English. But the French marshal and his men, seeing that the English were prepared to resist, turned their backs and began basely to fly. When it was told to King John that the French were flying, and he was entreated himself also to seek in flight the safety of his life and that of his men, he said: “God forbid that a King of Bohemia should fly; rather lead me there where the battle is raging most fiercely. The Lord be with us; we fear nothing, but watch carefully over my son.” When he had been led to the battlefield King John, struck by many arrows, was killed, and many Bohemian nobles who were with him on August 26.
‘When some of the other nobles saw that King John had fallen in battle and was dead, then fearing to lose both their princes they led his son Lord Charles, the king-elect (who was fighting fiercely in the front rank and had already been struck by several arrows) out of the battle, though he was reluctant and resisted them; they then conducted him to a safe spot.
‘When the battle was ended and the King of England heard that King John had fallen, he caused his body to be searched for; and when it had been found he solemnly, and with many tears, took part in the funeral. He then delivered the body to his countrymen, saying: “The crown of chivalry has fallen to-day. Never was any one equal to this King of Bohemia.” The knights then took up the royal corpse and carried it to Luxemburg, where it was buried in St. Mary’s church of the Benedictine Order.’
Though, as we have just seen, Charles I of Bohemia better known as the German emperor Charles IV was a valiant warrior, yet it is as a patron of art and literature that he is best known to his Bohemian countrymen.
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