serve as a stronghold to which the members of the royal family could retire in time of danger. Charles appointed two burgraves, one chosen from among the nobles and the other from the knights, as governors of the Karlstein, and these burgraves—who were considered not only as Court but also as State officials—afterwards ranked among the most important dignities of Bohemia.
Another very different foundation has also retained the name of Charles; it is the now well-known watering-place of Karlsbad. The legend tells us that when the king was pursuing a stag he was surprised to hear one of his hounds suddenly howl, and that he then noticed that the animal had been badly scalded while crossing a stream. He is said to have caused the water of this stream to be medically examined, and its salutary effects thus became known. It seems probable that the existence of these hot springs was locally known before the time of King Charles, but it was undoubtedly due to him that their fame spread. Charles built himself a castle near these springs which he called Karlsbad, a name that soon extended to the few dwellings then standing near the spot.
While endeavouring to secure order and prosperity to Bohemia, Charles also successfully essayed to extend the frontiers of the country. German authors have indeed, not without truth, often accused him of preferring Bohemia to their own land. Early in his reign the king acquired by purchase twenty towns and castles in the Upper Palatine, thus—for the time—extending the Bohemian frontier nearly to the gates of Nuremberg. Towards the end of the year 1354 Charles undertook the expedition to Rome which had become almost obligatory for the German kings. He first proceeded to Milan, where he was crowned with the iron crown of the Lombard kings, and then continued his journey to Rome, where his coronation as Emperor took place, two cardinals sent from Avignon by Innocent VI acting as the Pope's substitutes. On his return north the new Emperor, while at Pisa, was attacked by one of the factions then disputing for the domination of the town,[1] and only saved by the bravery of his body-guard. After having
- ↑ Beneš de Weitmil (Chronicon, lib. iv) calls them "fraude diabolica pleni et in omni malitia experti." Weitmil's account of the events at Pisa agrees with the Italian account contained in the chronicle of the Villani.
