It was even declared that in case of the death of Venceslas nobody should be chosen as his successor who had not previously declared that he recognized Urban VI as the legitimate head of the Church.
The able counsel of the old ministers of the Emperor Charles, on whose advice he had attempted to restore unity to the Church, and who had guided him at first in the government of Bohemia,[1] soon began to fail the king, and he gradually fell under other and very different influences. Venceslas more and more incurred the enmity of the higher nobility and of the great State officials by the favour he showed to persons of lower rank, knights and citizens, on whom he even—to the great indignation of the nobles—conferred court dignities. The very scanty records we have of the earlier part of the reign of Venceslas contain repeated—probably not unfounded—complaints of the increasing laziness and drunkenness of the king, whose character seems gradually to have deteriorated.
The friendship between France and Bohemia, which had become less intimate during the last years of the reign of Charles, ceased entirely in consequence of the support given by Venceslas to Pope Urban VI. Shortly after, and to a certain extent in consequence of this event, a family alliance between the houses of Plantagenet and Luxemburg took place. As the King of France supported the claims of Pope Clement VII, Venceslas hoped to secure for Urban the adherence of England, then the perpetual adversary of France. He addressed a letter to Richard II, informing him that he and the German princes, including his brother Sigismund, recognized Urban VI as the legitimate Pope, and intended to support him. The King of England evidently agreed with the views of Venceslas, for he forwarded a copy of this letter to Peter, King of Arragon, exhorting him also to recognize Pope Urban. The agreement between the two sovereigns as to the then all-important question of the legitimate succession to the papal throne was shortly followed by a treaty by which the two royal families became connected.[2] Through the envoys of the
