Wenceslaus (1361-1419) was Holy Roman emperor from 1376 to 1400 and as Wenceslaus IV was king of Bohemia from 1378 to 1419.

Wenceslaus, son of the emperor Charles IV, succeeded his father as emperor-elect in 1376 but was deposed on the grounds of his alleged "worthlessness" by German opponents in 1400. As emperor, Wenceslaus was faced with the problems raised in the Church by the Great Schism and with those raised in the empire by the rivalry of political factions, which, unlike his father, he proved unable to control. In Bohemia, Wenceslaus's reign was marked by increasing aristocratic and ecclesiastical opposition to the growing power of the royal house of Luxemburg, to Wenceslaus's attempts to strengthen the power of the Crown, and to the early force of Czech nationalism.

Wenceslaus grew up and was educated during the years of his father's greatest prestige and effectiveness. Charles IV had devoted great energy to Bohemia, and...