. summoned an assembly of laymen and ecclesiastics (14–18 Apr. 1328) that deposed John XXII and replaced him with Pietro Rainalducci of Corvara, a Friar Minor, who took the name Nicholas V. He was consecrated and crowned on 22 May 1328. L. of Bavaria attempted to help his antipope create a loyal hierarchy, but with little success. As early as Aug. 1328, L. abandoned Rome, followed by Nicholas V; the latter, however, remained at Pisa while the Emperor returned to Germany. The antipope hastened to abjure his errors and humble himself at the feet of John XXII (1330).
Back in Germany, L. continued his struggle with the Pope: the latter had the support of the kings of France and Naples, while L. had the aid of the king of England. The papal-imperial question thus became linked with the grave Anglo-French conflict.
Pope Benedict XII (1334–42), desirous of reconciliation, resumed negotiations with L., 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; L. then met Edward III of England at Coblenz and appointed him imperial vicar.
In 1341 L. finally reached 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 ordered L. to abdicate within three months (1343). Frightened, L. offered to resign and spoke of abdicating, but the conditions imposed by the Pope were rejected by the electors. Clement VI nevertheless succeeded in creating in Germany a movement against L. and in favor of Charles, king of Bohemia; in 1346 L. was declared by the Pope to have forfeited his position, and four electors elected Charles of Bohemia, who was crowned at Bonn.
A civil war was looming when L. died suddenly during a hunt, on 11 Oct. 1347.