Wenceslaus, Holy Roman Emperor (Merveilles des Morte)

Wenceslaus
File:Titian - portrait-of-a-bearded-man.jpeg
Holy Roman Emperor
Reign	1472-1478
Coronation	31 August 1472 in Rome
Predecessor	Sigismund II
Successor	Henry VIII
Duke of Saxe-Wittenberg
Reign	1468-1478
Coronation	8 November 1468 in Wittenberg
Predecessor	Henry IV
Successor	Engelbert II
Born	16th February 1425 Duchy of Saxe-Wittenberg, Kingdom of Germany
Died	31 January 1478 Duchy of Saxe-Wittenberg, Kingdom of Germany
Burial	Wittenberg Cathedral
Spouse	Catherine Beaufort
Issue	Engelbert II Edmund Alwin Christina de la Marck Louise de la Marck
House	House of La Marck
Father	Henry IV and I
Mother	Blanche of Geneva-Lenzburg
Religion	Roman Catholicism

Wenceslaus was Holy Roman Emperor from his election 1472 until his assassination in 1478, and Duke and Prince-Elector of Saxony from his father's death in 1468 until his own death in 1478, as Wenceslaus III. Saxony's close ally the then-Count of Lenzburg, Chairman of the Swiss Council and de facto leader of the Swiss Confederacy, suggested in 1470 upon the death of the previous Emperor, Sigismund II, that perhaps, rather than electing a fourth consecutive Premyslid become Emperor and King of Germany, Wenceslaus, then Duke of Saxony, could run for the position and gain the title of Emperor instead. Wenceslaus and Sigismund's son Henry of Bohemia tied in the Imperial contest, with each receiving the same amount of votes from each of the electors. They thus became co-Kings of Germany, with Henry of Bohemia deferring and offering Wenceslaus the title of Holy Roman Emperor, which he then accepted. Wenceslaus, like his father and his grandfather before him, supported the Lancastrians' side in the English Civil War, otherwise known as the War of the Roses.

In 1477, the Duchy of Thuringia, the Kingdom of Brandenburg-Bohemia, the County of Nassau, and the Margraviate of Hesse & Upper Mark, revived their courts, and began to condemn the Holy Roman Emperor, voicing their concern that the Swiss, through him, had an undue amount of influence over Germany and were acquisitioning rightful German lands. The Thin White Duke of Thuringia, in particular, was considered the most dangerous stoker of Swissophobia in the Empire. In 1477, he released a confusingly-written but nevertheless popular manifesto, which declared Wenceslaus to be "the Swisser's puppet", suggested the Imperial election which had put Wenceslaus into power had been rigged, and cautioned: "rebel[s], do not go softly into their ploy". The Thin White Duke also announced, "Thuringia does not fault the Saxon who attempted to be king, he was under the influence perhaps of wrongful forces and spirits, called the Swiss, who influenced him and made him these promises and contolled him [sic] but it is not his fault; no let us reclaim his mind and liberate him... from the Swiss menace." The declaration has been analysed at length by historians, as well as later literary academics of the Rätian Union, who saw it as a great work of art.

Henry of Bohemia, who was serving as co-King of Germany, also declared his disatisfaction with Wenceslaus's rule and the Swiss influence and, perhaps swayed by the writings of the Thin White Duke, disinherited his children by Wenceslaus's sister (declaring her his "mistress" rather than his wife and his four children by her "bastards", attesting that he in fact never married her at all) and sought marriage alliances with the Thuringian House of Jenagotha instead. Henry then "investigated further", and it was discovered that his former wife had mysteriously died, apparently of natural causes. Henry expressed his belief in rumours that the Duke of Lenzburg had wed his own daughter, and confided with various members of his court and foreign ambassadors that he considered Wenceslaus "a stooge" and "an indecent fraud", and disavowed the co-King system. He sent out secret proposals of alliances to various German nations, in the hopes of deposing or discrediting Wenceslaus.

Wenceslaus, "thoroughly alarmed", attempted to quell these resentments and rumours, even going so far as to ask for the Pope to confirm Wenceslaus as the true Holy Roman Emperor. The Pope, also an ally of the Lenzburgs, and thus by extension the Emperor, did so, affirming Wenceslaus as the Emperor and stating, "The worse part of this absurd pantomime is that it was the King of Bohemia himself who stepped down in favor of Wenceslaus III... If he wanted to be Emperor, why did he step down? Pope Honorius VI considers this entire situation as absurd". This was to no avail.

Historians generally consider Wenceslaus to have managed the situation badly, having been taken by surprise. He had spent the last few years converting the traditional seats of the Dukes of Saxony, the Schloss Wittenberg, into the Palast Wittenberg, an imperial palace, and, preoccupied with this endeavor, had been unaware of the growing tensions and discontent in the Empire. The sudden revival of various German courts and the Thin White Duke's Swissophobic declaration that served as a catalyst for other states' rulers to voice their own concerns prompted accusations of a premeditated plot to attack the Emperor and frame the Swiss. Wenceslaus was unaware of his co-King's feelings on him, and upon hearing of Henry's derisive comments, suggested the arrangement of a meeting between the co-Kings, "to talk things over, if Henry is feeling dissatisfied". By this time it was too late, however. Henry had gathered together his eight legitimate sons and they had taken a "holy vow" to do whatever was necessary to rid Germany of Swiss influence and remove Wenceslaus from power. The following year, Wenceslaus was assassinated.

Officially, Wenceslaus died in a hunting accident, though, in the words of one wise nobleman, "some suspected more foul play than just pheasants". Wenceslaus's death marked the end of his reign. He was succeeded in Saxony, as Duke and Prince-Elector of Saxony, by his oldest son, Engelbert II (de la Marck), Duke of Saxony. Engelbert II of Saxony stood for election in the following Imperial Election that occurred shortly after Wenceslaus's death, but lost and suspended his campaign, to and endorsing, Henry of Bohemia. Engelbert II demanded an investigation into his father's death. While his political opponent the Thin White Duke of Thuringia was suspected for a while of murdering him, the same Thin White Duke of Thuringia later arrested, in the early-to-mid 1480s, Aymon von Lenzburg, Bishop of Lausanne, who was deposed as Bishop and evicted from his Bishopric. The Thin White Duke accused him of, among other crimes, murdering the Emperor. Engelbert II continued to suspect the Thin White Duke, however, warning Henry of Bohemia that he could be next. Sure enough, after consuming a mysterious substance, Henry fell into a deep sleep and remained comatose for over a year, leaving the Thin White Duke as regent. Shortly afterwards, the Thin White Duke declared war on the Lenzburgs, officially naming them as the culprits responsible for Wenceslaus's murder. Aymon von Lenzburg was executed one morning in Thuringia following the war. However, later historians have theorized that the Thin White Duke was indeed the culprit, and that all evidence pointed to him.

A singed parchment discovered several centuries later appeared to show that Conradin, the bastard son of the famed dueler and son of Henry VIII Conrad One-Eye, had been dispatched, along with a "covert band" of experienced trackers, hunters, and killers, and a great sum of money and resources, to assassinate Wenceslaus, apparently by the Thin White Duke of Thuringia. Each and every man was instructed to fight to the last and attempt to kill in the next day, or the next day, or the next day. All 20 men will try to kill him in different ways. Conradin recorded that he elected to have 100 men ambush Wenceslaus in the woods, as he previously mentioned he liked to hunt, and attack him on all sides with archers and soldiers. Should that fail, another man would plant explosives underneath the target's camp. And should that fail, countless other plots were, apparently, intricately planned to be executed one after another. Each day he would be targeted over and over again until he died. Some suspected, however, this parchment to be a forgery by Catholics, intended to sow discord between the two major member-states of the Rätian Union, during the Forty Years' War. Several decades later, it was touted by Engelbert V of Saxony, who sought to destabilize Thuringia in order to expand Saxony's control over the Union.